Food and wine critique of Montreal
It’s that time of the year folks! Au Pied de Cochon’s amazing sugar shack is getting ready for the new year and is accepting reservations as of today.
If you remember my review of last winter, it’s obvious that it can’t be missed!
Enjoy! And don’t forget to include a shot in the middle of the meal if you want to get through 
Grumman 78 is the one and only food truck in Montreal. The people behind it cleverly played the city and its rule against serving food in public places by renting the truck to private events. They’ve made quite the reputation for themselves with their amazing fusion tacos.
You might have seen the flashy truck at one of this summer’s festivals such as the Montreal Jazz Festival and Just For Laughs or behind the stoves on a late night at Nouveau Palais.
I for one have enjoyed their amazing tacos on a few occasions so I was quite excited to finally get to visit their headquarters for a special event.
The headquarters is gorgeous and definitely puts you in a festive mood. With its funky decor, exciting bar and spacious room, it’s easy to forget about the truck and get comfortable at one of their many tables to enjoy their full menu including fried chicken!
For my visit, I went with the Vietnamese pork taco and the cornbread salad with fresh tomatoes. As for drinks, I chose a refreshing pink lemonade cocktail. It was definitely the highlight of my week-end!
Check out their Facebook page for more info on their upcoming in-house events and make sure to bring enough cash as that’s all they accept for now! And if you’re looking for the perfect party venue, Grumman 78 happily rents its space for a winning foodie party.
Meatmarket has been open for business on the Main for a while now. I’ve tried quite a few items from their lunch menu in the past years and I’ve been going back for the generous portions and laid back atmosphere. Their menu is mainly made of sandwich combos.
The amazing fries included in every meal is probably the main reason why people like this place.
On my last visit, I decided to indulge myself in the most exciting and greasy dish: the Meatmarket poutine! The fries are a mix of regular and sweet potatoes and the gravy is a rich sauce that covers the whole rectangular plate. As a yummy extra, I’ve opted for a brochette of grilled flank steak.
The whole thing is amazing and gives a needed upgrade to the regular diner poutine. I wouldn’t say it’s fine cuisine but if you’re ready for a rich lunch, I definitely recommend a visit to Meatmarket!
You can complete your meal with a glass of wine or a good pint of beer at a special price if you don’t feel like being productive for the rest of your day!
MEATMARKET
ADDRESS: 4415 St-Laurent
PHONE: 514-223-2292
HOURS: MON 11:30AM–3PM / TUES–WED 11:30AM–11PM / THU–FRI 11:30AM–12AM / SAT 5PM–12AM
ALCOHOL: Yes
VEGETARIAN FRIENDLY: Yes
CREDIT CARDS: Yes
PRICE: $15-20
Montreal has been going crazy with tacos lately, whether it’s from our only food truck, in the middle of the night or from a random Mexican restaurant. Everyone just loves it!
That’s why I decided to try La Matraca, a lovely little restaurant with a colorful dining room. The concept is simple, seat yourself, take a look at the mini menu and then let the cook know what you want.
I ordered two simple steak tacos with cheese. The result was messy but in a good way! The tortilla was not too heavy or grainy and the topping was delicious.
An array of three salsa were brought to my table to complete the tacos to my taste and they were all very good. To ease the spices, I got a pineapple Chaparritas bottle.
For a taco craving, La Matraca is the perfect place to go to! I couldn’t believe how cheap it was and I really liked how simple my plate was. It clearly showed how confident they are of their tacos instead of hiding them under rice and nachos.
LA MATRACA
ADDRESS: 4607 St-Denis
PHONE: 514-285-0777
HOURS: MON–THU 12PM–11PM / FRI–SUN 11AM–12AM
ALCOHOL: Yes
VEGETARIAN FRIENDLY: Yes
CREDIT CARDS: Yes
PRICE: $7 for two tacos and a drink
Café Méliès is a pretty restaurant/lounge located inside the Ex-Centris building. It’s been open for years and is a favorite to many Montrealers. I visited it a few times for drinks after work but it was my first visit for brunch after taking a look at the exciting menu!
