Restaurant Les Fougères — Restaurant in Chelsea

Nice place with the beautiful scenery of the Gatineau Hills surrounding you. When we were seated, unfortunately right by the main entrance so it was constantly draft and cold, it was almost as though the staff forgot about us. I watched 3 other parties get seated and get menus immediately, whereas we waited almost 10 minutes. When I finally got the waiter's attention, she seemed quite displeased with my approach and said she was waiting for us to "settle in." Okay, sure. Not worth the argument. This unfortunately set the tone for the remainder of our dine in experience.

All the dishes below were ordered to share with my party.

The food, while quite good, wasn't as great as I expected. Here's what we got:

-ROBERTO'S BREAD: very, very good! Quite possibly was my favourite thing, despite how simple bread and butter is.

-BEEF TARTARE, SMOKED BONE MARROW EMULSION, LAVOSH CRACKERS: the presentation of this dish was quite pleasing, and the tartare was very flavourful. The accompanying crackers were fantastic, too. A couple more crackers would certainly go a long way!

-HEARTH OVEN PIZZA: of the three available choices, we went with the Bianca. The dough, so I heard, is from Roberto's as well, so that already raises the bar. Raised the bar it did. The dough was crunchy on the outside but nice and soft on the inside, and the toppings made it all the better.

-AGNOLOTTI, ROASTED BEET AND RICOTTA, MINT: this entree was by far my favourite. The ravioli is to die for.. If I knew how good this was, it's all I would have ordered. Absolutely fabulous.

-CONFIT OF QUÉBEC DUCK, ROESTI POTATO, CHÈVRE, 39 POACHED PEAR, SPINACH, VENOSTA CRANBERRY COMPOTE: this was good, albeit a really small portion that is difficult to share. As others have mentioned, trying to get a little bit of everything in one bite is a challenge, but when you do, what an explosion of flavours!

-MOUTH OF THE ST-LAWRENCE: I'm not much of a seafood guy, so I will withhold my review of this item.

We also ordered two desserts- something with pear and another thing I don't remember the name of. They were nothing to write home about.

So, due to the initial poor service and the underwhelming desserts, I have docked 2 stars. Don't let that fool you, though. The food...

An excellent fine dining restaurant with amazing food, service, and an intimate location. Everything we ate was superb, and we could find no real faults with any of the food we ordered.

Order: Hearth Oven Pizza ($21.00 each) x1 Great pizza dough that was fluffy and soft Lovely taste of garlic The mushrooms were outstanding, adding a ton of umami

Beef Carpaccio, Radicchio, Salsa Verde ($27.00 each) x1 Absolutely fantastic dish The beef was amazing The herbs elevated the dish, giving it a fresh taste The radicchio has a bitter finish and should be eaten with the beef

Gnudi, Asparagus, Morels, Wild Garlic, Parmigiano ($37.00 each) x1 Perfectly cooked gnudi Refreshing and zesty broth accompanying it Summer oriented (seasonal ingredients) and the mushrooms paired well with the broth and gnudi

Confit of Quebec Duck, Roesti Potato, Chevre, Poached Pear, Spinach, Venosta Cranberry Compote ($39.00 each) x1 Perfectly cooked confit duck Gorgeous presentation Challenging to eat everything together but delicious when able to do so Crunchy potato Tart cranberry sauce

Margarita a la Rhubarbe ($12.00 each) x1 Not too sweet, not too bitter Different take on a traditional margarita with the rhubarb Salt rim gave it a punch

Avril Amaretto Sour ($12.00 each) x1 Tasty amaretto sour with a salt rim

Espresso ($3.50 each) x1 A disappointingly bitter coffee that felt over-extracted Coffee beans appeared to be a darker roast based on the taste Presented with brown sugar cubes

Petit Pot au Chocolat ($12.00 each) x1 Well balanced sweetness that would still satisfy a sweet tooth Cookie crumble base Incredibly rich texture

Atmosphere and Site: Remote location in a quiet area Beautiful garden in the back of the restaurant with seating Intimate lighting Clean and modern finish with nice art choices on the walls

Service: Excellent waiters that were fluent in both French and English It took a fair bit of time to get the drinks and appetizers, but this may be due to the restaurant being full when we placed the order The pacing of the meal was good after the drinks and appetizers arrived The staff was able to write 'Happy Birthday' on the...

This was not a positive experience. It was my mom’s 60th birthday and she wanted to come here to celebrate (she had great memories of this place from when she was younger).

First off, the renovations are very modern and leave the area feeling bare and a bit sterile. The furniture resembled an upscale cafeteria and there were chips in the chairs and plates bringing down the quality of the experience.

We were cramped into a small table that was meant to seat 4 people (when we were a group of 6), so there was barely any room and we were constantly knocking into each other or things on the table.

When deciding on our orders, the waiter informed us that the only thing they were missing from the menu were the oyster appetizers, but when we proceeded to order our main dishes, the waiter told us there was only 1 pizza left. This really surprised us because the pizzas made up about 50% of their main meal options and 5 of the 6 of us were planning to order pizzas. Afterwards, this made it tricky to order because in our group we have several serious food intolerances and vegetarians. Due to this, 4 of the 6 of us ended up ordering an appetizer as our main meal, so more than half the group left the restaurant hungry.

Lastly, my dad had informed the staff beforehand that it was my mom’s birthday and they made absolutely no effort to make the night special, which just added to the poor experience.

Overall, my parents remembered this as an impressive restaurant, but we will not be going back. The food we did eat was good, but I wouldn’t recommend coming here. It’s quite expensive for what...