Restaurants come and go. The stars maintain their lustre by staying true to a winning formula. For Bijou, that means optimizing their farm-to-table ingredients with a passionate, innovative chef who can balance skill, talent and imagination to create dishes with relevance and wow factor.
Bijou has long been known as one of Stratford’s higher-end restaurants, but its menu is also fresh, eclectic and fun. Our curiosity beckons us to confirm that it is uniquely accessible for every palate.
Seated at a cozy banquet in a nook by the window, we open our menus to find such imaginative dishes like Confit Pork Belly with blueberry Texas barbecue glaze; Lamb Almondine with almond pudding and strawberry jus, and a house-made Chanterelles Fettuccine with champagne cream sauce, local chanterelles and Pecorino. Clearly, Chef Stewart Taylor loves flavour, and experimenting with unusual pairings to excite our appetites as well as our palates.
Chef Taylor’s menu changes regularly—it’s not merely seasonally inspired—his kitchen uses the ingredients they source from their local suppliers until they’re no longer available. What we’re enjoying tonight, may not be on the menu next week, but there is no doubt it will be replaced by something equally worthy.
Cold Lobster Consommé is a pure and refreshing amber broth that embodies an oceanic essence. It is chock full of a vibrant palette of firm shrimp, pop-in-your-mouth roe, purple Thai basil and balls of watermelon and honeydew. This is such a concentrated potpourri of colours and flavours that is light and sweet and sings of summer.
The Summer Squash Bruschetta is a sight to behold. Chef Taylor unabashedly flaunts colours and textures in this velvety melange of goodness. In-house baked Zucchini Bread is lightly toasted for a crunchy crust enveloping a soft but dense centre. It is generously heaped with zucchini, patty pan squash and cherry tomato, lacquered with an arugula pistou, and held together with whipped ricotta. I could eat this for any meal, every day, feel completely nourished and be happy.
The exposed brick and wood interior lends a hip setting to performances on Bijou Music Nights when the space transforms from restaurant to concert venue. In the meantime, theatre goers have staked their claim for a delicious pre-show meal.
One of the more unique dishes on this menu is Ukrainian Dumplings. These are not pierogies. They’re an innovation, combined with an interpretation of the classic Italian Cacio e Pepe—cheese and pepper. Rather than fill the pasta dumplings with potato, they’re filled with a scoop of goat cheese, and seasoned with chili flakes and chives. It has luxurious mouthfeel and bold flavour, but goat cheese is intense and sharp, which makes this dish better shared, because for one person, it can be too strong a flavour to commit to an entire order.
Our bowl of fresh in-house made fettucine, tossed in a savoury bisque with garlic scapes, squash, tomato, and a generous portion of meaty duck confit, is another canvas for Chef Taylor to express the beautiful ingredients of the terroir and the season. He does so without pretension, but in an accessible way that enables him to share the very best of what he has to offer.
Our sweet ending is a Chocolate Terrine with a smooth peanut butter mousse, drizzle of caramel and sprinkling of crushed peanuts. Sinfully sweet and decadent, it’s a rich, lush coda to a delectable evening.
Bijou is a jewel that continues to sparkle.
