Chouchou on Beaubien - Unsolicited review
My partner was visiting her family tonight so I treated myself to a solo dinner at Restaurant Chouchou. I live in the area and passed by many times and always thought the menu looked very interesting.
We’re very clearly on the good side of “fusion” territory here. No forced marriages between ingredients that have nothing to do with each other, no instagrammable gimmicks, no “teriyaki salmon” tacos. We’re talking Chinese-inspired preparations with serious french technique and local ingredients.
I sat at the bar, looked at the menu. The duck leg appealed to me as a main and I trusted the server to pick the first course. He recommended the watermelon tataki.
Both dishes were very good. Top quality ingredients, perfect technique. The one issue I had with both is that there was simply too much going on.
The watermelon was marinated in order to have a raw tuna consistency. Super interesting texture. But then there was also furikake on top, pieces of avocado, a very pungent wasabi mayo, grilled leeks, fried leeks, a kung pao sauce, grilled corn and a corn cream. Maybe my palate is not sophisticated enough, but I thought it was too dense. It was lacking the legibility that makes a dish truly emotionally appealing to me.
The duck leg was perfectly cooked. Super crunchy skin, juicy inside. But again, it seemed like there were slightly too many elements for the overall dish to have a “wow” effect. Great Sichuan spice rub on the duck, but then there was also potato puree and passionfruit sauce, a duck jus and chanterelles, and carrots with their own marinade and spices.
You can tell that there is a LOT of work and effort that went into this food. I think a tiny bit of restraint would make the dishes shine even more. There’s a lot of precision and great ideas. Maybe just a bit too many of them at the same time.
I don’t take pictures of food but here’s tonight’s menu for reference: