My good friend Dave calls me up two weeks ago; “Want to go check out Garde-Manger? I managed to secure a table for four people. Kriss and Lindsay are coming along too, and we need a fourth participant.” There was no way in hell I was passing this opportunity, so I hastily agreed. I kept hearing about this place from friends, and I wanted to review it for Montrealing ever since I first witnessed it across from Santos.

Getting a table at Garde-Manger is a bit hard, as the restaurant is constantly packed with people. Dave had to call in a week and a half in advance to reserve a table for four people. This says a lot concerning Garde-Manger: they must be doing something right if they’re always this full. Most of the publicity this place gets comes from the cooking show Chuck’s Day Off (seen on FoodTV). Don’t let this fool you though, as the quality of the food alone would be enough to sustain their business without the extra publicity.

Friday night rolls around, and our reservations are for 9:30 PM. Since Montreal city loves digging up their roads constantly, we decided to leave early to curb traffic and cut through the mess Old Port is currently in at the time of writing this review. For reasons unknown, there was no traffic and finding parking was a breeze. This resulted in arriving at our destination half an hour early. Luckily for us, our table was already ready and we were seated immediately.

Looking around the (packed) place, it reminded me of a time where restaurants were actually in business to please their clientèle. Garde-Manger is quite warm and cozy. If this place could talk, it would say: “sit down, relax, have a coffee… there’s no rush, stay for as long as you like”. With that said, Garde-Manger is small in size. I think the whole place can roughly handle 40 seated people at a time. But great things come in small packages, right?

The only menu you’ll get here is a wine list, so you’re going to have to glance at a nearby wall that has the specialties scribbled on a blackboard. This leads me to realize that their menu changes constantly. On the left side of the blackboard are the appetizers, while the right side features the entrées. There were so many dishes I wanted to try as they all sounded great, but I settled on the short-ribs with barbecue sauce as I had a craving for meat. Right before the waitress moved on to ask what Dave was ordering, two magical words that were at the top of the appetizers list just hit me in the head: lobster poutine. Rudely cutting off my friend placing his order, I screamed it out: “LOBSTER POUTINE!”. That’s when Dave and Kriss looked at each other and said “make that three”. The waitress, smiling, wrote it down on her pad.

Lindsay, who is not a big seafood fan, decided to try the salad with cheese-balls.

Since my friends are the kind of people who love sharing, I managed to savour a few dishes in one sitting. From top to bottom, the images below feature the short-ribs, pork & mushrooms and duck meat. I can’t describe what the dishes were mainly composed out of, but what I can confirm is that everything just tasted so damn good. The pork was very tender (properly cooked) and the duck… well, I’ll simply quote Kriss: “They didn’t even ask me to cook it medium-rare… this is how it’s supposed to be. They got it right on the money.” I couldn’t have agreed more when I tried it.

I thought the meal I was having was the bomb, up until I glanced over to the table next to me. I cannot describe the monstrosity of this tray, so I will let the picture do the talking.

Finally, our night was coming to an end, but there was desert on the horizon. The four of us didn’t know what to expect in terms of sweets. Before the desert, our waitress asked us whether we wanted any coffee or tea. Kriss and I tried the espresso, Dave had Earl Grey tea while Lindsay had a cappuccino. It was a machine that prepared the coffee, so it was good, although my espresso felt a bit luke-warm. Now, choices for desert were banana cake with caramel, fried Mars bar, and the classic chocolate brownies fused with marshmellows. All three of these dishes were served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. In the order they were introduced, take a glimpse of what you will experience should you have a chance to check out Garde-Manger.

If there was a list of places I would take my first date out on, Garde Manger would be at the top. The place is small and cozy, and dimly lit for that seclusive factor when you’re with friends or a loved one. I had one of the finest dining out experiences in a long time. I’ll be coming back to this restaurant very, very soon.

Pros

• Delicious meals, all original
• Cozy atmosphere
• Great wine list
• Excellent service
• Lobster poutine

Cons

• Somewhat pricey
• Loud, but you can still have a conversation
• Reserving a place is difficult, so think in advance!
• Get ready to add on some unwanted weight with all the great food

Address: 408 Saint-François-Xavier, Old Port
Telephone: (514) 678-5044