Personal Restaurant Guide For Montreal Visitors

Dear guests,

Tim and I are big on restaurants and eating out so we have compiled a list of our favorites to help you get to know just a few of the great places Montreal has to offer, we hope you enjoy them as much as we do and invite you to share any new ones you may discover while you’re here.

LES DEUX GAMINS, located at 170 Prince Arthur E between Hotel De Ville and DeBullion St

www.les2gamins.com

French Bistro with outdoor terrace, located on the only pedestrian street in the Plateau.  This is our newest endeavor and we have taken everything we love about food and travel and have created this restaurant.  Inspired by the classique Parisian bistros we loved and some of our favorite "New York" french dishes, the 2, (as we call it) provides it's guests with the bests in food and atmosphere. The restaurant will attract a local crowd (happy to be able to finally enjoy Prince Arthur again), and the travelers of this world, looking to add yet another favorite place to their repetoire.

Brunch is served every Saturday and Sunday from 11AM-4PM.

Live Music every Friday and Saturday starting between 7h30-8h00

 The goal is to create a place with an ecclectic group of clients who common traite isthat they possess the "JOIE DE VIVRE".

Atma, located on St Laurent  just north of Bagg

Indian 

This restaurant is family owned and the cooking is definately home cooking.  Beautifully decorated (which is quite unique in Indian restaurants), with rounded white walls, archways and great lighting.  The bar is quite cozy and spacious, but you can also reserve these great separate rooms with cushions and sheers, the second floor is where you will find a great big area which can accomadate up to 10 people at a time, others are for 2-6, you must remove your shoes to access the second floor seating.  The food is really tasty and can accomadate newbies as well as experienced Indian foodies, the mulligatany is the best we ever had!

Café Cherrier:

St Denis corner Cherrier

French bistro

Great for breakfast and lunch, has a great terrace in the summer

We like to go to this place and have brunch on weekends always with a glass of rose or mimosa of course!

Buonna Notte

St Laurent / Milton

Italien/Mediterrean

The food here is good and they have an impressive wine selection (kinda looks like a phone book). It is always bustling and again see and be seen crowd. This is also where your very likely to see someone famous as they all end up here at some point while shooting a movie.

Melies

St Laurent / Milton in the Excentrice building

Time Cafe

Hip trendy and newly open, this restaurant has a great tapas meny which includes such faves as mini burgers and tartars...the mojitoes are really good and the best feature for summer is the back yard, here you will find a "south beach" terrace with flowing curtains and couches for lounging...all in white giving it an exotique and romantic feel

Italien/Mediterrean

A very cool bar with lots to look at, we like to have drinks and appetizers at this place or breakfast on the terrasse in the morning. The owner is a very nice guy named Paolo, his claim to fame is his Elvis impersonation, but he may be shy about it.

Maestro SVP

St Laurent/Prince Arthur

Raw bar/ Sea food

One of our favorite places to hang out drink wine and eat dozens of oysters, and they have a special 12 oysters for under 12$ from 11h00-7:00 daily, the owner is Ilene and she even makes some jarred salsa like creations you can buy to go. One of my favorite dished is the oysters with Rasperry and goat cheese…yum!

Euro Deli

St Laurent/Prince Arthur

Pizza/Pasta take out

This place has been around for as long as I can remember and has great pizza by the slice, calzones, and my favorite lasagna. It is very reasonably priced and always a good place to find food when you want a quick fix.

Cabane

St Laurent/Bagg (across from Pharmaprix)

Portuguese/Pub

This is a great find, the place may look like an old spots/watering hold but the daily specials are sure to make everyone happy. It is quite inexpensive, and we can confirm that they have the best grilled calamari anywhere…the grilled pork or veal chop is also excellent.

Figaro Café

Fairmont/Hutchinson

French Bistro

We like a few things about this place, the food is very good, the terrasse is charming in the summer, the interior is very French bistro and worth checking out. The Breakfast is great and they also have a table d’hote menu in the evening that is also very reasonable. This is definitely a neighborhood restaurant so your sure to be visiting off the beaten path.

Roy du Plateau

Clark/Rachel

Portuguese

For those who dare to venture in (from the outside it does not look like much of anything), you will soon be charmed by both the family atmosphere and of course the family itself. Then once you try the charcoal chicken you will be hooked, it does get packed every day so you may have to wait but if you have time it will be a good experience.

L’Express

St Denis between Roy and Duluth

French…French and oh did I mention French

We love to sit at the bar in this place and have some fish soup at 2:00AM in the morning…or be there for breakfast…whichever comes first. Among the classics in Montreal the main courses are a little pricey but at least your paying in Canadian and not Euros.

Cavalie

Peel/Maisonneuve (North)

Italien

We love this place and are regulars we usually eat at the bar (except on Thursdays which is happy hour central), the staff is fabulouso, attractive, and the ambiance just makes you feel good and on vacation. Tim loves the Lamb but my favorite is the Macaroni and cheese…also get some Oyster with wasabi as an opener and set the tone for your evening. Dressing up is always fun to do at Cavalie.

Ferreira

Peel/Maisonneuve(South)

Portuguese

Ok this one has been tooted as one of the top 10 Portuguese restauarants in North America…it is said that people fly into Montreal all the time just to have supper here. They have Tim’s alltimehandsdownfavorite dish ….Grilled Sardines!! We recently tried there mixed seafood plate and got kudos all the way around…it can be pricey and a reservation should be made but if you feel like adventure….go for it.  Adding the beef cheeks, new to the 2006 menu just because it is really good so if you have a non seafood eater in the group...tell them not to fear

Queue de Cheval

Rene Levesque/Stanley

Steak house

For those who truly like steak at any costs this is your place…very pricey but excellent food. We usually like to start our evening in the bar where Mark our bartender makes Tim his favorite Martini…they use blue cheese stuffed olives that are ohhhhhh so good.

After a few cocktails we often end up eating elsewhere…so think of this as our cocktail place. We have tried a lot of the menu and while we like the food we just don’t love Steak that much!!

Milsa

Stanley/St Catherine

Brazilian

The best place to get a good meat fix, this prix fix meal place has waiters walking around with skewers of 10 different meats to slice onto your plate…everything is flame grilled, poultry, pork, filet mignon, sausages, lamb…well you get the picture…they also have a beautiful belly / samba dancer to entertain you while you eat. Cost is about 25-28$ per person…all you can eat

Beiging

St Urban/Gauchetiere

Asian

Located in the heart of china town this place is great, we usually go for take out but the restaurant is nice and if you have agroupe of 4- more it is fun, there may be a wait as it is always busy.  We like to have the BBQ duck, and we always ask for either  baby bok choy or snow pea green in garlic, great way to get your greens.  The hot and sour soup is excellent and although it's only available at Christmas the smake soup is also very tasty.  Seafood and chicken meals are the best (have not had much luck with the beef dishes), the variety is key and this place has something for everyone.