#yyteats

Given the relatively small population of St. John’s and environs (just over a quarter million people, give or take), we have a lot of restaurants. What we don’t have in abundance is fine dining; in fact, Raymonds might be the only one in the province. Despite having eaten at a lot of restaurants over the last few years, we have avoided Raymonds for a few reasons: it’s far from cheap, the menu is not published in advance, and it can be hard to get a table there. I had precisely zero experience with a tasting menu before the night, and I was slightly concerned that multiple dishes would be something I didn’t like. As you may know if you’ve read any of my reviews here before, I have been trying to expand my tastes somewhat. A recent promotion at work gave us the excuse we needed to celebrate, so we bit the bullet and booked the table. We had no idea what was waiting for us.

A caveat: Raymonds is not for everyone. While the staff are incredibly accommodating and patient in explaining the menu options and ingredients, the choices are relatively set. There’s a five- and seven-course tasting menu, and a three-course menu that is somewhat à la carte. If one of the courses is something you just can’t eat they will try to make a substitution, but ultimately it’s down to the chef. The price is also high: the five-course menu is $125 per person, with an additional $80 if you go with the wine pairings (selected by the in-house sommelier and manager Jeremy Bonia). Not an everyday outing, that’s for sure. 

We went for the five-course option, which actually ended up being more like eight courses by the time all the extras were provided. As adventurous as I wanted to get, I couldn’t stretch to trying scallops so we were able to substitute them for a beef option (more on that soon). We opted against the wine pairings this time, though I think when we go back we’ll take that plunge too. 

You can tell a meal is going to be something special when the bread and butter they bring you to open the palate is better than most appetizers you’ve had, ever. House-made sourdough would have been great on its own, but it was served with whipped house-made smoked butter. I had never before had smoked butter, and now I am ruined forever. All future butter will either be smoked or inferior. I could have eaten it with a spoon.

This was somehow the beet dish, a beet and apple salad with ricotta, toasted red fife, and a topping of both beet and apple “glass” and some sort of hardened foam that melted in your mouth. I really don’t know how to describe this, except for “total tongue assault”. The combination of flavours and textures made every part of the palate sing. The apples were tart and crisp, the beets had their characteristic sweetness but were also pickled, the ricotta was exceedingly light and creamy, and the red fife gave a nutty undertone. The “glass” on the top was made from the juices of the apples and beets used in the dish, somehow turned solid and wafer-thin. If you can picture the thin film of ice that forms on puddles just as the temperature drops below freezing, that’s the texture. The flavour was intense with a subtle smoky, almost ashy taste that worked so well with everything else. The bread-looking stuff on the top was the foam that served almost as a tuile, and added a really light and airy crisp. When the waiter explained the dish as if he himself had conceived of it, I knew this was going to be unlike any meal I had ever had. 

On to the pasta course, a moose ragout on orrechiette with more ricotta and finely-diced carrot, topped with a toasted breadcrumb. In the 20 years I have lived in Newfoundland, I have had so many people tell me that I would love moose. So I dutifully try it and dislike it, until the next person tells me that nobody else knows how to cook it and I should try it the way they cook it. Lather, rinse, repeat. 

Now I can legitimately say that nobody else knows how to cook moose. This was tender almost to melting point, with a hint of the earthiness that had been overpowering and off-putting to me before. The ricotta here was of a different texture and flavour than in the previous dish, and it gave an excellent additional dimension to the dish. The pasta was pleasantly al dente, and the whole dish felt like a warm hug from the inside. High-end comfort food if you will. Although I did really enjoy this, I didn’t get the intensity of flavour from the ragout that I expected. It needed a bit more punch and depth I think. Sarah loved it more than me, but I still really enjoyed it. 

Left to my own devices I would not normally order ribeye this rare. It was served in a veal and chanterelle jus (not the last time we will see chanterelles tonight) with a parsnip puree and charred broccoli and leeks. I just...I have no words. If you watch any cooking shows you have heard the term caramelization, but I never really fathomed how important it was until I ate this. No fancy seasonings, no special sauces, just a depth of beefy salty flavour that seemed so wonderfully natural. The jus added even more depth to the meat, and almost seemed to bridge the gap between the beef and the vegetables. The parsnip puree was perfectly smooth and slightly sweet, and the charred leeks in particular were beautifully done. “Meat and two veg” might be a British cliché for Sunday dinner, but this was that old chestnut rehashed and mastered. 

