Restaurant l'Académie - Pointe-Claire

My friend wanted to take me out for my birthday preferably a BYOW. She suggested lacademie which we had gone there for her birthday last year and I wasn't impressed so my reaction was to look for a better restaurant however many restaurants are closed on Mondays. It was a sunny evening so I decided to give it another try instead of going to Portovino since lacademie has a terace. We ended up sitting inside after all because the decor is actually quite nice. We ordered the eggplant parmasian as the appetizer and it was not good, we didn't even finish it. After the appetizer we realized the restaurant was FREEZING so we asked to be transferred outside (we weren't sitting far from the entrance) and the waitress responses hmmmm ok are you going to help me bring the stuff outside? We said okay no problem however that is beyond the last thing any client should ever be seen doing is transporting their wine glasses etc from one table to the next. It maybe saved her one minute of her time and this was a Monday evening so they weren't even busy! As we were carrying our bottle out we asked for more ice and she took our bottle away from us to put more ice in the bucket which we found a bit bizarre (I work in a resto and that is not proper). She brought back only ice. You need to have water in the bucket as well for the effect to actually work but that's not a big deal... Long story short we had many odd moments it's as if no one knows how to waitor or waitress in this restaurant and to me service is everything. Food is alright nothing crazy or that would ever make me want to return! Once the bill came no one asked if we needed the machine it was just dropped on the table. We waited 15 minutes and no one came so my friend had to walk inside to ask to pay. Terrible service I have no clue how this restaurant is still open... you go to restaurant to have good service so that you can enjoy your time. Needs improvement!

We had a very nice dinner a few weeks ago. I usually go on Thursday for the veal special. The lemon veal is my favorite. Appetizers are on the small side. Not great value.

We had gone to L'Academie on Boul. St Jean a few years ago and had found the food to be extremely underwhelming. Jump ahead a few years: My sister's surprise party was held there on June 2nd. The food was outstanding, and the service was great. Paul was really looking forward to going back. We returned tonight on one of our rare dates. The food was exactly as bad as our first meal there. My veal didn't taste fresh, the side vegetables were doused in some salty spices and the pasta was DRY. Seriously. It was supposed to be pasta aglio e olio, except they were just dry lol. Someone forgot something. My husband ordered the same dish he had ordered last week: veal tortellini with rosé sauce, but it didn't taste the same at all. It tasted like frozen noodles...Let's be honest. I can understand the food being a miss. No big deal I suppose. It happens. However how it's dealt with makes all the difference in the world. I told the waiter the quality wasn't even close to what it had been for my sister's party and that it was unfortunate, especially after it had been so great last week! He replied that he'd speak to the manager. The waiter came back a while later and said, "I spoke to the manager. There's not much we can do. I guess we'll keep an eye on it. But that's about it". I just said, "ok". But what I was really thinking was, " seriously?!". I'm FLOORED. I will never go back, and I will always let people know about this experience. #lacademie #westisland #nopride #badbusiness #restaurantfail

I enjoyed the dinner I had here with a large group from a community association. It was pleasant but I thought it noisy and crowded. Many in the group who had eaten here before were mixed in their opinions. It is unlikely I would eat here again unless someone else suggested it. In other words it would not be my first choice.

We've been regular customers of this place since it opened. We have our favorite items on the menu, like the Coquille St-Jacques and the many veal scaloppine. A few months ago we were quite disappointed with our Coquille St-Jacques, because it seemed as though the melted cheese used for the "gratin" topping was like a thin sheet of plastic, it had the texture of processed cheese rather than the bubbly gooeyness of real melted cheese. So this time we decided to go with the Table d'Hote and forego the Coquille. The salad is really small and very basic, a few greens, grated carrots and red cabbage with balsamic. The main was 1/2 a magret of duck and a leg confit. The waitress was very accomodating and managed to get us a rosemary sauce instead of the raspberry sauce on the menu, which we don't like. The 3 slices of magret were delicious, rare as they should be, nicely seasoned. But the leg confit was dry and the outside was burnt to a crisp. It was so dry that it was actually chewy instead of "melt in your mouth". Seems like they were already pre-cooked and put under the broiler to reheat them, but they left them too long. Not acceptable. It's unfortunate that our last few visits over the past 6 months have been disappointing because of the food, because the service is always fantastic.