What does it mean when a server at a restaurant recognizes you and says ‘Welcome back!’?? This was my third time at Q Haute and I thought it was neat that one of the servers recognized me (must be my curls LOL). A good friend from Edmonton was in town for some training so we set out for dinner together again. We were practicing eating ‘fancy’ food because we’re travelling to France together in September – yay! Our primary server this evening turned out to be from France and she asked us questions about our trip – kind of cool.
I purchased the awesome deal through Costco again – $99 for 4 courses for 2 people, including a glass of Prossecco and a glass of wine each. It’s such an awesome deal, I love it! And to be clear, it’s not just 4 courses – you also get extra stuff to start, bread in the middle and extra stuff at the end, so you really get an evening full of food. Q Haute is my favourite restaurant for an experience, not just a meal. Their hosting and serving skills are impeccable. It’s the only place in town I’ve rated 5/5 on Zomato because their customer service is really the best in can be.
At the end of the evening we were given a piece of paper with all of the dishes listed on it, so I’ve copied the details here with the photos.
Snacks – Olive oil, port syrup lollipop; pumpkin seed and cheese sandwich; yam bonbon with goat cheese
While we didn’t totally love these three items, the server explained what each are made with, so it was neat to experience all the different flavours within each of them. The flavours were subtle, but interesting. The textures were a treat. A neat little experience to get your palette excited for the rest of the food to come!
Winter Inspired – Sweet potato puree, pickled vegetables, fritter roots
This dish was again subtle, but really good. The little dot of mushroom puree on the right was super yum. I wished there was more. The detail that goes into these dishes is amazing.
Exposition – Parisian gnocchi, parmigianino cream, beet greens
How can you make gnocchi even more delicious? Apparently all you have to do is fry it. Their homemade gnocchi are little bundles of heaven. The parmigianino cream is so good I couldn’t leave a drop behind and the parmesan crisps are perfectly cooked. Just give me a big bole of this stuff any time and I’d be happy to sit in a corner and enjoy it all by myself!
Rising Action – Lemon grass gellee, melon water, fizzy lemon nitro, raspberry crisp
I should have at the fizzy lemon nitro first because it started melting a bit. Everything in the larger bowl was really good – the lemon grass gellee was light and refreshing, the melon water was sweet and fresh and the raspberry crisp tasted like raspberry! On our kitchen tour they showed us the dehydrator where they made the raspberry crisp. It was pretty much really good homemade fruit roll-ups.
Climax – Truffle farcitte stuffed duck breast, parsnip pomme puree, seasonal vegetables, crispy parsnip, madeira
This dish was explained to us as two birds coming together – one that flies and one that doesn’t. I guess there was chicken in the truffle farcitte, which was stuffed under the skin of the duck. The photo doesn’t do it justice – it was a neat dish that took a lot of patience to put together. I wasn’t a fan of the fat under the duck skin because it tasted fatty, but I seemed to have a thicker layer than my friend. The top of the duck was nice and crispy and all the veggies on the dish were cooked perfectly.
Revelation – Chocolate plaisir, baileys espuma, balsamic caviar, pickled grapes
I’ve had the chocolate plaisir before – it’s a neat little ball of layered chocolate dessert. It’s pretty good and it looks neat. The balsamic caviar is definitely ‘balsamicy’ so I had to eat it with other items. The Baileys espuma was delicious – a light and fluffy delight.
Adieu – Dulce de leche & white chocolate truffle, cassis and raspberry jam macarron, parfait amour panacotta
I think it’s pretty neat that even though you think dinner is done and dessert is served, they bring you more! Even when you think you can’t fit any more into your belly, you have to! The white chocolate truffle was super sweet, but good – you can’t go wrong with a rich homemade dulce de leche! The panacotta tasted better than it looked – a creamy vanilla delight. The macarrons had a great fresh raspberry flavour. Personally, I don’t understand why macarrons are so popular, but these did taste really good.
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