Les Brumes Du Coude

We had not heard of this restaurant until our 15 year old foodie daughter told us that her birthday dinner was going to be at Les Brumes De Coude. Given that this Child has expensive, yet good taste in restaurants, we promptly googled it and made a reservation to ensure we did not disappoint her on her 16th birthday. Walking into the old, converted school it reminded me of my days in elementary school back in Nova Scotia.. The restaurant itself is cozy and has a welcoming atmosphere, we quickly settled in, much like the floorboards that creaked as we made our way through the school to the restaurant. We were greeted by our server who quickly took our drink orders, and even made a little something special of the non alcoholic variety for the non drinkers in our party. The menu changes often and the menu of the day was written on a chalk board…the server was very well versed in the dishes and was able to explain to the non French speaking and non foodie folks what everything was. She even rolled with the bad pronunciation of “petoncles” when my partner ordered her appetizer. Given we were a party of 6, we opted to order one of each appetizer. I think the favorite for everyone was the tartare de betteraves…a beet tartare with a bit of bite! The carpaccio de petoncles did not disappoint, although our spare son did have to wash this down with a coke. And the huitres blue pearl was a perfect introduction to oysters for our birthday girl, who then proceeded to gulp down more than her fair share! At this point in our dinner, our spare son had to go to his basketball game and when the server noticed that his dad was leaving to drive him, she asked the chef to hold his plate until he got back so it wasn’t cold! She did this without prompting and as he made his way out the door. This was so thoughtful of her given that we had no intention of putting the chef out and making him wait for us….this little sign of thoughtfulness solidified the overall experience for us! While the spare son and dad were galavanting off to basketball, the rest of us happily dug into our main courses of Homard thermidor sur salade (lobster thermidor on a salad for those patriots among us) and filet de bouef grille (sorry can't get an accent on my macbook for some reason), grunkohl and rabiole au miel! I did manage to get one morsal of lobster and was not disappointed in the flavor but it did not compare in my mind to the flavor of the beef that melted in my mouth. Now I am sure you are wondering what grunkohl is…and in spite of my European heritage, this was a new adventure for me. This is a german dish made of kale, steel oats and bacon. The server described this as a ragout or stew and her description was bang on! For those people who know me, no meal is finished without a solid topping of salt and pepper however the thought to add seasonings to these dishes did not even cross my mind. Right off the grill/stovetop they came out bursting with flavor with no need for any other seasoning! I was beyond full after sampling all the appetizers and then eating the main course that did not scrimp on serving size however everyone else in my party opted to have the tarte a la pacane to top off their meals. Of course once this came and everyone was ewwing and ahhing, I had to have a taste! Needless to say this was the best birthday pie I had tasted in my life! The servers were awesome and when one noticed that I had dropped something on my shirt, she immediately came over with a small cup of club soda to take out the stain. Again, just a little gesture of thoughtfulness that made me want to come back to this place! Our main server ensured our drinks were topped up all the while engaging in general chit chat that only served to make us feel all the more welcome! Before picking up our bills, we did have a chat about wheelchair accessibility as we were already making return plans and wanted to ensure that our friend was going to be able to easily access the restaurant with us. Not only did our server (damn I wish I had asked her name) take the time to explain where the wheelchair ramp was, she also pointed out that while the bathroom closest to the restaurant might be too narrow for a wheelchair, but went on to explain that there was another one on the same floor that our friend would be able to access easily! While I had never heard of this restaurant until my daughter mentioned it to me, once I started looking into it, I realized that most of the reviews were absolutely positive with a few friends saying that this was their favourite restaurant, not only in the Moncton area, but in New Brunswick. Having said that , we did have some friends who had tried to get in on a busy day and felt that perhaps their wait time may have been longer simply because the did not “look” a certain way. I have to say that we ABSOLUTELY did not get any pretentious vibe off of this restaurant at all and felt totally the opposite from the beginning of the meal, right to the end! This place is a hidden gem in the city; the food is to die for and it is definitely money well spent!