Le Vin Papillon — Restaurant in Montreal

TL/DR: The staff is great, the food is great, the service is great, and we'll be back next time we're in town. Ç'est magnifique!

My girlfriend and I had heard of La Vin Papillon before, as we're big wine nerds and we live only a couple hours away just south of the border. We were in Montreal for a wine event and since we were staying the night we decided to go for dinner.

When we arrived we were told there was a small wait, so initially we stood near the door. We weren't there for more than a couple of minutes though when we were ushered to a different spot at one end of the bar where we could order drinks/food while we waited. I went to look at the drink menu (on a chalkboard written in French) while my girlfriend held it down at the bar. I got back to discover wine already being poured, and it was what I was going to order anyway, so win!

Eventually the seated space next to us at the end of the bar opened up so we were settled in there. That way we didn't have to relocate with our drinks and we got to keep our same, fantastic server.

Rather than make trips back and forth to the chalkboard we decided to allow our server (Jean, as we later learned) to make our choices for us. We ultimately did the same thing for food since it was all small plates and we'd never been there and it was again, all in French. Jean nailed it! We told her we had no allergies/restrictions and there was nothing we wouldn't eat, so she went to town with some of the stranger things we've had in recent memory. It was all amazing. I'm told their menu changes frequently so I don't know how much of this will still be around for anyone reading this, but we had the following:

-Carrot éclair (some sort of smoked, pickled, sliced carrots in a baguette sandwich with creme fraiche on top. Notable because despite our declaration of no restrictions, by girlfriend as a general rule does NOT like carrots. She told me today this was probably her favorite thing she ate and we ate a lot of great things.) -Artichoke and whelk (not sure of the preparation but I believe it was roasted. It was also tremendous. I was beginning to appreciate at this point that Jean took us seriously when we said anything goes. Snails do not scare us.) -Duck hearts and bitter greens (not sure what the greens were, they weren't terribly bitter which is fine by me. The duck hearts were exactly that, and they were delicious.) -Roasted cauliflower (does not do it justice but I don't know what it was actually called. Basically it was roasted like you'd roast a chicken, and it had crispy chicken skin on top. The Carrot éclair was amazing but this might have been my favorite thing, personally. It was also large; if I were eating by myself I might have been good with just this and the wine. Then again I usually eat a lot, so maybe not.)

For wines I only have a vague idea of what Jean was pouring but they were all great. I know we started with a bubbly rosé (not sure of the grape or producer) which was our first hint that Jean had us pegged from the start. We love starting with bubbly. From there we moved into a Quebecois Chardonnay, which was unexpected. I did not know the climate in Quebec could support Chardonnay, but there we were. Don't know the producer and we don't really get any Quebecois wine in VT where we live so I'm unlikely to run into it again anytime soon anyway. The last thing was a Gamay from near (but not in) the Beaujolais that was definitely not a nouveau. It had some body and some funk and was delicious.

My girlfriend and I are not in the wine industry, we're just fans and we've made some friends. To drive the point home that we were where we belonged, several of those industry friends we've made randomly stopped by while we were there. I mentioned that we'd heard of this place before, but seeing people we know stop by themselves tells me they weren't just saying nice things, they actually really like this place. And we do too. The next time we're in Montreal I expect we'll be back to La Vin Papillon. And...

I must say all the food and the wine was absolutely flawless.

Unfortunately, our experience at Vin Papillon confirmed the importance of service when dining out, as it can ruin all the hard work done in the kitchen and by the restauranteurs.

We arrived a little early and were accommodated by the hostess. Great start given how busy the restaurant was. We were given one food menu and one wine menu for the three us. I decided the ask for another menu to the waitress and pointed out that we only had one. She replied with disdain: "bin c'est normal... " Picked up a bunch of menus and nearly threw them on the table as she walked away. I need to point out that this was our first time to Vin Papillon and had no idea of the concept, we went because of its reputation. She came back to explain they were really busy which is why they didn't have much time for us. (Something I completely respect and understand, but I don't appreciate making us feel like we are a bother) Another waiter came to introduce himself. We asked questions about the concept and the food and pointed out that two of us are gluten intolerant and needed suggestions keeping that in mind. We ordered several plates and glasses of white wine. To our surprise, his suggestion of fleurs de courgette was fried in batter, clearly not respecting our intolerance. We then ordered a bottle of red wine. I tasted and it was beautiful, he started pouring the glasses and my friend asked if he had changed the glasses between the wines. He explained it was not in Vin Papillon's policy to change glasses between wines. She told him that she prefers fresh glasses. In all condescension, our dear waiter explained that "People who really like and know wine never change glasses." He walked away, leaving us all with a bitter taste in our mouths.

Through the service, we could observe the waiting staff at their station (as we were seated right next to it) sipping on glasses of wine. This would not usually bother me if the fact that they were "oh so busy" the excuse for their poor service. It was evident by then, they just didn't care.

This is why I can't bring myself to give more than one star, because at the end of the evening, all we spoke about was the poor service, and...

If I had stumbled upon this place, I would have probably been more impressed, but my group came to this restaurant specifically because we were in town just for a few days, so we decided to try one of Canada's top 100 restaurants. This is probably where our disappointment came from, as I think we were expecting a bit more.

Pros: •Everything was tasty!

•Our server was very knowledgeable about their wines and took the time to help my table with our questions regarding wine and the food menu.

•The ambiance was good! I would consider it a cool place to grab dinner.

•We had two servers as one was finishing up, and they were both excellent. I would have only liked better guidance on the portion size of some dishes while ordering.

Cons: •The signature dish was prosciutto cotto with cheese and black pepper. While tasty, I think a little less emphasis on it being their “specialty” would have gone over a lot better with our table.

•The razor clam portion was pitiful. Two shells with diced clam and veggies (ceviche type) served on a bed of salt? Again, this was tasty, but the portion and presentation fell flat. My friend accidentally took a spoonful of salt and was convinced it had to be some riced veggie as the portion was so small. For reference, we were a group of three, and each got a spoonful of the dish, not including the spoonful of salt.

•Some dishes were dropped off without a peep; nothing was described or pointed out about them. This could have saved my friend from a spoonful of salt 😂I definitely expected a little more table service in this regard, considering the restaurant's rating.

•One employee worked in a paint-stained jumpsuit, which we felt was an interesting choice for this casual fine-dining restaurant.

•We left a little hungry and...