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La Maison du Bagel
La Maison du Bagel is the real deal. Their freshly made plain, poppy-seed or sesame-seed bagels are perfectly crusty, chewy and slightly sweet. Also known as the St Viateur bagel shop, this place has a reputation stretching across Canada and beyond - check out the posted newspaper articles from the world over.
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La Maison Kam Fung
This is generally considered the best place in town for dim sum, and is especially popular for Saturday and Sunday brunch. Waiters circle the tables with carts of dim sum - you pick and choose from duck or chicken feet, spare ribs, mushrooms, cow's stomach or spicy shrimp. The entrance is hidden in the rear of a shopping passage up an escalator.
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La Moulerie
The mussels here seem bigger than elsewhere and the restaurant is renowned for its almost two-dozen sorts. Try the Greek mussels done up with umpteen ingredients including feta and ouzo (around C$20 ) or the Indian version with coriander and ginger (around C$19 ). Outremont locals usually crowd the simple dining room and the patio outside.
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La Paryse
Often credited with the thickest, juiciest burgers and best fries in town, this smart little retro diner offers an almost paralyzing variety of toppings and gorgeous thick milkshakes. This place is an integral part of the neighborhood and when owner Madame Paryse recently celebrated 25 years in business, employees and customers alike celebrated by sending her a flood of congratulatory emails.
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La Sala Rosa
Be prepared for anything at this little gem. The waiters may not speak anything other than Spanish, your orders may or may not come at the same time as your dinner companions, or you may have an interminable wait, but the heaping portions of paella (which comes in five sorts including vegetarian) is masterful and will feed you for days afterwards. Try to make it Thursday nights when the flamenco show packs them in to bursting point.
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Le Caveau
Nestled amid a forest of skyscrapers, this Victorian villa has been a Montréal institution since 1949. The fine table d'hôte may include bourgeois French courses such as glazed snails, Provençal lamb or marinated salmon. The upper dining floors are most atmospheric, stuffed as they are with paintings and antiques. Reservations are recommended.
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Le Commensal
This place still corners the market on quality self-serve vegetarian meals, salads and desserts, sold by the 100g. The usual suspects are all here (tofu, kale, bean sprouts etc) but they're all so well-seasoned and prepared that you'll forget it's health food. An average meal costs about around C$10 including a mineral water (but there's beer, too).
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Le Faubourg
This Parisian-style multilevel mall-market includes fruit vendors, a bakery, a bagel shop, a liquor store - perfect for a meal or picnic goodies. On the third floor is the best food court in the city with a smorgasbord of international cuisines. Restaurant Bangkok has quality Thai food - queues at lunchtime are common. Try the fabulous Taiwanese stall in the northwest corner and La Maison du Bédouin for mint tea served in beautiful silver pots.
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Le Grain de Sel
This tiny, friendly bistro just beyond the eastern edge of the Village exudes old-world ambience with a small bar and open kitchen. The menu has bistro favorites such as pheasant terrine, bavette (undercut steak), mussels cooked in beer and goat's cheese salad, but with Asian accents. The waiters will marry the right wines with your meal.
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Le Nil Bleu
With water running down a kind of interior fountain, the relaxing ambience is the perfect accompaniment to the fantastic Ethiopian food. Order from a range of stews all served with a giant flatbread like crepe - you then rip off pieces to pick up the food. A terrific unique dining experience.
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Le Paris
The quintessential neighborhood bistro. Refreshingly, there's nothing slick or trendy about this place. The dated décor and core of loyal costumers gives it a casual, family, community feel. The menu is about no-frills French food - with classics like duck confit and flétan menieur (halibut dusted in flour and cooked in butter) alongside blood pudding and calf brains for the more adventurous. The place pulls loads of regulars so reserve ahead.
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Le Petit Alep
The complex flavors of Syrian-Armenian cuisine draw clientèle from all over Montréal. There's hummus, salads and muhammara (spread made of walnuts, garlic, bread crumbs, pomegranate syrup and cumin) and even the beef kebabs are an adventure, smothered in tahini, spices and nuts. You can either eat in the bright bistro (the front wall opens up onto the street during nice weather) or, in the evening, the slightly swish dining room next door.
