La Palette

Wow another review of a French restaurant, is anyone surprised? It would appear I am partial as I've exclusively written about Italian and French spots so far. I assure you I dine at places that are outside of these two countries. Did I just google if both France and Italy were countries? Maybe. For reassurance. 

I'm going to try to avoid starting every blog post with "This place has been on my list for a while..." Because every place I'm going to write about has been on my list and the list is long. With that being said, I'm going to get right to it: I had been to La Palette previously, for drinks only. This time when I visited, I actually was on a mission for food. I had also heard nothing but great things about this place and someone I went with actually knows somebody who works in their kitchen, so obviously we had to go. 

There were actually a couple of things that I tried for the first time, here! I am not picky when it comes to food--life's too short, gotta try everything at least once, right? I just, sometimes feel like, there is a time and a place for certain foods to be had or tried. One of those times and places was the night I went to La Palette. Everything on their menu sounds delicious and, probably is, but if you've heard anything about La Palette, it's that they have horse on their menu. So, naturally, we had to order it. Something less crazy, but I've never tried it, bone marrow! A lot of places don't offer it anymore--or not that I can find, anyway. 

We decided to order: horse tartare, moules et frites (mussels & fries), the most insane foie gras I've ever seen or had, bone marrow (which, I am on their website looking at their menu and I don't see it listed but, I assure you we had it--you'll see), we also ordered the special they had on that night and I can not recall for the life of me what it was called!!!! Maybe I'll come back and edit this once I remember/figure it out but for now, unfortunately, I only have photos of our main, not a name--whoopsie hehe

Horse tartare - Comes with pickles, crostini & two types of mustard

We started with the horse tartare and I was honestly surprised. I thought maybe this was going to mess with my head more than my actual taste buds but, it didn't. This was really great and quite frankly just tastes like a nice steak tartare. Maybe my my taste buds aren't refined enough for raw-meat dishes but if you gave this to me and told me it was steak, I'd have never known the difference. It was delicious either way. 

Moules (Mussels)

Frites (Fries)

It feels redundant to write the English translation beside the foods above but, it makes me feel like I'm being helpful. So, you're welcome? 

The next thing we ate were the moules et frites which were absolutely delicious. Super flavourful, a little bit of a spicy kick, salty, fries, rich mussel broth--perfection. We did a 1/2 pound and that was plenty, considering we'd ordered the special as our main, we knew this would be more than enough food (and it was.) The mussels were in a delicious white wine, shallot, chipotle cream with corn and cilantro. The fries were crispy and salty, they were so addictive; great to dip into the sauce when all the mussels are done (pro tip--or maybe a frugal tip?? It's honestly so good, you'll want every last drop.) 

Bone marrow

Unfortunately, this wasn't listed on their menu on their website online so, I can't really give you any further details besides this photo and what I'm about to say about it. I should also note: this dish traditionally comes with ONE bone; the person I was with knows someone who works in the kitchen and they hooked us up with a bone each. So, if you come here, don't expect to get two bones in your order. Unless you also happen to know someone who works there. 

This was my first experience with bone marrow which is funny because I've actually worked in a bar that served it, I just never ate it. Never anything against it, there just was never the right time or opportunity to eat or order it--no hate. The taste and texture of bone marrow is exactly what I expected it to be. It was great, in my opinion! I can see how it's a "you love it or you hate it" type dish but, the way I enjoyed it here, at La Palette, was fabulous. The bread they accompanied with it was probably, truly, THE BEST bread I've ever eaten in my life. Also was probably the worst for my heart. You took a bite and it basically melted into butter. It was so incredibly delicious I could have eaten an entire order of just the bread alone. Forget the bone marrow, gimmie that bread!!! I'm kidding (kind of), the bone marrow was delicious. If you're a texture person, I can't imagine you enjoying something like this. It is a little strange, I must admit. 

The main dish I can't remember the name of :) 

Here it is again closer, still nameless :)

I'm not a huge red meat fan but this literally fell off the bone. The au jus it was sitting in was SO flavourful, I wanted to bathe in it, oh my god. I could have drank it. It was soooooo delicious. I wish I had more details than me just saying "ooooh so yummy" but, alas, this is my blog and I'm the only one who reads it anyway. Potatoes were whipped to fluffy perfection and the veggies were cooked al dente so nothing was mushy. Every bite was flavourful and enjoyable. So great. If I ever figure out what this dish was, I'll come back and update this so, for now, enjoy. 

The most insane foie gras I've ever seen or had

We decided to order the foie gras as dessert because just LISTEN to the description of it: "Seared duck foie gras w/ cookie dough, macadamia nut, white chocolate ganache and candied orange zest" Like, ARE YOU KIDDING?? Unreal. When it came out we were both excited as we were confused. They explained to us, "you eat this dish by dipping, sipping, stacking, whatever you'd like..." Basically it's a "choose your own adventure" foie gras cookie plate. It's meant to mimic milk and cookies, where you'd deconstruct the cookie, and/or dunk it in milk. The idea is to take some foie gras, a little bit of cookie dough, maybe a smear of ganache and you dunk it in the chai-infused, milk-filled ramken. Truly such an enjoyable and delicious experience. No two bites are the same. Never seen or had anything quite like this before. Had foie gras plenty of times (re: have you seen all the French restaurants I've been going to lately?) but I've never seen it done as creatively as this! So. Much. Fun.