We had all been looking forward to trying Bistro Saisons, a newly opened French style restuarant specializing in farm-to-table food. The layout of the restaurant is almost exactly like Cibo Bistro, not surprising given that they are located right around the corner from each other. I loved the giant windows which allowed the restaurant to bathe in natural light. Decor was simple and cheerful, with a few large pictures hanging near the bar. There were also nice punctuations of colour provided by fresh yellow flowers on each table and blue accents throughout the restaurant. The restaurant actually reminded me of a few local bistros we passed through on my travels in London and Paris.
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| Chicken Supreme |
Three of us were on a rather busy rotation and we actually took quite a long time with the menu as we were all busy catching up with one another. Our waitress was friendly enough, but I got the sense that her patience started to wear as the night progressed. It seems when I get into a
food mood, I tend to order a series of similar dishes at different restaurants. I recently ordered a chicken dish at
Belgravia Hub and was craving more of the same. I settled on the Chicken Supreme which was served with gnocci, tomatoes, and some steamed greens. The gnocci was a little bit bland for my liking and was a little on the
generous portion which made the dish a tad too heavy. The tomatoes had a nice light flavour which actually complimented the chicken and the gnocci quite well. Unlike the gnocci, I found that the tomatoes was served in too
stingy of a portion. The tomatoes had a nice herb and salty taste and actually complimented the gnocci and the chicken quite well. The chicken itself was the best part of the dish; the skin was perfectly crispy and the chicken was well-seasoned and very tender on the inside. Had the portions been adjusted a bit better, this would have been a stellar dish.
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| Special of the Evening: Wood-plank Salmon, Scallop and Greens |
My companion ordered the Special of the Evening -
Wood-plank salmon with Pan-seared Scallops and Greens. I found the salmon was
just a smidge overcooked; while it was fairly most and flaky at the centre, the outside was a little dry. Similarly, the scallops were slightly on the dry side as well and lacked the true juiciness of a well-cooked scallop. The greens, on the other hand, were perfectly steamed, but nothing special. My favourite part of the dish was the cream sauce with peas. It had a subtle sweet note in a mostly savoury sauce; it was creamy, yet light, and went well with the scallop, salmon, and greens. I only wish there were more of the cream sauce incorporated into the dish.
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| Steak Frites |
The steak initially came out fairly well-done, but upon mentioning this to the waitress she quickly offered to bring another one to the table. The second time around, the steak was medium-rare done to perfection, juicy and tender. I had anticipated the goat cheese butter would be overwhelming, but it was pleasantly mild in taste and coated the meat deliciously as it melted. The fries were hot and crisp, seasoned just right. The snow peas seemed an odd pairing with the steak and fries, and were prepared very simply, certainly nothing special.
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| Walleye |
The Walleye was served with olive quinoa and string beans. The portion of walleye seemed disappointingly small at first glance, but the entire plate was full of strong flavours. The olive flavour in the quinoa was quite pervasive; whether you liked the quinoa (a majority of the dish) depended strongly on whether you liked olives or not. The walleye was cooked well, was nicely seasoned, and went well with the sauce. The snow peas, again, was an odd pairing and was a little bland compared to the rest of the dish. Though it was Bistro Saison's signature dish, none of us at the table were particularly impressed with it.
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| Beignets and Berry Currant |
The beignets were light and fluffy and even better than the ones at The Marc. The were also perfectly coated in cinnamon and sugar and, like all my favourite desserts, was not too sweet. The jelly currant was a little strange; it was a little bit too gelatinous without enough flavour to pair well with the beignets. We found a
perfect dipping sauce, however, in our next dessert.
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| Bacon Creme Brulee |
The second dessert we tried was the Bacon Crème Brulee, which was your typical creme brulee with bits of thick-sliced bacon incorporated into the sugar coating. The crème brulee was fairly standard, with the crème being light and refreshing. The sugar coating was fairly standard as well. The bacon, which I have seen used plenty of times on the Food Network in desserts, really took away from the dish overall. We all expected to the bacon to be candied and incorporated a little more smoothly into the dish; instead the bacon retained its strong, meaty flavour and was actually a little too salty, even for just regular bacon.
Bistro Saisons is a quaint little restaurant with a bright, cosy, and very European-feeling interior. The food was a little hit or miss, even for being in the same dish. There were certain elements of the dish which were extremely tasty and other elements that left us confused about the pairing. Although the service was friendly, as the night wore on, the service became a little inattentive (we had to wait quite a while to ask for our bill after dessert, for example). There were also some inconsistencies I noticed about the dishes having observed other diners: the Steak Frites served at other tables looked steaming hot, while our first Steak Frites was lukewarm at best when we received it. In addition, the ratio of gnocci and tomatoes looked much more balanced at other tables compared to my Chicken Supreme dish. While reasonably priced with some definite stand-out elements, there was no dish that stood out in its entirety and there were just a little too many inconsistencies for me at Bistro Saisons.
Top Pick of the Night: Chicken Supreme
Rating:
3.5/5 Erics
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