Despite Mixed Results, Jean-Philippe Tastet Feels Optimistic For Les Fillettes

Jean-Philippe Tastet is the last of Montreal's four major food critics to formally write-up Les Fillettes. Tastet's take on the heralded Outremont restaurant with a wine bar's soul comes after several visits, in which he describes the sum total of his experiences as follows (translated): "Excellent for lunch. Could do better for dinner."

It's not that Tastet disagrees with his counterparts at Le Journal de Montréal, the Gazette, and La Presse, all of whom lauded, for the most part, the replacement for bygone landmark bistro Le Paris Beurre. Surely Les Fillettes' lively, dynamic crew will polish the restaurant's flaws over time, Tastet confidently, and kindly, declares. Until then, the kitchen has some work to do, most notably with its dinner menu.

Tastet takes umbrage, for example, with a spinach and feta turnover. "Je suggère qu’ils ne présentent jamais ce plat à un quelconque concours culinaire." Ouch. A gaspacho hits the table warm, not chilled, and Tastet utterly dismisses a parade of other plates. "Servis en plats principaux, ni le bar, gnocchi, aubergines, herbes, poivrons rôtis, émulsion de citron confit (ouf !), ni le spécial de ce soir-là, pieuvre rôtie, concombres, feta et tomates confites, ni encore le risotto, pois verts, maïs et tomates cerises, ne brillèrent par leur présence."

The Devoir critic seldom writes with such sting. But, again, Tastet wants to like Les Fillettes and strives to find the restaurant's inherent charms. They come to the fore most markedly at lunchtime. Tastet reports, in fact, that his "deux passages du midi restent par contre dans la catégorie 'Je reviendrai ici n’importe quand avec joie'." That's excellent news for Les Fillettes—four reviews in and the Van Horne spot, which counts hot new neighbours in Damas and Provisions, shows a lot of promise, on the whole.

Indeed, Tastet ends his article on the most optimistic of notes: "[L]e service est assuré avec beaucoup de chaleur par des jeunes gens qui devraient, si tout continue comme ça, pouvoir prendre leur retraite dans une trentaine d’années, après avoir servi loyalement leurs clients pendant trois décennies."