Lamb three ways was up next: loin on the left, tenderloin on the right and lamb belly underneath. The loin was a touch disappointing and lacking in flavour, although the tenderloin made up for it. Both cuts were greatly enhanced by (yet-again) perfect caramelization. Sarah loves lamb and enjoyed hers much more, but her loin looked less fatty than mine so that may have been the difference. 

I had not even heard of lamb belly before (as a meal, obviously I know lambs had bellies...), and it was an interesting offering. Definitely less fatty than the more common pork belly, but with a flavour that was actually pronounced. It was glazed with a black apple glaze and garnished with unripe blackcurrants, but the flavour on the glaze was either too subtle for me or just didn’t come through. I don’t remember what the jus was but it was delicious. On the side we had more parsnip puree and sliced celeriac. I’ve seen celeriac in supermarkets before and it did not look appealing, but the flavour was like parsnip with a hint of celery. Probably because it is related to them both. 

Next up we had a “pre-dessert” as our waiter Julian called it - blueberries poached in brown butter with a chanterelle and blueberry pound cake, chanterelle meringue (!!) and chanterelle ice cream (!!!). Again, something I would never in a million years ordered on its own. Who’d even think of chanterelle ice cream? That said, this was a surprisingly good a refreshing amuse-bouche before the dessert. I am not normally a fan of blueberries, but they were good here with the brown butter. Pound cake is almost always delightful, and the addition of chanterelles almost seemed to lighten the usually dense cake. The real treats though were the meringue and ice cream. Sarah isn’t a big meringue fan but even she really enjoyed the lightness of it, and the ice cream had such a clean and subtle flavour that I finally understand the term “palette cleanser.” A bonus course, you say? Don’t mind if I do!

It’s not often I have to google an ingredient, but I had never heard of sea buckthorn before. One of the things mentioned in the description was that its flavour is enhance by something called maltolactic fermentation. Lactic, as in milk? Well that’s helpful. It was served as a curd, topped with a streusel and milk sorbet. The flavour is very hard to quantify: it reminded me of passion fruit, sour orange, mango and bakeapple all at the same time. The milk sorbet did wonders to mellow the tartness of the berries, which Sarah found stronger than I did. Definitely a unique flavour, but one I really want to work into a cheesecake somehow. To cap the meal off (in addition to our coffees), a lemon verbeena salted caramel was served, A delightful little treat to send us home.

Aside from how much I enjoyed everything, I think the biggest surprise to me was that despite the small serving sizes I was pleasantly full at the end of the meal. The service was impeccably friendly and helpful, not at all snobby as once could be forgiven for thinking. The decor really is reminiscent of every high-end restaurant you’ve seen on TV, complete with waiters with one arm in the small of their back. If you have an occasion to celebrate and/or the income to manage it, you owe it to yourself to visit Raymonds, It is not a meal you eat so much as it is a food experience, and I am a more rounded person for having done so.

Merchant Tavern has quite the reputation locally. Some of that is because Jason Momoa ate there once. We have had good food there, but their last burger battle offering was unimpressive to say the least. Given that this year's entry looked to be a repeat of last year's neither of us was particularly enthused. We considered skipping it, but I have crippling FOMO and we're both completists so here we are. The Double Smash burger is back:

PEI grass-fed beef, double-smoked bacon, Merchant burger sauce, onion, pickle, tomato, iceberg lettuce, and cheese.

I have said it before and I will say it again: if you are going to go basic and classic, you need to absolutely nail it. The ingredients here are certainly high-quality, so that's a promising start.

It's like they read my review from last time around, and changed basically everything I didn't like. The pickles were likely house-made, the Merchant sauce was reminiscent of a certain iconic burger sauce. The addition of the bacon is a major improvement and was easily the best thing on the burger. Slightly thicker cut, with the perfect balance of salt and smoke. It really set a tone for the burger, telling you it was a classic concept made with more upscale ingredients. That doesn't always translate to better taste, but here it did. The more I think about it, the more I like it and want another one.

