Reviews for Frunchroom, Ballpark and More

Frunchroom, a restaurant that brands itself, sans irony, as "Montreal's newest & trendiest Italian Fusion Resto-Bar" snags a review from Andrée Harvey. This about sums up the experience: "Bémol: la croûte de la pizza est blanche, sèche et très cassante, à la manière d'un pain pita grillé au four. Et le dessous est enduit de beaucoup trop de farine. Décevant." [Voir]

The buzz on boulettes emporium Le Ballpark has been muted of late but that may change some after Andréanne Chevalier's review: "Malgré son menu court, nous trouvons au Ballpark un endroit sympa, au service courtois et aux multiples possibilités de combinaisons entre le choix de boulettes, d'entrées et d'à-côtés. Considérant ces éléments, d'autres visites seront nécessaires…" [Métro]

Sarah Musgrave files a report on Saka-ba!, the hot new ramen spot from Junichi Ikematsu. Good bet: "Clearly, there are deft hands at work at Saka-ba! — maybe I'd expected the ramen to be transformative (or transportative, as in back to Tokyo), but I left wishing it had been, well, dirtier somehow. Still, the moments of Juni-level savvy and style throughout the meal were appreciated, and with the liquor licence in place, and the menu continuing to evolve, those lineups will only get longer." [Gazette]

At Le Chasseur in HoMa, Lesley Chesterman observes a neighbourhood in flux and a restaurant to discover, with a caveat or two: "The neighbourhood might be up-and-coming, but this east-end restaurant already has the moxie — and apparently the customers — to charge midtown prices. Is that much-maligned "embourgeoisement" to blame? Or are high prices merely the cost of running an upscale restaurant these days, no matter where it may be?" [Gazette]

Behind the paywall, Thierry Daraize hops over to Grenouille and deems the Plateau bistro "charmant" and "savoureux": "Avec une ouverture très médiatisée l'été dernier, Grenouille, dont une des actionnaires est nul autre que Marie-Claude Savard, voulait privilégier une cuisine réconfortante style Comfort food (...)" [Journal de Montréal]

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