A few Montreal restaurants

Just went for a long weekend to Montreal, and as it’s reputation is of a great food city, we planned the dinners fairly carefully. A mixed bag; with one exception, the service was excellent, friendly and very professional. The food, well when it was good…

It did not begin well: O’thyme was highly recommended by a number of people. The food was poor; for instance a lamb dish I had ordered was ill-conceived (what the hell are you doing when you put large pieces of pickles into a stew) cold and the lamb itself so tough it required a saw to cut. The wine service also was a problem; it’s probably asking a lot for a BYO to do handle wine properly, but this was real amateur hour, and when I tried to stop the waitress shaking the bottle, she spent the rest of the meal glaring at me.

Pied de Cochon: As the name suggests, this is not a place for vegetarians. In fact, think of it as La Tupina north. Wonderful, artery clogging food, my kind of place, specializing in foie gras and pork. But the highlight dish was a special that night: Salad Nicoise, the tuna confited in duck fat. Spectacular, I do hope it makes it to the main menu. And every dish was superb, heavy of course, but just beautifully cooked. The wine list is excellent and reasonably priced. I am on a Cecile Tremblay kick at the moment, and they had the NSG on the list, and it was lovely.

Quartier Generale: Another great restaurant, located slightly off the beaten track in a residential neighborhood. BYO, and extremely professional. The food was very good, everything carefully prepared and well presented.

Hosteria Venti:
An Italian place that can’t cook pasta! My wife was particularly unlucky that night; she sent the seafood appetizer back, as everything was overcooked and rubbery, then the pasta arrived, and she was too embarrassed to ask them to replace it, so she took a couple of forkfuls and ended up eating part of my food. Decent wine list offering a couple of bargains; we were probably unlucky.

Great thread Mark,

I am heading to Montreal for the long weekend. I have reservations at APDC on Sunday and was looking for a good dinner reservation on Saturday. Maybe I will check out Quartier for a good bring your experience. I have a few wines that might fit the bill.

I was 4 / 4 recently in Montreal with Laloux, Les 400 Coups, Hotel Herman, and Liverpool House, in order of my preference.

I gather Quartier is hard to get into; you might want to call immediately.

BTW, not food oriented, and speaking as someone totally non religious, this was the find of the trip:
Saint Joseph's Oratory - Wikipedia. We went there mostly because we were told that best pastry shop in Montreal Duc de Lorraine was next door. And it was indeed superb.

Also worth going to was the massive market at Jean talon.

Great info!

I was going to post a thread about going to Montreal and things to do. I figured I would get flamed for not just searching. Anything else I should look out for? Sorry to hijack your thread…

Thanks for the report, Mark. I adore Pied de Cochon (I can only eat this way once every three months or so), but it’s hard on my pescatarian wife. The Salad Nicoise would have been a good option for her (I would have distracted her from the duck fat)

If you want a great BYO, go to Le P’tit Plateau. The stemware isn’t that great, but the food is excellent. Order the table d’hote and supplement with foie gras torchon and escargot. Everything made in house. You can get them to vac pac torchon and individual portions of their duck confit to go. I do that when I visit and bring it back to Toronto with me. If it’s on the menu, get the venison striploin topped with foie torchon. So good!

For non-BYO, go to Joe Beef - assuming you can get a reservation, that is. The space is tiny, and very, very popular. If you can’t get a table at Joe Beef, go to their sister place, Liverpool House. Regardless, their spaghetti with a whole lobster kicks serious ass, and the foie gras double-down (yes, you read that right) is awesome.

APdC is very good, but I find Joe Beef more refined. Can’t really go wrong at either place though.

I was disappointed in my meal at Le Quartier Generale, and would have preferred another meal elsewhere. I agree that O’Thyme isn’t that great.

If you spend time in the Old Port, stop by Maison Christian Faure. A fantastic pastry shop and cafe. Chef runs a pastry school on the upper floors, and has the cafe on the main floor. The millefeuille, in particular, is outstanding, as are the macarons and other desserts I tasted.

Finally, also in the Old Port is La Champagnerie. I’ve only had bubbly there and not the food. They have a good selection of Champagne and bubbles from elsewhere. Maybe not as extensive as Pops in Chicago, but still good. I suggest you avoid the place after 11pm though as it gets clubby and they pare down the list into something more “manageable.”

Jay,
we went to Maison Christian Faure, later one afternoon. The pastry was excellent, but perhaps had been standing a little too long, just did not seem to be as exciting as Duc de Lorraine.

That’s a shame. For stuff like millefeuille, they should have been making them throughout the day so that the creme pat didn’t make the pastry soggy.

The pickle fad with chefs is a very mixed bag to me. Done will it can add needed acidity and verve to a dish, but too often is heavy handed and can ruin a dish. Chefs need to keep in mind that there are other ways to add acidity and freshness than just pickle.