Your 2023 guide to New Year’s Eve in Montréal

Old Montréal, NYE-style

Old Montréal’s many luxury boutique hotels roll out the red carpet on New Year’s Eve and provide excellent jumping off (or staying in) points for the night. The chic W Montréal is offering “Fantastic,” “WOW” and “Extreme WOW” packages that offer varying degrees of cocktails and champagne in the W Living Room (featuring DJ/producer Greg Cerrone) and their karaoke room. Towards the Old Port, the stylish and contemporary Hôtel William Gray will host its lavish annual NYE Grand Ball soirée (“Make indulgence your 2024 resolution”) featuring unlimited drinks and a champagne bar, four-course meal, live music and a DJ, and a discounted spa experience. The elegant Hôtel Nelligan (with its beautiful view of the Saint Lawrence River) will partner with the warmly wonderful Place d’Armes Hôtel & Suites for its Minuit Argenté (Silver Midnight) party with a welcome cocktail, five-course dinner, open bar, live music and midnight champagne. The historic, amazingly old world Auberge Saint-Gabriel with its stone walls is renowned for its legendary parties, and its Euphorie Minuit dinner and DJs event will be no exception. And on a night that’s famous for champagne, go to where they take the bubbly stuff seriously, the lively Maison Saint-Paul, a chic “sabering” champagne resto-bar where they’ll even lend you a sabre to slash open your bottle. Join them for the Midnight Masquerade, an exclusive black-tie event where guests are encouraged to don a mask of their choosing, adding an air of mystery to an evening featuring specially curated fixed menus.

Ritzing it up downtown

As is the custom, Montréal’s beautifully restored Ritz-Carlton Hotel, at its haute cuisine, in-house restaurant Maison Boulud, will be hosting their annual New Year’s Dinner soirée, offering a six-course tasting menu as well as music and dancing. Getting in on the exclusive New Year’s action is also the esteemed (and imaginatively renovated and redesigned) Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth hotel. The “Queen E” will be celebrating New Year’s Eve on two fronts: restaurant Rosélys will welcome you with a delicious kir, followed by an eight-course New Year's Eve menu with live jazz during your meal and a glass of champagne for the big countdown to the New Year, while Bar Nacarat, with its reputation for outstanding mixology, will have a burlesque show and DJ, all hosted by the fabulous Adriana from Canada’s Drag Race. Over in the Quartier des Spectacles, with its commanding views of downtown and Place des Arts, the DoubleTree By Hilton Montréal’s new in-house resto Bivouac (equal parts social lounge, artisan bar and modern bistro) will be offering a special Québec-sourced, five-course NYE menu.

Sure-bet New Year’s Eve winners

This year, the Casino de Montréal is promising all-day New Year’s Eve entertainment experiences (two types of tickets, one of which includes a gourmet meal) that are immersive, spectacular and exclusive (indeed, only NYE party ticket holders will be admitted to the casino for most of the day). From DJs in the Valet Bar and live music in the Québec Pavilion, to festive menus, NYE-themed accessories to jazz up your outfit and a personal photo session to capture the memory, the casino will transform itself into a one-stop fun shop. Le Balcon Cabaret Music-Hall on Sainte Catherine Street will be doing what they do best when they bring the house down with a soul, Motown, pop and disco live music mix courtesy of the Freddie James Project. Their annual New Year’s Eve party dinner-and-show ticket includes a six-course gourmet meal, the show and DJ, and a glass of bubbly at midnight.

Bust a move downtown

Get the night flying at Jet Night Club, Crescent Street’s largest nightclub, which is promising the “ultimate VIP treatment” for you and 999 of your friends, music of the house/hip-hop/club anthem variety, and a live countdown on giant screens at their NYE Takeoff event. Also keeping the Crescent Street New Year’s energy peaking is Club Electric Avenue with an ’80s and ’90s vibe, the NYC Times Square countdown on two insanely giant screens and party favours (hats flutes and streamers). The spectacular resto-nightclub Yoko Luna will be hosting a Neo-Tokyo New Year’s Eve bash boasting a dizzying array of dinner/party ticket options and VIP offerings, while the newly renovated Marriott Chateau Champlain hotel promises an “exquisite” Final Fantasy New Year’s Eve with bronze ranging to diamond ticket packages. And just to make sure all bases are covered, Montréal institution the Sir Winston Churchill Pub Complex has all the things on three floors under one roof: a nightclub with a bangin’ dance floor, a live music pub space (the live band in Winnies starts at 10:30 pm), and a laid-back club lounge with glamorous décor. You could pay a small cover for each, or an $80 VIP pass will get you into all three. Each VIP ticket comes with a small bottle of sparkling wine.

