Le St Laurent
460 St. Laurent Blvd.
Who knew that high-quality, creative food is to be found in a condo tower on St. Laurent Boulevard? Now you do, so don’t delay. It took me far too long to get there.
Under the knife of chef Ryan Edwards, formerly of Salt, Le St Laurent produces very fine food. Combine this with spectacular views of the city, excellent service, and a contemporary environment, and you have the ingredients for a superlative night out.
While we discuss the menu, my guest enjoys a Dark and Stormy. He’s impressed: not only is it made with authentic Gosling’s Rum but Jack’s Soda provides the ginger beer. Described as contemporary Canadian, the menu offers plenty of mouth-watering choices and something to suit most palates, as well as more adventurous offerings.
We order three starters: a salad called Spring Has Sprung, a local asparagus salad, and beef tongue. All are a delightful surprise. Spring Has Sprung offers a vibrant mix of fava beans, asparagus, wild garlic, watercress, arugula, pickled shallot, compressed cucumber, and deliciously fatty chunks of fried bread with a brown-butter-and-sorrel vinaigrette. It’s a perfect balance of textures, fat, and acid, with the pickled shallot giving a lovely zing to the plate. The asparagus salad is good but struggles to meet the excellence of Spring has Sprung; however, the two squares of house-smoked trout balanced on the ends of the spears are terribly moreish. My guest shudders at the idea of beef tongue, but in the end our forks duel over the last slice — the meat cooked to exquisite tenderness for 72 hours before being plated with marinated red onions, olives, pickled ramps, radish, and watercress.
Pickerel arrives steamed and neutral, sitting atop excellent seasonal vegetables. It’s all swimming in a light ramp hollandaise — a finely balanced dish.
My rabbit dish expresses the chef ’s playful side: three generous cylinders of prosciutto-wrapped saddle stuffed with mushrooms circle a crispy croquette of braised leg. Also on the plate are pickled carrots, roasted carrots of three colours, and a dark purple carrot purée, all arranged to look like a rabbit’s head. Another winner.
To finish, we share an Earl Grey tea panna cotta, a creamy but subtle dish. It’s the perfect end to a surprising evening of excellent food and service, a fairly priced international wine list, and amazing views of the capital region.