It was not without flaws though. The cheese still looked and felt processed, though I understand a lot of people prefer that on their burgers. As tasty and well-executed as it was, it's not at all creative or innovative.

We've been itching to get in to Saltwater since it reopened in its new spot. Once again, burger battle to the rescue! We had a little difficulty finding out what the burger actually was, since it wasn't listed on the burger battle website. Turns out it's the Saltwater Bourbon BBQ burger:

Double smash patty with spinach, grape tomatoes, purple slaw, Saltwater sauce, bourbon bbq sauce, and cheddar

It's possible I missed some ingredients, I am going from memory of what the server told us the chef told her. Definitely some unusual choices on this burger, but unusual isn't the same as bad. The proof is usually in the pudding, but in this case it's in a bun.

It's clear that the creator of this burger put some thought into all the ingredients. Spinach is not a crunchy green but it does handle wilting fairly well, and has a different flavour from lettuce. Grape tomatoes are often more tart than your typical burger-topping ones, and give little bursts of juiciness. Both these additions worked, and they worked especially well on the bottom bun. The tomatoes in particular benefitted from being held in place by everything else. The slaw provided the crunch, the two sauces were a solid combo, and the patties were nicely cooked.

I could have done with more sauce, especially as both were unique to this entry and sounded interesting. There was enough to taste them but that almost seemed like a tease. My big issue with this burger though was that my bun had absorbed a lot of grease, probably from the melted cheese, giving it that unpleasant greasy-heavy feel. That sort of thing gets worse the further in you get, making it hard to finish. As neither Sarah nor our friend Kim had a similar problem, it's possible I was unlucky.

O'Reilly's has surprised us before with their entries in this contest, so even before I saw the burger they were offering I was hopeful. Having seen it I was even more excited by the prospects of the Irish Pub Burger:

Beef, onion, garlic, dijon, & stout patty, w/ Irish cheddar, back bacon, stout-braised mushrooms, & whiskey aioli on a potato bun.

I love back bacon, I love aged cheddar, and I love mushrooms on burgers. Everything about this excites me. Having said that, when my expectations are high the burger has to deliver more than when they are low, so O'Reilly's is no longer in a position to surprise me.

Individually, all the components on the burger were good to great. The mushrooms had great flavour, the patty was one of the best I can remember in this year's contest, and the cheddar was wonderfully sharp. As a package, it delivered on the concept of an Irish pub lunch. And yes, it was very tasty.

I can't help but feel disappointed to some degree, though. The whisky aioli was a little sparse, and it was sorely needed as the burger lacked anything else to help the meatiness of the ingredients. The back bacon was cut rather thin, which to my mind kind of defeats the purpose of having back bacon. I could really have gone for some greenery on here, perhaps some watercress to look like clovers. That would have cut through the heaviness of all the ingredients and provided some change of texture.

Every time I have eaten from St. John's Fish Exchange I have enjoyed the experience and discovered a new thing. Their entry in the last burger battle was innovative and beautifully presented, and tasty to boot. They decided against a fish burger this time, instead giving us the seafood in a sauce with their Surf and Turf burger:

6oz beef patty w/ crab hollandaise, red onion pepper marmalade, & greens on a toasted brioche.

The short ingredient list makes it clear that the hollandaise and marmalade are expected to do the heavy lifting here. Hollandaise is rich anyway, so adding crab can only accentuate that.

It's in an interesting spot. On the one hand, the red onion pepper marmalade has a unique taste, somewhat sweet but in a light, different way. It's hard to describe but it was the kind of sweet that works with the savoury instead of the normal working against and providing contrast. Both approaches work, but the former seems to be much rarer. The patty was well cooked and seared and stayed juicy.

There just wasn't enough in the hollandaise for me. Sarah is not a fan of it in general, but she did like it as part of the whole. It's not that I didn't like it, I just felt like it didn't deliver enough given all that was being asked of it. Either the burger needed another ingredient, or the hollandaise needed more pizazz.

I've said it before (and maybe even recently, I've lost track), but we love it when new restaurants enter burger battles. It's even more exciting when the entry is unique not only in this year's contest, but possibly in any contest. It's the Pork Schnitzel burger:

Breaded pork cutlet w/ lemon zest, bacon, swiss, arugula, mustard aioli, & NL mustard pickles on a kaiser.

