La Fabrique — Restaurant in Montreal

This doesn’t happen often by I actually have to complain about management in this scenario.

My girlfriends and I went to La Fabrique Bistro on a recommendation from a friend. We ordered Beet Salad, Beef Tartar and the Gnocci Salmon. Red and white wine, and the french toast for dessert.

The beet salad, beef and dessert were remarkable and the wine was reasonably priced. The salmon, however, had a very distinctly fishy taste to it and neither myself, nor my two girlfriends found it at all appetizing. Given that we were only in Montreal for one night, we certainly didn’t want to risk salmon that was off, so we left the vast majority of it untouched.

The waitress offered to have it cooked more which, I am assuming, she thought would help with the fishy flavour as it was a rare salmon, but the taste just wasn’t quite right and when something begins tasting like fish that is a little bit off, it kills the desire to go back and try it again. As we are all sushi lovers the salmon, in our opinion, was off, as we are familiar with raw/rare fish. So we politely declined and she removed the dish. We weren’t upset at all, just continued on with our dining experience.

The salmon was not removed from our bill. When we asked as to why it was left on, the response from our waitress was “You still pay for the food even if the taste isn’t to your liking.” We insisted it didn’t have to do with the overall taste of the dish, it had to do strictly with the salmon as we felt something was off.

She said she would speak with her manager. When she returned they had reduced the cost of the salmon dish by half and she noted that her manager would not take it completely off the bill as “she didn’t want to loose money on a dish that had nothing wrong with it”.

We paid out bill and left.

I guess my final comments are that it is surprising for a manager to disagree when three different people at a table feel as though something is off with a dish, and to remark that their primary concern was with their bottom line.

If customer satisfaction isn’t as important as your bottom line, that makes me worried where else they might be...

At La Fabrique, the art of brunch transforms into a delightful spectacle, much like a culinary circus under the big top of taste! 🎪 Starting with their Pancake – not just any pancake, mind you, but a gastronomic escapade layered with apple puree and cheddar, and crowned with a soft boiled egg. Drizzle some maple syrup and voilà! It's like breakfast decided to dress up in its Sunday best. And let's not forget the sidekick – the extra Thick bacon, which could easily be the Robin to this Batman of a dish. 🥓

My wife's plate was an equally impressive feat – Cranberry homemade English muffin with cheddar and pulled pork, elegantly lounging next to a soft-boiled egg. The apple-apricot puree was the surprise guest, adding a sweet twist to each bite. And those homemade fries in duck fat? They're the kind of fries that could make you write love letters to potatoes. 🍟💕 The homemade mayonnaise was the cherry on top, or should I say, the mayo on the fry!

Ah, but the shared pièce de résistance was the French toast with clove-flavored caramel and a sprinkle of fleur de sel. It's like they raided Grandma's secret recipe book and gave it a gourmet twist. 🤫👵

Washing it all down, the Americano and cappuccino were like the trusty sidekicks in this brunch adventure – reliable, robust, and ready to rescue you from any food coma. ☕🦸

In conclusion, La Fabrique is where your brunch fantasies come true. It's a place where eggs and bacon ascend to royalty, and French toast becomes a legend. Just remember, after a feast like this, you might...

tl;dr - Kitchen and wait staff are a mess. Don’t come here. —

Dined here for Sunday brunch. The kitchen was backed up and waiters appeared to be short staffed. Waited 45 minutes for food, but I was sympathetic to the staff due to restaurants getting acclimated post-covid.

I found all the dishes to be a strange mix of ingredients but figured there must be some culinary magic to the flavor combinations. I ordered the soft boiled eggs with cauliflower, mushrooms, etc. Everything was thrown into a bowl and mixed together, each item was flavorless, and none of the ingredients made sense together. There was a bad mustard sauce tossed in that didn’t help much. Mid-way through I found a hair in my food and decided to just stop eating. A side of duck fat fries were also overdone and lacked flavor.

The worst part was when the waiter came at the moment I found the hair and asked how everything was. I told her the dish was bad but didn’t make a big deal about it. She apologized about the hair and we wrapped up the meal. She came back again to say that no one in the kitchen is blonde so she doesn’t know what happened (I have dark hair) and that my dish has been very popular and ordered over 50 times with people completely cleaning their plates, so it must be my personal taste. I had absolutely no intention of saying anything (I’m not a restaurant complainer) but she asked and had also caught me mid-hair discovery. If you don’t want to know, don’t ask. I found the excuses offensive and...