Bar Kabinet — Restaurant in Montreal

Kind of chose this on a whim in our 30hr visit to Montreal from Vermont. Greatest whim in a long time Grigor was out server and he was great. He described the dishes and drinks perfectly. Guided us towards house specials and for our food order, made sure we not only had enough, but also made the experience so enjoyable. Grigor offered tastes of all of the wines by the glass and also described them to a t. Made me want to stay and have more but family...

As for the food, we had one of each dish and every one was prepared very well. From the opener of Hamachi crudo which was so simple but the flavors of the tomato base and the Hamachi itself made a great marriage in the mouth. As the food progressed, the layers of flavors increased to the showstoppers in my opinion, the potatoes and then the duck.

The potatoes were on a base of what I'd call ajvar, a pureed red pepper sauce but with some vinegar in there too. This offset the richness of the duck fat potatoes and I could have ordered more of them until I passed out from a food coma, but family...

Then the duck came out. On a base of pureed apple, the duck was perfectly cooked medium rare and the flavors melded so perfectly.

Along with the food, the cocktails were expertly crafted and again, worth seeking out.

Overall, this was a crazy good experience that I'd come back to Montreal from my home in Brooklyn for. I have a reason to drive further to ski Tremblant

Tout c'était bon....

Staff busy drinking (alcohol) as early as 6pm.

My gin tonic had almost no gin, and almost no tonic. It was 3/4 ice and tasted of flavoured water. Weeks later, and I'm still making joking references about this drink with my partner. I'm the type to return anything that doesn't look or taste good, but this was so clearly some sick joke that I decided that instead of returning it, I'd just promise to never come back. If a bar can't do a gin and tonic on the first try, they don't deserve a second chance.

The nuts were covered in a blend of some cheap oil and Tajin seasoning. My girlfriend (who unlike me doesn't complain) actually asked me to return them. How the heck does a bar screw up ... nuts? They were disgusting! I've never been served nuts in oil before. Oh - and no spoon to eat them with either.

My partner got a stomach cramp a couple hours after we left. It was obviously something in that bloody-mary type drink she had, and her tummy was off for a couple of days after.

Avoid this place...

Unfortunately, I did not have a good experience at Kabinet. It is a small restaurant and we were seating at the "chef's table". The point of the chef's table is that you can engage and communicate with the chef about the food/ingredients and unfortunately again this was not the case for us. But I could see how you can have a different opinion, chef was very chatty and friendly with his acquaintances, talking about dishes and origin of ingredients he uses... Which is something that can clearly enhance the experience. The menu was limited, with a small bites section and a caviar section. There was not much of appeal to me but decided to try the bourgot which were served cold over leeks. Dish was not good. My friend had the snails and said it was ok, nothing special. Wine list is entirely natural and I had a great glass of red from côtes du Roussillon. Service from our waitress was nice but everything else was not worth me...