It's this really fun combination of German influence on local ingredients, and it's got a promising flavour profile. Let's see if it delivers on the promise!

Mustard pickles can be an acquired taste. They are a little sweet for me sometimes, but on a burger with bacon and arugula to counteract the sweetness I found it actually worked. My schnitzel was perfectly cooked, crispy on the outside and still moist inside. The hints of lemon (and savoury) in the breading were evident. More to the point, the first couple of bites gave me that "oh wow" feeling that has been sadly missing from a lot of entries this year.

With that said, my son found that the schnitzel was dry, and the mustard was overpowering. To be fair he is less of a mustard fan than I am, so this is not entirely surprising. I think as well the bacon here kind of felt like an outsider, and maybe some crispy bratwurst or other German sausage might have been a better thematic fit.

No. 4 is a really nice spot with a large bar (and talented mixologists), plenty of dining space and wonderful food. They tend to use some higher-end ingredients in unique ways, and I was looking forward to their entry, the Gaucho:

6oz prime rib patty, St. Paulin cheese, bacon, onions & mushrooms, pink peppercorn horseradish mayo, steak sauce, & jalapeños on a black sesame bun.

Before we get started, I should point out that the descriptions on the Burger Battle webpage and the Downtown St. John's Facebook page both suggest that the ingredient is St. Paulin bacon, and not St. Paulin cheese and bacon.

You would expect a prime rib patty to be tender and moist, flavourful, and pricy. It was all of those bar the last one. Somewhat looser than many of the other patties in the contest, but it held together nonetheless. You could almost taste the char before you bit into the burger. The cheese was creamy and melted perfectly, but carried a mild flavour that almost felt like brackets around everything else. I was a fan of the construction here, keeping the mushrooms and onions under the patty with the peppercorn horseradish mayo. I feel like that helped the mayo and the mushrooms stand up to the rest of the flavours. A bunch of really good, really tasty choices.

Here comes the but: the jalapeños were legion, and they were pickled. I have harped on and on about it, but maybe I should explain here why I think that is almost always a mistake.

Jalapeños add so much more than heat. They have a wonderful, fresh, almost grassy flavour that is something like a mellow green bell pepper. When you pickle them that gets annihilated and replaced with intense vinegary flavour. Jalapeños seem to absorb the vinegar so much better than things like onion, maybe because they are berries. In moderation, or when quick-pickled, or on certain dishes they can work. I don't dislike them as a blanket rule. They are just used far too often, and in excessive quantities.

I really like how many vegetarian options these burger battles get. Burger Love, PEI's version, is sponsored by local beef farmers and so is limited to beef burgers. The open nature of our battle not only allows for more creativity but also lets places like The Sprout participate while including vegetarian customers to enjoy some entries. The Sprout really went for it with a vegan offering, the Ungentle Lentil:

Brown lentil cashew cheese patty with sweet mango BBQ sauce, caramelised onions, pickled red cabbage, cornmeal herb fried tomato, fresh jalapeño, local microgreens on a homemade sweet potato bun with sriracha "nayo"

That, my friends, is a lot. I also opted to add habanero sauce to the burger, optional but in my case not really. Mango and habanero are best friends, and I do like my heat.

Whoever came up with the toppings on this burger is a genius. Everything seemed to be working with something else, but nothing got lost. It was like a choir of flavours. The tomato was particularly flavourful, which is unusual for a topping many burger-makers just treat as a toss-on. The red cabbage was crunchy and tart, the onions perfectly caramelised, the jalapeño refreshingly not pickled with a nice kick. The habanero sauce was a nice revitalising smack on the palate, and as expected it elevated the mango BBQ sauce. Hit after hit after hit. I've had potato buns several times, but never a sweet potato bun. I would now like more sweet potato buns.

The real trick with this entry was always going to be the patty. When you start with a "no meat" requirement you are already on hard mode, and the decision to go with lentils and cashew cheese instead of mushroom or Beyond Meat makes it even harder. I'm happy to report that the flavour delivered big time. The issue for many people will be the texture. It's soft, the lentils are mashed, and it has challenges staying together. Neither of us was too turned off by it, but it did affect our enjoyment of the burger. Perhaps something stronger to use as a binder, and a harder sear to form a crust would have helped?