Joe Beef — Restaurant in Montreal

I've travelled all over the world and dined at many fine dining establishments so I expect, when I am about to spend $100 on a meal, to have three things- great service, sublime food, and to leave satiated. Not so this time, I would label my experience here, bland and boring. My reservation was on time and the servers were friendly. However, they immediately led me to one of the worst seats in the restaurant at the bar at the end of a counter on a high bar stool where servers would have to go around me multiple times. This is a pet peeve of mine . As a single traveller, I'm often given the worst seat. I watched couples get lovely window seats when I was being stuck at the awful seat, I just said no and asked them to move me. Servers found me a place but then I was basically told that I was not to linger. Strike 1. Service was good and friendly. Meal started with waiter asking me if I wanted a drink. I very specifically asked for one type of alcohol. The waiter checked and said they had it, so I ordered it. They brought it over , I sipped it, and it was not my drink. Then I had to go through this gaslighting experience of having the male waiter tell me that my drink was correct when I knew it wasn't! If I have to pay $100 for meal, I want the correct drink brought to me and I don't want to have to convince a waiter that there is an error. Sure enough, the server went back and I overheard them talk and they didn't even have my choice of alcohol there. They were wrong on 3 counts- 1 -to tell me they had it in the first place, 2- to serve it to me and 3- to try to convince me that I was imagining that it was wrong.Grrrrr! Strike 2. For that price, I had hoped for and even expected a piece of bread, but I guess they don't do that here which was very disappointing.But I heard the waiter say that the portions were big and I even asked about what I was ordering and he said it would be enough. So I thought, I don't need the extra carbs.

I ordered the scallops de Boston, which the waiter explained were served raw. Context- I have often scallop scuba dived and eaten scallops straight out of the shell and they have been delicious .What really sold the dish to me was the waiter saying that it had black truffle on it. Now I love truffles so I was really looking forward to it. And for $18, I assumed it would be divine!! What came were 5 slivers of scallop, maybe the equivalent of one and a half , maybe two scallops? They were in a liquid with what look like black truffle shavings. I tasted it and it was completely bland. I could not detect any seasoning but I thought, "maybe they didn't put any salt and pepper on them because they wanted the scallops and truffle to shine" but no, the truffle had no flavour at all and the scallops tasted slimy.

I did not enjoy them, but I was hungry so I ate them. They did ask me what I thought of them, but after arguing already about my drink and being shuffled to a bad seat to start the dinner, I wasn't in the mood to explain.

To top it off, when I tried to put slight pressure on a scallop to cut it , a whole bunch of ice underneath the dish spewed out all over my clothes, table, etc., which was not pleasant. As I was trying to clean it up, I also knocked over the fake candle. The server came over to help and I explained, "I was only trying to cut one in half". To this, he responded, "don't cut it in half, eat it whole". I guess I had to reach the age of 60+ to be told how to eat scallops correctly without making a mess.

At this point, I don't have my drink, didn't enjoy the scallops, have no bread and I'm waiting for halibut for my main course, I asked how it was served and what the sauce Veronique was. It sounded good. My halibut came. It was a generous slice, had some nice brown colour, and seemed cooked well. But when I tasted it, it had absolutely no seasoning, was bland and the sauce also seemed unseasoned and bland. What was the point of the sauce if there was no flavour to it ? This was not a good experience and I will not be...

It is often the restaurants with the best reputations that I find most disappointing, and Joe Beef has the best reputation. At one time it was named the second best restaurant in Canada, and though it has slipped down to 24th, it is still arguably one of the most important restaurants in Montreal. Add to that, one of the co-owners, David McMillan, retired after the pandemic. So as I Ubered to Little Burgundy, I was both extremely excited, but also pretty sure I'd be let down.

As I stepped out of the cold Canadian air and into the warmth of the front dining room, I was struck by the unique balance of kitsch and charm that is Joe Beef. The room was covered in grandma's wallpaper and chalkboard menus. Various cooking and gardening tools hung on the walls. Some plates, a shelf of books, endless hooks to hang your coat, and a great glass vase filled with random matchbooks from such exotic destinations as Fort Lauderdale decorated the room. Waitress dressed in all manner of outfits, from the casual jeans and t-shirt of our server to the leather butcher's apron of another that reminded me of Dexter more than anything. The three dining rooms were all small and cozy thirty seats at the most where we were seated in the back. The tables were set with rustic, blue checkered napkins and china likely gathered from flea markets and estate sales.

