There was a time when dining in Montréal inevitably meant eating French. Nowadays, the restaurant scene is more cosmopolitan, but fine French food is still to be found in abundance.
In Vieux-Montréal, Bonaparte is a lively bistro set on the ground floors of two adjoining houses. Several charming rooms include a smart wood-paneled bar. The menu is traditional French, so, forgetting the calories, I surrendered to a foie gras “crème brûlée” with a sweet apple gelée, followed by a Dover sole meunière served with fresh herbs, and a billowing Grand Marnier soufflé.
443 rue Saint-François-Xavier. Tel. (514) 844-4368.
Le Club Chasse et Pêche is not a club at all, but rather an atmospheric restaurant with low ceilings and subdued lighting. The menu is full of appealing choices that the lively young staff explain with enthusiasm. I enjoyed one of the most interesting dishes in recent memory: a suckling pig risotto scattered with shards of frozen foie gras that gradually melted into the risotto. For a main course, I feasted on a bison sirloin.
423 rue St-Claude. Tel. (514) 861-1112.
Just at the edge of Vieux-Montréal, Toqué! is a stylish and sophisticated restaurant where chef Normand Laprise offers some of the city’s most inventive cuisine. My favorite dish was a duck magret with polenta, dried fruits, spinach and fennel. The desserts looked wonderful, but we opted for the Québécois cheese plate, the best of its offerings being an indulgent triple-crème Camembert.
900 place Jean-Paul-Riopelle. Tel. (514) 499-2084.
From the outside, Europea looks like just another Montréal townhouse. Inside, it is a dramatic multilevel space. Chef Jerome Ferrer’s cuisine is imaginative and copious. Although we ordered a traditional three courses from the à la carte menu, we ended up eating seven—some just wonderful little morsels. We began with an amuse-bouche of lobster cream, followed by crab-filled spring rolls in a sweet-corn cream, rich veal jus with truffle in an eggshell, and a venison chop topped with aged cheddar and served with sautéed wild mushrooms.
1227 rue de la Montagne. Tel. (514) 398-9229.
Slightly off the beaten path in the northeast part of town, Laloux is a casual bistro with a neo-Belle Epoque décor. The fare is contemporary and uncomplicated. Standout dishes from our lunch were a fresh tomato soup, perfectly cooked sea scallops with spicy chorizo and a mince of yellow and red peppers, and a superb pot de crème.
250 avenue des Pins Est. Tel. (514) 287-9127.
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