Le Charleville

Just ate here again and had another wonderful meal. Always happy and pleasant serving staff. The food as expected was amazing. Will definitely come back for more

In a way I’d like to give «Le Charleville» an higher rating. In the Vaudreuil-​Dorion area, it’s nice to have it since there’s a lot of chains and it is definitively an interesting alternative. On the other hand, the place is a little schizophrenic, it wants to feel more upscale and charge a bit more but the quality of food is not as high as you might expect. It’s a bring your own wine place so it keeps your total bill lower it has a nice terrace but with cheap patio furniture. It certainly does not have the staff of a true high end restaurant so whenever it becomes busy, the service becomes slow.
One of the nice feature is the menu is what is called the «gourmand» option which is in fact a «prix fixe» 5 course menu. This is what we all took and while we though that the price quality was fair, it was not outstanding by any measures.
The first course is a potage (leek and potato) and it was very good giving us high hopes for the rest. My second course was a warm goat cheese salad and I had high expectation, thinking back of such plate I had in Lyon… however, it was not to that level at all, the cheese was breaded and oven cooked making for a fairly plain version of that dish. Third course was what they called a «trou normand» which was really more like an «entremet» since it was a granita but it was sweet which is not what you would expect at that stage of the meal. I had the «confit de canard» as my main plate, it was good, no complains there. Last service was the desert and I had a profiterole which was a bit small but was more than enough after such a copious meal.
Presentations of all dishes was well done and service was courteous and convivial. The restaurant is a bit too much in between categories for me. Too expensive to be an every day place and not high end enough to be the place for celebrations. A weird compromise according to my criteria. However, it is nice to have it as an option in this area and maybe it is a good fit with the target suburban audience that like to think they are in a higher end place without having to pay the full price.

Pour faire suite à la critique plutôt laconique du Unilocaleur Robert T. j’ajouterais ceci sur Le Charleville. Voici donc une table française d’inspiration Belge (oui, y’a des moules au menu) très correcte. Le resto est situé avenue Saint-​Charles à Dorion dans une belle maison centenaire.
Nous sommes venus ici avec des attentes élevées et, bien sûr, avec une envie d’un bon plat de moules et frites. Les moules étaient excellentes. Les frites bien cuites, dorées et croustillantes. J’ai choisi les moules Madagascar et j’ai été séduit par le délicieux bouillon dans lequel elles étaient préparées. Nous avons opté pour le menu gourmand (table d’hôte 5 services avec trou normand) et nous avons été satisfait. Mon entrée, une fricassée d’escargots aux trois champignons & fromage bleu, était délicieuse.
Points positifs: outré la cuisine qui est très correcte, le menu est diversifié et complet. Certain plat sont d’inspiration canadienne plus que belge ou française. Exemple, il y avait un médaillon de bison comme nouveauté du chef cette semaine là. Le décor est charmant et s’apprête bien aux soupers romantiques.
Points négatifs: le service est lent, très lent. Une fois assis, nous avons attendu de longues minutes avant qu’une serveuse daigne nous accorder de l’intérêt alors qu’un couple de baby-​boomers, arrivé bien après nous, recevait toute leur attention. Une fois la commande passée, les entrés ont pris beaucoup de temps avant — d’enfin — arriver sur notre table. Décevant. Les tables et chaises de la terrasse sont des meubles de patio en plastic cheap qui né cadre pas avec le décor chic de l’endroit.
Conseil: Réservez le samedi pour éviter les mauvaises surprises. C’est souvent plein. N’oubliez pas que le resto est un apportez votre vin.
Je recommande.