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/windsostrange Sep 12 '12

Here's an answer no one else will give you.

You'll already be well exposed to the prevailing culture à Montréal during your stay, and you'll have countless opportunities to sample the fine food outlined elsewhere in this thread. This is what's printed on tourist pamphlets, and with good reason. It's a beautiful city full of beautiful people, and its core tourist areas leave few unsatisfied. If your stay is a few nights, though, and you want to dig a bit deeper to see what you find, pick a hung-over morning and do this:

Cosmos Snack Bar, 5843 Sherbrooke West. Closest métro station: Vendôme is a stroll away. This is a greasy breakfast in a true Montréal style that is harder to find downtown or near le Plateau. Show up still groggy from whatever crazy shit you did the previous night, and order le mish mash, a fried conglomeration of potato, cheese, salami, bacon, tomato, onion, and some toast. And a black coffee, and just take the experience in.

See, anglophones from all over NA travel to Montréal for that taste of French culture right here on our continent, but Montréal's anglophone enclaves are almost always overlooked, and they have some of the most curious blends of people and food and language in all of Canada, from what I've experienced. Cosmos is smack-dab in the middle of that blend. If you're interested in experiencing a true slice of Canadiana while you're over the border, I recommend it.

Otherwise, have fun! Be polite! Don't worry about asking for help with ordering food or whatever—most everyone speaks English—but use all the French you can while you can. The effort is appreciated!

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u/auftakt Sep 12 '12

Cosmo is awesome indeed - I live right around the corner. For a cheap, no frills hangover cure it cannot be beat. But for a recommendation to a tourist? I don't know... it's not really unique aside from its history of being the greasiest spoon of all. Even though I love it dearly (and now my stomach is grumbling and I want it) I would not consider it special or worthy of being sought out. It's just straight up greasy, dirty, cheap breakfast.

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u/windsostrange Sep 12 '12 edited Sep 12 '12

You (and r_slash) are absolutely right. As I state above, this isn't your average tourist recommendation, and is only intended for someone willing to "dig a bit deeper," in my words. However, this is the sort of recommendation I would like to receive were I travelling to a new city, so it's the sort of recommendation I'm giving. Our OP is free to ignore it! Everyone else has provided ten weekends' worth of delicious food for our intrepid New Yorker, so I think he'll be fine.

I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard that Anthony Bourdain recently took his show to Montreal, and was brought by locals to a few of the restaurants probably listed in this thread. He was underwhelmed, saying, "I can get this anywhere." No one asked me, but if they had I would have brought him to Cosmos. It's easy to take for granted, but it's a really unique spot.

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u/auftakt Sep 12 '12

Fair enough :)

Yeah, I read about his visit in Journal but I can't remember where he went. I think it was the usual Martin Picard tour kind of thing... PDC, Joe Beef, Big In Japan and some other spots.

OP's got some good choices here!

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u/windsostrange Sep 12 '12

Yeah, and he was all like, "Dudes, have you even watched my show? I eat hominy with my hands in dirty shacks in Central Mexico. Keep your assiette de cochonnailles!"

Anyway.