Our next First Friday Feast is in Montreal, where Au Pied de Cochon has immediately shot up to my favorite restaurant in all of Canada.

First Friday Feast is a monthly series debuting on the first Friday of each month and elaborates on a recent dining experience.

We’ve been trying to have a date night each month this year (and post about it on the first Friday of every month). Sometimes we bring the kids along for date night and sometimes they stay at home. But that’s fine by us–the kids are more than welcome to tag along if they want. This time… I went without the rest of the family (instead I was with friends). So it’s not quite date night but Jenn was with me in spirit.

Arrival to Au Pied de Cochon

Montreal might feel like a bit of a diversion from our life in sunny California, but I was out there for an extended weekend. We know some locals in the city and they highly recommended a few restaurants for us to try. We went with Au Pied de Cochon, but it was so popular that we didn’t get dinner reservations until 9:30 PM.

This restaurant wasn’t close enough to our hotel to walk, so we instead took an Uber here. Once inside, we were quickly escorted to a table at the rear of the restaurant. Every employee we talked to were friendly (and most could speak English to make things easy for us).

The Au Pied de Cochon Menu

The menu is quite simple in that it’s a single sheet with food on one side and drinks on the other. What it lacks in variety, it way more than makes up in terms of depth of flavor.

The Food at Au Pied de Cochon

Drinks

I started the evening with a margarita yuzu (with a salt rim). Yuzu is one of my favorite citrus fruits (it’s not a lemon!) and you can taste it in this drink. Yeah, it’s strange drinking a margarita in Montreal, so far away from Mexico, but they mix it well. I was pretty satisfied with the choice.

Rossini Mushroom Steak (Foie gras)

Want lots of foie gras? Well there is a big slab of it on top of this dish. There are multiple layers to this dish, with the foie gras sitting on some mushrooms and spinach. There are large amounts of flavor in this dish and it’s delicious. As you might guess from foie gras, there’s a high fat content, so if you’re like me and can’t easily digest high-fat foods, you might want to stick to only a bite. But that’s more than enough to acknowledge it’s yummy.

Andouillette

Simply put: the sauce makes the dish. The sausage itself is delicious and moist on its own, but the sauce made the flavors both pop and meld together somehow. If you like a good sausage, you won’t be disappointed with this one. It comes with some oyster mushrooms, which are simply outstanding. This is an excellent option as a starter and highly recommend it.

Côte de Boeuf

For those who don’t know French, Côte de Boeuf is essentially ribeye steak. And boy–this was one of the most tender, flavorful, delicious steaks I’ve had in quite some time. It came with a red wine sauce that helped accent the flavor in the steak. On top of that, the fat is rendered perfectly. I normally avoid eating the fat but this is one steak I openly sought it. This was my favorite dish of the night. If there’s only one dish you get here, this is it.

The dish also came with some greens: a small side salad and some asparagus. The side salad has some horseradish in it for a bit of a kick. I actually quite liked the combination.

Guinea fowl

In some ways, you can think of this dish as an unconventional surf and turf. The guinea fowl comes with a lobster, making it a bit of a guilty pleasure. While we enjoyed this dish–and would have loved it if it was the only thing we ate–it didn’t stand out quite as much compared to other stellar dishes. And that’s still awesome!

Halibut

I was a bit surprised when the halibut came out because the dish was so delicately cooked that it didn’t look cooked at all. The fish actually fell apart in my mouth like no fish has done before. It’s an expertly prepared dish and easily the best halibut I can recall ever eating. The fiddleheads that come with the dish are cute and add a little bit of much-needed texture.

Duck in a can

Did you order this expecting the dish to not actually arrive at your table and not be in a can? Well, sorry to disappoint you but it does come in a can. There is a small tableside demonstration as the server opens the can and empties the content onto the plate.

This duck was incredibly flavorful, as many dishes are at Au Pied de Cochon. While I do still prefer eating duck in Peking duck form, this duck might make me change my mind. I’m not sure how they make the duck taste so good while in a can. I wish I had skills to cook this myself. And so it’s not a one-note dish, the cabbage that came with it is splendid and pairs with it so well.

Recommendation: Yes

Yes, yes, yes! There was nothing served that was even remotely disappointing. Each and every dish had a different, distinct flavor and only served to make us want to try more. Montreal is a city made for foodies and based on advice from a few locals I know, this is one of the better options. With food as incredible as what we ate, I can’t help but agree.

This is a fantastic place to eat and absolutely one I would bring the family to the next time I’m in town. In the meantime, I can only wonder how much Jenn will kill me that I didn’t bring her along on this trip.

Have you dined at Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal before?

See: Other Destinations and Restaurants We’ve Visited