Le Cercle Hec - Montreal, Quebec

great and delicious～～

Warm and cozy restaurant with lovely decor and delicious food

This place is cute, the food is very simple and they carry a very very limited menu... the waiter despite being very nice seemed completly overwhelmed by the 4 clients in the restaurant. This is more like an hybride between a school cafeteria and a restaurant.

Nice, classy, delicious, and fast!

I've been to a number of very good restaurants lately, but Le Cercle is one of the few that I felt compelled to return to. The menu is a funny combination of what they call "tapas" and modern takes on French classics, but it works. Oh, does it work. The ... frogs legs in my picture were fantastic, crispy outside, tangy sauce, succulent meat. They also have "ris de veau" (sweetbreads) done about as well as they can be. My wife's "tapas" was a lot heavier than that word usually implies, with superbly fatty sausage. I had "boudin noir" (blood sausage) that was in the best French bistro style, light in texture but rich in flavor. The ingredient-driven dishes, such as beet salad with farm cheese and hazelnuts, are also excellent. To top it off, prices are really low. I think the lunch "table d'hôte" (prix fixe) menu was $25, which is a steal for food at this level. My only warning is that vegetarians may have trouble finding something on the short menu; there's usually one appetizer and one main, but that's it. Wine service is outstanding, though expensive. I loved the tasting of two "sans soufre" (no sulphur dioxide added) wines, which included the Christian Ducroux Regnié (from one of the "crus" of Beaujolais). Clocking in at 12% alcohol, it was light as a feather but packed with crystalline intensity. They bring the bottle to your table, a touch that restaurants at twice this price often can't seem to manage. I can also highly recommend the cider, on draft. Again, delicate in texture but robust in flavor. I can see coming here for drinks alone. One comment, I wouldn't lump the restaurant in with the Le Cercle Spectacle, the club next door. It's not like the comedy shows are taking place in the restaurant space. We're not French speakers, but got along really well with the staff, who hustle to provide good service. Read more