Your First Vegan Happening Gourmand
Looking for affordable restaurants in Old Montreal? Until February 4, the 11th edition of the Happening Gourmand invites you to discover a selection of the best Old Montreal’s restaurants offering discounted tables d’hôtes at 23$, 27$ and 31$. Once again, the annual festival partners with Igloofest and proposes ticket entries for the concerts at 25$ for each table d’hôtes.
This year’s edition headlines BEVO Bar + Pizzeria, Taverne Gaspar, Japanese Kyo Bar, Méchant Boeuf, Modavie, Brasserie 701, Verses Bistro, Old Port Steakhouse and Maggie Oakes. Each restaurant offers you countless decadent dishes to satiate your appetite. From authentic pizza baked in the wood oven to the elegant Japanese kitchen, Happening Gourmand has something to satisfy all palates. This year, we experienced the Happening Gourmand the vegan way!
Our first stop was at Verses Bistro known as one of the best restaurants in Montreal. If you have not tried Verses Bistro yet, the Happening Gourmand is your chance to taste this venue. When you enter, don’t miss the elegant atrium where you can enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail.
Verses Bistro offers a contemporary cuisine made of dishes showcasing local products. While selecting what local merchants have to offer, Bistro Verses ensures to serve fresh ingredients in each plate.
We made our reservation using the OpenTable app and left a comment to inform the restaurant about our preferences. In fact, the 31$ menu features two vegetarian dishes so we gently asked for a vegan version.
We started with a well dressed quinoa salad mixed with orange and carrot vinaigrette, Pinot de Charentes infused currants, and pumpkin seeds. Note that the regular quinoa salad includes pieces of mimolette. The salad was crispy, colorful, and tasty!
For the main course, we savored a creamy risotto topped with green peas, fennel, and pickels. While it seems to be a challenge to come up with delightful vegan dishes, the chef proves us wrong!
We finished on a sweet note by selecting the apple fritter. This dessert come with an applesauce, a vanilla ice cream, and caramel syrup. The chef replaced the vanilla ice cream by a raspberry sorbet.
Our second stop was the chic Brasserie 701 with its grandiose neoclassical architecture and lively ambiance. As we did for Verses Bistro, we reserved our seats in advance using the OpenTable app and left comments to ensure that our requests were taken into account.
Brasserie 701 features a 3 courses table d’hôte menu at 27$ inspired by French brasserie classics. Even if the dessert is including, for a little extra you can also choose a dessert from the regular menu and indulge yourself.
We started with the yellow beet salad without the feta cheese and for the main course the chef cooked a vegetable risotto for us which was not listed on the menu. We were very delighted for such a warm welcoming and the attention received by the staff. Everyone make sure we appreciated our dinning experience.
When you dine out, you expect to receive a good service and spend a memorable time. Well, let us tell you that this is exactly what we experienced during our vegan Happening Gourmand. Hope you are ready to brave the cold and give a try by yourself!
