Dinner at Aszú

I am not a wine connoisseur, and completely hopeless when it comes to Hungarian wines, so I am not going to give you any advice to guide you through the wine list at Aszú. Heck, I didn't even try any Hungarian wines there! My mission for the night was much simpler: to have a decent terrace meal in the Old Port and enjoy a nice conversation with my dining partner who happened to be another SiteBits contributor.

Although I noticed the current incarnation of the restaurant only a few months ago, I remember there being something all along, although I am fairly certain they changed the name and the menu only recently.

Aszú is a Hungarian word, which, from what I understand, originally meant “dried" but eventually came to signify a specific type of wine made with made with botrytised grapes (i.e. grapes treated with a water-removing fungus). A quick look at a Wikipedia page revealed many interesting bits of trivia: for example, the fact that Aszú is proudly cited in the Hungarian national anthem and the curious fact that the famous fungus/mold may sometimes cause the "winegrower's lung" disease - a rare form of hypersensitivity pneumonitis.

Long story short, I ordered a glass of 2004 Fixin from France ($12). It may have had nothing to do with Hungary, but then again I wasn't in the mood to experiment. My date ordered a glass of sweet dessert wine to go with the meal, which visibly raised our waitress' eyebrow.

For the meal itself, I ordered the veal dish ($28, see illustration below). My date ordered the $22 seafood platter, which, as our waitress explained, was not so much a main dish as an over-sized appetizer. Perhaps it was a veiled warning not to order it, but we didn't heed it. We also shared the “special" duck appetizer ($11) as our bona fide appetizer.

Although the latter turned out to be rather small, we had nothing bad to say about it. Our respective main dishes, on the other hand, were slightly more disappointing…

Well, actually, the veal I got was nearly perfect. The problem, however, was that the vegetables it came with were grotesquely over-salted, which ruined the dish for me.

My date had even worse luck: from the assorted platter she ordered, about half of the ingredients were probably not worth ordering at all. They either tasted like they were extracted from a can or again, they were too salty (seems like a recurring problem at Aszú's kitchen).

Overall, one could say that our meals were somewhat hit-or-miss, although not terrible and again, let me remind you that the meat was cooked skillfully.

Where Aszú wins is in the service and décor department. Our French-speaking waitress was very attentive and despite the fact that we clearly picked our wines semi-randomly, she didn't relegate us to the stupid customer category (or, at least, didn't show it).

The terrace has heat lamps, which is perfect for chilly nights and inside, the restaurant is tastefully decorated in a modern style. I'll probably stop by another time for a drink at the bar – it seems like a nice enough place to simply go for a glass of wine. And next time, I'll be sure to try the Hungarian crowd-pleaser, rare forms of pneumonitis be damned.

My impressions were as follows:

Food: B-
Service: B+
Décor: B+
Cost: approximately $50 per person (excluding tip) with one drink

Aszú
www.aszu.ca
212 rue Notre Dame Ouest
(at St Francois Xavier)
Montreal, Québec, CANADA