Légende — Restaurant in Quebec

LEGENDE - You win some, you lose some! Signing off a wonderful vacation with a disappointing Michelin 1* experience! Sigh!

Packed with some wonderful culinary experiences, spirit lifting vistas, sights and scenery and most of all, abundance of cherished loving, family bonding. My abbreviated food crawl during the past week has been most memorable and precious. Sadly, our last meal at the Michelin 1* Legende in Quebec City added an unexpected sour note to our otherwise splendid food crawl.

When dining out in upscale restaurants, one of the most despised things I dislike encountering is one that involves being charged a hefty price for the meal but still feeling hungry whilst paying the bill!

Do not get me wrong, the food at Legende was actually quite creative, unique, visually appealing, tasty and enjoyable. Although in some areas, the chefs were a bit heavy handed with the salt ( the tomato dish ). Sadly, a satisfactory end result was not fulfilled largely due to the miscalculation of the chef’s overall menu creation and planning. IMHO, the prime reason and failure that causes the meal’s demise of not achieving an acceptable quality/quantity/value ratio was not the use of uncommon and exotic ingredients but rather, the labour intensive elements and in some cases, the presence of overly redundant and irrelevant components which added to the complexity, required down sizing and hence an elevated cost component to the meal. Case in point, our impressive 8 course / $140 tasting menu at Montreal’s Buillon Bilk was near flawless, sumptuous and a filling affair. Contrary, our 6 course / $ 135 offering at Legende was stingy and lacking in substance. Appetizer portions were midget one bite hors d’oeuvres size. However, the most absurd was the meat entree course featuring 4 thin slices of stingy, roughly 3oz in total, pieces of meat, gimmickily paired with a bowl of three sauces…..a couple of which are mediocre tasting and totally irrelevant! This is tantamount to trying to get full by eating a Shawarama but offered without the pita bread and vegetable/pickle condiments ... .only the bare-bone meat pieces garnished with Tahini and some Hummus were served!!

Our tasting menu offered the following courses:

6 East Coast Oysters topped with local Boreal condiments (optional $18 addition)

Hors d’oeuvres: Wild rose and marigold potato Crispy tuille, maitake mascarpone cream and Clos de Roches cheese House made Tofu butter, fermented seaweed, smoked maplewood emulsion

Appetisers: Seared scallop, celeriac and verbena sauerkraut, beurre blanc, lemon verbena oil. Charcoal grilled tomato, aromatic tomato broth, Cap Tourmente hazelnut condiment

Main course: Koji-aged beef steak, herb crust, caraway honey, coal and chanterelles sauce, herbs sauce, potato sauce

Palate cleanser and dessert: Quebec strawberry granita and marigold milk Honey cake, thuja cone mascarpone creme, haskap sorbet, haskap compote, honey tuille

On the surface, based on the intriguing description, the menu offers so much ‘ potential ‘.....but sadly?! Sigh!

Thank God for a late night opening place offering Poutine close to...

A totally underwhelming Chefs experience at Legende Restaurant, Quebec City. Two offerings delivered to our table were completely inedible and returned to the kitchen. Fully appreciate and look forward to experiencing culinary creativity however a dish of fried Brussels sprouts, burnt & overly salty to taste, stringy & chewy in texture, really did not deliver. Having relayed our displeasure with this particular dish to our waiter, It was said that "Chef does like to try and push boundaries". The dish just didn't come thru on any level, the outcome was poorly cooked & seasoned Brussels sprouts. No Brussels sprout, local or otherwise, deserves such treatment.

A substitute dish offered as an apology was accepted.

Second dish returned to the kitchen was an offering of Bison accompanied with Barbecue Sauce. Bison was extremely tough in texture, of the two small morsels served, neither could be sliced with the cutlery provided. The accompanying Barbecue sauce was lacklustre to the extent of being bland.

Another substitute dish was offered however declined.

The Maitre D and serving staff were however exemplary throughout. They acknowledged the shortcomings we had highlighted and did everything at their disposal to make good where they could.

We did question what level of quality checks were taking place on dishes leaving the kitchen, we were assured that such checks continually take place. This from our perspective really was not apparent given the issues we experienced. In relation to the in edible plates we had delivered, it was suggested by the Maitre D that we had possibly been the "unlucky table" which unfortunately happens on occasion. Enough said.

The ambiance of this dining experience was further spoilt by a person that stood along side an adjacent table for long periods of time, intent on talking both incessantly and loudly. The vocal drone of this person drowned out the background music, chatter & buzz that were a pleasant backdrop to the restaurant prior to this individual appearance. This we discussed with our waiter, the waiter did acknowledge and without hesitation ushered this person away, much to this persons annoyance. The Maitre D then kindly re-seated us at an alternative table away from the unwelcome disturbance. Again full praise to both the Maitre D & waiter.

On presentation of the bill some negotiation took place to agree a fair representation of the evenings experience, would have preferred for this not to have been necessary but it was settled amicably none the less.

Finally, we had been advised that the loud & incessantly talking person reluctantly ushered away from the nearby table was the Head Chef of the establishment. Possibly a little more time and attention in the kitchen could offer consistent culinary experiences to all of Legende’s clientele and result in no more diners at...

We had a wonderfully inventive, creative and beautiful meal, ordering from the à la carte winter menu a few days ago.

The restaurant has beautiful decor with lots of wood, including live plank slabs suspended artfully on the ceiling, charcoal accents, intimate wooden tables for 2, 4 or more and a beautiful bar that accommodates seating. The ceiling and bar drape with greenery, reminding you that the food takes its cues from the forested landscape around Quebec City. You even get a very hot, cedar scent-infused hot cloth to wash your hands as the meal begins. The ceramic plates are beautifully artistic and the stemware is refined. The restaurant is infused with soft light from, lots of blown glass balls that hang at various heights throughout the restaurant and each table has an intimate circle of light from a small table lamp.

Yup. This restaurant is about the heightening and exploring the senses.

The food was absolutely beautiful with each dish looking like a work of art. Sometimes that level of artistry can sacrifice flavour, but not at Légende... each dish had wonderful balance, and intense flavours. Attention was paid to the textures as well so that each bite of my pasta (agnolotti) was different. It was incredibly delicious.

I was hesitant to order the dessert that I chose, a shiitake and hazelnut cake with mushroom caramel... mushrooms in a dessert??? But it was fabulous, being not too sweet and most definitely not tasting of mushrooms.

My only complaint is that you have to view the menu from your phone... something that diminishes the atmosphere of the restaurant and takes away from the intimacy of dining with a partner where the outside world cannot intrude.

One other thing to note is that there has a handful of single diners who reserved seating at the bar on the evening we were there. This is a wonderful way for someone who is dining solo to immerse themselves in the dining experience while not feeling that eyes are on them, sitting alone, at a table. I wouldn't hesitate to go there solo.

I was also very happy to see wine from Le Vieux Pin, our favourite Okanagan winery, on the menu! It's a very small winery and its wines are very hard to come by outside of the valley.

One last piece of advice: the tasting menu takes 2 + 1/2 to 3 hours to do... it was why we opted to go à la carte because we would be otherwise tight for time. So leave yourself ample time to really enjoy the dining experience.

I will...