The hype for Happening Gourmand, Old Montreal’s popular restaurant month under way since January 5th, has been buzzing all around the city. What’s especially exciting this time around for their 6th edition are the newly implemented lunch menus by participating restaurants open during midday hours, which for us young professionals means between 12pm and 3pm.
What does this all add up to? Well, aside from the fact that you and your co-workers can get a killer lunch menu comprised of an appetizer, a main and a delicious desert to finish it all off for the very generous price of $15, it also gives Montrealers and visitors a great excuse to go out and discover Old Port’s special foodie gems.
The participating lunch restaurants include: Vieux-Port Steakhouse, Restaurant Modavie, Suite 701, AIX Cuisine and today’s media lunch tasting host Restaurant Verses.
The lunch sampling event today was hosted by The Antonopoulos Group’s marketing maven and hostess with the mostest Maria Antonopoulos in a quiet and serene setting of the Verses Restaurant in the Hotel Nelligan.
On the menu were five dishes, one taken from each participating restaurant’s table d’hôte lunch menu to give everyone in attendance a taste of what to expect when trying this new concept. The dishes were all very refreshing and easy, ranging from a Fennel and Arugula Salad from Suite 701 to a unique Salmon Rillettes Tartine from Verses and a decadent trio of mini pastries from AIX Cuisine, including a lemon infused treat that seemed very popular with the guests at our table.
To give you a better idea of the texture, look and presentation of what you will be served, we captured the five dishes below:
From Suite 701, this is a great starter for a salad. A fennel and arugula mix with clementine dressing and roasted sunflower seeds.
Another sweet and cheesy starter presented by Modavie is this baked puff pastry with surprise brie filling.
At first, this Verses Restaurant Salmon rillettes tartine with cream cheese, paprika and dried tomatoes hit the palette quite strongly, but after a few seconds the seafood lover in us embraced it fully.
Another Verses dish, the braised beef parmentier… you just can’t go wrong with this!
And the grand finale: a trio of some delectable mini pastries from AIX Cuisine.
Happening Gourmand is only on until February 5th, so make sure you find the time and bring your next work lunch, date or business meeting to any of these fabulous restaurants and try something new.
