Jellyfish brings glamour to restaurant scene
Jellyfish Crudo + Charbon’s cuisine is ambitious, globe- trotting
Years ago, while sitting in the swish, and sadly defunct, restaurant Mediterraneo, I spotted the most glamorous couple I have ever seen. Both dressed to the nines, he was sporting a perfectly cut black suit, while she was in a sparkling light blue dress. After they left, the waiter told me they were from Hong Kong, and once they wafted out the door there was no denying the glamour vacuum left behind.
Montreal may have some terrific restaurants, but few — if any — would be considered seriously stylish. I often think of that couple, wondering where they could dine without being surrounded by the casually dressed masses. Montreal may still be Canada’s leading restaurant city ( arguably, of course), but there is no doubt Vancouver and Toronto have us beat when it comes to breathtaking dining spaces.
It’s not that we don’t have cool restaurants in our city. Thanks to designers like Zébulon Perron, Bruno Braën, Jean- Pierre Viau and the late Luc Laporte, we certainly do. But cool often means trendy, and a cool- looking restaurant can be pulled together on a shoestring budget. Glamorous, though, means more elaborate, more expensive, and with a greater emphasis on esthetics. Materials are high- end, the lighting is studied, the room is dark and dramatic, verging on the theatrical while always maintaining an aura of elegance. Cool is Patti Smith; glamorous is Rita Hayworth.
Yet that situation might be changing. When I dined at Montréal Plaza in December, I was as taken with the room as I was with the food. On recent evenings at Toqué! and Le Club Chasse et Pêche, I thought their dining rooms never looked as chic. And a dinner last week at the new Old Montreal restaurant Jellyfish Crudo + Charbon left me feeling that perhaps I should start dressing up to eat out.
Soaking up the scene from a banquette at the back of Jellyfish’s multi- levelled dining room, I could easily imagine my Hong
Kong couple fitting right in. There are 16- foot- high ceilings, floor- toceiling windows and a stunning central bar. Beautiful chandeliers grace the front of the space and the colour scheme is black, white, grey and leaf green. All this fabulousness is the work of the restaurant’s two partners: Francis Rodrigue, owner of the chic Longueuil restaurants Magia and Madame Thaï, and Roberto ( Robbie) Pesut, who knows a little something about the restaurant business — he has been a 20- plus- year partner at the super- swank Buonanotte, and was an owner of the bygone Globe.
There are cocktails at Jellyfish, but the list is short and the two we sampled fell a bit flat. The Poached Pear, made with gin, pear and rosemary, was too sweet. The Chia Collins was better, save for the chia seeds that sound like fun until you start sucking them up through a straw and prying them out of your gums with the accompanying toothpick. Not what I would call glamorous. You might be better off turning your attention to the wine list, with its diverse selection of privately imported international
bottles ( including selections from the likes of Armenia and the Czech Republic), the majority priced under $ 60. We enjoyed an Italian Soave “Suavia” 2014, for a reasonable $ 48, that paired well with the majority of our dishes.
As “Crudo + Charbon” indicates, you are either getting raw dishes or charcoal- grilled dishes, or dishes that blend the two. The style of cuisine is a mishmash of Asian/ Italian/ modern American flavours, with tatakis, carpaccio, curries and even an Asian- style chimichurri. The chef is a certain Mathieu Masson Duceppe, formerly of Magia and victor of the second season of the Food Network’s Chopped Canada. A graduate of the Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec, the chef is just 25, but judging by his plates, he’s a quick study. I can’t help thinking his menu’s all over the place, but when the food arrives, my cynicism subsides.
There’s no denying the first dish, duck tatami “Reeses Pieces,” had me rolling my eyes. Yet it turned out to be the hit of the night. Seared on the outside and raw on the inside, the duck breast was served with a peanut sauce and a hoisin sauce spiked with chocolate. Fabulous! Not only were the sauces delicious, but the char on the duck meat provided yet another layer of flavour. Add a touch of cilantro in this mix, and you have a real winner.
I also enjoyed a starter made of dates stuffed with bacon and topped with a goat’s cheese espuma. I liked the mix of sweet, rich and tangy flavours, though the acidity of the tomato sauce underneath it all overwhelmed a bit. Another starter featured pork belly paired with an Asian- style coleslaw, aioli and a slow- cooked egg. We were told to shred the meat and
mix it with the slaw and soft egg. I loved the intensity of flavour here, accented with the crunch of the coleslaw. The problem with pork belly, though, is that you eventually end up with a few mouthfuls of pure fat — a bummer even for those of us who enjoy a bit of pork fat. That said, the rest was scrumptious.
Mains included a curried salmon, a rack of pork with ginger, and a cod dish with miso, which I’d rank in that order. The salmon was served in a fat filet coated in spices, cooked until juicy, and boosted with yogurt and confied shallots. What’s not to love? Equally generous in portion, the rack of pork was flavoured with pear, ginger and soy, and topped with caramelized parsnips. This was very good, too, as the pork was perfectly cooked — though with so much going on, the dish still lacked that special something. The cod was enhanced with white miso and served with a cascade of edamame beans and charred Brussels sprout leaves. There was horseradish in there, too, but the fish was still quite bland. Good, not great. However, the side dishes certainly
were great, especially the Brussels sprouts with bacon, the colourful mixed vegetable plate and the delectable fries. Yum!
Desserts included a variation of carrot cake that featured some pasty cake, a few carrot ribbons and a lot of dusty crumble. I’ll take a pass. More of that crumble appeared atop a bowl of strawberry cream topped with stewed rhubarb and strawberry, which I thoroughly enjoyed. But the last dessert, a smoked and grilled croissant filled with white chocolate ganache, just didn’t fly. “This,” said my dining companion, pointing to the grillmarked croissant, “is the definition of trying too hard.” Agreed.
Our waiter, though sweet and friendly, also fell into the tryingtoo-hard category, with long menu descriptions and a few too many “is everything OK?” table visits. This three- month- old restaurant has it all — save, perhaps, for that extra bit of confidence to really make the dining experience as magnificent as the setting. Yet it’s still early days, and I’m convinced it won’t be long before Jellyfish fulfils its glamorous destiny.