Staying Downtown MTL for 3 nights

[nas_esco]

Hi everyone, I will be staying with a significant other in MTL for a few days and really need some advice on food, dessert cafes (open late preferably), seesha/hookah bars/lounges & a few nice restaurants.

Food likes: Seafood, Sushi, Mediterranean, Malaysian, Thai & Italian (moderately priced).

We are planning to spend at least 1 day in Old MTL - so any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Lunch Options:
- Delis are fine too

Dinner Options:
- ?

Dessert Cafes (day & also others that are open late)
- ?

Seesha/Hookah Lounge:
- ?

[foodinspace]

Your "food likes" happen to correspond with the foods for which Montreal does not excel. There are exceptions, of course, especially if you expand Mediterranean to include Lebanese, Moroccan/North African, Syrian, and Portuguese.

Montreal institutions are Schwartz's for Smoked Meat sandwiches, M'me Bolduc/Patati Patata/Paul Patates/La Banquise for poutine (I put them in order of being my favourite but they're all good and "classic"), Au Pied du Cochon, Jean-Talon Market, and, of course, bagels from St-Viateur or Fairmont.

In general, the best restaurants are in the Plateau. Downtown and Old Montreal cater more to your typical tourist or corporate diner. There are exceptions of course!

Here are three recent threads with loads of recommendations:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/729668

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/727104

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/730595

Enjoy your visit!

[SourberryLily]

Desert Cafes open late: Juliette et Chocolat, 3 locations but my favorite is the one on Saint-Laurent. There are many more cafe choices on Saint-Denis.

Sheesha/Hookah i haven't been to any in Montreal but i know there is one on Bishop not too far from Le Milsa.

[kpaxonite]

Its called kaffeine and its pretty good.

There is a less trendy one on guy, west side of the street bellow st catherine just past the pharmacy building on the second floor.

There is another one on St denis on the east side of the street just bellow sherbrooke, never been there though.

[mystikdrey]

The sheesha place on St-Denis is called Gitana and is actually kinda nice.

[westaust]

For Shisha Kaffeine is pretty good, the one kpaxonite is mentionning on Guy is Arabesque

There is also Al-Dar on Mackay, below ste-catherine, food is also pretty good over there (usual assortment of lebanese/middle eastern fares)

Another one is Sherazade on Crescent, again below maisonneuve.