19 Best Restaurants in Montreal, Quebec

Ranked one of the world's best cafés by the UK's Telegraph, this unpretentious 1970s-style café is popular with locals for Italian pastries like cannoli and pistachio bomboloni and, of course, great espresso made from a secret blend of six different coffee beans. It's also a good place to get a feel for authentic Montréal. Families and suits alike head to Café Olimpico in the morning to kickstart their day, and the patio is overflowing with hipsters on sunny days. Baristas here know their craft and the grinding of the espresso machine is a welcome melody to serious coffee drinkers.

Undoubtedly the most strikingly beautiful coffee shop in Montréal, perhaps even in North America, Crew Collective & Café is housed inside a former 1920s-era bank that's fitted with 50-foot-high vaulted ceilings, intricate tiling, and bronze chandeliers. It's no wonder Forbes named it of the five most beautiful co-working spaces in the world. The café doubles as a co-working space for Web start-ups, so it’s only fitting that patrons be able to order their coffee and nibbles directly online, in real-time, without ever having to queue. Expect barista-approved brews, gourmet sandwiches, and an appetizing range of baked goods, including vegan, soy- and nut-free options. Be sure to go before 4 pm, as the cafe closes at 4 on weekdays, and 5 on weekends. 

Only one word accurately describes the all-natural goodness at this ice cream and sorbet stand: yum. Flavors change frequently based on what chefs find at the market, but the lightly salted butter ice cream is a staple; partner it with the apple sorbet and you'll have yourself an apple pie on a cone. Or, better yet, give the “soft serve of the week” a taste. Oddly satisfying combinations like blueberry and honey as well as rosewater, raspberry, and lychee are to be expected.

Québec is notorious for poutine—French fries topped with cheese curds and gravy—and La Banquise has been the place for an authentic experience since 1968 with an extensive menu featuring 31 varieties. Neophytes might want to stick with La Classique, but mouthwatering novelties like La Taquise (guacamole, sour cream, tomatoes), L'Obélix (smoked meat), La Veggie Reggie (pickles, tomatoes, creamy coleslaw, and Banquise sauce), and La Véganomane (vegan sauce and cheese) are quite alluring. On the odd sunny day, have your poutine to go and enjoy it alfresco in nearby Parc Lafontaine.

You'll want to keep coming back again and again to this adorable little gourmet convenience store and café with its mint-green facade and single origin coffee. Le Petit Dep proudly stocks local products, including prêt-à-manger soups, salads, and comfort foods such as chili, pasta, and vegan shepherd's pie. There are also mouthwatering home-baked goods and candy in bulk. There is a second Old Montréal location at 461 rue St-Sulpice.

This small and tastefully decorated bakery is, simply put, a Montréal treasure. Locals come from all over the city to pick up delicious desserts like lemon tarts and Paris-Brest that taste as good as they look. Pâtisserie Rhubarbe also serves a delightful afternoon tea every Friday from 2 to 5.

Even New Yorkers have been known to (collective gasp!) prefer Montréal's light and crispy bagel to its bulkier Manhattan cousin, due to the dough of the Montreal version being boiled in honey-sweetened water before baking in a wood-burning oven. St-Viateur Bagel & Café is a great place to get them, especially with smoked salmon. For a novel experience, try the rosemary and sea salt version. Be sure to check out St-Viateur's original location at 263 St-Viateur Ouest, where the bagel-magic has been happening since 1957. That venue does not have a dining area, but you can pick up bagels fresh out of the oven until midnight.

The mastermind behind this photogenic bakery had been making bread for Montréal's best restaurants for years before he decided to open up his own place. His own shop is a favorite with locals, who line up every weekend for fresh baguettes. In addition to serving a delicious rye and caraway seed loaf and chocolate babka, Hof Kelsten also makes sandwiches like homemade gravlax with seasoned cream cheese or chopped liver with crispy onions that make for an excellent lunch or early evening meal (the shop closes at 5 pm). The bakery serves brunch on weekends.

Aficionados are willing to wait for a seat at this small café, where the foam on your latte or café au lait is artfully arranged in waves, hearts, or curlicues. The delicious coffee is imported from Ethiopia, Guatemala, Brazil, Bolivia, and elsewhere via the famed 49th Parallel Coffee Roasters in Vancouver. Patrons can choose alternatives to dairy milk, such as soy, almond, and oat. Don't drink coffee? Try the molten hot chocolate or the homemade iced tea. Baked goods are sourced from six different local bakeries, all of which are delicious. Myriade now has a second, Instagram-worthy Downtown location inside the Club Monaco store at 1000 Ste-Catherine Street West, and even a third one at 4627 rue St-Denis in the Plateau.

