Au Petit Extra, Leaving You Fat and Happy

AU PETIT EXTRA

Our Take:

On a recent trip to Montreal we returned to one of our favorite Francofile haunts, a bustling, formerly smoke laden (sorry to say the ambiance provided by a smoky room has yielded to the health laws banning smoking inside Montreal bars and restaurants…a good thing…I think), which has petit in its name but is nothing short of bold in every possible way. Au Petit Extra (APE) stands as one of the best French restaurants you’ll find north of the half way point between the equator and the North Pole (for those of you that never noticed, a small sign on the Interstate 89 near Highgate, Vermont marks the exact halfway point between the equator and the north pole, cool!).

We’ve never had a problem getting into APE, although interestingly it’s always full. Even on our most recent trip, after deciding to eat there late in the afternoon, we were able to get a reservation for five at 8 PM on a Saturday night (with a little help from the concierge at our swanky hotel in Old Montreal) a feat unheard of in most hoppin’ New York restaurants. APE is a bit off the beat and path, sitting on a less than glamorous block across from an ESSO station and a strip of former appliance stores and closed up bars. None-the-less, when you walk into APE it exudes pure life: laughter, smells, debate, drinking, eating, kissing, all that makes life good. We’ve sat in all parts of the restaurant, and there’s not a bad seat in the house. The tables are cozily spaced throughout two rooms (formerly divided between smokers and non-smokers) with plenty of room to sit and move, but still providing the sense that you’re dinning communally, a nice and often forgotten experience.

The menu at APE changes frequently, but is consistently divided between hearty meat, fish, and pasta dishes. It’s pure bistro fare, bold flavors, large portions, and plenty of richness. On any given night the kitchen could be serving braised rabbit, a simply moist broiled salmon, flank steak in a fruity au jus, or duck confit. Despite a changing menu the food manages to stay the same, delicious.

Fluency in French is a bonus at APE, as the entire menu is left untranslated, and the French speaking wait staff, while able to get the gist of the dishes down, mostly translate on a basic level: Fish, Rabbit, Steak, etc. Ordering can be an adventure, but it becomes part of the ambiance and fun of it all.

Our group of five settled on a smattering of appetizers. The raw oysters where not only edible (often the standard for raw oysters outside of restaurants dedicated to the craft of shucking), but very very good, bordering on great. While they were not on the level of Blue Ribbon’s raw fare (in our mind the best raw food available anywhere) they were cool, nicely shucked, briny and fresh, what an oyster should be.

The escargot was delicious although, how can anything covered in a rich blue cheese sauce be anything but good? We never really tasted the snail, but, again, anything that provides a vehicle to eat melted blue cheese is fine with us.

A melted goat cheese salad was made up of three rounds of a sharp, nutty, and a bit grassy goat cheese, melted crispy over a few rounds of bread and set atop a bed of perfectly dressed greens. The richness of the goat cheese went perfectly with the bitter greens to make a must order appetizer (I’ve gotten it five times now and I’ve never gotten sick of it).

Finally, we had wonderfully plump mussels cooked in a winey-butter sauce that was a perfect dish for soaking chunks of crunchy French bread restocked throughout the night. Other appetizers not sampled included: two different foie gras dishes, a fish soup, and a duck dish. The first round of food also included either a nicely portioned fresh house salad or a simple soup (included in the price of the entrée), both providing a nice break from all the richness.

The entrees, while not quite as memorable as the appetizers, were all proficiently prepared and served. The flank steak, while basic, held up nicely and was cooked well, pushed to a higher rating by a deliciously fruity au jus reduction (that prompted even David, as the token Veggie in the group, to lap up the sauce with his bread). While cuts of boeuf in the past such as a New York strip and prime rib have been better, the flank steak did not defeat the general sense that APE knows their cattle.

APE offered a couple of fish dishes. David went with the halibut which, although a wee bit dry, had nice flavor and was interestingly accompanied by plump oysters and fresh herbs. Basically, fish in a bistro is fish. Although it’s never going to wow you, you really can’t have a bad fish dish if it’s fresh and well prepared, as the fish at APE has always been.

A pesto fussili with tomatoes and prosciutto was nicely portioned and properly sauced, providing a light option for those that, after stuffing themselves on the appetizers, couldn’t eat much more.

The hit entree was a roasted chicken stuffed with goat cheese. The chicken was firm yet moist, and amply stuffed with a mix of creamy goat cheese and herbs. It was a perfect blend of solidly cooked meat with a twist, without any of the unnecessarily frills often accompanying chicken. Other entrees that night included: two veal dishes, monkfish, duck, and, honestly, a dish listed as roasted thazard with the green pepper purée, which I later figured out through the magic of the internet, is a type of Tuna.

The entire meal was accompanied by a wine list with lots of variety and options. Given the comeback of Merlot we gave into the trend and ordered a medium priced, full bodied bottle that held up to the the strong flavors of the meal. Every wine we've had at APE has worked, with the exception of a sugary sweet Riesling a few years back.

This past visit was the only time we've ordered dessert at AEP, and the chocolate cake with a raspberry sauce, made us regret not ordering during our previous visits. It was sweet, creamy and a little tart, with some crunch on the bottom that made an all around nice compliment to the dark coffee served along side.

The service at APE is intentionally, appropriately and refreshingly schizophrenic, ignorant of your presence until you need something then attentive and at times overly bossy, just the way we like our French waiters. It’s nice to be in a restaurant where the wait staff allows you to dictate the time and terms of the meal, happily able to serve you in 45 minutes or three hours and forty-five minutes.

At APE you never really look at the bill or care that you didn’t. Generally you’re too drunk and stuffed to do anything but happily hand over the credit card, or your stack of loonies. We know it’s somewhere between reasonable and kinda pricey, but whatever the bill comes to, "la addition" is a footnote to your night. After all, APE is about feeling fat, happy and reminded of what a great dinning experience should be.

Our Rating:

Service: ***
Ambiance: ****
Food : ***
Price: $$-$$$


Rating Scale:
* average
** not bad
*** wicked good
**** the best

$ cheap eats
$$ moderately priced
$$$ expensive
$$$$ wicked expensive