damas: a culinary delight and visual feast

i know that for many people around the world a meal is hard to come by.  i’ll be the first to admit that i love to eat and sometimes find myself venturing into gluttonous territory.  i count myself as one of the lucky ones and food is something i will never take for granted.  i am fortunate enough to not have to go to sleep hungry.  after eating at damas, i count my lucky stars that not only did i get to eat delicious food but i also got to experience a feast for the senses.  the tastes, the smells, the sights… especially the sights.  the food was simply beautiful.  these pictures don’t even come close to showing how visually stunning everything was. you definitely have to see it live.

even though it was second to come into existence, i like to think of the more upscale damas as the sophisticated older brother of the popular, cool and casual kaza maza. this is a fancy white plate kind of restaurant with prices to match. it is rare for me to dine in such an establishment. granted, it isn’t exactly high end fine dining, but anything that isn’t my usual hole-in-the-wall haunts is considered fancy in my eyes. luckily, i bought myself a couple of vouchers from tuango that reduced our bill by a bit.

to start off our feast, we were offered a bowl of complimentary olives.  i was never a big fan of olives, but they were appreciated nonetheless.  like at the majority of restaurants i’ve been to, these were not pitted, so be careful when you bite into them!

it was a rainy day the first time i visited damas, so we ordered their amazing lentil soup with fresh turmeric. this was hands down the best version of this soup i have ever had!  i’ve had the spicy ones and i’ve had the watery ones with crunchy lentils, but this beat them all.  this soup wasn’t watery nor creamy, but somewhere in between. it had a good puréed consistency without the bite of whole lentils.  the soup was topped with crispy pieces of pita bread, cilantro, a sprinkling of spice, and a lemon wedge.  the taste was light with a hint of citrus and a far cry from the overly mealy lentil soups i’ve had in the past. the ingredients were hard to make out due to their subtle flavours – did i taste ginger and coconut? however, they married well to pack enough flavour punch that i find myself craving this hearty soup even in warmer months.

up next, a chef’s selection of cold mezze platter for two served with pita bread. an obvious choice in my opinion. after all, what kind of food lover wouldn’t opt for something that will give them a sampling of the restaurant’s speciality entrées? the platter came with traditional humus, mouhammara, beet mutabbal, eggplant muttabal, stuffed eggplant, and stuffed pepper.  the humus was nice and smooth without being dense.  a few whole chickpeas on top provided a nice contrast in textures and a little hint of lemon rounded out the flavours well. mouhammara is a dip made with aleppo peppers, walnuts, pine nuts, bread crumbs, and grenadine molasses.  this was probably my least favourite of all the dips because i found that it left me with a bit of a metallic aftertaste. however, on my second visit, the mouhammara did not leave me feeling like i had just licked a penny. perhaps the differences were due to the quality of the nuts? the bright pink beet mutabbal, a purée of roasted beets, tahini, yogurt, lemon, and garlic, was one of the mezze that featured prominently in reviews. the creamy dip was good in the way that the medley of flavours was one that my taste buds had never encountered before. it was interesting and i kept going back for more to get a better feel for it. the taste was a little sweet and acidic at the same time. i sensed that i could easily tire of it, so i was happy we got it as part of the mezze platter and didn’t order it on its own.  my favourite from the sampling plate is definitely the eggplant mutabbal, better known as baba ghanoush. rather than just tasting of grilled eggplant, this mutabbal was perfectly balanced with a hint of lemon and garlic. this little mound of purée was topped with pomegranate arils and when you scoop some up along with the dip, they play well together in the mouth, with the pomegranate contributing a literal burst of flavour.  the stuffed pepper & eggplant had a filling of rice, vegetables, pine nuts, and currants. i didn’t love or hate them, but i think i would have preferred them if they were served warm. when i revisited this platter a couple of months later, the stuffed pepper & eggplant were replaced with stuffed vine leaves which i would have also preferred warm. what can i say? cold rice just doesn’t appeal to me.

at this point, my dining companion and i were already feeling full.  fortunately, when we placed our order, we decided on splitting a main dish because the waiter had warned us that we might be pushing it if we got two.  after much indecision, we settled on one of their regional specialties: fattet makdous. this dish consisted of fried eggplants stuffed with lamb in a tomato pomegranate sauce. it was layered with a yogurt tahini sauce, fried pita, pistachios, pine nuts, herbs, and a clarified butter base.  the first few bites were quite good. sweet, salty, acidic, tangy; soft, creamy, crispy — different flavours and textures all intermingled in one dish.  the only downfall is that yogurt is something i usually eat in small quantities.  with this dish, i was faced with a big bowl of it and quickly got saturated with curd.  i wouldn’t be able to eat the whole dish even if i weren’t full.

i fared better with the choice of main course during my second visit. this time around, we split the filet mignon kabab with terbyelli sauce. the meat was mostly tender except for a couple pieces with fatty bits that required a bit more chewing. the terbyelli sauce was tamer in heat than i am used to and consisted more of oil than pepper. the plate came with crisped triangles of pita bread and a mountain a fries. too bad the waiter failed to mention that when we ordered their rustic fried potatoes with spicy garlic & lemon sauce. the french fry fanatic in me didn’t mind the oversight, but the budget-conscious diner did. luckily for us, the seasoned fries were nice amd crispy and the garlic sauce packed a good punch. if they weren’t good, we would have been discreetly shooting daggers from our eyes at the waiter and muttering insults under our breath.

while the food was good to taste and spectacular to view, it bill did come up to more than i am used to paying, even after the deduction offered by the tuango voucher. many might not find the prices to be too high, but with so many good meals to be had at a fraction of the cost, i will keep damas on my special-occasions-only list.

restaurant damas
5210, av du parc
montréal, québec
H2V 4G7
T: 514.439.5435
www.restaurant-damas.com

payment methods: cash, debit, credit cards

hours:
tue to thurs 11h30-14h30  &  18h-22h
fri 11h30-14h30  &  17h-23h
sat 11h-14h30  &  17h-23h
sun 11h30-14h30  &  17h-22h