The Best Restaurants in Montreal, Quebec

All roads lead to Montreal for me. After working as the chef de cuisine at the iconic Quebecois restaurant Au Pied de Cochon, I spent five years in New York as the chef of Fedora and Chez Sardine, then ultimately returned home to open Marconi with my wife, Molly Superfine-Rivera, in 2016. We wanted to create the perfect neighborhood spot in Little Italy, our corner of Montreal, so we traversed the town to taste what was happening in other parts of the city. We were (and still are) drawn to welcoming, warm spaces with highly personal menus that reflect family kitchens, local growers and producers, and Quebec’s culinary roots. The spots we return to again and again are in areas that don’t often appear in guide books, which is also why I’m happy to highlight them here. I’d encourage you to go that extra kilometer in Montreal. You’ll find chefs who are doing the same.

The Essentials

• When to visit: Anytime except February, March, and April—unless you like painfully cold temps and gray snow
• Where to stay: An Airbnb in Little Italy, which is located near the Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie, Villeray, and Mile End neighborhoods
• What to bring home: Maple butter, which is syrup whipped into a fudgy consistency. Pick it up at any maple syrup stand at Jean-Talon Market

Mastard

This Quebecois restaurant in Rosemont is nerdy—and I mean that as a compliment. Chef Simon Mathys is hyper-focused on the province’s history and cuisine. He combs through old Quebecois cookbooks and combines this research with his creativity, like churning spring radishes into a cream to pair with raw scallops from Îles-de-la-Madeleine and homemade brioche. You’re likely to be served by Mathys himself, making the tasting menu’s $58 price a little more generous. 

Sammi & Soupe Dumpling

Tucked into Shaughnessy Village is Sammi & Soupe Dumpling, which crafts compulsively delicious dumplings. No exaggeration: Molly and I once ate them off the dashboard of our car because we couldn’t wait. The menu is a choose-your-own-dumpling adventure: Northern Chinese fried dumplings, steamed vegetarian parcels, and xiao long bao by way of Shanghai. All should be eaten with plenty of black vinegar, spicy cucumber salad, and a cold Tsingtao.

Bar-St-Denis

When Emily Homsy and David Gauthier opened this Rosemont bar in 2018, it was the place to go for a Friday night gin and tonic with fries. It’s still good for that, but Homsy and Gauthier have since pushed the menu far above standard. Your cocktail might be the Peppermousse, mixed with local La Distillerie du St. Laurent citrus gin and pepper, and in lieu of fries, you’ll get tater tots topping a vinegary crab and daylily salad. One thing that thankfully hasn’t changed: the falafel. It’s Homsy’s Egyptian grandma’s recipe, which uses fava beans and lots of parsley and cilantro.

Elena

I celebrated my birthday at this Saint-Henri hot spot because it’s great for a large party. Follow our lead: Order a large-format Tuscan maceration from the all-natural wine list. Get the mushroom (M. Funguy) and margherita pizzas since they’re always on the menu, then fill the remaining table space with seasonal pizzas chefs Emma Cardarelli and Janice Tiefenbach compose out of market finds: chicories with boquerones and purple potatoes with buttery Comtomme cheese.

Boom J’s Cuisine

My team at Marconi flocks to Pointe-Saint-Charles for chef-owner Jermaine Wallace’s beloved jerk chicken—cooked on a drum Wallace imported from Kingston—as well as his tender goat curry, braised oxtails, and freshly squeezed juices. Bring your feast to Parc Le Ber down the street and enjoy with a gentle breeze from the St. Lawrence River.

Umami Ramen & Izakaya

Chef Cédric Charron makes as much as he can from scratch at his vegan ramen shop in Rosemont: ramen noodles, tofu from Quebecois soybeans, and a broth of kombu, shiitake, and roasted onions. It all adds up to flavorful ramen distinct from others I’ve had, meat-based or not. Get the tantanmen and don’t skip the sides, like tofu agedashi featuring that house-made tofu. Before cooking in kitchens in Montreal and Japan’s Akita prefecture, Charron worked as a cinema technician, which explains why the restaurant takes on a dimly lit, cozy-cool vibe at night.

Moccione

Chef Luca Cianciulli and his business partner and wife, Maxime Landry, have created the prototypical neighborhood restaurant in Villeray with a menu dedicated to Italian comfort classics. Molly and I took our son to Moccione when he was only five days old, and we still look forward to family dinners on the terrace. We love the durum-wheat pastas and order the arancini and Bolognese every time.

Beba

This restaurant in Verdun is fun and friendly, which makes sense because owners (and brothers) Pablo and Ari Schor are too. You can’t help but sway to their ’60s soul playlist. The menu is built off their Argentine Jewish background, so you’ll find empanadas as well as nods to their Jewish kitchen. Take the sardine montadito, a Spanish-tapas-inspired riff on their childhood snack of pickled herring on a sesame bagel. Chef Ari cures Japanese sardines, then stacks them on a sesame bun with a slathering of salted butter.

Salle Climatisée

Eating at this La Petite Patrie restaurant is like going to a friendly, unfussy dinner party. The evening’s menu, devised by chef Harrison Shewchuk, is modest, with less than 10 items handwritten on a chalkboard. The flowers on the bussing table appear to be plucked from the dépanneur (or bodega). The fridge is full of wine. And the 20 or so seats are full of chatty friends tucking into humble yet perfectly executed dishes highlighting the market’s best: spring’s first asparagus dressed with a smoked-egg-yolk mayonnaise, crispy-skinned chicken with buttery morels, a riff on Fergus Henderson’s sticky toffee pudding with carrots swapped in for the dates. After Shewchuk’s stints at Maison Publique (a meat-heavy Quebecois gastropub) and Tiers Paysage (a sleek wine bar in Old Montreal), it makes sense that he along with partner Brendan Lavery would run such an unassuming, personal, and yes, cool restaurant.

Very Good Baked Goods

There’s more to the city’s carb scene than the Montreal-style bagel. Here are a few of my favorite bakeries for sweet and savory treats.

• Automne Boulangerie: Come for baker Julien Roy’s excellent bâtard—many Montreal restaurants do, including Marconi—and stay for the focaccia sandwiches.
• Joe La Croûte: Head here for unique loaves made from alt-flours, like the hearty Castagne made with chestnut flour (and a little wheat), walnuts, and poppy seeds and the khorasan, slightly sweet due to kamut flour.
• Le Pain Dans Les Voiles Boulangerie: The sesame seed bread is the perfect user-friendly, everyday bread. When I lived next door, I’d buy it sliced and stash it in the freezer for morning toast and lunchtime sandwiches.
• Hof Kelsten: If you happen to be in Montreal around the holidays, you must get one of founder Jeffrey Finkelstein’s panettones. At any other time of the year, pick up his caraway seed bread and the chopped liver on rye, if you see it.
• Cocoa Locale: Baker-owner Reema Singh makes delightful cakes in a charming space, but most delightful of all is her petite chocolate cake infused with chai spices.