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What a week for Edward Zaki. First, a profile of the restaurateur by Lesley Chesterman in Urban Expressions and, then, a rave for his restaurant Chez Victoire by Jean-Philippe Tastet: "Le restaurant de cette semaine, Chez Victoire, affiche un optimisme contagieux, un goût pour la fête et un penchant pour le partage convivial: un long bar, quelques box et une grande table qui fait se côtoyer toute une faune de joyeux gastronomes." [Le Devoir]
For her part, Chesterman files one of her best reviews of 2014 . The beneficiary is chef Cédric Deslandes and his Ste-Catherine St. E. restaurant, Les Coudes sur la Table: "In a city with as many good restaurants, the choices are endless. But Les Coudes sur la Table should be on every food lover's "to try" list. And as fancy as the food is, the ambience is very relaxed. Indeed, it's an elbows-on-the-table kind of affair." [Gazette]
On the casual beat, Café Beaufort (the ex-Ellefsen ) earns a "Good Bet" from Sarah Musgrave, apparent identity crisis aside: "The place does, after all, call itself a café, and it feels at times like its secondary vocation is as a restaurant. The parallel experiences — some customers whiling away the time on Wi-Fi while others settle in for a full meal night out — makes for a confusing, but not at all unpleasant, atmosphere: a strange spot to fork over a hefty sum for dinner out, but the casual environment is easy to like." [Gazette]
Audrey Lavoie offers her opinion on Biiru. The new Downtown izakaya gets a tepid review (the ramen is "good but not extraordinary"). Also: "Après ce déferlement de plats, notre convive a encore un petit creux et est intrigué par le japadog, qui s'avère au final un brin décevant. Pour ce qui est du goût, ça va, mais la texture laisse à désirer." [Métro]
Meanwhile, Lorraine Carpenter comes away from Biiru with a different take ("the ramen miso soup had a winning set of flavours"): "Many of the opening-night issues I read about on Chowhound seem to have been resolved. " [CultMTL]
