Wow. Just wow. I went with the wine pairing after - more than $300 just for me. Most expensive meal I've ever personally paid for (I've done a little fancy stuff with my parents as a teen).
So, Raymond's is right on Water Street in an old, well-preserved building from the early 1900s.
So the menu is simple, seasonal. You can choose a three, five, or seven-course meal. All of the dishes are foraged locally and some are rare - for example, quinces are not native to Newfoundland but there's a handful of trees from an early settler orchard still marooned in the woods outside the city so that's where they get them from. I couldn't possibly remember all the intricate details and all the ingredients, but the main portion of every course was...
1. Sea urchin
2. Scallop
3. Halibut
4. Cod
5. Moose.
6. Beef.
7. Pre-dessert, local sour plum sorbet.
Main dessert - partridgeberries and dark chocolate with coffee icecream.
And... I turned 37 yesterday. SO OLD.
Overall, 10/10. I didn't much care for the jelly with the sea urchin but everything else was perfect. The halibut was surprisingly good. It was still raw at the centre, and the sauce wasn't overpowering - there were some buttery bites, some fishy bites. It was just really nice.
The scallops and the moose were excellent. There was at least one thing in each serving that I could say was my favourite of the night, until I remembered the others.
If you end up in town, it's well worth the experience.
And the wines... the wines. Everything, even a port to finish. And the sommelier was amazing. Truly amazing. She was infectiously passionate without being at all intrusive or overly chatty. All the service was, to be honest. Whether you have two at your table or 8, every single glass and dish for every single person hits the table at the same time. New everything for each course. Blah blah blah, I'm sure this is all normal for fine restaurants everywhere but it's unusual for vulgar, casual St. John's.