Pretty much everyone’s been to a decently fancy restaurant in their time, am I right? Well, Q Haute Cuisine pretty much blows away every restaurant ever. It has not only been named one of 2013’s Top 50 Restaurants in Canada by vacay.ca’s panel of judges, and also holds the 5th position in their public voting category, but still continues to be one of the city’s best restaurants, regardless of what critics say. I had the pleasure of dining at Q in celebration of my parents’ anniversary and oh my, was it an experience.
Something rather unique about Q is that they only deal with tasting menus. This means that there is a set menu and you eat whatever is on it, unless you have special dietary restrictions, in which case, you will be accommodated. The menu is created by Chef Michele Aurigemma and is changed every 4-6 weeks. Now, as I again mention, I am inexperienced in the area of fancy cuisine, so even though I didn’t really know what half of what of I was eating was, I still ate all of it and enjoyed every last morsel.
Something a bit different about my experience at Q was that we didn’t eat in the dining room; we ate in the kitchen. Yes, the kitchen. That in itself was so far outside of the realm of what anyone would normally do on any occasion. Aside from the fact that it was kinda hot in the kitchen, I was surrounded by the sights and sounds of a working restaurant. Our server was exceedingly knowledgeable and provided my family with exquisite and sometimes unconventional drink pairings (my parents had wine and I stayed on the non-alcoholic side of things). He also discussed and showed us some of the techniques used to make some of the more unconventional dishes, which was a really nice touch.
I’m not going to discuss the entire menu because that would take all day, but I’ll just go over a few of my personal favourite dishes. One of the first things we were served was gruyere cheese gnocchi with tomato espuma, jambon consommé and truffle toast. Aside from being indeed very tasty, it offered a surprising texture and taste as compared to how it looked.
The award for most unique dish goes to the peas, buttermilk and flowers. As opposed to simply serving peas as they come, they were made into a sorbet, topped with what I remember to be a sort of buttermilk mousse and flower petals, with an egg-free pea meringue and pea cracker of sorts (dehydrated pea paste). It was a bit like a dessert in the middle of dinner, except that it tasted like, well, peas.
I think that my favourite dish overall was probably the duck. Not having ever really had duck before, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but what I got was exceptional. Duck is normally quite fatty, but most of the fat was removed and it had the perfect balance of saltiness along with the featured spices. It was served with fiddlehead fern, red pepper asparagus and a few other things that don’t exactly recall. Regardless, it was what I think was the best dish of the night.
I cannot exactly give a price rating in this case, because the pricing is not posted online, but my father wouldn’t let me see the bill, but I will make the assumption that it was rather expensive, to say the least. However, for the experience we had, it was definitely worth it, but was also definitely something to save for a special occasion.
Q Haute Cuisine met and greatly exceeded my expectations as a young diner, but be advised, if you’re a picky eater and like to pick and choose what you eat, this is not the place for you, but if you’re feeling adventurous and are up to it, Q Haute Cuisine will never fail to impress. It was not only a fancy dinner, but simply put, a unique experience in dining.
