Café Boulud has been on my list of places to visit for a while now, and I am so happy I finally got a chance to go! Located in the Four Seasons Hotel in Yorkville, it is really easy to find and is on the upper floor above dbar.
We started off with bread and these savoury petit fours. We weren't too sure what they were but it tasted like a hybrid between mashed potatoes and cauliflower with a ketchup-tabasco sauce on top. It was good!
All four of us opted for the Digby Scallops for our appetizer. The scallops were seared with brown butter to have a hazelnut crust, and it was paired with celeriac gremolata foam. It was a really interesting texture, but the scallops were to die for. I could eat 10 of these and still want more!
For my main, I ordered the Pink Salmon on top of a bed of smoked spelt and brussels sprouts in a mushroom broth. The salmon was cooked well and it flaked off easily. The spelt paired really well with the broth. The broth had sort of an Asian influence, which I enjoyed.
The only one at the table that didn't get the salmon got the Cumbrae Beef “Pot au Feu” with bone marrow, carrots, turnips, and potato. I had a piece of the meat and it was good - one of those 'fall off the bone' types of meats that was really tender. Yum!
For dessert, two of us ordered the Tropical Fruit Sundae with coconut ice cream, roasted pineapple, and passion fruit coulis. I didn't taste this but they said it was really good and refreshing. They really enjoyed the passion fruit sauce!
The other two of us ordered the Pear Chocolate Gateau, which was a chocolate square bar with three layers: a fudge layer for the base, poached pear filing, and a chocolate mousse on the top. On the side was another slice of pear, a scoop of hazelnut gelato and a sprinkle of hazelnuts. Oh my goodness, I hope I described it well enough because it was amazing. I would go back and order just this dessert because it was so good!! I know chocolate is my weakness but this was actually really good and I highly recommend this.
Unfortunately, my phone died right before dessert came :( as you can tell from the quality of my photos since I had to use snapchat to take them haha. But I really enjoyed my meal here at Cafe Boulud. The service was great and they explained all our dishes to us when it came. The atmosphere of the restaurant was posh but not overly sophisticated to make normal people (like me) feel out of place. While some people have a luxury of eating at these types of restaurants on the daily, I think that Cafe Boulud would be a great place for a birthday or any other type of celebratory dinner. I would come back in a heartbeat, and I can't say that about a lot of places.
