My desire to visit Montreal all began with the curiosity of duck-in-a-can. It was an indescribable thrill as we made Au Pied De Cochon our very first meal. But little as I knew of any French, the words directly translated to “To the Foot of the Pig”. With that, all expectations of gluttonous and rich menu items are sure to become present in every order… But we were totally not expected of what was to come.
Au Pied De Cochon was a brisk 14-minute walking distance from our AirBnB which gave us the perfect opportunity to explore the neighbourhood along the way. With the streets being unfamiliar, and one-too-many photo opportunities arising, we ended up getting to our reservation 5 minutes after. Seated by the front entrance, we enjoyed the airy breeze and took our first skim over the menu.
The menu was sorted into five meaty categories of foie gras, poultry, bison/veal/beef, cochon and fish/seafood. It was sure a hard pick, we didn’t know what to anticipate and were basing the sizing on our past experiences. We decided to go with one curious appetizer, a foie gras dish and a pork to share, then we will decide on additional items after those.
The beers were an easier pick for the both of us – and at a very friendly price of $6 each. I went for the Pied De Cohon, and Arp, the Cidre Mystique.
Happily waiting away, people watching and nibbling on actually, the most delicious bread ever.The bread came in three football stacks, laid on a brown paper doggy bag, check out that size of butter. Certainly gluttonous.
First to come was the Foie Gras Terrine ($24). The size shocked us both, it was just over the size of my palm. The first slice, heaven. Second slice, heaven again. It never stopped. The flavours were rich, smooth and salivating. Jelly jam was also served to provide some citrus to it, perfect.
Shortly after, another shocker of a dish came along. Upon approval after asking about the curious appetizer, a Tarragon Tongue ($8.50), we were absolutely intrigued. There was a congealed layer of film atop our dish. It must have been sitting on side before the delivery for a while. The top-down angle was my only way that I could not completely make this dish look off-putting (you can see the rigid film more on the bottom left side). I just couldn’t ignore the film. It kept bothering me. All aside, the taste of this dish reminded me of my family’s Thanksgiving dinner. With the darkest piece of the turkey, I would tangle it through gravy and mash… And it melts in my mouth. This was more on the chilled side. At this price, the flavours are astonishing.
And, at this point… We were full. We’re not weak eaters either!
We were waiting a fair bit for the next. Will our final pork dish take as long as the Tarragon Tongue? A mighty question. No server to check in on us. We were waiting 45 minutes at this point, turned 1-hour, we assumed that they have forgotten of our order, we brushed it aside and asked for the bill. 15 minutes later, this monster comes along.
I’m telling you, this PDC’s Cut was massive, and a surprising $34 for such a piecce. There should have been a warning with this. That it will require 4 people to finish, oh, and since we have to cook it in the oven it will be a 45-minute wait time. Very strange that this wasn’t noted to us upon ordering. It is a very restless feeling as we had other plans to continue exploring while the night was young. All merry and delicious, but I was way too full to have another slice.
Regardless of our experience with the unexpected wait times and uninformative servers, we had a wonderful time with the food and will love to come back for the many other offerings. There’s just more questions to be asked before we make those orders in. Delicious, delicious food – we’ve gotta bring more people!
January 26, 2017 at 6:57 pm[…] We were not ready for this. Two appetizers and we were already full… See my blogpost here of Au Pied Du Cochon. […]
January 26, 2017 at 7:02 pm[…] We were not ready for this. Two appetizers and we were already full… See my blogpost here of Au Pied Du Cochon. […]