Chez Sophie Serves Impeccable Classics in Griffintown

Better to enjoy exemplary classics than banal cuisine, declares the critic for La Presse this week. Chef Sophie Tabet may not reinvent the wheel at her eponymous Griffintown restaurant, writes Marie-Claude Lortie, but her food is precise and well worth a return visit. The Notre-Dame Ouest kitchen makes effective use of quality ingredients and the results are often triumphant, such as a burrata with Iberico ham, bream à la plancha with razor clam, and a lacquered black cod.

Over on the dessert side of the menu, a chocolate 'suprise' is presented in spectacular fashion but, alas, falls flat on the taste buds. Mercifully, a pistachio millefeuille and a brioche pain perdu with salted butter caramel fare much better. Lortie faults the front of house staff for a lack of knowledge and precision about the provenance of some menu items (the salmon, mainly) but, ultimately, the quality of the food, the lovely terrasse, and the serene ambiance win the day at Chez Sophie. The La Presse critic thus concurs with her peers at the Gazette and Le Devoir and gives the Griffintown restaurant her stamp of approval.