What does Montreal do well?

[Theresa]

We will be in the city for the first time for two weeks in June - what type of food does Montreal do well? What are the cuisines best represented in the city? I assume French food is good there, but are there others?

[Theresa]

Thanks for your help. We had a great time in Montreal - but we were shocked at the prices for food and drink... We are from the UK, so I know that the pound vs the Canadian dollar isn't great for us at the moment, but even allowing for that we found it really expensive.

However, we had some good food along the way ...

We enjoyed the smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz very much - perfect to eat with a beer over the road in Frappe while watching the world cup matches.

We ate at Khyber Pass, and thought it was very good. Highlights were the great soups and lovely ravioli-type starters. The prices are very reasonable compared to other places and the set menus are great value (although they are hardly set menus - you still get the choice of the full a la carte, as far as I could make out). Lovely people too.

We tried buffalo wings in The Olde Orchard - they were quite good, but slightly over cooked - which is hard to do with a chicken wing! Strangely, the hot sauce was less hot than the medium one - but a completely different spice mix. Their fries were the worst I have ever had - soggy and greasy.

We ate in Le Petit Moulinsart one night. The food wasn't perfect, but it was tasty, in the main. The mussels in wine and cream were ok, and very fresh, but a bit bland and I liked the steak tartare. The two fish dishes we ordered (a monk fish dish and prawns with noodles, I think) had some lovely flavours, but both were overcooked. Despite the slightly disappointing food, I really liked the place, and the terrace was lovely.

We only had poutine once, and it was just in a pub in the Latin Quarter on St Denis. I wasn't overly impressed, as the gravy wasn't great, but it may not have been a good place to try it.

We had a nice vietnamese soup in the JT Market, and bought a lovely piece of pork for roasting from one of the shops along that strip.

I loved the baguettes from Pain Dore - they had a nice chewy, almost ciabatta-like texture.

We were looking for Cuisine Szechuan in China Town, and found out later that it's in the Plateau area. But we discovered Delicieux Xiang, on the corner of St Laurent and Gauchetiere, which we thought was very good, despite a couple of bad reviews on this board. They did a very good rendition of beef hotpot and green beans with minced pork, and an ok home-style pork.

I think that's it - I'll post more if I remember any other places.

We loved the city, and being located on the edge of the Latin Quarter and the Plateau was great. In ten years time, when we've paid off our credit cards, we'll be back!

-----
Khyber Pass Restaurant
506 Av Duluth E, Montreal, QC H2L1A7, CA

[mak2k]

Actually Cuisine Szechuan is in the Concordia area, not in the Plateau area.

[mainsqueeze]

Thanks for your update!

For next time, Cusine Szechuan is not on the Plateau. It's in the western part of downtown, near Guy-Concordia metro station. This area has recently been dubbed "Chinatown II" by Montreal hounds, since a lot of Chinese restos have been popping up around there in the past couple of years.

[Maximilien]

"We are from the UK, so I know that the pound vs the Canadian dollar isn't great for us at the moment, but even allowing for that we found it really expensive."

Wow really surprised about that, and from what I can read you did not eat in expensive places.

[ios94]

Max beat me to it.

Wow, I'm surprised to see that you found our food expensive. I would say our restos are relatively very inexpensive compared to other major cities in North America (think NY, Boston, Toronto), espeically for the quality you can get here. I haven't been across the pond in a few years but I'd think that we're even relatively cheaper than major European cities as well. Plus you are getting over 50% on the pound, not as good as what it was a few years ago but still. I'm glad you enjoyed your stay.

[michaelmas]

I have to say I also found MTL food rather expensive coming from NYC. I can't compare the high(est)-end restaurants, as I don't frequent them in any city, but I know there were scores of neighborhood restaurants in NYC (especially Brooklyn) where you could get a well-prepared main for around $14-$20 (I'm thinking of places like The Farm on Adderley, Tartine, Savoia).

There are some places here where I can do the same (like Caf et Bouffe) but they seem fewer and far between.

I often suspect that menus were priced when the CAD was valued lower; now that it's about equal to the USD I feel like some places are overcharging. But I also feel like groceries are considerably more expensive here than in NYC, so it may simply be that food itself is more expensive - not just eating out.

The total lack of street food also makes it harder to get a quick, cheap bite.

[hala]

I don't know about the UK, but if you compare the prices here to the US, food is much more expensive here at the low-end since minimum wage is higher. However, upper mid end is similar and high end is actually cheap here.

And personally, i appreciate being able to eat out when on the run and not wonder whether the person who served me or made my food was paid under 3 dollars an hour.

[unlaced]

Thanks for the report!

Montreal fries and gravy are very different to the UK/Australian style - I have only found a handful of places that make fries/chips that I like, and am yet to find a place with, what I consider to be, good gravy!

[berbatov]

It is odd that the OP thought Montreal was expensive, especially since as other have remarked the restaurants in question weren't that pricy. The only time I find Montreal is noticeably more expensive is with quick restaurants where tips are not expected (ie you are served over a counter) and this is due to the exorbitant minimum wage here as well as a slightly higher cost of food.
Although lets give the OP the benefit of the doubt, maybe she isn't comparing Montreal to London ($$$) but elsewhere in the UK. Europe outside of London/Paris/Italy isn't that expensive foodwise...I recently took a trip to Berlin and found that both groceries and restos were very affordable even compared to Mtl

[Theresa]

We didn't eat in expensive places, but I looked at lots of menus and found them to be really high prices, and higher than similar places in the UK, including London. Main courses in midrange places were often anything between $25 and $35, and that's before tax, and the cheapest wine in most places - even bars - was around $30 a bottle - again, before tax.

