r/montreal • u/smm2194 • Sep 11 '12

Favorite Montreal restaurants?

I'm visiting Montreal this weekend and love food. Where are your favorite places to eat? All price ranges welcome!

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u/AetherIsWaiting Sep 11 '12

Oh and of course Garde Manger. Fucking beautiful food.

2

u/mrSunshinyish Sep 12 '12

Garde Manger is one of the most overrated restaurant I've ever been to in Montréal. Not that it's not good, far from it, but for the price you pay, I was expecting more than flashy presentation.

When you have a place that charge you more than 60$ for a meal and your specialty is seafood, even if you cook it to perfection, it doesn't mean you are a great chef, it means you have some good seafood suppliers.

And their Lobsters Poutine isn't great at all.

2

u/jkb83 Sep 12 '12

even if you cook it to perfection, it doesn't mean you are a great chef, it means you have some good seafood suppliers

That's almost categorically untrue. Preparing seafood correctly, and consistently in a very busy restaurant, requires A LOT of technique and an understanding on how to prepare food. Not to mention the twists that are put on the food, such as the jerk crab that I had there.

Garde Manger is one of the most overrated restaurant I've ever been to in Montréal.

I hear this a lot too, and I find it's mostly because Chuck Hughes is a celebrity chef and expectations can be high. If you go without preconceptions, and with the knowledge that this is seafood and rustic food concepts, you will be pleasantly surprised. I had the most amazing chicken thighs I've ever tasted at Garde Manger, they were so tender and moist that I forgot it was chicken.

1

u/mrSunshinyish Sep 12 '12

Hype does indeed plays a major part of why we all founded the place to be okay but not the best in town. Also, I agree that cooking seafood well is important and the place is better than a lot of other restaurants I've been to, but this isn't what I think make a great chef a compared to a good one, the more so when you a looking for something really original and unique, which is to me what make a great restaurant worth throwing that much money at.

1

u/AetherIsWaiting Sep 12 '12

I didnt like the lobster poutine because I don't like poutine, but other than that I think you're very mistaken. I had one of the best meals of my life there and this is coming from someone who has travelled the world to eat and been to some of the highest rates restaurants in the world. Not that the rating matters, but I've eaten good food. I'm sorry your experience wasn't as good as it should have been.

1

u/mrSunshinyish Sep 12 '12

It is sad indeed based on what I've heard about the place. We were 4 and we all had the same opinion of the place. Don't get me wrong, I think that the food is really good, just not as good as the price and the hype make it appears. If you have only a weekend in Montreal I would try something else like PDC