Les Beaux Jeudis: It's time to shut this place down

Photo courtesy of Crescent Montreal

I should have known that the second I entered Les Beaux Jeudis for lunch, and saw that there were only 2 other tables seated. I should have ran for the door when I saw the couple beside me eat half their meal in disgust and proceeded to grab the check before they even finished their drinks. But of course, I didn't. And I sat there and munched on the bread expecting the best meal of my week.

Every year my dad comes to Montreal and we go to Les Beaux Jeudis. Why? Because the food quality is was good, the service is was friendly, and they have a beautiful patio overlooking Crescent Street. Call it a tourist trap if you may, but every local Montrealer has raved over Les Beaux Jeudis at some point during the last 3-4 years.

Without fail, my dad and I went all the way to Crescent Street to have what hoped to be a delicious meal. It was the exact opposite. In fact, my experience was so bad that I wouldn't go there even if they paid me.

So let's talk about it.

What we ordered: Crab cakes, Cream of Pea Soup, Prime Roast Beef, and Spaghetti with Bacon.

The Food: Disgusting

The Crabcake, although it had a nice taste, was a mix of 90% fake crab and 10% real crab. Hey Beaux Jeudis, you thought we wouldn't notice? ANYONE WHO KNOWS FOOD WOULD NOTICE.

The Cream of Pea Soup was salty to the point that it was inedible, and the peas had such a disgusting undercooked texture, I can only guess that they put frozen peas into a blender and hoped for the best.

The Prime Roast Beef was over-seasoned, and we got well-done instead of medium rare.

The Spaghetti with Bacon and a tomato sauce - let's just say that you should NEVER put an obnoxious amount of salt whenever there is bacon.

The Service: Awful

I can't even explain how awful it is when a waiter comes by to ask how your food is, you tell them it's awful and they tell you they'll go get the Maitre D, and the Maitre D comes 20 minutes later.

It disgusts me that when we told the waiter the Prime Roast Beef was well done instead of medium rare, he didn't take the dish back to correct it, he looked at it and said "oh!",  put the dish down and walked away.

It makes me sick that a restaurant with that big of a legacy has a Maitre D that doesn't know the difference between Well Done and Medium Rare, and proceeded to explain to us that "Well Done" was their standard of "Medium Rare". Hey, the next time we go, should we just ask for Raw?  Will we get Medium Rare then? And when I complained about the spaghetti he said "Well, when you ask for a dish with Bacon you should expect it to be salty". Sure! Salty is one thing, Kidney Failure type salty is a whole other.  That is NOT food. When I asked the Maitre D to try the food himself he said that he couldn't. ARE YOU FRIGGN KIDDING ME? You won't even TRY the food that your customers won't eat to see where the Hell you went wrong? What do you mean you're going to tell the chef? What the hell are you even going to tell him? Do you or the Chef have any qualifications to work in a restaurant? Do you even have taste buds? Does the chef taste his own food? I'm skeptical.

This will be the very last time I go to Les Beaux Jeudis - for drinks or otherwise. It was a disgusting experience, and I can only hope that they are gone from Montreal as soon as possible