Fuego Steakhouse & Poissons Frais

Don’t go there. Went with a friend for the $ 15 special. The bill was. $ 100. A glass of merlot was $ 14. Ridiculously overpriced. Appetizer was $ 15. Nothing on plate worth eating. Terrible smell of deep frying in restaurant and our clothes.

Here is a little review to help people out there before stopping their choices on Fuego Steakhouse.
My friends were complaining about the food, the waitress went and asked Amir the owner, to come talk to us to rectify the situation, and he said that ”We could go f**k ourselves”
He runs like a chicken without his head and has no idea of what he’s doing. He’s trying to turn that restaurant into a downtown supper-​club, with bottle service and over priced menu items when it is located in Cote-​St-​Luc…
Some people should not own a restaurant, and he’s one of them.
I’ve seen cooks SMOKING in the kitchen (made a complaint to the city), he treats his employees like garbage in front of clients, and the worst of all? Two of his waitresses told us that MOST OF THE REVIEWS ON RESTAURANT REVIEW SITES ARE DONE BY HIM AND HIS WIFE!
I DO NOT recommend to go to Fuego Steakhouse. Going to that restaurant is encouraging A DISHONEST BUSINESS and wasting a fair amount of money.

I went to Fuego last night (going back tonight) and I have to say it was the best meal we have had there yet, and possibly the best kosher steak I have had in Montréal (sorry Chops).
For starters the atmosphere at Fuego is very upbeat. It is lively, yet you don’t hear other people’s conversations. Also, I love that I can watch the grill master at work making meat magic. The service was top notch and Amir the owner constantly came over to check everything was up to ours and his standards.
For appetizers we got sardines and salmon tartar. Sardines were awesome as usual, unfortunately the tartar was a bit fishy for my taste, but that may just be a matter of preference. But of course none of that mattered once my main came out.
For my main course I had the 18 OZ Fuego steak (aged for… 90 days!!!) and let me just say words just can’t justify how good this steak actually was. I have had many steaks in my 29 years, but this one was different.
For starters the presentation was exactly what I want in a steak. They brought me my beautiful slab of meat on a wooden carving board, and set a small jar of sharp Dijon mustard next to it. Really, what else could you want from a steak dish? Obviously there were vegetable sides and they are good, but the steak is where it is at.
The meat was juicy and tender (medium rare if you’ve got it in you) and I savoured every bite. The spice rub was the perfect amount of pepper goodness to really bring out the flavor of the steak, and it was a treat to have every bite. I was honestly sad when the steak was done. The steak is pricey at $ 55 CAD but, really a good steak doesn’t come cheap and you are truly getting what you pay for.
Other dishes at the table were: Same steak medium (they won’t cook it any more than that), Manhattan Veal Ribs (I have had this before and the ribs are now my second favourite dish after the Fuego 90 day aged steak) and the mackerel (which according to my dinner partner was delicious and the owner Amir says is one of the best fishes on the menu if you are into that sort of thing).
Desert was a lovely fruit platter which we all shared and enjoyed. All in all if you are looking for a good steak (kosher or not) in Montréal, and a family friendly and fun atmosphere, go to Fuego!
Oh one last thing for my fellow Jewish readers. Fuego will be open during the nine days for what Amir the owner has promised will be a Fuego Fish Fest! I’m not sure about the other swimmers they will be serving but there will be Tuna steak which to me is all that matters.
Bön Appetit

Condensed for Unilocal
Hot restaurant! Seems the restaurant opened without testing the air conditioning and we, the customers, paid the price. Further, the restaurant was filled with smoke, likely due to a combination of an insufficient exhaust over their authentic charcoal grill and the lack of air conditioning. By the end of the meal, we were all eager to leave as we had begun to cough and my eyes had been tearing since our arrival. Restaurant is well laid out, with unprocessed wood paneling adorning the walls and comfortable booths that offer adequate privacy. Cloth napkins, but the tables were covered in butcher’s paper rather than cloth. Odd mix between classy and casual and we weren’t sure what look the restaurant was going for.
Charcoal grill is great but seeing the chef, with no hair protection, hat or otherwise, sweating over it made me question what was going on in the areas I could not see of the kitchen.
We were offered sparkling or plain water as well as a basket of bread. In another odd turn, the bread presented was bakery-​bought rye bread which was grilled with olive oil, sesame seeds and za’atar which, while tasty, seemed very amateurish as opposed to the fresh rolls, –maybe with sesame seeds and za’atar– which I would normally expect at a high end restaurant.
Between the 4 of us, we shared a total of four entrees –appetizers in US-​, starting with a delicious hummus topped with sauteed mushrooms -$ 10-​. Next was the spicy Hungarian sausage with peppers, caramelized onions, black olives and tomato sauce -$ 18-​. Sausages had a good spice to them without being too hot and the vegetables mixed well together. But the black olives –actually Kalamata– completely overpowered the sausage and could have in fact been a dish all their own. This was a good thing because we found that after 6 forkfuls, we had plenty of peppers, caramelized onions and black olives but no sausage which was disappointing for a dish where the highlight should have been the sausage. Next to be tried was the duck carpaccio served with salad -$ 16-​. While we had envisioned a salad complimenting the duck, what were received were –as one of my companions put it– «six fingernail sized pieces of duck which were 50% fat served over a garden salad with a vinaigrette.» I made the mistake of trying the duck with the salad and found the flavor of the duck completely overpowered by the vinaigrette. The only redeeming aspect about this dish was that we had ordered 2 servings, otherwise there would not have been enough duck for us each to taste. Lastly came the real star of the entrees which was the beef tartar, served with French fried «matchsticks» -$ 18-​. All of us agreed the tartar was excellent with a great mix of green onion, fresh beef and very light seasoning sure to agree with anyone’s palette. While I would generally tell those with less adventurous palates to avoid any sort of raw beef dish, this one had a solid consistency which was not unlike tuna tartar, and in a good way. The fine cut of the meat really allowed the flavours to meld and the dish melt in your mouth. I would have liked the tartar to be served with toast points or the like, but was still quite happy to eat it straight from my fork. The only addition I would make to the tartar would be some citrus to really brighten up the flavours and make them pop.
For our mains two of us shared the grilled beef bavette -$ 28– and grilled rack of lamb with wild mushrooms -$ 55-​, both prepared to the chef’s recommendations of medium-​rare and medium, respectively. The grilled bavette was very good and had an excellent texture, if not simple being seasoned with only salt. Though personally I would have preferred more to be done with the lamb, it was well prepared and served as whole rack with 3 generous ribs. Both juicy and tender, the lamb had the perfect texture, even while being rare in the middle and was one of few things we ordered which had a good value. In terms of side dishes, together we sampled all 3 on offer which were rice, French fries and vegetables. While the vegetables were unremarkable –they were simply grilled-​, the French fries were soggy and oily, while the rice was prepared Mexican style and was reminiscent of a box of «Near East» rice one would buy when needing a side dish in a hurry.
One companions had salmon tartar -$ 15– and the other an 18 oz. rib steak -$ 34-​. Salmon tartar was termed as «tastes fishy and not fresh» while the steak was prepared to the specified medium, but was seasoned with pepper only and had no flavour otherwise –where’s the salt?-. Not bad, but steak was of equal or lesser quality than that available at the supermarket butcher, and far more expensive.
Meal had good parts and bad, difficult to evaluate because of the smoke, waitress needed to learn the menu but they had a decent looking fish selection. For such a pricy place, they should have given something free to compensate for the heat. Menu needs some retooling but they do have potential.