Mise

Mise
842 Corydon Avenue
[204] 284-7916
info@miserestaurant.com
http://www.miserestaurant.com/index.htm

July, 2009

The last time I ate at Mise, holed up in a grungy basement in the Osborne Village, the atmosphere could have used some peppering but the food took you to the point where you didn’t care if you dined in a dungeon. The seafood paella thrust me back to the heart of Spain and rivalled many of the places I visited. Absolutely divine.

Mise’s new site perches on the western end of Little Italy. Along with new comer Fazzo, the venerable Café Carlo, and Breads & Circuses (as well as relative new-comer Kenko), Mise adds a presence to new Little Italy, which will soon challenge Saffron’s and company as “the place to be on Corydon.” Taking over from the former Gluttons, Mise maintains the food boutique in addition to its modest restaurant and ample outdoor patio. We sit in the patio, flanked by lush flora and, as the host proudly proclaims, the finest outhouse in the world. The hard aluminium chairs arouse a bit of fidgeting but I know that soon the food and wine will whisk any discomfort away.

The considerable wine list features a fair number of wines by the glass, as well as an intriguing assortment of middle and higher end wines with reasonable prices. No wine enthusiast should be left in search of a meal accompaniment.

Meals start with a daily palette teaser and today’s cucumber dollop tastes deliciously herbaceous and very reminiscent of Greek tzatziki. Two kinds of bread come to our table—a nicely baked sourdough and a delicious brown with bits of chocolate and raisins. Add the herbed butter and you have a very pleasant holdover until your selections arrive.

Mise offers a generous assortment of appetisers and we try the mussels in tomato sauce as well as the calamari. Not being a fan of squid, I judge squid dishes, not by how much I like them, but by how little they offend me. Offensive squid will taste rubbery and fishy. This squid has a light and crispy batter that envelops the tender and perfectly cooked meat. The complete absence of fishiness tells me that this is one of the best calamari dishes available. Sadly, I cannot say the same about the mussels. When cooked properly, mussels come plump and juicy—when overcooked, they shrivel and dry up. Half of the mussels today retain some of their juiciness but alas, the other half sadly sat in the cooking solution too long. By themselves, the mussels would grab a passing grade but the unfortunate tomato sauce boasts both the consistency and the flavour of a Campbell’s tomato soup, neither quality you hope to find in a fine restaurant. Normally, I would be disappointed that no more bread comes and that our bread plates disappear, but it’s just as well since I don’t want to sop up the tomato soup anyway.

Disappointed again, Mise cuts out its delectable paella, although the menu has a number of appealing options (warning: the online menu differs considerably from the table menu). My companions try the seafood fettuccini, pork tenderloin, and diver’s scallop with veal. I opt for something completely different and daring.
The plump and imposing shrimps sit atop a heaping plate of pasta, entirely alluring as it’s smothered in scallops, mussels and clams. The seafood invitingly dares you to dislike this dish but the same tomato sauce rears its ugly head again and spurns you. You feel like you just put your can opener back in the drawer. The gigantic diver scallops are cooked deliciously rare in the middle, as well as the veal. A sauce (with a black bean tasting essence) smothers both the scallop and the veal; I find the sauce too powerful for both. The cucumber intro would have provided a better accompaniment. The pork tenderloin too comes perfectly cooked although the maple bourbon sauce here is also too strong for the meat. Much like a teriyaki, the maple bourbon sauce overwhelms the delicate pork, leaving an aftertaste reminiscent of takeout Japanese food.

When we first read on the menu Whole Butter Chicken Rainbow Trout, we thought in unison “what the heck!” Our best guess finds trout covered with a butter chicken sauce and that comes to fruition. I accuse some restaurants of being stale, uninspired or plain boring—those words don’t come to mind when you see butter chicken rainbow trout on the menu. How can I not order this dish?

The plate comes and as the menu warns, you get the entire trout, complete with head, teeth and eyes. Coming from a heritage where the fish head points at the guest of honour and you’re expected to eat the eyes, this does not intimidate me. If you don’t know anything about rainbow trout, think of it as a milder and leaner version of salmon. Because its meat has less fat, trout has a smaller threshold for overcooking—alas, this one comes slightly too well done and a little dry. The butter chicken sauce drapes over the fish and a modest portion of rice, sprinkled with almond slices. Although not as deep or complex as a great Indian sauce, this one easily stands on its own. Alone, either of the key ingredients in this meal would have made a delicious main course; melded together, it’s like mixing milk with lemon juice. I applaud Mise’s audacity in coming up with this dish but it just doesn’t work. The sauce drowns the fish and you cannot appreciate its delicate nature, and the fish is unable to absorb the essence of the sauce.

For dessert, the pecan pie has an appealing colour with a perfect blend of sweetness and nuttiness. The ice cream adds an essential complement to the dessert as a superior meal closer. The same does not apply to the chocolate cheesecake, while in massive proportion, tastes dry and old. A generous amount of rich sauce would have done wonders for this serving.

I object to restaurants that don’t offer unlimited refills on soft drinks, especially without warning. Many people complain about wine mark-up, which comes in around 100%. Soft drinks cost pennies a glass; charging $2 per refill, the mark-up can go as high as 10 000%. Is it really necessary to charge for each top up?

Finally, most North American restaurants should have no trouble separating the checks but Mise made some colossal errors in ours. After ½ hour and 3 re-cals, the final numbers still don’t look correct, but we settle with an acceptable outcome. As a summary, they undercharged us by $100 and we had to put in considerable effort to pay more than they ask. That just doesn’t seem right. I came here with hopes of proclaiming Mise the best restaurant in Winnipeg. After a series of cascading let-downs, I’m not sure I’ll come back again.

**½ /5