Molenne Montreal – New Restaurant and New Michelin Guide

I recently travelled to Montreal, and coincidentally, a couple of weeks after that trip, Michelin announced its first ever guide in the city. I think its appropriate as Michelin is a French company and Montreal is the second largest French speaking city in the world outside of Paris. I’m surprised it took them this long to release a guide in Montreal.

Anyway, one of the newer restaurants I tried while visiting was Molenne. I would describe the vibe as casually upscale. The kitchen was open and from where we sat, I could see right into it. Here was the menu for the evening:

We chose to build a seafood platter to start. The crab was fresh and sweet. It was also cut open for us so very easy to get the meat out.

The next dish was the braised cabbage with pistachio mortadella, and escargot. Very unique dish and they gave us some bread as well.

From here, the service slowed down considerably and it took a long time to get the next courses. The waiter apologized by bringing over some shots! A bit of a wait more, and the next courses finally arrived. The Charcoal-Grilled Shrimp and the fish of the day:

We also had dessert, which I don’t remember that well. I believe it was their interpretation of an ice cream sandwich.

Overall, service was friendly, but VERY slow. Food ranged from just ok to good. Nothing amazingly memorable. This is a great neighborhood restaurant but I would not go out of my way to eat here.