Chez Thuet!

Just a few days later, Andrew's parents took us out for dinner for his birthday - it must be one of the longest celebrated birthday I have ever partook in... So on Saturday night, we went to Thuet - right beside Lee (see previous post for review).

Thuet
308 King St
"Qu'est que c'est un..."

Unlike Lee, Thuet (which reopened tonight) was situated upstairs and from the moment we went in we saw a dimly lit room with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling - each with its own charm. The paintings that decorated the walls acted as a nice backdrop for the two dozen or so tables draped with cream coloured table cloths. I also couldn't help but notice a lot of rooster ornaments. We checked our coats and eventually we were seated (it seems like they couldn't decide where to put us or something). By 7:30pm, the restaurant was full and the 3 or 4 black and white clad waitresses were bustling around. This is definitely a place where you have to make reservations. There is also a small private dining room that can hold about 12 people as well.
After staring at the menu for about 15 minutes and asking our waitress what some of the dishes were, we were finally ready to indulge our taste buds. We ordered a bottle of Australian Shiraz, which was recommended by the waitress, although I have to admit, she did not seem very knowledgeable. She also wasn't as attentive as she should have been for a place like Thuet.

My appetizer (above), which was part of the Seasonal menu -- Pan seared foie gras with duck confit. This was absolutely delicious! The foie gras practically melted in my mouth (ok, so it was basically fat...), it was lightly seasoned on the outside with spices and perfectly prepared. The duck confit was wrapped in a small cabbage leaf and went well with the foie gras. Although by itself, the confit was a little too salty. It was actually my first time having foie gras prepared this way, I generally preferred the pate.

From the Classic menu, Shirley chose the Arctic Char, which looks very nice but was a little too salty for my taste. The greens on top will lighten the salty taste - but just a little.

This was the most interesting looking appetizer. Can you guess what it is? Marrow (Seasonal menu). Although I did not taste this, Raymond said that it was quite interesting since he's never had marrow before. The marrow came with crispy bread, salt and pepper to taste. If you like to try something different and don't mind working a little for your food (the scraping of the marrow out...), this is the dish for you.

Andrew ordered the Scallops from the Seasonal menu. A sea urchin vinaigrette gave the scallops a very unique taste although the urchin was very light and did not overpower the taste of the scallops. The presentation of this dish was also very nice as can be seen from the picture above.

Now it was time for the mains. It took quite awhile for it to come out after we finished our appetizers - they must have been still catching the pigeon and killing the lamb. Either that, or as we suspected, our waitress had forgotten to tell the chef that we were close to finishing our appetizers...
Also from the Seasonal menu, this is the wood oven pigeon and lamb loin farci duo. Both were stuffed (farci) in something neither I nor Shirley could figure out (we both had the same dish). To me, it tasted like gefilte fish with poppy seed, at least the texture and taste reminded me of the Jewish dish. The lamb was good - slightly over cooked in my opinion, but the pigeon was basically raw-rare, which was not what I was expecting. It was still good though and the sauce paired with this course was great. It was slightly sweet, which helped cover some of the raw taste of the pigeon. One thing that I would have liked was to have slightly more vegetables (I guess you have to order it as a side but in my opinion, for a $40 dish, it should have came with...).
This was the other dish on the Seasonal menu I liked - the Red deer. Although I can't seem to remember the garnishes that this main came with...maybe you can tell by looking at the picture above! The portion was a little small and I knew Andrew wouldn't be full from it, so I shared my pigeon with him (I was getting full anyway).

Raymond was the only one who ordered from the Classic menu. This is the Braised lamb shank Provencal. I think Andrew was visibly drooling when he saw the size of this main in comparison to his! The shank sat on top of what looked like lentils. For the size of this, $25 was definitely worth it!

It was close to 10 now and we've been here for nearly 3 hours now. It was time for dessert! During intermission (as we were patiently waiting for our meal), we noticed the couple next to us. Shirley and I guessed it was a "date" and Andrew initially thought they were bf/gf. They seemed to be on a date by looking at their body language. It was very interesting though because the girl then gave the guy a birthday card. So we were wondering who would have paid the bill...we tried to wait them out to see, but alas, we finished our dessert and coffee before they asked for their bill. Speaking of dessert, here's ours!

Swans!! This is a Profiteroles with warm Soma chocolate sauce. One word: delicious.

This is after Andrew and I rearranged the swans. Originally I only put two heads together (trying to make a heart shape) but Andrew wanted a threesome, typical. He said it was a "conference".

So we finally left a half past 10 and made it home by 11. I was definitely farcied out...