Insane on the Main

Over on Saint-Laurent Boulevard – or “The Main” as it’s known to the homegrown – there’s club scene action all along the strip, beginning on lower Saint Laurent. The ultra-modern Society for Arts and Technology (a.k.a., the SAT) is one of the more unique spaces in the city, and thought it’s currently temporarily closed for renovations, the party must go on: this year’s SAT NYE party – which will see DJs Aurora Halal, Paurro, and Dave P. providing the soundtrack along with a “transcendental and futurist” visual experience courtesy of the Klip Collective — will take place at Theatre Fairmount on Parc Avenue in the Mile End district. Further up Sait-Laurent, the two floors (one a lounge, the other a dance club) of party mainstay Rouge will be bouncing to the sound of hip-hop, club anthems and Top 40 for their Year of the Red Dragon party, with Red Envelope, Red Lantern, Red Samurai and Red Dragon packages available. Over at Muzique, similar musical stylings will be on offer in multiple themed rooms for their annual, swanky Montréal Ball, “where the champagne never stops flowing, the music never stops playing, the jewels never come off and the party never ends...” (And be sure to check out their crazy “Boss” ticket offering. Boss, indeed.) And it’s a Tropical New Year’s Ball at Montréal’s legendary Club Balattou, which will host live music showcasing prominent musicians from the Manding music scene in the city, a tropical dance party, bubbly to usher in the New Year at midnight, and West African eats and treats served throughout the evening. 

Only-in-MTL party places

Four rather extraordinary venues will be throwing bashes across the city, beginning with wholly unique Griffintown party palace New City Gas, built in the historic, industrial-age New City Gas complex that lit Montréal streets once upon a time. Things get bumpin’ with Adventure Club & Friends hitting the main room, and Lost Desert, Laura Scavo and Eviator Kash in the adjoining and exceptional Bazart resto and entertainment space, part of the Bazart Nuits music series. Cirque De Boudoir returns with their (in)famous Carnavalesque Boudoir Ball, inviting you to join them for the “ultimate pajama party in your sexiest and kinkiest lingerie and fetish looks” at the utterly one-of-a-kind Bain Mathieu, a former historic public bath turned into an arts and events space. If you’re the kind of person who only gets their party started by the time most clubs are closing, the Gay Village has the answer at the iconic Stereo – which boasts the city’s best sound system – where they’ve got 19 hours of non-stop dance music planned (yes, you read that correctly) in their two spaces. And who wouldn’t want to eat, drink and dance in an enchanting underground forest? The completely unique Soubois (resto by day, woodsy party jungle by night) will host their annual Clef D’Or event featuring a five-course menu and an array of DJs. 

Eat like it’s your last day (of 2023)

Resolve to eat well this New Year’s Eve as Montréal’s many world-class restaurants get creative with their cuisine. To wit, let Maggie Oakes, where the finest Québec-produced foods are featured, offer you a luxurious environment over four-course and five-course sittings. With a history of delivering lively evenings, the popular Méchant Boeuf Bar-Brasserie is preparing a two-service offering that leans heavily into a couple of their specialties — dry-aged beef and seafood — with a DJ spinning tunes deep into the night. Pastis is king at Modavie (recently named one of the Top 100 Restaurants in Canada), where they’re putting together special five-course and seven-course menus complete with live music. And expect an equally lively atmosphere at Bevo Bar + Pizzeria, where they’re preparing a special NYE menu inspired by Italian traditions.

Enjoy a five-course menu of gourmet comfort food in Taverne Gaspar’s warm and rustic setting, while the elegant, Parisian pub-inspired Brasserie 701 in the prestigious Hôtel Place d'Armes will have two services to choose from. Also in the hotel, Kyo Bar Japonais has created an imaginative eight-course New Year’s Eve tasting menu while offering a selection of over 25 sakes. The much-loved Vieux-Port Steakhouse will ring in the New Year with a cocktail-style party featuring an oysters and shrimp all-you-can-eat bar, an open bar, canapés all night, live music and dancing, and more. And restaurants in the city’s Little Italy district are getting into the swing of things in a big way with inventive and outstanding holiday menus from Italian cuisine institutions such as Ristorante Pizzeria Corneli.

If you’d like to kick off 2023 with a taste of authentic French gastronomy, the kitchen team at Le Boulevardier (located in the hyper-stylish Le Germain Hotel Montréal) is promising a celebration created from locally sourced products on an eye-popping eight-course menu with a complimentary glass of bubbles. Also, with a menu that reads like a who’s-who of Parisian comfort food favourites, Brasserie Le Pois Penché is compiling a multi-course, fine-dining New Year’s Eve feast and, for the first time, an exclusive after-dinner event in their private cellar, with bottle service, refined canapés and entertainment. The elegant Siam Montréal NYE menu features top-shelf Thai cuisine classics in a contemporary style complete with wine pairing and the sparkly stuff at midnight. And speaking of bubbles, tuck into artful culinary creations from the Occitan region of Europe at Osco!, who have prepared a lovely holiday menu for December 31 (and if you go for lunch, they’re offering a complimentary glass of champagne).

And last but certainly not least, Time Out Market Montréal is throwing a New Year’s Eve bash that’s promising an immersive culinary journey around the world. Join them for a festive evening during which their many chefs will take you on a gastronomic tour of global and local cuisines. Accompanied by the beats of DJ GODsta, the event includes a midnight toast, a photobooth to capture memorable moments, party accessories, three exceptional prizes that will be drawn, and a lively atmosphere offering a true feast for your senses.