Île Flottante - Montréal

I've eaten numerous times at Ile Flottante. The food is always creative in both flavor and texture, the service is impeccable, and the atmosphere is full of friendly enjoyment. I used to go on corporate junkets, to Europe, South America, etc. Had allegedly superb three star Michelin meals in many places. None were as tasty and fun to eat as Ile Flottante.

Visited Ile flotante for my birthday and I was very disappointed. I was excited to try their 6 course menu as I have seen great reviews about it. The first course seafood soup with their homemade bread was DELICIOUS, I was in love on how good it was and set the bar really high for the other courses. Sadly it went downhill after that, the mushroom dumplings had almost no flavour at all, the rice/mayo/chicken/egg dish was too creamy and no special flavour at all I got tired of eating after 2 spoons, the duck was very heavy mostly after having a very heavy dish before and last the beef was another heavy plate and nothing in-between to cleanse the palate. The dessert was average, yes very well presented but a very simple vanilla cake that could almost taste like the costco one. The place itself is beautiful, however it took 50min wait to get our dessert, I don't think they have the staff to have so many tables. We weren't the only table waiting for that long for a dessert. The table beside us arrived an hour and a half after us and they finished their 5 course and were waiting at the same time for dessert than us. It took us 3 hours and half for the whole thing. We did not even had that many drinks that kept us there at one point we had nothing else to talk about ut was awkward, we were literally waiting on our phones. Kudos for the staff that kept their smiles and trying to make it all up but honestly not worth it at all.

I loved my dinner here. There is NO menu. You are served what the chef bought from the market that day. Love this concept. The plates were inventive, atypical of most restaurants i visited. I loved it so I will be making IF one of my first stops next time I'm in the city. The wines served were young and paired with the plates well. I like that she was bold enough to pick wines with a tart dimension to meld or contrast flavors of verbena, spruce, lime, mint, lychee in the plates presented during my dinner. SUPER Nice. I also enjoyed that most of the plates treated my taste buds to a kaleidoscope of vegetable flavors that is becoming more and more appealing to me. I don't want a large piece of meat to enjoy my dinner so Ile is my kind of dining. Loved the informal, fun and hip vibe to the staff also. Loved IF. Coming back. End of Yelp.

A few years ago my wife and I had one of the most memorable food experiences of our lives at Ile Flottante, so we made a special trip back up for my birthday, and they actually exceeded my already very high expectations. The food was incredible, the wine pairings were inspired, unusual, and perfectly complimented the complex and deep flavors of each beautiful course. I am baffled that this place doesn't have any Michelin stars yet, but I am sure they will soon.

My friend and I came recently to Ile Flottante for a celebratory meal. I picked this spot because it's rare to find a restaurant that offers a pre fixe tasting menu that can accommodate different dietary restrictions, as my friend is vegetarian, while I can eat anything. I made reservations 2.5 weeks beforehand for a Wednesday dinner at 6:30. I was hoping that because I made my reservations early, we would have a better table, but we were seated at one of the few two person tables while I noticed a lot of other couples were seated at a much spacier 4 person table. Upon arrival, our server let us know that they are currently offering a 7 course pre fixe menu for $90 pp, with an optional wine pairing available for $60 pp. We decided to do both and informed our server about my friend being vegetarian. Before going into the details of the meal, I want to write some thoughts on the overall experience. We enjoyed the food for the most part, except for 1 2 courses, and thought everything was very creative. However, I was hoping for more meat. For $90 pp, I would've wanted at least 2 3 courses where meat was the main, and we only got one with tuna. I kept waiting for a big meat dish with beef, duck, etc., and was disappointed when it never came. Service was phenomenal, as you'd expect from a restaurant like this. Our server was French and didn't know how to say everything in English sometimes when describing a course, and he would always check with the kitchen and let us know later. Our wine glasses were kept refilled if one course was taking longer to arrive and we finished the wine before the course was served. You don't feel rushed at all; we were here for about 3.5 hours total from start to finish as we were eating and drinking at a leisurely pace and didn't leave until close to 10. I did see some other tables around us going at a faster pace since they weren't doing the wine pairing. Because it's wintertime, our server mentioned the menu is very vegetable focused (not sure if that makes sense though?? . Here's what we had: 1st course pho with mushroom broth and beef tenderloin and king oyster mushrooms. I thought the broth flavor was just okay, but I really enjoyed the slices of mostly raw beef, as they were very tender 2nd course bread with butter and some honey underneath. We both enjoyed the bread with the contrast between the savory butter and cheese inside and the honey on the outside. 3rd course dual cauliflower dish. One dish had a buttermilk milk and sour cream based sauce with cauliflower and caviar, while the the other was a blini with caviar, smoked fish, and cauliflower on top. We enjoyed both dishes. 4th course cauliflower ice cream with caviar, served on top of ice to keep it cold. We both thought this was a weird dish and was our least favorite of the night. The cauliflower flavor was very strong, but it felt quite odd to eat it in ice cream form... 5th course tuna tataki with brown rice wrapped in cabbage, served with turnips and a ginger sauce. This was my favorite course of the whole meal, as the tuna was fantastic with the sesame crust and went well with the rice and turnips. 6th course salad with cabbage, beets, and endive. The beets went really well with the cabbage and the salted ricotta along the bottom. 7th course dessert was raspberry ice cream with chocolate and fig bites as well as pepper jelly. I was initially very hesitant about the dessert as multiple items had pepper, but luckily I didn't taste much of it except as an aftertaste (though that was weird . Overall, we enjoyed the meal except for the cauliflower ice cream course.