Partner’s work found extra money in the travel budget, and that means going to Montreal for my bday!
Haven’t been since 2013. Last time I was there I missed out on Joe Beef and had a hell of a meal at Hotel Herman.
What are people liking these days in MTL?
Congrats! Best city in North America imho. Check out recent reports from last year here, stay away from Joe Beef or anything feeling 2013. But do Garde Manger, Foxy, Vin Mon Lapin, L’Express to start.
Heard… cancelling JB right now.
Did college in NYC and made it up to MTL twice; agree that it’s top class in North America.
I saw yours and @set0132’s reports from Garde Manger and Foxy. Much rather go there than JB!
What’s new for coffee – you know? Nostalgic memories for Cafe Myriade
We just got back from there! Had a great meal at Cabaret L’Enfer (chef was on this season of Top Chef). Predominantly French, with some of his Italian heritage mixed in like fresh burrata at the start. If you have not gone to Schwartz’s for Montreal smoked meat, I would go for lunch. I like it better than LA pastrami.
jeromeferrer.ca Got a star in the recent first Quebec guide, their lunch menu is a good value. It is a bit old school french fine dining, which is not so popular in Montreal. Very much in line with Michelin’s preferences.
Strong +1 to Vin Mon Lapin. Foxy is good and I’ve been twice, but Vin Mon Lapin is on another level.
I keep hearing good things about restaurant Mastard, but have not been yet. Same with Montreal Plaza.
Dark horse recommendation: Cabane a Sucre Au Pied De Cochon or Cabane D’a Cote. You will need to rent a car to get out there. It’s very lively and rustic in a working maple and apple orchard. I find the food there more interesting than the iconic Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal. Incredible value for the amount of food they will assault you with 
I went last year in the early fall and hit the end of tomato season, which is a lighter than their winter menu, and we probably took 1/4 of the food back with us.
Hot recs! Did Massimo come out and explain how he developed the special in his dream?
Looking like Garde Manger for sure and Vin Mon Lapin up there. Very intrigued by Foxy and Mastard too.
Hahaha, he was there most of the night and very much the big personality you would expect if you watch the show. Their setup is very open, all the cooking is happening in the dining room. If you like to see the action, booking the bar seating is the right play.
another vote for vin mon lapin if you can get a reservation. playful and novel without being over the top. well executed dishes and really great service. 6-ish course (some multi dish) tasting as a solo diner ran like $95 cad last year and felt like an absolute steal.
vin papillon i found quite good (one or two misses as i think the haricot vert with chili oil was lacking in balance and punch but mostly in the good range) - the cream cheese ice cream carrot cake sandwich with warm caramel sauce is probably one of the most decadent desserts ive ever had, tho.
parapluie was a little more unique in terms of its preparations of wine bar fare but very satisfying (no misses when i went, good to great). amazing fries btw. very happening last time i went. one of my favorite wine bar interiors.
salle climatisée for the conviviality. tiny tiny 2 maybe 3 burner natural wine bar. have had a couple cdc changes recently and cdc sometimes isn’t in house despite the 2-3 chef staff so can’t vouch for consistency. but really great atmosphere when brendan is there - still nice and warm other wise - might get a glass or two of wine and/or digestifs on the house if you have a good conversation and he’ll drink with you. food did have one or two heavily oversalted dishes though. think former cdcs are at limbo (new) and nora gray.
foxy was overall decent (had really great arctic char dish that sort of sat between salted mackerel and trout in taste when i went) though more than a couple of the dishes felt a little confused and quite pricey for what it is i think. wouldn’t go again tbh.
snowdon deli is a tiny bit outta the way, but probably more of the quintessential montreal deli than other spots. snowdon special + chicken soup w/ kreplach is great. older mostly english-speaking jewish community dining around you (interesting historical reasons for that). super special place imo. few places like it. liver seemed to be ordered a lot too by the regulars, if that’s your thing.