Students, freelancers, and local hipsters flock to this understated Turkish café for two reasons: the gourmet coffee and the food. Between the Nutella and sea salt cookie, and the feta and sausage omelet, and the boreks (a traditional flaky pastry sprinkled with sesame seeds), it’s hard to pick just one thing off Replika’s menu. But what really keeps people coming back is the genuine friendliness of the owners, a Turkish couple that’s always eager to chat.

In the heart of Little Italy, this historic coffee shop filled with regulars chatting away in Italian, is one of the city's best nonhipster places to get some excellent brew, be it an espresso, latte, or cappuccino. There also are a few pastries available. Visit a few times and you won't even have to order; the experienced baristas will prepare your drink when they see you walk in. It opens at 6 am every day of the week.  Try the signature smooth Malibu—a lukewarm drink shorter than a cappuccino but longer than a macchiato, made by combining a short shot of espresso with frothed milk.

Locals line up outside the window of this shoebox-sized joint, sandwiched between ice cream shop Kem CoBa and Fairmount Bagel, to get their fix of Nonna Caterina Gattuso's gnocchi topped with her famous Calabrian tomato sauce. It's served in a little cardboard take-out container and costs only C$5. Die hards can purchase 750 ml. jars of Salsa della Nonna for C$10 or a one-liter jar of Gnocchi della Nonna, also for C$10. Olive oil and a few other sauces are also available for sale.

This lovely little bakery, which magically transports its patrons (or at least, their tastebuds) to Italy, specializes in the cornetto, the Italian version of the croissant. Freshly baked every morning, these delightful pastries are available plain or filled with Nutella, ricotta cream, or almond paste. The traditional cannolis, filled with a light and sweet ricotta cream, are also delicious. Those who prefer savory bites should, however, try the speck and stracchino (a mild, fresh Italian cheese) sandwich on homemade focaccia.

Families and couples with dogs congregate here on warm summer nights, where the artisanal ice-cream recipes are prepared by hand. Real cream and real milk are the star ingredients, while the sorbets are 80% fruit puree. The hottest flavors? The Mi'Kmaq with coffee, the maple taffy, classic vanilla and chocolate, and the cranberry sorbet. At the peak of the season, the Outremont location is open until midnight every night.  There are outposts at 1600 rue Laurier E. in the Plateau and at 3905 boul. St-Laurent in Mile End.

This elegant patisserie is housed in a historic, beautifully renovated three-story graystone in Old Montréal. Baskets of buttery brioches and flaky croissants await, and the prominent pastry display holds rows of seasonal fruit tarts and classic French desserts like mille-feuilles (made of delicate layers of puff pastry and airy vanilla-scented custard) and Paris-Brest (made of choux pastry and a praline-flavored cream). The acclaimed pastry chef here, Christian Faure, is the recipient of France's highest culinary honor, Meilleur Ouvrier de France. A pastry school takes up space on the upper floors, while the ground floor is dedicated to various delectable take-out or eat-in sweet and savory options. There are two other locations, one in Westmount and one downtown.

It may be in the heart of trendy Mile End, but this "phyllo bar" looks like it was transported directly from Athens, with food arriving on checkered cobalt-blue wax paper. The spanakopita, with a perfect crunchy exterior, makes for an excellent lunch on the go, as does the Melina sandwich, with its spicy feta spread, kalamata hummus, cucumbers, tomatoes, and graviera. Another must, the bougatsa, is a warm custard-filled phyllo pastry with cinnamon. It's all about takeout here, though warm temperatures allow for two tables out front.

The compact bakery serves some of the best croissants in Montréal, but the specialty here is the eponymous kouign amann, a multilayered butter and sugar cake originally from Brittany. The aroma of freshly baked bread is alluring to say the least and the passion for pastries is evident and sometimes demonstrated by perfectionist owner Breton Nicolas Henri. In fact, if he sees you eating your croissant the "wrong" way, Nicolas will even suggest the proper way to eat it—broken in half so you can bite through the many layers; according to him, it tastes better that way.

Pick up a pastry to go at the counter or choose one of the plated desserts to enjoy on-site at Patrice Pâtissier, a beautifully designed pastry shop and lunch spot, overseen by one of Québec's most renowned pastry chefs. The almond cream with seasonal fruits is luscious and will certainly please those following a gluten-free and/or vegan diet. The chef's kouign amann (a French sugar and butter layered dessert from Brittany) is delicious, as is the maple financier—a nutty-tasting, brown butter cake.