Resto Misto.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending an entire day with a good friend of mine. We started with coffee, and decided to find some place to eat dinner. Assuming the plethora of good places to dine in Montreal, we decided to casually walk toward St Laurent from Atwater and find an outdoor patio with some good, cheap salad options. Seems like an easy task, doesn't it? We meandered from Atwater, up St Laurent, with detours down Prince Arthur and Duluth, ended up walking up St Denis, and finally down Mont Royal. It was an amazing walk and a beautiful day, but somehow we were never satisfied with any of the options thus far! Then we stumbled upon this beautiful patio with amazing salads, though a little more expensive than we would have liked. Enter: Restaurant Misto.

Thank God for patios, otherwise I would have felt incredibly underdressed in my jean shorts and striped T-shirt. Although mainly a French area, our server was quick to accomodate us with English menus and perfect English (with a cute French accent of course ;) ). He brought us bread and filled a plate with olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette, which was perfect to curb our then incredible appetites. I ordered a refreshing glass of Pinot Grigio and we chose our meals. There were tons of salads to choose from, ranging in price from $12 to $16. Alli chose the Calamari salad, after assurance that it was grilled and not fried, and I chose the Duck Confit salad. We received our meal shortly after ordering, and the presentation was phenomenal. My Duck was cooked to perfection; crispy flavourful skin on top, succulent meat, and melt-in-your-mouth pieces of fat. It was accompanied by fingerling potatos, which, though by definition are cooked in duck fat, were full of flavour and not dripping with excess grease- cooked to perfection! It was served on a bed of arugula and topped with a creamy honey and tarragon sauce. Soo good!  Alli's Calamari salad looked delicious, although a bit small. There were tons of pieces of grilled calamari, and by the end of the salad she was surprised at how filling it was. We left feeling too stuffed to walk anymore, and took the metro to Brulerie Saint Denis for an after-meal coffee. I walked home feeling sleepy and satisfied, and no doubt in my mind that I will need to go back to Resto Misto for another incredible dining experience!