In the UK you would expect similar restaurants to charge around $20-28 for a main course and the cheapest wines on a menu also tend to be around $20-28 - and of course there's no additional tax on top. Just to make sure, I've even quickly checked the prices of a few good restaurants in London (two of them among the very best) and their prices are all well within this range. We don't tip as much in the UK either - generally 10/12.5%. So overall, it's a big difference.

Even 1/2 pint bottle of beer was $6, which is £4.40 to us, and even at the old exchange rate £3.20 or so - and we would pay only £2.00-£2.50 for the same here in similar places.

Overall, I found it to be very different to European cities, even London and Paris. The range of food on offer is great, but I was just disappointed that I couldn't try as much of it as I would have liked.

[nextguy]

Though I've not been to London (I have been to Paris, NYC, and a few other major American cities), my opinion is that in Montreal we do pay higher prices for lesser quality. At the low end (McD's, BK, food courts) we pay more for the same food or if we do pay the same price the quality is lower. For example, 4$ might buy you a typical grilled panini here but in NYC you would get an organic one. At mid-range places you find downtown the price really shoots up. Again, prices may still be somewhat comparable to other cities but we have lower quality. At the high end, that is where you might see some differences. Though our high end might not really compare to the highest end in NYC (let's face it, Europea is not equal to Per Se), we also don't pay those prices. This most likely is due to food quality but at least in that class of restaurant the price reflects the difference. What I mean to say is that at the high end restaurants in Montreal we aren't served line-caught fish still stiff with rigor right out of the water and we aren't charged for it. At mid to low end we aren't served organic chicken and veg on just baked bread but we are asked to pay as if we were.

-----
Europea
1227, rue de la Montagne, Montreal, QC H3G1Z2, CA

[lagatta]

Berbatov, if you think the minimum wage is exhorbitant, please try living on it. The people who work hard to prepare and serve our food deserve a living wage.

Actually, food in many French towns outside Paris is reasonable in price, and great quality - though the SMIC in France provides a living wage, at least outside Paris and other cities with exceptionally high housing costs.

My friends from NYC found restaurants (not at all high end, more casual byows, but not "fast food joints" cheaper here, and also found we had better produce prices at our markets. Theresa, I'm surprised you found food here more expensive than in the UK, although I haven't been up in Liverpool. What is very expensive here is wine, and to some extent even beer. That is why byows took off so much a few decades back.

Theresa, there is a lot of Lebanese and other Middle Eastern food here, and this influence in mainstream cooking.

[The Chowhound Team]

Folks, whether minimum wage is too high or too low is really off-topic for our site. We've removed a couple of posts on that subject and would ask that people let that tangent go.

[blondee_47]

Montreal does outdoor terraces/al fresco very well in the summer. Choose a restaurant where you can sit outdoors. Somehow sitting outdoors always makes the food taste better.

[celfie]

ha on prince arthur it doesn't

[sweettoothMTL]

The two threads above should keep you busy for a while. But for a quick answer:
Smoked Meat (schwartz)
Bagels (St-Viateur)
Decadence (au pied du cochon, among many others)
French yes, but French-market-local-bistro oriented, is even more a specialty than French.

[mak2k]

let's not forget about poutine @ la banquise

[wilmagrace]

for atleast one meal it is worth compromising on food and go for the terraces, hidden patios and the festivals such as jazzfest in june for the real vibe of montreal, people watching and live the montreal experience in summertime.... I would also try out some downtown restaurants for ambience such as ferreira on peel. I enjoy good food with attentive waiters but find the whole evening out is more fun when a restaurant is full and alive. Restaurants in Montreal have great deals on their lunchtime/business menus so you can sample some of the best at discounted prices if you have your main meal at noon. Many restaurants have late meal deals starting at 9 or 10 in the evening. I find prices in Montreal for good food in restaurants beats the restaurant scene in other big cities and I havent even touched on the bring your own booze restaurants.

[Jasper1]

I second wilmagrace. June is a great time to enjoy the outdoor dining scene in restaurants with terrasses (outdoor patios) in Montreal. Chasse et Peche (French/Quebec-regional) in Old Montreal has a very nice terrasse in a beautiful historic setting.

[wilmagrace]

do they have their own terrasse or do you mean the one they borrow in summer at the museum:

LES MIDIS SERONT DE RETOUR SUR LA TERRASSE…
… À COMPTER DU 1er JUIN, DANS LE JARDIN DU CHÂTEAU RAMEZAY

[kpaxonite]

They do borrow it from the museum in the summer, and it is indeed very beautiful.

[ios94]

Theresa, these two threads should keep you busy. To the moderators out there, would it be a good idea to have 1 or 2 sticky threads to these types of posts seeing as how the tourist season is upon us?

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/399473
Quintessential Montreal

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/464435
Best of Montreal

[Theresa]

Thanks - I'll explore all these leads. Sorry if it looks like I was being lazy (it really annoys me when people don't check previous threads before posting) - I promise I did try to search - but I couldn't find the right phrase for searching this topic...nothing seemed to work.