Tips on Montréal’s Famous Restaurants

Montréal has always been known as one the top restaurant cities in North America and rates with San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Boston, and Toronto. At last count it had been estimated that there are over 4000 restaurants scattered all over the Island of Montreal. However, before you embark on your journey experiencing the culinary culture of Montreal, a few pointers should be noted and kept in mind.

Very often tourists err in believing that the 15% tax, which is tacked onto your bill, represents the gratuity or tip. Unfortunately the 15% only represents the ‘add on tax’ or as it is known the GST and QST taxes. Very seldom will the bill include the tip. Generally a good guideline for tipping would be to leave a tip equivalent to the tax. In this way your tip would work out to 15%.

Another peculiarity often seen posted on restaurants menus is the letters BYOW. Many of these restaurants that post these letters are situated in the Plateau Mont-Royal district and Prince Arthur in the Quartier Latin district. These four letters mean, “Bring Your Own Wine.” In other words you can bring your own wine to the restaurant and for no extra charge the restaurant will provide you with wine glasses and open the bottle for you. You may ask why would any restaurant offer this service? The reason is that they don’t need an alcohol-selling license (just a license to serve the alcohol).

Very often restaurants offer their clientele a “table d’hôte” which comprise an entrée soup or salad), a main dish and most of the time dessert, coffee or tea. I have always found the “table d’hôte” to be a great deal less expensive than if I had to order dishes from the menu also known as “a la carte.” I have also found that the lunchtime menu is considerably cheaper than the dinner menu. If you wish to economize may I suggest you eat your main meal at lunch and have a snack at night.

For the past several years during the late spring, summer and early fall seasons there are many restaurants in Montréal that have “terrasses” located in the front, side or back of the establishment. Montrealers are great people watchers and the “terrasse” offers them a splendid locality to savour their meal while at the same time looking at the pretty girls or handsome men. If you are not a people watcher or if you do not want people looking at you I would suggest you choose a restaurant that has a back yard “terrasse” where you will find the atmosphere to be quieter and more intimate.

Many of these eating establishments who offer the “terrasse” are located in the Plateau Mont-Royal, Quartier Latin, Vieux Montréal, Bernard (located in Outremont), Monkland (located in the Notre Dame de Grace sector of Montreal). As you can see from the choice of areas you have an excellent opportunity to experience this novel way of dinning and at the same time explore the various districts of Montréal.

You will notice that many restaurants display some of the recent reviews written by a newspaper such as the Montreal Gazette, La Presse, Le Devoir. Be careful, however, as sometimes they post descriptions of the restaurant which resemble reviews but are only advertisements.

An excellent free official guide describing many of Montréal’s restaurants that can be picked up at the tourist bureau or at most Montréal’s hotels is called “Resto.” This publication gives you a description of many of the restaurants including their menus, locality, phone numbers and price ranges.

For a more elaborate description of the restaurants in Montreal may I suggest you click on this link pertaining to Montreal’s restaurants where you will find all kinds of reviews and other “goodies”?

Enjoy!

The above article was originally published at Suite101.com.

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