Icehouse on Fire

On my bucket list of restaurants to go to is a place in the Plateau-Mont-Royal area called Icehouse. I'd had friends who raved about it and I'd also biked by the restaurant many times, intrigued by the unique exterior wood decor. It's a relatively new restaurant, opened only a couple years ago. It's technically classified as a Tex-Mex restaurant but I'd hardly define it as such. Its concept is Tex-Mex but it introduces new ingredients and different styles of food. For example, the pulled pork tacos have pickled watermelon rinds and chicharrones (fried pork rinds). Also on the menu are a wide variety of things: sweet potato tempura tacos, crab nachos, and their famous fried chicken. The variety of dishes and ingredients makes it hard to solely classify the place as a Tex-Mex restaurant.

To start, we ordered a pitcher of their famed bourbon lemonade. Although I was technically born in the south, I have always hated the taste of bourbon -- and whiskey, in general. But this mix was surprisingly delightful. Incredibly sweet with a tart and tangy aftertaste, the drinks were probably my favourite part of the evening (isn't it always?). The drinks were strong but too strong to make me wince at the taste of whiskey.  In fact, I actually think I started to like the flavour!

Our meal was lovely, but nothing to wow our socks off. The portions were a bit small (except the nachos), but the service was friendly and the timing of the delivery was prompt. Unfortunately, a little mishap marred the rest of the evening for me...

 Popcorn Shrimp with lime seasoning

 Nachos with crab (and everything else) 

 Pork tacos 

Shrimp tacos 

I found that my tacos weren't spicy enough, so I asked for hot sauce. They make their own home made Tobasco sauce, except I found that it still wasn't spicy enough. So I asked our waiter for something hotter. To be fair, he did warn me that this sauce was not for the faint-hearted. But I thought that I'd have no problem handling it, as I've grown up eating incredibly spicy food and typically have a high tolerance for spice. False. Just one drop of this sauce was enough to nearly send me into cardiac arrest. I had a couple bites of my taco before the spice really hit me. And then it was like the world was attacking my taste buds; I could hardly breathe, my mouth went numb, and tears were streaming down my face. I certainly couldn't eat the rest of my food and I also didn't feel "normal" again until well into the next day.

Even my roommate, who merely touched the bottle, but never tasted the sauce, can attest to the strength of this hot sauce. After we came home, she touched her face and immediately felt the impact. Her eyes watered and her face went all red. This sauce is truly dangerous!

 Do not try this hot sauce unless you're slightly deranged with quasi-suicidal tendencies! 

Overall, Icehouse was an interesting and fun experience. But if I were just judging the food alone, I'd give it a mediocre rating, at best. In addition, it was also quite overpriced, given the portion size and quality of the food. But the ambiance was fun and its owners successfully achieved concept of a Tex-Mex local joint they were hoping for. 

Until the next (hopefully less spicy) adventure, happy eating everyone! 

-Talia