For the entire month of March, you might have seen several restaurants participating in the 17th edition of @happening_gourmand, advertised as “tables d’hôtes à petit prix”.
Since we had never experienced this before, we were curious and ended up trying a restaurant we had also never been to: @pincettemtl.

We have thoughts on both.

First, the special menu. The listed price was 55$ each. Several dishes were extra, for admittedly justifiable reasons, but still, why list a price at all if every attractive item is extra? Call me old-fashioned, but there was a time we would label this as “false advertising”—trickery to attract unsuspecting patrons. We realize it’s seafood, but the end result is not “petit prix” at all.

As for the restaurant itself, it sounded promising, but almost everything we had fell very flat. Our entrées were very small and disappointing, and our mains lacked flavor, presentation, and overall creativity.  The only enjoyable highlights were the desserts, which were satisfactory, and the very friendly and efficient service.

As we don’t typically complain about food we’ve had, and the Google reviews for this place are 4.4 ⭐ out of 5, we would like to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe this was an off day.

March 30th, 2025 – Seafood Quest stop 10 – Pincette Bar à Homard
*Overall Score 6.5/10*
Ordered: Oysters, Happening Gourmand Menu: Arancini de Pieuvre +$6, Chaudrée de Palourdes, Linguine et Queue de Homard +$10, Risotto aux Champignons Sauvages, Tartelette aux Framboises +$4, Mi-cuit au Chocolat