The 411 For those who may not know, Toqué is one of the city’s most prestigious restaurants. It’s the stuff legends are made of and Normand Laprise is the man
who put it, and the Montreal food scene, on the map. Places like this do not do brunch. I stopped dreaming about brunch being on the menu here years ago, but there is one power in the city so great it can make restaurants dabble in brunch for one glorious day, and that force is Festival Montreal en Lumiere. Over the last few years I have been able to sample some specialty brunches thanks to Festival en Lumiere – places that would never serve brunch offer it for this magical event. So, when I saw that Toqué was doing brunch I had to look twice.

At 1st glance This year there was an Argentine theme and two guest chefs teamed up to make an Argentine feast that we would not forget anytime soon. Guest chefs Rodrigo Castilla and Antonio Soriano, straight from Buenos Ares, put out a one time only feast at Toqué. The inspiration for this year’s culinary adventure of festival en lumiere is the feature city of Buenos Ares. So we expected an Argentine approach to food, but how does Argentina do brunch? Now what we know about Argentine brunch is limited by the fact that it wouldn’t be brunch since brunch is something we find in North America and most other countries usually do a small breakfast. The best way to describe an Argentine culinary experience would be a focus on fresh produce, beef as a key ingredient, croissant like breads, and a group dining experience much like a family around a table.

What does $65 and a brunch reservation at Montreal’s legendary Toqué get you? Well , it gets you a veritable non stop feast, a lineup of dishes that 3 hours later you waddle out of Toqué and won’t even be thinking about food until the day after. The service starts with cremona which is sun shaped bread with butter. This bread has an amazing presentation and starts off the meal wonderfully since you need to break it up and share it which highlights that sharing is pretty much the theme of this service.

Then arrived a blood pudding, chorizo and and panko covered egg. A fan of blood pudding, I liked seeing something adventurous on the table. Not everyone likes this so it was great to see a plenitude of other items for those that are not fans of blood pudding- which also means more for me. The poached egg in a panko batter is nice to see mainly since I need some form of eggs in the morning.

The empanadas were stuffed with beef cheek, beef tail and Jerusalem artichoke. They were served in a brown paper bag which I felt was a novel and unique way to present a dish. The taste was quite impressive and the fact that they had beef cheek and tail was an added meaty and incredibly delicious bonus.

Up next was the donuts with veal brain, apples and peanuts. Presentation was nice but taste was even better. Some people may be unfamiliar with the brain but in all honesty it’s not that weird.

Next was a two in one dish. First off they bring these bowls to our spot with pieces of lobster, smoked sturgeon and bean. Then they bring this large bowl filled with smoked potato puree, vegetables, and madere sauce. Basically, you scoop the stew into the smaller bowl. The chunks of lobster and sturgeon were a pure delight and the stew was warm and filling.

The squash tamales were an interesting latin mix of beef tail, sour cream and relish. This item was presented in a steam box you often see at Chinese restaurants and when we unwrapped it we put it in the same bowl we had the stew in to get that leftover goodness.

There was also a beef plate with potatoes and vegetables on a separate plate. Just when you thought they could not bring out more this comes. The beef was perfectly cooked, the vegetables were impeccable and the potatoes added that little extra.

Lastly, the desserts consisted of ambrosia, dulce de leche flan, and goat’s cheese. I loved this final round of sweetness as these are truly typical south American dishes.

Rounding out the food service is our resident drink reviewer’s, Jay Pendergast III, take on their bloody mary:

I feel like reviewing this particular “bloody Mary” is pretty moot given that you can’t have one, you’ll never have one: a once in a lifetime opportunity. But let’s do this anyway, I’ll keep it short and sweet. Orange in colour with a short celery swizzle-stick and featuring chimichurri, which is really growing on me in beverages. It inevitably makes the drink oily but this has become expected and even acceptable. The taste was subtle and I relished that. I’ve come to love anything that has either a subtle taste, a punch-in-the-face flavour, or gimmicky twist.

The only thing I didn’t like about this drink was the coupe glass it was served in. Mary Antoinette’s left boob be damned; I… hate… that… glass!

Service Service was excellent; they came frequently; the presentation was impressive and explanations were helpful with the dishes.

Vegetarian Most dishes had meat in them and one should think of the following when reading this section: Toqué does not do brunch. This was a one time event and you cannot travel back in time. So should Toqué ever do brunch again, who knows what to expect.

Wrap up This review is a not like my others. This is just a sneak peak at an awesome experience and may, one day, hope to be fortunate enough to come back for brunch at Toqué again. Until then I have my photos, this review and some great memories. My taste buds will not forget any time soon, that’s for sure.

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