Your guide to a foodie weekend in Montréal
Restaurants Gastronomy
JP Karwacki
This guide goes out to every foodie that’s new to Montréal. We get it: It can be a little intimidating when you’re arriving in a city bursting at the seams with iconic restaurants and world-famous dishes that make up its famous food culture. You may very well have studied where you should go and what you should be dining on, but unless you’re planning to only subsist on poutine, bagels, and smoked meat? You’ll need a guide to recommend places for you to go for any meal of the day. Start here with this three-day guide.
Day 1
A morning in Old Montréal
Doubling as a sightseeing tour, you can begin where the city itself began in Old Montréal and Old Port.
On their cobblestone streets, you’ll find a wealth of cafés both charming an exceedingly Instagrammable to grab that very cup of the day, including beautiful spots like Crew Collective & Café, Café Olimpico, and Le Petit Dep. When it comes to breakfast, however, your first stop will be at the cozy bakery and bistro specializing in breakfast and brunch, Olive et Gourmando. If you want a more full-bodied brunch experience, look into Dandy or Mélisse.
Lunch in Chinatown
Come lunchtime, it won’t take you long to walk over to Chinatown, a deceptively small neighbourhood of the city’s bursting with culinary attractions. Walk through its large Paifang Gates and you’ll be greeted by a tightly packed collection of restaurants.
There’s a lot to pick from, so it depends on what grabs you: Consider the hand-pulled noodles of Nouilles de Lan Zhou, the Hong Kong-style diner Dobe & Andy, longstanding restaurants like Beijing Restaurant and Keung Kee for more classic Cantonese and Szechuan specialties, the Korean cuisine of Chez Bong, or jiaozi from Qing Hua Dumpling.
Dinner Downtown
No doubt the bright lights of Montréal’s downtown are bound to draw you in, where food halls like Time Out Market, Le Central, and Le Cathcart can provide a buffet of options to get a taste of options culled from across the city.
If you want something more intimate, however, head back to Old Montréal for dinner: Restaurants like Garde Manger, Barroco, Jellyfish, Le Serpent and Le Club Chasse et Pêche will all give you a good first taste of new Quebec cuisine. There’s also Monarque or Toqué! if you’re celebrating your first night in town.
Those traveling with families or larger groups made up of varying preferences can rely on restaurants like Gaspar, Vieux-Port Steakhouse, and Jacopo—their menus excel at serving a range of crowd-pleasers.
Day 2
Start out in the Sud-Ouest
Walking along the Lachine Canal from Saint-Henri, you can begin the day on the right foot with coffee and biscuits from Dreamy, located inside of the Canadian Roasting Society, an absolute hub for coffee drinkers (be sure to pick up a bag from a local roaster while you’re there).
From here, you can make your way towards the Atwater Market, one of the more pivotal places to experience the wealth of seasonal and perennial ingredients that fuel the city’s kitchens. From here, you can grab a pint from the Burgundy Lion or Brewpub Memento before continuing your journey, or stop for lunch at Bonheur d'Occasion.
Lunch in the Plateau
While known as the gathering grounds for the city’s artistic scenes, the Plateau and Mile End are also where you’ll find one of the highest concentrations of places to not only eat, but eat iconically. These two neighbourhoods alone are home to some of Montréal’s most famous food.
After you’ve strolled through streets like Mont-Royal Avenue and Saint-Laurent Boulevard—and don’t be shy about exploring the side streets around them to experience the architecture!—it’s time to start considering bites of what’s classic.
Because many of the following restaurants serve generous portions, we recommend that you purchase one of the following and split it with someone else if you’re keen to try as much as possible: A smoked meat sandwich from Schwartz’s, a special from Wilensky Light Lunch, Portuguese chicken from Ma Poule Mouillée, and poutine from La Banquise. These and more are all must-eats for first-time foodies.
Just don’t grab bagels yet (see Day 3)!
Dinner in Little Italy
Little Italy’s home to an overwhelming amount of excellent restaurants, and you can’t go wrong with any of them. Particular recommendations go to Impasto, San Gennaro and Il Bazzali, as well as Bottega and Pizzeria Napoletana. Heading a bit further to Villeray, there’s Moccione as well.
Despite what the name of the area might imply, however, there’s a lot more to Little Italy and its neighbour Villeray than Italian food: The whole neighbourhood been the birthplace of numerous exceedingly popular (if not downright famous) restaurants cooking a wide range of cuisines, from Vin Mon Lapin, Marconi and Salle Climatisée to Pichai, Bar-St-Denis and Montréal Plaza.
Just be sure to book ahead.
Day 3
A morning in Mile End
Saving some of the city’s best for last, you’ll want to head back to the Mile End to finally try bagels from St-Viateur Bagel and Fairmount Bagel Bakery, two icons of the city. By waiting until the third day, you be able to buy a bag from each to take home with you, ensuring they’ll be as fresh as possible for the trip home.
Along the same street, you can find some great coffee and tea as well. If you’re still hungry, head over to Larry’s for a proper breakfast.
Making the French connection
By now, you’ll have visited many of the city’s best and brightest places to eat, but you’ll have missed out on one quintessential experience: Eating fine French food. By staying near the Plateau and Mile End, you’ll be in close proximity to institutions of the city, such as Leméac, Chez Lévêque, and L’Express.
Each of these are open for lunch, but if you drift away from the area, it’s approaching dinnertime and you’re craving a taste? Either hop in a cab to any of them, or get adventurous and explore the food and wine of the French-leaning Bistro La Franquette.
A bucket list dinner
There are many lauded places to dine out in Montréal (see for yourself), but oftentimes you’ll find that you need to travel to eat the best. That’s why, from wherever you are now in the city come suppertime, this leg of journey encourages you to take ride out to some of the farther-flung reaches of the city.
It’s time to go out with a bang: You won’t regret tasting menus at Hélicoptère or Le Flamant in Hochelaga; heading further west to Hoogan et Beaufort; venturing north to Ahuntsic for Le St-Urbain; going down southwest for Joe Beef, Vin Papillon, Liverpool House, McKiernan, or Beba; or tasting essential Quebecois fare at Au Pied de Cochon.
JP Karwacki
JP Karwacki is a Montréal-based writer and journalist whose work has appeared in Time Magazine, the Montreal Gazette, National Post, Time Out, NUVO Magazine, and more. Having called the city home for over a decade and a half, he regularly focuses on spreading the good word about the amazing things to eat, drink and do in Montréal. One half raconteur and the other flâneur (with just a dash of boulevardier), when he wasn’t working on the frontlines of the city's restaurants and bars, he spent his time thinking about, reading about and writing about restaurants and bars.