The first order of business was drinks. I ordered a Clover Club, a classic gin-raspberry cocktail which was excellent. My wife selected a Champagne Old Cuban, an elevated and enlarged version of original. We also ordered a bottle of local wine, Domaine du Nival - Les Entetes, a beautiful pinot noir from Saint-Louis, Quebec. In the few days since, I have tried to find a bottle, it's almost impossible. If you go to Joe Beef, do not skip the chance to try this.

Joe Beef is the type of restaurant where you need to order more than what you could ever possibly eat. The menu is always changing and in addition to the one they lay in front of you, the chalkboard calls out more. You want to get everything and narrowing it down is the hardest part.

My wife and I, we decided on three appetizers. Clams on the Radio is exactly what it sounds like. Five clams on the halfshell, baked with andouille and served on top of an antique radio. Perhaps a gimmick, but who cares when they taste so good. My wife declared them the best part of the meal. The steak tartare was likewise splendid, served with french onions so that no toast was needed. Finally we enjoyed the chalkboard special of a poptart stuffed with brandade, which is a spread of salt cod and mashed potatoes.

For a main course, I was tempted by sweetbreads, the roast pork on the chalkboard, and of course the Lobster Spaghetti, Joe Beef's iconic dish. But in the end we decided to share the "Nice Dish of Duck." It included a large duck breast perfectly prepared, a confit leg and thigh, and the roasted hearts of the the duck and his entire extended family. Luckily for my wife I like duck hearts and ate them all so she didn't have to. It was dressed in a plum sauce and sat upon squash fritters. It was exceptional, though perhaps I should have had a salad to go with it to cut through the richness of the dish.

The night before we ate at Joe Beef, we went to Gibbys. I was so full at the end of that meal, I almost wondered how I would eat again the next day. And the day before Gibbys was Thanksgiving, so I was coming off of two feasts when I arrived at this dinner. And after bread, three appetizers, and a giant plate of duck, I was out of room. But how can you not try bananas foster crepes. So I did, along with a corpse reviver. The crepe was beautiful, the caramel was decadent, and the banana semifreddo stuffed inside was delicious. Good thing I didn't get that salad.

In the end, Joe Beef did not disappoint,...

We had high expectations given the title of former #1 best restaurant in Canada but we were very disappointed. We even wondered how this could have ever been even in the top 100. Given the price point, we were expecting a certain quality of food and level of service and ambiance that just wasn’t there.

For apps, we had: smoked eggplant: it was a cold dish, which was unexpected with eggplant (i prefer them warm but ok fine), flavour was great but needed a touch more salt, bit of crunch from the crostini was perfect, the olive oil was great foie gras entremet: it’s like a foie gras cake, which was a cool concept except the dish was so sweet you couldn’t taste the foie gras. It was like a foie gras dish for ppl who don’t like foie gras (but then why would you get it?? lol)

Mains: lobster pasta: seems to be what they’re known for but was sorely disappointed in this poor spin on carbonara with coconut milk. I like food that is out there but the coconut milk just made absolutely no sense here. Without the lobster, you would have never known it was lobster pasta. The lobster was also overcooked and you only get half for a small portion. It just felt so overpriced for what you get, and the dish wasn’t even good. I was really sad. guinea fowl: this daily special saved the dinner for us, the meat was crispy on the outside, perfectly cooked inside, super juicy, gravy was not too heavy. However, the lack of carbs from the dish was really noticeable. It would have been great to mop up the sauce with some bread even.

Service: Normally I don’t rate on service, but I think it’s reasonable to expect a $$$$ restaurant to have at least decent service. We did not feel welcomed the minute we walked in. We stood at the host table for a solid 5 minutes before a host even acknowledged us standing in front of them. It took almost a full hour for apps to come out. Mains took equally as long despite half the restaurant being empty (it was near closing, we were the last time slot).

Ambiance: It was way too loud in there. Music was very loud so everyone had to talk louder to hear each other. We ended up having to almost yell to hear what the other person was saying across the table. The tables were really close together and they were unstable - I almost knocked our table over several times because I leaned on the corner a bit trying to shuffle in and out.

Overall, very disappointed in our experience here. It felt like a mediocre diner charging fine dining price points but failing miserably on delivery. I don’t recommend coming here at all, save your hard earned money for better food, especially at this...