a restaurant i haven’t been to but feel like you shouldn’t miss after learning more about food and the scene in montreal from afar (i cancelled my reservation here and regret it) - restaurant beba. ari schor’s (and brother’s) extremely personal restaurant. big break from the standard wine bar scene in mtl (which all the above besides mon lapin would fall into - bit of a execution and raw genius thing i think) and a very unique culinary voice. lots of tripe, boiled (and non boiled) meats (in a very attractive way), seafood dishes w/ product sourced from japan (e.g. hotaru ika pasta, house cured mackerel montadito on sesame bagel bread). restaurants like this place are probably in the single digits between the us and canada if any others exist. taking david mcmillan’s word for that.
another place that ive been following and haven’t been too and probably a bit of an unexpected recommendation for mtl is sushi nishinokaze. owned by chef vincent gee (japan trained + a year at sushi shin nishiazabu) and anesthesiologist/caviar distributor/ceramics collector julian doan. possibly some of the most obsessively sourced product in the u.s. or canada. imports all the fish (only wild) himself w/ no middlemen if impossible and sources local product through sheer force will if the quality is better than imported product. only person north america, as far as im aware, able to negotiate his way into live atlantic ama ebi (pandalus borealis - same as in northern japan, not the pandalus platycerus spot prawns we get on the west coast). everything is served on his personal ceramics collection so you’ll be dining on edo period, joseon dynasty ceramics, and other works from some of the most significant names in ceramics history. preparations veer historical - you’ll be getting simmered shredded scallops, shrimp salted and fermented in their own guts (+ a hotaru ika preparation of this - don’t think you can legally serve them raw in the u.s. (?)) - and extremely respectful of tradition. closest place in the u.s. is probably shion 69 leonard (owners are close friends i think). at $300 cad pp (360 cad after gratuity so ~260 usd), it’s an absolute steal imo when benchmarking against the la or ny sushi scenes. julian’s insta handle is @jd.514 if you want an impression of the sort of experience you might be getting.
apologies for going off the rails there at the end.
tl;dr if i were to go back i’d make sure to hit up mon lapin, snowdon deli, beba, and sushi nishinokaze. latter two which i haven’t been to but hold up to research as being extremely unique (on the continent) in terms of perspective and voice - more so than any of the other places.
Damn, thanks for the thorough rundown! Sadly I don’t think VML is in our cards this trip (I guess they release reservations in 30 day batches, and we’ve missed the boat on that one by a week). We are going to try and stop by and hope for a walk in, but love to hear the interest in Beba, as I saw this on a TimeOut (I think) list.
Um Sushi Nishinokaze sounds absolutely incredible! We may reconfigure some nights, as I secured nights at Garde Manger and Foxy, if VML is a hopeless effort. No experience or intel at Limbo or Nora Gray?
We might be staying closer to the very general region of Snowdon/St. Henri/Verdun, as I really liked Henri my second trip, and the Plateau my first trip. So, would love to hit that deli, in addition to Schwartz’s.
(Relatedly, knowledgeable peeps, where are the more interesting neighborhoods in town for lodging? Plateau feels like a reliable pick but, obviously, after 10 years, affordable Airbnb choices have dwindled).
ive been to nora gray under the previous executive chef (not under the new one dmetro sinclair - but when he was in the house at salle climatisee the food was very solid), and while my memory of it isn’t great cause we were stuck sweating by the heater, i think the pastas were solid(?) wasn’t disappointed with the food if i recall correctly. …mixing up cdcs/executive but gets weird at wine bars lmao.
also for italian, moccione is a more than solid option (despite a slightly under salted pasta dish), enjoyed my time there. don’t think either punch above the level of osteria mozza for me, though. there was this interesting salmon tartare with mint, paper thing fried bread slices, cucamelons, and some sort of gazpacho though at moccione that was a surprise standout dish of my trip there…
never had harrison shewchucks (limbo) food, though i think he pretty much established salle climatisee’s identity food-wise as one of it’s founders.
dunno about lodging, only stayed in the plateau and little italy. really liked little italy. amazing and growing food options (big chunk of the top restaurants are in or around the area), parc jarry nearby, bustling and vibrant scene.
also i’ve had luck with the waitlist for mon lapin. got off it about 3 times in a week before choosing to dine there (might’ve stretched my luck a bit there).