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Le Petit Moulinsart
Fans of the Tintin comic book series will feel right at home here in a restaurant inspired by the Belgian hero and his sidekick Captain Haddock. There's a range of good dishes but it's the mussels (19 sorts!) accompanied by fries and mayonnaise that are the kicker. They've also got an extensive beer list that includes Kriek-Bellevue (a cherry beer) on tap with a head so creamy it could rival a Guinness. Shares space with the Pharaon Lounge.
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Le Poisson Rouge
This seafood specialist with the cozy front terrace is renowned with market vendors for picking the best, freshest cuts. The pan-seared red tuna is juicy as can be with Cajun spices, but the ray braised in butter also took our fancy. The four-course table d'hôte (around C$33 ) is tremendous value. There are two sittings on Friday and Saturday, at and . Bring your own wine.
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Le Spirite Lounge
This eccentric restaurant with the squat-like exterior (Christmas lights and tinfoil) is an absolute gas. There's no printed menu but the main dish is always built around a hot crêpe with a legume-based filling, always organic and inventive. One little thing: you must finish each and every course, for if you don't you'll pay a small fine (donated to charity). Reservations are essential.
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Les Chenêts
Magnificent French food like duck à l'orange , served by chef and owner Michel Gillet in an intimate, magically ornate dining room. Gillet owns the world's largest cognac collection (830 different labels), immortalized in the Guinness Book of Records . If dinner prices you out, swing by for lunch. Classics like herring appetizers and mains like steak frites (steak and French fries) are served in the bistro downstairs from the main dining room.
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Lester's
Serving some of the city's best smoked meat for half a century, this deli is as much a part of Montréal lore as the three-hour lunch. With its art deco yet 1950s diner-style decor, the restaurant attracts a loyal following of locals looking for the perfect smoked meat sandwich (the dry-aged is formidable), smoked salmon, salads and awesome karnatzel (type of dried sausage) in fresh, medium or dry. You can also order through their website.
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Ma-Am-M Bolduc
This neighborhood eatery with piped-in punk and New Age music serves mainstays of Québécois cuisine: meatball stew, tourtière , and more poutines than you can shake a trotter at. Long departed, Mme Bolduc's friendly round face still graces the marquee above the terrace tables.
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Maestro Svp
Hundreds of oyster shells are nailed to the wall in this seafood bistro with trendy highbacked chairs and halogen spots. The fried calamari is a great appetizer and the oysters - a changing palette of 15 varieties - are served in a bewildering number of ways. Try the oyster shooter: a raw specimen in jalapeño vodka, cocktail sauce and horseradish, and you'll never have to prove your courage again.
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Magnan
Founded in the 1930s as a blue-collar diner, Taverne Magnan has long since raised meat and potatoes to an art form. Its reputation is fantastic roast beef - long-marinating, speckled with peppercorns and served in its own juice. This is the place to put back on the pounds after a day's cycling along the Canal de Lachine (near the front door).
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Mango Bay
Situated in a converted Victorian house with stained-glass windows, Mango Bay serves authentic chicken jerk (stew), curried goat or island chicken fajitas with a terrific side order of plantain. Watch out for the incendiary sauces, and save room for a slice of the signature mango cheesecake or rum cake. There's also a quick express lunch menu like a jerk chicken burger with fries and soda. There's live Jamaican music on Saturday evenings.
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Marché Atwater
Right on the banks of the Lachine Canal, with scores of vendors outside and high-class delis and specialty food shops inside, in the tiled, vaulted hall under the art-deco clock tower. Try Boucherie Claude & Henri for beautiful racks of lamb, the bakery Première Moisson for baguettes or the astounding Fromagerie du Marché Atwater, whose hundreds of cheeses reach from runny triple crèmes to hard goudas.
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Marché de la Villette
Here you'll find a convivial traditional deli serving made-to-order sandwiches with homemade pâté, cured ham, sausages, foie gras and an array of pungent cheeses. Also does meat and seafood mains to go, best followed by its flavorful ice cream or sherbet.
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Marché Jean-Talon
The city's largest market, right in the heart of Little Italy. There are several hundred market stalls on a huge square ringed by shops that stock all matter of produce year-round including fruits, vegetables, potted plants, herbs and (of course) maple syrup.
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Marché Maisonneuve
About 20 farm stalls, and inside, a dozen vendors of meat, cheese, fresh vegetables, tasty pastries and pastas in a beautiful beaux arts building (1912-14) in Maisonneueve, girded by pretty gardens.
