Three days in Montreal - help me plan!

Regional Dining Discussions Quebec, Maritimes, Prairies
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Calgary has some good Vietnamese restaurants, too! My cousin’s wife and her family arrived in Saskatchewan in the 70s, as refugees. Every time she visited Calgary, she would go out for Beef 7 way, which was not available in Saskatoon 25 years ago.

This is not too common in Toronto these days.

I went to a place that served it in Toronto about 6 years ago, which closed maybe 5 years ago. Replaced by a Popeye’s.

There are several restaurants serving it in MTL according to Yelp. I haven’t tried it.
I did find a general Vietnamese listing for MTL.

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Very good restaurant, I had dinner there a while back , highly recommend.
Also had two fantastic meals here, but it was way back in the day. Same owners as Le Serpent I think.

https://leclubchasseetpeche.com/

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I enjoyed Le Filet, also owned by the same people, even more than Club Chasse et Peche.

I seem to remember you, petek, also dined at Le Filet.

Le Filet is a more casual, cozy space. A bit dark side at night.

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Yes, I sat at the bar and was treated like royalty! :slight_smile:

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Welcome to Montreal! Fellow New Yorker living in Montreal here. My two cents:

I cannot speak for the hotel you mention. If you want to be more in Plateau, consider the recently-renovated ITHQ hotel. A friend is currently staying at the Hotel Spa Carré St. Louis and is happy there. Both places are right next to the Sherbrooke subway stop, but I have not stayed at either one personally.

Re restaurants:

Cabaret was just ok for me. Too salty. That said, friends had an excellent meal there so maybe it was just an off night when i was there.

Skip Toque. It just felt very generic and somehow forced to me. Nothing terrible, but that would be an easy pass for me.

Helicoptere and Beba are solid choices. Haven’t been to either in a while, though, so maybe things have changed.

Panacée is good, too. Lots of locally sourced ingredients that you might not get elsewhere. I’d put that above Beba and Helicoptere.

I also like Mon Lapin.

The upscale place I recently tried for the first time and adored is Alma. It’s seafood-forward Mexican.

As for more casual, my favorite is Tesfa. Definitely get the hummus. Sounds boring, I know, but it’s really, really good.

Folfol is the casual cousin of Damas. That and Tesfa could be good options for takeout.

I’m very fond of Larry’s for a light bite. Consider a movie at nearby Cinema Moderne.

Kouign Amann, which you mention, has what I think is the best croissant in Montreal. I like Hof Kelsten for pastries. You might want to try both Fairmount and St. Viateur to compare bagels and to see how they differ from the NYC bagel experience. And I second La Binerie for traditional quebeçois cuisine, if that appeals to you.

For ice cream, I love both Unicone and Swirl. Swirl is vegan, but don’t let that turn you off.

As far as stuff to see and do, I suggest a bike ride. I love how bike-friendly this city is, so very different from NYC. If you’re up for it, rent a bike or use Bixi (Citibike equivalent) and explore.

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Putting this on my list of possible hotels. I’ve passed by many times but never gave it much thought for some reason.
Also this one, thanks!
Hotel Spa Carré St. Louis

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We had a great meal sitting at the bar at Candide. Wondering if anyone else has been there and, if so, what you thought.
Also, last year Patrice Demers did a rotation thru a restaurant here in Brooklyn, then went home to Montreal to open Sabayon. We liked his food when he was here and have been hearing that Sabayon is a hit. Comments?

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I love Patrice Demers’ food.

It looks like Sabayon is a popular place, most tables booking up a couple months in advance, when I looked at a availability on OpenTable a few days ago.

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Interesting, nobody mentioned ’ Monarque '?! Higher rating than Montreal Plaza and Cabaret Enfers…etc.
Modern brasserie setting in a gorgeous, roomy, contemporary space. The menu offers some nice and wonderful creations…Appetisers of ’ Escargots and roasted bone marrow with red wine glaze ’ …unique and good. They also prepare fish dishes very well. Ate there late last year.

BTW, based on our meal there last week, our party of 6 somehow only found BEBA enjoyable but not to the extent to rave about it.

My posting of Monarque:

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This thread is EXACTLY why I love HO so much - so many great ideas. Thanks @Daniel, @Jeepyland, @SteveR, @Ziggy for weighing in, and of course everyone else for your continued input! Mr. Bionda has requested that we avoid inflexible tasting menus this time around (he’s a somewhat less adventurous eater than I am and tends to find tasting menus without options a bit challenging, especially when they’re likely to include offal/pate/certain strong-tasting seafood). Given that, plus a closer look at menus and all of the great new recs I’ve gotten here, my short list has changed to:

Damas
Lemeac
Le Violon
Le Serpent
Bouillon Bilk
Le club chasse et peche
Monarque (either the Brasserie or Salle a manger)

Still a lot of narrowing to do! Mr. Bionda has been tasked with looking at the menus and voting on these options, but if I know his palate, he’s going to be most interested in Le Serpent, Monarque and Lemeac. I’m leaning toward Damas, Le Serpent and Bouillon Bilk. I think he’d love Damas as well, but he may prefer to try their cuisine at Folfol for a more casual lunch. Le Serpent is ideally located for us to do a quick dinner before a dusk water circuit at Bota Bota, so that may cement its place on the itinerary by default. I’ll report back!

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Another question for those of you who have been to Damas and did the tasting menu - how customizable is it? With only two of us, I feel like the tasting may allow us to try more of the menu than ordering a la carte would, as it looks like their a la carte portions tend to be large-ish (maybe better for sharing among four than two). Most of their menu would be fine for Mr. Bionda but I do see a couple of items he won’t eat - do they let you kind of choose your own adventure, or is it more of “please no X or X ingredient” and then they sub in something else of their choice?

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“A lot of Vietnamese moved there after the war”

That is a very quaint way of putting it! Resettlement camps were established in Texas because of the similarity in climate.

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I ordered à la carte at Damas, with 5 other Chowhounds at the time. Sorry I can’t be of help re: the tasting menu.

I really liked their Maqluba. That was a memorable dish for me.

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Maqluba isn’t on their menu anymore, unfortunately, because I do love it!

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Not sure when you’ll be there, but the Harvest Festival at Jean Talon is Sep 6-7. Could be fun, or you may want to head to Atwater instead.

Atwater has food stalls and picnic tables outside in the summer, or there’s always the canal.

Re food souvenirs, I’ve mentioned Marche Adonis elsewhere: I’d bring back a lot more from there if I weren’t constrained by a carry-on :smile:. The dumpling places (Qing Hua, Sammi, etc) also sell them frozen in bags of 25 or 50, and have more varied choices than the ones in nyc.

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