We went up to MTL over the winter and had a great time (largely due to reccs from this board). We talk about how if we went back, we’d just do Garde Manger, L’Express, and Greenspot on a loop. Foxy was a big miss for us: service was distracted to the point that we felt like they didn’t understand why we even showed up. And I felt like the food was nothing special compared to what we can eat in LA. Vin Mon Lapin didn’t happen, despite our best efforts – but we really wanted to try it.
DuckDuckGo highlights had me at “best steamed hot dogs on the planet” for Greenspot.
Dang!! More recs for Vin Mon Lapin. Really crossing my fingers!!
mon lapin team does have a new (dec 2024) rotisserie chicken (and more) restaurant called rotisserie la lune (which may be significantly easier to get into) if you just want to try the teams cooking. haven’t been though. seems like the og mon lapin sergios (frappier and noel) may still be in the house there (frappier serving chicken soup to customers table side as of 6 weeks ago).
I’ll jump in to defend Foxy - it’s a different beast than MVL and some of the others, but had a fantastic meal there in the late winter, it’s always interesting sourcing on the produce, etc, fun room to hang out in with friends. But your milage may vary.
it’s funny you mention their steamie, i think about it maybe three times a month.
i’ll throw in another vote for schwarz’s deli. it was a good little spot to stop in and grab a sandwich. very charming waitstaff – we walked in while they were taking one another’s blood pressure.
there was an idea to get out to snowdon deli, but it was a bit too far. the greenspot is a quick walk from marché atwater, and that sealed it for us.
Sadly L’Express is temporarily closed through July (at least). 
When we walked by last month the entire facade of the building was under construction.
Vin Mon Lapin does has a fair amount of bar and counter seating. If you go before opening you can probably walk in if the waitlist doesn’t pay off for you.
I felt like Bouillon Bilk lost a step when we went last year, but that might have been because we went too soon after their move following the fire in their old location. We loved our first meal there!
Discovered this while attempting to make the res for L’Express.
Good tip about Vin Mon Lapin. We’ll give it a go! I also made reservations at Fleurs et Cadeaux.
btw its terasse season so mon lapin should have some some outdoor sidewalk seating reserved for walk-ins, too. wasn’t rly competitive last summer.
on the fleurs et cadeaux note - if ur source is reddit, i’d take their takes on japanese food in mtl with a grain of salt… lots of people on there riding hard for some of the most disappointing ramen i’ve ever had. i think the nishinokaze owner (snobs) vouches for kitano shokudo/otto bistro as the only other place in the city capable of serving decent japanese food. should be in the same vein as fleurs et cadeaux but ofc thats also secondhand info + he probably gets special treatment (don’t think everyone is getting simmered fish lips). i’d just be cautious since us angelenos are spoiled for choice in that regard.
Got a hot tip from a fellow NELAer on our hallowed forum for Fleurs. But ive double-booked with Nora Gra, but Im thinking maybe Larrys??? Beba on Saturday for sure… And I cinched Lapin today!
LIVE from Montreal its ROTISSERIE LA LUNE!
EDIT:
Wedge Cesar. Traditional dressing. Avec “Roasted Offal.” Texture is at times sausage to velveted beef. Hell ye!
“Hot Chicken” special topped with sauteed seasonal green peas. Subtle heat from the tomato-based sauce. Frites excellent.
oh man that hot chicken looks incredible. also love that mtl chefs aren’t afraid to put offal on their menus (and salads!).