Sadly, my experience wasn’t good at all. First of, we made a group reservation for an early birthday and arrived to none since it was given to another group by mistake. The staff was nice though and made a new setup for the group to come.
Once we got seated, I ordered a big bowl of café au lait like I always do to start the week-end and asked for a side of honey. The wait, in the empty restaurant, was so long that my coffee was cold by the time I was able to add a little sweet to it.
I forgot about it quite fast with the good company around me and looked forward to the brunch platter I ordered. We ended up getting served an hour later, with no bread being offered during the wait.
I ordered the poached eggs, with lobster covered with a paprika hollandaise sauce served on English muffins. Sadly the first thing that came to my mind and the other guests after our first bite was whether it was made with fresh or canned lobster. The plate was too small to be placed in a brunch menu too. It was obvious that a side dish was needed to feel satisfied.
After a very deceiving brunch, we had to wait an extra 45min to get our bill. I can’t tell if it was the wrong day to visit Café Méliès but I’m going to stick to drinks when I think about making a stop.
CAFÉ MÉLIÈS
ADDRESS: 3540 St-Laurent
PHONE: 514-847-9218
HOURS: MON–WED 11AM–10PM/ THURS–FRIDAY 11AM-11PM / SAT 8:30AM-11PM / SUN 8:30AM–10PM (with breaks)
ALCOHOL: Yes
VEGETARIAN FRIENDLY: Yes
CREDIT CARDS: Yes
PRICE: $25
Supermenu.ca is a new online ordering service in Montreal for when you just want to stay in! It offers an exciting list of restaurants for each postal code and the ordering process is very user friendly.
My favorite feature on the website is actually the way the menu is listed. It’s quite easy to find the items you’re looking for. Also, Supermenu.ca doesn’t charge high fees like its competitors.
Check it out now!
So many new restaurants open in Montreal and I feel like there’s so much hype around them in the first weeks. Le Comptoir was not an exception. On my side, I got introduced to the restaurant by eating a carte blanche menu by their sous chef Sunny Stone on a popular Cookies Unite event.
It was only months later that I ended up going for lunch. Le Comptoir is a beautiful wine bar featuring exciting cold meats made in house.
For my appetizer, I ordered the salad on top of a confit of pork knuckle accompanied by a pickle puree. I simply loved it! It was very well balanced and I was quite impressed by the pickle use which really completed the plate.
My main course consisted of a piece of baked salmon on top of braised fennel. Once again, a very strong dish. The salmon was perfectly cooked and went well with the fennel. I think the size of the plate was perfect too as some restaurants tend to go over the board and the real star of the dish ends up getting lost.
I’m looking forward to trying Le Comptoir for dinner but so far, their lunch service really blew me away. The desserts menu looked very tempting and is also not to miss.
Try it for your next 5 à 7 or business lunch, you’ll be sure to impress your guests!
LE COMPTOIR
ADDRESS: 4807 St-Laurent
PHONE: 514-844-8867
HOURS: TUE–FRI 12PM–2PM, TUE–WED / SUN 5PM–12AM, THU-SAT 5PM–1AM
ALCOHOL: Yes
VEGETARIAN FRIENDLY: Not much
CREDIT CARDS: Yes
PRICE: $25
I’ve known about Pucapuca for years in the Mile-End but I always had a bad timing with the restaurant hours. It was only after an evening of watching Roller Derby that my friends and I found it open.
I knew that it was Peruvian food so I expected to eat ceviche and grilled meats but to my surprise, it wasn’t about that at all. The menu, incredibly cheap for $15, offers an appetizer, a main dish, a dessert and coffee/tea.
The appetizer was either a soup or a salad. The salad was a big hit amongst my friends with its smoked salmon and generous vegetables but I decided to try the corn, tomato and pasta soup. It wasn’t anything special but very comforting.
As for the main course, all the plates came with rice, chick peas and green peas. I opted for the grilled shrimp and received a long skewer with about 12 shrimps! They were perfectly cooked and seasoned and I couldn’t get enough of it.
The food was so generous that I could not finish my plate so I left with the rest of it and took my dessert to go – a slice of apple pie covered in Dulce de Leche.
