Q Haute Cuisine
100 La Caille Pl SW
Q Haute for John's Pre Birthday dinner! We have dined here a multitude of times over the past few years and enjoyed every single visit! With the beautiful view from the dining room, we waited patiently for the wonderful meal to begin.
Beginnings-Egg Yolk and Pancetta sphere, brioche crispy tofu with garlic aioli, scone with red onion compote and honey dijon marscarpone
We began with an array of amuse bouche to tease our palettes for the 7 course meal. The Quail yolk provided a quick burst of flavour which is balanced out by the brioche. The nice savoury filling went well with the buttery scone. The crispy tofu had a wonderful thin skin with a huge wave of flavour from the dab of garlic aioli.
Cappucino- mushroom and potato cream, brown stock espuma, balsamic, walnut, truffle croissant
The story behind this bowl of soup is that the Chef believes that you start your day with a mug of Cappuccino and a croissant, why not start the meal the same way? The mushroom potato cream soup had so much flavour. The croissant provided a bit of texture as well as adding a bit of savoury goodness to the dish.
So I (Kim) got sick this past week, so I decided to pass on the wine but agreed to some tea! One of their servers had an intense passion for tea! He told us the story of this lovely Green Tea. This one is a Gyokuru and he told us how it was planted and Gyokuru tends to be grown in the shade to be able to retain it's chlorophyll (that lovely green color!). I adored his lovely binder of hand written notes and maps. Loved the first page, there was a Godzilla cartoon drawn on there as well!
Charcuterie- House pastrami, salt baked rutabaga, pickled pistachio, sous vide egg yolk, goat cheese mousse, strawberry balsamic, mushroom and spinach powders
Each ingredient gave you a blast of freshness. The eggplant and the meat both had a beautiful smoky taste. The egg is glorious. There were so many components and they were perfect for each other (magic, magic, magic ooh ooohhhhh).
The Land & Sea- sous vide arctic char, cauliflower, pine nut, quinoa ragout, garlic foam
The sous vide fish is flavoured really well and cooked perfectly. The slight crunch from the quinoa ragout created great texture. The garlic foam was not overwhelming with garlic flavour because they blanched the garlic 3 times before pureeing it and making it into a foam.. We believe they said that cauliflower was mixed into the foam as well.
Italian Roots- tomato risotto, basil gel, gaeta olive, sundried tomato cream, Parmigiano Reggiano within the sauce. On the side a Parmigiano Reggiano Crisp
The risotto was cooked al dente and packed with flavour. Every bite tasted amazing. The Parmesan crisp is crunchy and enhanced the flavour of the risotto. There was a great lingering flavour on the tongue after each bite. The richness of the Parmigiano Reggiano is cut by the tomato which made it lighter and easier to eat.
Nature Inspired- braised short rib, fried veal bone marrow, wet polenta, wild mushroom ragout, madeira sauce
The polenta was creamy and delicious. The braised short rib was a lovely piece of meat. The deep fried bone marrow added a hint of richness without overpowering the meat. They took the bone marrow, breaded it, and then put into liquid nitrogen before deep frying it. A bite of everything together created a wonderful variety of flavours that came together really well.
One of the memorable parts of the Q Haute experience, is before dessert, the server will bring you into their kitchen and give you a small tour. It's awesome that they keep their kitchen so clean that they aren't afraid to show guests what happens back there. This time, they also added some history to the tour and showed us the different rooms they had as well. One of my (Kim's) favourite contraptions in the kitchen is their Anti Griddle! The chef here is preparing a blackberry puree, which is placed onto the Anti Griddle. This freezes it, then is dipped into chocolate and pistachio.
Transition- cucumber and "alive" wine sorbet, green apple espuma
Super refreshing with a bit of sweetness from the apple foam. There was a lovely texture provided by the frozen slices of cucumber on the bottom. It was a generous portion for a palette cleanser. No complaints there!
Assiette de Fromage- tonka bean cheesecake, blackberry sphere, lemon meringue, orange tarragon
There was a perfect amount of sweetness from the Tonka Bean Cheesecake. It was nice and light which made it so easy to enjoy. The three pillars had different toppings that provided a variety of enjoyable flavours.
Palet D'(Sm)ore- dark chocolate cake, preserved strawberry, dehydrated lavendar white chocolate power, savoury biscuit, maple marshmallow, crystallized (candied) almonds, lemon
Rich chocolate goodness with a soft marshmallow topping. There was a ton of citrus components to cut the richness. It was incredible that all of the flavours worked so well together.
Endings- profiterole with white chocolate ganache in the center, espresso beignet, gin and pomegranate caviar beneath a passion fruit sphere and lime sugar
Lovely bites to a wonderful and filling dinner! The espresso beignet was sweet and sour, very interesting flavour. The profiterole was a tad rich with it's white chocolate ganache filling. The passion fruit sphere was so refreshing and delicious. A great way to end the night!
The meal was quite nostalgic as Q Haute was our first fine dining experience. The atmosphere was pleasant and the food was tasty Very knowledgeable and friendly servers ensured you're well taken care of. Well spaced dishes provided us ample time to enjoy each other's company. The experience was wonderful just as we had remembered it to be.
Enjoy!
