Foxy (Montreal)

@caleb absolutely killed it with the recommendations for Montreal dining. (This report is very late; our meal at Foxy was like two days after Garde Manger).

Menu

Grilled broccoli
I’m not really a broccoli person but the pickled whatever it was was pretty good.

Oysters
Good but not as amazing as those at Garde Manger.

Homemade feta & pita
:heart_eyes: the homemade pita was great, but the mixture of feta, pear, red wine, & almond was amazing.


Endive
Really lovely endives, super crunchy & juicy at the same time. The high-acidity dressing was also fantastic. I even thought the turnips were decent, and I’m not really into turnips.

Beef tartare
One of the better beef tartares I’ve had - great chew & beefiness.


Flatbread
I’m usually pretty skeptical of “flatbreads” but this was clearly a pizza with (justified!) pretensions - the crust was great and the combination of sweet potato & harissa was inspired.

Char from Opercule
Great fish, crispy skin; even the bitter greens were :ok_hand:

Maitake
Very possibly the best dish of the night? Ridiculously good smoke-y flavor. Must order.

Pointed cabbage
Some of the best roasted cabbage I’ve ever had. Whatever was crumbled on top was also excellent.

Ravioli
Decent but not a knockout. Sauce was v. good though.

Cavatelli(?)
I forget what pasta this was; I forgot to take a picture of the menu when we were there and grabbed the most recent one off the website (which seems to be missing this dish). Or maybe it was an off-menu special? :person_shrugging: Better than the ravioli, imo, but still wouldn’t go out of my way for it. If I ever come back I’d probably try the large-format meat dishes first.

Dessert Menu

Sticky toffee
Pretty good.

Pavlova
Excellent, all the individual components were fantastic and even better together.

I think on the whole I might give a slight nod to Garde Manger over Foxy, but Foxy was like 30% cheaper and had its own high points with a very strong baseline, and I wouldn’t hesitate to go back for another run at the menu.

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So glad you had a good meal! There’s just something special about that spot, have had a half-dozen great meals there, and it goes beyond the food. Has an ephemeral quality about it, that secret sauce that’s so elusive in restaurants.

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I had very high hopes for this spot after reading some stellar reviews on this board and elsewhere. I think it suffered for following a great meal at Garde Manger the night before. The service was pretty poor during our meal. Lots of downtime waiting – and I enjoy a leisurely meal, but this felt like maybe they were short-staffed and folks seemed almost confused as to why we wanted to dine there.

And the food was rather unremarkable: we started with some oysters, carrots with carrot-top pesto, house-made feta and pita; mains were a nicely cooked char and a fine mushroom cavatelli dish. I think this restaurant was fine, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit again when there are so many other restaurants to choose from.

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