Love at First Bite: Critic Marie-Claude Lortie Gobsmacked by Landry & Filles

La Presse critic Marie-Claude Lortie has restaurant fatigue. Mired in the production of her latest, updated Montreal restaurant guide, the columnist "mange donc au restaurant à peu près deux fois par jour depuis plusieurs semaines" and is weary of ubiquitous fare like "tacos au porc braisé, des sandwichs asiatiques au pain vapeur." But then a saviour like Landry & Filles comes along. The recent haute snack bar embodiment of the popular pan-Canadian food truck is a total "coup de foudre" for Lortie. Love at first bite, in other words.

The Plateau restaurant from chef Marc Landry (late of Kitchen Galerie, Au Pied de Cochon), sommelière and maître d’hôtel Josée-Ann Landry, and Lisa-Marie Veillette, nails it. Lortie describes the food as "cuisine québécoise ménagère réinventée, bien faite, gourmande sans être trop gloutonne, de qualité." Rôtisserie chicken from the famed Voltigeurs farm, prepared a few different ways, is "excellente, cuite à point, tendre et juteuse." Vegetables, in particular, pique the interest, from fried broccoli with Caesar mayo to a rainbow of carrots with citrus and cumin-laced yogurt that reminds Lortie of Jean-Georges Vongerichten's New York restaurant ABC Kitchen. Other stars range from smashed, herbed potatoes drizzled with olive oil to Landry's flagship dish, ploye, this time served with smoked maple syrup.

It's all good at the Papineau spot, despite the lack of a terrasse, and Lortie will absolutely return. "On dirait une sorte de petite oasis sans prétention (…)."