I received the fateful text on a fine Tuesday evening. "Guys, it's my boyfriend's birthday this Saturday. I am thinking of hosting a surprise party at Le Biftheque. Be there for 8:00 and don't be late!"
Le Biftheque is well known 'round these parts and seems to have two reputations: Either it elicits a reaction such as "It's the best place in the city," or something along the lines of "It's gross. Never go there." I, however, had never been. I always wanted to see it, with those weirdo cows just standing in front of the place each time I am on my way to the airport. After having eaten there, where does my stance lie? Somewhere in the middle. Little did I know my meal would be replete with mystery items!
We arrived at 8PM, the birthday boy got there at 8:30, and we waited until 9PM to order from the late night (read: cheaper) menu. It seemed like a pretty good deal: $16 for an onion blossom (per table), an appetizer, an entree from a selection of eight, and a mille feuille for dessert.
First came the onion blossom. Let me preface by telling you all how absolutely excited I was to try this item. Deep fried delights are my favourite of all the world's delights, and with the natural sweetness of cooked onion, it seemed like it could only be a win-win.
Onion Blossom
Ehhhhh. It wasn't bad but it wasn't exactly great either. While the majority of the blossom was decent enough, the bottom of each floret (which is attached to the root of the onion), hadn't cooked. So on the one hand you're eating something reminiscent of an onion ring, and then you get a taste (and whiff) of strong raw onion. I'm not a fan of raw onion so it's not something I enjoyed. To top it off, the sauce was weird. It tasted mostly like a dollop of horse radish mixed with a squeeze of ketchup. Waz it Heinz doe?
French Onion Soup
This soup, was, in a nutshell, nasty. And not the good kind of nasty. The cheese was alright, there was enough on it, but the onions were brown like soil and the smell of that shit-broth was nauseating. Tasted like soup packet. Nuff said.
Next in line, after the so-so onion blossom and the abysmal onion soup (I don't think I had more than 3 spoonfuls -- even that was generous!) came the main course. I ordered the skirt steak with a baked potato.... and what I got, and what everyone else who ordered the skirt steak got, was another item on the menu called the NY Strip with Pepper Sauce. Whatever. I didn't even bother to complain. The waitress was a surly middle-aged lady who would have fought with me, and my standards had already declined since having ingested the onion soup. I figured I'd just cut my losses and eat what they gave me. The potato was great, the meat was alright, but that sauce was a no go fo' sho'. I couldn't even taste it, because it was so grainy with the raw flour they had used to thicken the base. It wasn't unpleasant, it just wasn't good.
"Skirt Steak"??
Next on the docket was a dessert of mille feuille, which in French means thousand papers. I was excited to eat it because I do enjoy my desserts, especially mille feuille. But as pictured below, there weren't a thousand papers. There wasn't even a one. Instead, what we got was a layer of custard, a layer of some type of lighter cream (I'm guessing pastry cream?) a very thin layer of crumbled graham cracker, topped with the sugary icing. Well, it wasn't mille feuille, but whatever it was, the best way I can describe is "pretty alright." It was clearly one of the top items from the menu.
"Mille Feuille"?
All in all, the meal was alright. I would never choose to go there on my own, but if I were to be invited to another party, I would go.
ADDRESS: 6705, Chemin de la Cote de Liesse, Saint-Laurent, QC
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