Walking in, I immediately felt the energetic vibe of the restaurant
My girls and I were in heels, but luckily there was an elevator from this shot's viewpoint that took us up to the second floor
We were brought into a private room that was shared with two other parties, so this made our dining experience a lot more intimate and personal. This was much preferred as it allowed us to enjoy each other's company throughout the night. As well, we were not disturbed by the high level of noise that many other reviews seemed to have mentioned.
Regular Menu
Hell's Kitchen Limited Edition Tasting Menu
Priced at $145 per person for a 5 course meal - must be ordered by everyone in the party
Different steak and their cuts presented on a wheel stand
Starting our night off with a glass of sparkling wine, which leaned towards a more citrus taste
Then continued with a bottle of white wine to share. This wine had a subtle sweet finishing taste at the end of each sip.
Complimentary Bread Plate. From top to bottom: Baguette with blue cheese and walnut, one porchetta layered roll (already consumed thus the missing status), two mushroom and white truffle layered rolls, lemon zest and thyme focaccia. This was served with a perfectly salted and smooth butter.
Gnocchi (Blistered heirloom cherry tomatoes, royal trumpet mushrooms, iberico jamon, mushroom cream)
Seared Hudson Valley Foie Gras (Herbed goat cheese pop overs, gooseberry jus, pickled ramps). My friend who had this said it was amazing!!! (yes, that many exclamation marks from her!). The foie gras was crisply seared on the outside and super soft, almost jelly like on the inside. It had a super strong duck flavoured taste which she loved but warned that others might find it to be too strong.
Potato and Octopus Salad (Charred octopus, mustard vinaigrette, remoulade, pumpernickel soil, marbled fingerling potatoes). My first dish of the night was highly influenced on it being found in the Hell Kitchen's menu. I found the combination of the octopus and potato bites not only innovative, but the two items really complimented each other. This combination was paired extremely well with the plentiful pumpernickel soil. I made sure each bite had a dash of pumpernickel soil with it.
Break inbetween appetizers! We asked our server if we could be taken on a kitchen tour and he was nice enough to oblige. This is a view of the open kitchen/prep table.
Sides Station
View of the front entrance tunnel
Kurobuta Pork Belly (Cheesy grits, tomato jam, onion pork jus). My second appetizer of the night, the pork belly was so tender I barely had to chew. The tomato jam was a interesting addition to the flavourful meat.
Smoked Beef Tartare (Lemon zest, red onion, capers, white anchovy aioli, cured egg yolks)
Yukon Gold Herb Chips that accompanied the Smoked Beef Tartare
The long awaited (at least 45 minutes prep time as warned on the menu) Beef Wellington. Unfortunately, my stomach was filled to the rim at this point and I must not have taken any more than 5 bites - darn appetizers! I have to be honest and admit that I was merely eating for the sake of eating it, so I didn't taste anything to give this dish a fair judgement. I did, however, ask my friend her thoughts on it. She thought that the meat was tender from being cooked to a medium rare, but she personally thought that the beef was missing some flavour due to lack of fat. The pastry was nice and thin, not soggy but could have been more flaky.
Roasted Bone Marrow
The takeout bag that contained my leftover beef wellington. /ashamed.
Dessert Menu
Sticky Toffee Pudding (Sweet pudding cake, brown sugar toffee, brown butter ice cream). The entire table ordered this to share just so we could each have one bite of the dessert found in the Hell's Kitchen menu. I'm personally not a fan of sticky toffee pudding because I often find it to be too sweet, but this toffee pudding delivered the right amount of sweetness without it being too sickly. We were all big fans of the brown butter ice cream
In terms of service, I must say that while it was attentive and politely delivered, it was not an out of the world experience. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't proportional to the notion that is Gordon Ramsay's food. I've probably received similar service from a ordinary dine out in Calgary. All servers was friendly and answered all our questions (heck, one even answered our question about their breads three times because we kept forgetting), but it didn't seem like they were thoroughly enjoying their job since none really smiled often.
That being said, I may return in the future just so I could get a proper try of the beef wellington. But aside from that factor, although all was good, I probably wouldn't come back and spend another $150 on one meal. It was definitely a good experience, so I would recommend if you've never been.
And to end this post off, cheers to the best dining companions a girl could ever ask for!
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