For a solid meal after a long day, Pucapuca is the best place to go to. Beware, you might fall for the owner who is the cutest host and cook I have met.
PUCAPUCA
ADDRESS: 5400 St-Laurent
PHONE: 514-272-8029
HOURS: TUES-SAT 11:30AM – 2:30AM
ALCOHOL: No
VEGETARIAN FRIENDLY: Yes, the tofu dish is amazing!!
CREDIT CARDS: Yes
PRICE: $15
There has been tons of reviews on Icehouse lately that I had to go and try it. The restaurant opened just a few months ago as Nick Hodge’s latest project, also owner of Kitchenette.
Icehouse features Texan food and drinks. It’s not the first restaurant in Montreal to offer this exciting type of food but I feel it’s the one that gives the most real experience.
You are greeted by the staff as soon as you come in and are either lead to the counter or a table depending on your number of guests. Our waitress offered us a choice between a fresh Bourbon Lemonade or a Michelada.
To order, you simply have to decided what you want from the blackboard menu and let the cooks know at the counter. Before getting our food, our waitress came back with a big brown paper sheet to cover our part of counter. She also made us notice that we had paper towel dispensers right in front of us on the wall.
I chose the Bourbon Lemonade to go along our appetizer, shrimp popcorn! The drink was lovely and was perfect with the shrimps that had a sweet frying batter.
Our second dish was a half bucket of fried chicken and it came along coleslaw salad, smoked potato salad and buttermilk bread. The chicken was sadly overcooked so I was glad we didn’t get a whole bucket. It must have stayed just a few minutes too long frying so its batter was easily falling off. I also got the same sweet taste from the shrimps so I was once again relying on my Lemonade to balance everything out. The couple sitting next to us ordered a lot of different dishes and were also saying how everything tasted just sweet.
As for the sides, I did find the smoked potato salad very interesting. I did not really care about the coleslaw after the potatoes since the dressing was a bit similar. The real star for me was the buttermilk bread! I could have eaten three of those!
Overall, my experience at Icehouse wasn’t the best. The staff was great and the service was fast but the food ended up all tasting the same and I don’t think I would have finished it if it wasn’t for my two Bourbon Lemonades. I did have a lot of fun trying all the different spicy sauces available at the counter!
When it was time to pay, my friend and I were a bit shocked by the bill. I would never pay that much for food that makes me want to run to the gym after! But it’s definitely not my last visit at Icehouse. Now that I’ve done the fried experience, I’m ready for the tacos and different appetizers that all sounded very good!
ICEHOUSE
ADDRESS: 51 Roy E.
PHONE: 514-439-6691
HOURS: TUES-SAT 5PM – 1:30AM
ALCOHOL: Yes
VEGETARIAN FRIENDLY: Almost
CREDIT CARDS: Yes
PRICE: $80 for one appetizer, one half-bucket and 4 drinks
Photo credits: Tourisme Montréal
I have to admit that I’m not one to wander much on Mont-Royal, especially if it’s for a drink or a bite. Of course, I have my favorites and I gladly stick to them.
It was after a lovely picnic evening with my friends that we all decided to head out for a drink now that the weather was too cold to enjoy sitting on the grass. A friend proposed Plan B and sold me the idea that they had a heated terrace at the back.
Of course, the terrace was packed once we arrived but we settled ourselves in the comfy seats located in the back. As soon as I opened the cocktail menu, I got blown away by the exciting selection. In my books, any bar that knows how to make a Ti’Punch has won me over.
A few more drinks later, we did get our table outside and it made me love Plan B even more. The setup is small and private, and it is not uncommon to see people stay for hours.
The staff was very welcoming and always ready to propose new drink ideas. They offer a small snack menu but I did not try any of it, I was too excited to get my drink on. Check it out this summer, either for an early 5à7 (if you want to get a table outside) or a drink in the middle of the day on the week-end.
PLAN B
ADDRESS: 327 Mont-Royal E.
PHONE: 514-845-6060
HOURS: Daily 3PM-3AM
BITES: Yes
CREDIT CARDS: Yes
DRINK PRICE: Around $8 in general
