Restaurants to try in 2010

[bigfellow]

What restaurants do you really want to try locally (in the province) this year?

I want to try Les Enfants terrible and a Venezuelan on St Laurent that I've heard about.

What restaurants do you just have to try?

[HappyMtl]

Can anyone recommend a good Vietnamese restaurant to add to the list?

[lagatta]

Have you been to Pho Tay Ho, on St-Denis at the southwestern corner of Beaubien? You'll find a lot about it on this board. I'll also put in a good word for a very small and inexpensive byow hole-in-the-wall not far from there, Nhu Y, on Jean-Talon just east of St-Urbain. While it has very good, evidently authentic food, the menu is necessarily more limited in this tiny restaurant run by a couple than in the somewhat larger Pho Tay Ho. Both get a lot of Vietnamese patrons.

[wilmagrace]

--deux gamins
--Portus Calle
--dominion square tavern on metcalfe
--lobster box (muvbox) when it reopens this summer in old montreal
http://www.muvbox.ca/
--vu bistro near clock tower old montreal for the area, drinks and finger food
http://www.bistrovu.com/
--same thing for cafe eclusiers old montreal on a sunny day
-- rumi for breakfast
--bagels etc
--la cantine
--il cortile for inner courtyard
--australian restaurant on park ave.
--Nizza
--Su
--maybe back to le locale since chefs changed, same for newtown
...and last but not least the new montreal poolroom for steamie

[Jasper1]

There are a lot of good recommendations for pho here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/5901.... One of my personal favorites is Ong Ca Can on Ste-Catherine Est. Great pho and soupe tonkinoise. It's recently renovated, clean, good service and one of the oldest Vietnamese restaurants in Montreal.

[HappyMtl]

Thanks lagatta and Jasper. I will try them out. Love Vietnamese food, especially a great bowl of beef pho with lots of Asian basil and coriander!

[Frenchie]

St-Urbain
Délices de l'Île Maurice
Chien Fumant
The sparrow
XO
Ibiscus

I'll pretend I havent been to Cabane à sucre Pied de Cochon just to try it again...;)

[Andria]

Well, off the top of my head I can think of the following:
Mas Cuisine
Decca 77
La Cantine
La Banquise
Milos
Jun I
High tea at Le Maitre Chocolatier
Romados
Chao Phraya
La Chronique
Moti Mehal

Not really places I haven't tried, but also on my to-do list
Picasso - late one night after their re-opening
Pied de Cochon - for the pig's head

[KzenCass]

Le Chien Fumant.... opened just over a week ago by Maksim Morin (old chef at Joe beef and Liverpool House under Fred)..... i highly recommend.....

I went last week and had a very very good meal.... not open lunch but the kitchen is open till 2am, and is closed mondays

[mak2k]

really? what type of food is it? what did you get? i like the name of the restaurant..

[BLM]

Two totally opposite reviews of Le Chien Fumant. Catherine Macpherson in today's Hour paper gives a total rave. While Lesley Chesterman in last Saturday's Gazette said pretty much the opposite(the restaurant was misnamed(I assume) as Au Chien Fumant in the review).

[lagatta]

In the Hour review it sounded very good indeed, if more than a bit pricy for a "small neighbourhood bistro".

[thebenc]

DNA by a longshot.
Followed closely by Kitchen Gallery.

I haven't been to La Montée since they moved West and lost the suffix, so that's on there too.

And goes without saying, as I kick myself for missing it in 2009, Cabane à sucre Au Pied de Cochon.

[KSC02]

thebenc- Not that I really want to increase the competition for reservations for this place, but if you're a fan of Martin's style, this is not to be missed. A different twist on the traditional Cabane a sucre theme would be an understatement. Well worth it. Arrive hungry and pace yourself.

[Andria]

Do I smell a potential chowdown at the cabane à sucre APDC?

[thebenc]

Hmmm... a week into April and still no call?
As one easy rider once noted, "We blew it!"
Ah well, next year, next year I suppose.
We'll always have McAuslan Brunch...

[NickMontreal]

FYI, bigfellow - Bocadillo's is definitely worth the trip. I used to live in Venezuela - and this is definitely the most authentic Venezuelan I've had anywhere else...

Personal reccos in my opinion are the arepas and their fried egg sandwich. Or any sandwich for that matter... they come in a really great grilled bread, which has a nice dense and chewy bite and cool looking griddle marks all over it... I've now taken to buying them on their own to take home and use as hamburger buns...

Anyway - so I give it a thumbs up... Buen provecho!

[marblebag]

Now that Brasserie Brunoise is closed, I have to try Mas on Wellington. I'm also tempted by La Cantine everytime I go to Kouign Amann.

[chilipepper]

Gotta get out to that lamb noodle place in Verdun - tried twice so far and just couldn't make it!

[lagatta]

Where is this Venezuelan? Haven't heard of it.

Me, the couscous restaurant (Aux Deux Oliviers) I quoted a glowing review of. Hard to get friends to try something new, and I'm not one to dine alone unless I'm travelling.

[bigfellow]

It is Bocadillo by Sablo Kafé, 3677 St. Laurent, 514-227-4041
It was mentioned today by Maeve Haldane in the article on casual restos for 2009.

[lagatta]

Interesting. Sablo Kafé is very close to where I live - it is at the corner of St-Zotique and St-Dominique in la Petite Italie aka Little Everywhere.

Although there is nothing wrong with the café, somehow I've never fallen in love with it. It lacks focus - perhaps this new endeavour will have that focus.