When ones hears of All-You-Can-Eat Chinese, you tend to automatically think about dingy looking places in strip malls where everything is fried, the tables are covered in plastic and plenty of little kids are screaming about. Not the most enjoyable experience for sure. Well, the people who brought us Big in Japan last year ventured into this space with the opening of Maison June Rose just around the corner from their restaurant. Being a fan of Big of Japan, I could not help to be intrigued by June Rose and how exactly they would do All-You-Can-Eat.
First thing, this space is just beautiful. A beautiful ornate wall welcomes you when you walk in and then your eyes focus on all the lanterns above you. About 75 or so from my rough count which provide nice diffuse lighting to go with the candles in the booths around the edge of the room or on the larger U-shaped counter in the center of the room. And while the look is certainly old school Chinese, the sound certainly is not. A mixture of classic oldies from the Beatles to Steve Miller Band to the Four Tops played throughout the evening. Certainly a winner for me and likely most of the patrons who come here off of the Main late night. Service was quick and attentive as well.
The format at Maison June Rose is pretty simple – 25$ per person for the All-You-Can-Eat menu. Extra for alcohol and desserts. The menu consists of 18 items which the staff recommends you order in group of 2-3 at a time. The portions are Tapas-size so pretty small but the service is quick so you can have a steady stream of dishes coming to you without too much difficulty. Which is what we did as we ordered every item on the menu safe for the marinated vegetables… just didn’t feel like them for some reason. Looking at the dishes, you will notice that most of the items are definitely not of the classic “Chinese” variety that most of us are used to and also the plating is pretty nice for what is an All-You-Can-Eat place. Definitely not the kind of attention to detail you would expect.
We were first presented with an amuse-bouche of prosciutto with pear and pickles. A nice combo of fat, sweetness and saltiness.
The chilled Won Ton soup was an interesting idea for the season – a warm pork ravioli in a cold broth. Nicely sized and fully stuffed with pork, I loved the ravioli. The cold broth was okay. The right flavours but the temperature change didn’t work for me.
The scrapple Imperial rolls were served with a roasted peppercorn vinegar. One of the big hits for us – a nice crunch on the rolls and meaty goodness inside. I also really enjoyed the dipping sauce – a cool mixture of pepper and acidity that added an interesting component.
The duck rillettes were okay. Nothing that special and frankly the use of jalapeño overpowered the fatty duck. The use of a very large rice pancake also made it impossible to eat in a single bite which seemed to be the point in the first place.
The BBQ Char Siu pork was served with hoisin sauce. Thinly sliced, I enjoyed the flavour of the pork but the hoisin sauce was way too sweet to be used more than once in my case.
Our first vegetable dish was the Wok-fried Chinese broccoli. Perfect texture to the broccoli as the leaves were wilted while the stems stayed a bit crisp.
The mustard greens were exactly as one would expect – strong mustard-like taste but cooked down enough to have a softer texture.
The braised eggplant and pork was another favourite. Nice soft but slightly firm texture to the eggplant although the pork was only crumbs in the sauce which was not what we expected when it arrived. Larger pieces of pork would have been nice.
The salt and pepper tofu was a real surprise. I hate tofu. My girlfriend as well. Neither one of us could believe how this preparation gave the tofu a nice crispy exterior while the interior was soft but not the mushy kind we both despise. Served on some wilted fried spinach, this was the surprise hit of the night.
The salt and pepper smelts were essentially the same preparation as the tofu but with fish. That gave this dish more saltiness and fattiness than the tofu. The additions of some cooked onions provided some sweetness to offset.
The Kung Pao chicken had strong flavour although a touch too sweet perhaps. The fried texture was perfect as well although the fact that they were small bones to contend with, despite having been warned by the waitress in advance, made this less enjoyable to deal with.
The black vinegar cloud ear mushrooms were very vinegary in flavour which I enjoyed however texture wise, the addition of the egg folk made this dish almost gelatinous which wasn’t as much of a hit.
The Singapore curry rice noodles were exactly what you expected and wanted. Noodles were perfect, the mixture of onions, celery and scallions worked well and the scrambled egg put it all together.
The orange beef served with a caramelized orange was a slightly disappointment. The very thinly sliced cold beef was good but I didn’t get the orange flavour I expected. The orange itself brought that instead.
Shepherd’s pie with sweet and sour sauce. This was awesome. The use of a sweet and sour sauce really made this an Asian play on a classic Quebecois dish.
Roasted salmon head was something I never would have ordered if it wasn’t for the fact this was All-You-Can-Eat. Preparation was excellent and what I eat of it was good. Some good fatty meat to grab hold of there but definitely not a favorite.
At the end, we then treated to the combination of fortune cookies and oranges where the pulp had been pureed and placed back on the rind. A cool approach that worked pretty well.
After all of that, I am ambivalent about Maison June Rose. Love the look and feel of the space so much. I also loved the All-You-Can-Eat approach and how the dished are not too your usual “Chinese” junk. However, when it comes to the dishes themselves, there were only a couple of items that were true hits to me. The vast majority were good but not enough to make me really want to order them again. And there in lies my issue. I enjoyed Maison June Rose enough to know I could have a good meal there but I’m not sure I have a strong pull to go out of my way to visit again.
Cheers!
Maison June Rose
16 Des Pins Est
514 439 7054
Ramblings from the Complex Mind of a 30 Something 