Reviews for Vin Papillon and Tkrestobar

Le Vin Papillon gets a rare double review this week by The Gazette's Lesley Chesterman and La Presse's Marie-Claude Lortie.

The wine bar, run by wine director and maître d'hotel Vanya Filipovic and chef Marc-Olivier Frappier, marks Dave McMillan and Fred Morin's third venture (Joe Beef, Liverpool House) on what is now one of the most desirable blocks in Sud-Ouest Montreal.

The PG-13 opening paragraph of Chesterman's review pretty much says it all: "True confessions: I have never taken part in an orgy. But last week I came pretty darn close. Perhaps not sexual in nature, but my olfactory senses were certainly given the most sensual of workouts. I set foot in the restaurant at 6 p.m. and departed somewhere around 11:45 p.m. It was one of those meals that made me fall in love with food and wine and restaurants and Montreal all over again. It happened at Le Vin Papillon." [The Gazette]

Lortie is less effusive in her praise but adores the wine bar nonetheless, even if she makes scant mention of Vin Papillon's emphasis on wine (Chesterman devotes four paragraphs of her review to the wine bar part of the equation). For Lortie, it's all about the vegetable-heavy menu: "Des légumes presque décadents comme on peut se les imaginer quand on sait que le nouveau restaurant en question est le petit frère du Joe Beef et de Liverpool House, dans la Petite Bourgogne. Bref, des légumes avec une âme." [La Presse]

Meanwhile over at CultMT, Gemma Horowitz writes about "the best restaurant you've never heard of": "Tkrestobar should be packed. It has all the elements of the kind of restaurant anyone under 35 would want to eat at: classic rock blasting, handsome wood panelling, abundant alcohol and pretty much every food trend of the past five years. Momofuku-style pork buns? Check. Fried chicken? Check. Fusion-y tacos? Check. Ramen? Check. Ramen burger? Checkmate." [CultMTL]
[Photo: Facebook]