sEb L'artisan culinaire — Restaurant in Mont-Tremblant

I’d give this a 2.5 out of five but I wasn’t able to sort out how to do half stars.

We had originally booked a meal at the nearby Le Grille St-Georges, however we read the responses on trip advisor from the manager to unhappy customers and he was ridiculously and offensively rude to them (shaming people who couldn’t afford more expensive meals). We decided to go to sEb based on the numerous positive reviews.

Upon arrival for our scheduled reservation we were asked to come back as our table wasn’t ready. No problem, we walked around outside and came back and were seated. Unfortunately it was right in front of a very hot blowing heater which the hostess apologized about but I guess someone has to sit there.

We asked about the 7 course menu and were discouraged by the waitress as it took 2.5 hours and it was 830pm. So we opted for the four course.

The four course started with some bread and oil, and a little filled spoon. The one bite was tasty. Then we had a stew which was also good. The main course for me was duck (undercooked) and for my friend fish. Followed by a small lava cake which was okay as well. I thought there would be another plate (cheese perhaps?) but was told the spoon was considered one of the four “courses.” We were given a little tiny thumb tip sized pastry at the end and told it was compliments of the restaurant. Only our first two dishes were explained to us by the various servers, the others weren’t.

My biggest issue tonight was the time between courses. We finally exited at 11pm from an 830 seating having paid $70 each for a four course meal that took 2.5! We could have just have had the darn 7 course meal - or maybe we would have exited at 1am at the pace it was going. We asked the server to request they try and bring the next meal out a little more quickly but no apology was offered by anyone there.

The servers were nice but we weren’t given updates by anyone as we waited almost an entire hour between the stew and the main course. Ultimately the wait time and the quality of the food would make this a pass for...

We went for the Valentine’s Day set menu experience.

The service was friendly and professional and appreciated.

1)The food was tasty. I thought the portion size on the duck (as the main dish) was lacking but everything was solid. Nothing wowed us but my partner and I both enjoyed our food overall. That said, we were both hungry in the end. Points to the sommelier as well as the wine pairing seemed spot on.

2)The decor/ambience needs work. -We were sat next to the window and initially had these overpowering spotlights shining straight into our faces. Luckily, shades were lowered to filter out the barrage of light, but those were a bit of an eyesore as well and were somewhat next to our faces. -They had rose petals littered all over the ground, which is charming but ultimately tacky for an upscale restaurant and my partner slid on a petal and almost crashed hard to the ground. We heard others mention something similar. Guys, this is a bit of a hazard. -The music varies from local québécois folk songs (which was great) to Simple Plan style emo skater/punk to James Blunt and Enrique Iglesias. This is not what I expect from a high end restaurant. Either classical/jazz or a more contemporary/trendy/atmospheric playlist would have done wonders for the experience.

3. A 175$+tax and tip price tag for a meal with wine pairing, though tasty but ultimately lacking in quantity, especially within the aforementioned ambience, simply felt too pricey. Those are “big boy” prices in Montreal (re-Mon Lapin, Montreal plaza etc) and everything needs to be spot on, not just below average (ambience/vibe/decor) or just ok(food...

I will start with the positive by saying a few of our starting dishes in our tasting menu were truly unique, interesting, and quite tasty. That’s where the positives end here.

Unfortunately, I think there’s a mismatch between how this restaurant portrays itself to be and what the customer actually experiences.

While some dishes were good, others really missed the mark due to poor execution (overcooked protein or missed seasoning) or unoriginality in the context of a tasting menu.

The wines that were paired with the meal were probably the most common & highest-volume cheap wines that you could’ve found front-and-center at any SAQ. The price/cost multiple for our pairings here was egregious - higher than the priciest restaurants I’ve been to in the US or CA.

We did the smaller of the tasting menus and we were here for 3+ hours with a good chunk of the time spent without food, drink, or even water. Kitchen, service, and front of house all seemed disconnected.

We made reservations two months in advance and got a corner seat next to an empty/unused bar backed-up to a walkway at a table that was lit with two daylight/bright-blue, cold LED lights. We were told at our white table cloth table to scan the QR code to view the unoptimized, non-user friendly menu online. I understand these are petty details but it all compounds to an experience that misses the mark for a place that sells itself as a place to embark on an elevated, refined, unique, creative culinary & dining experience while charging a...