Alex H

Address: 5862 Sherbrooke W.
Phone: 514-487-5444
Reviews: MontrealFood.Com
Alex H is a rare BYOB resto in NDG. From perusing the MontrealFood review, its obvious that this place has jumped around. It was a BYOB, then licenced, then not, then moved from Monkland to Sherbrooke. I had a business dinner here just recently, and this time I was the guest of honour. I was impressed walking in… the sign on the door said “Bring Your Own Beer” – gotta love a bistro that realizes that good beer can compliment a meal just as well as good wine. The food here is good. Not great, but good. The menu here is a partial table d’hote: you get a soup or salad with your main and can get an additional small appetizer for only a few dollars extra. I started with a small appetizer of escargots, followed by salad and magret de canard. I’ll give them good marks for the escargots. They came in a tomato/creme based sauce, not your usual garlic and butter. Overall the mix worked well. A smoked salmon appetizer also drew good reviews from the seat next to me. The salad was simple greens – nothing special, nothing awful. The magret de canard was reasonably good, done with a spiced cranberry sauce (little resemblance to what you find on the Thanksgiving Day table). The veggies accompanying the main were uninspiring – just some steamed carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. The desserts were well done – both the apple crumble and the chocolate cake were good. Overall, this is a moderately good resto. The setting is nice and the food is good, but nothing special. But you also aren’t overpaying – most meals were in the $20-25 dollar range with the salad/soup included.
Price: Moderate – probably $30 a head plus tax and tip assuming you have either an appy or dessert.
Beer: Blanche de Chambly in a big bottle

La Montée

Address: 1424 Bishop
Phone: 514-289-9921
Website: http://www.lamontee.ca/
Reviews: Montreal Mirror, Lesley Chesterman
La Montée is a new bistro downtown, a reincarnation of La Montée du Lait from the plateau. The theme here is a cross between bistro and tapas, with a series of medium-sized plates on offer, each the size of a healthy entrée or a scaled down main plate. They go for $55 for four plates or $15 per plate. We ordered 2-3 plates per person and were quite satisfied (two is enough unless you’re starving). The dishes were intriguing concoctions, for instance a tuna dish with beet done three ways, endives prepared every which way and an amazing “clam chowder” which was really clams served atop a thick slab of bacon…think pork loin but with a wonderful bacon flavour…. absolute heaven! Also good, from across the table, were a thick cut of steak and a chevre chaud served on a cut of eggplant. Less of a hit was a magaret de canard which, while tasty, was a bit tough. Each plate is paired with a wine selection, although we found that everything went well with a good beer. Overall, good atmosphere and a generally a great place to eat.
Price: $50 per person for two plates plus a drink or two. More if you go for 3-4 plates.
Beer: A rousse and a blanche from Les Brasseurs de Montreal

L’Orignal

Address: 479 St. Alexis
Phone: (514) 303-0479
Website: http://www.restaurantlorignal.com/
Reviews: EatWell, Martini Boys, Lesley Chesterman, The Hour
L’Orignal is a trendy bistro in a quiet corner of Old Montreal. It is in the location of what once was Medi-Medi, formerly one of the city’s best Lebanese restaurants, but one which died probably from being out of place in Old Montreal. L’Orignal, serving up a nice combination of game (wild boar, venison) and seafood, seems much more suited to the local surroundings. Our Boxing Day visit started with an outstanding selection of appetizers: tuna tartare, butternut squash soup, chevre layered on beets and a plate of oysters. All were fantastic, particularly the oysters and the chèvre/beet combo. We followed up with the venison, red snapper (a special that night) and a pair of orders of moules et frites. These again didn’t disappoint, with the moules outpacing some of the better samplings I’ve had elsewhere. Overall, a great meal!
Price: Reasonable (moules at $20) to expensive (bison steak for $50). Could be anywhere between $100-200 for two.
Beer: Bierbrier

Bonny’s

Address: 1748 Notre-Dame W.
Phone: (514) 931-4136
Website: http://www.bonnys.ca/
Reviews: Montreal Mirror
Bonny’s is a small vegetarian resto on Notre Dame in Little Burgundy. They offer a nice, simple meal in a relaxed atmosphere. We had the lasagne and Mediterannean casserole, and both were well done. The latter was one of their daily specials, and came with a great daal soup and a small salad. The menu isn’t huge. They have a series of sandwiches, veggie burgers and chili, and that’s about it. But if you’re not looking for a huge meal, its a nice inexpensive place to go.
Price: Inexpensive: $40 for two, taxes and tip included
Beer: Beerbrier

L’Academie

Address: 4051 rue Saint-Denis
Phone: (514) 849-2249
Website: http://www.lacademie.ca/
Reviews: Martini Boys, EatWell
I have a buddy who loves l’academie, so I’ve eaten there several times. It has a fun atmosphere, particularly on a weekend night, and the high eye candy quotient is the reason my buddy likes it. And its not expensive. That is about all the place has going for it. I’ve never had a good meal there (they continually overcook tuna and mussels), they don’t take reservations and if you are joining friends, they won’t seat you until your entire party is there (I can’t tell you how many arguments this has started). My advice, don’t go. There are so many better places to eat.
Price: Not expensive – $25-35 per person
Beer: Blanche de Chambly in a big bottle. (its a BYOB)

Brasserie Brunoise

Address: 1012 de la Montagne
Phone: 514 933-3885
Website: http://www.brunoise.ca
Review: Montreal Mirror, The Hour, Lesley Chesterman, Montrealfood.com, Montreal Foodie, EatWell Montreal
We finally tried this place after hearing about it and seeing it several times when heading to catch the Habs (but not wanting to brave the crowds on a hockey night). It is not your typical brasserie… i.e. its not a dingy, stained, neon lit corner bar. The place has clean lines and is reasonably airy, although we were there on a quiet nightand the atmosphere was a little flat (probably a bit better on a busier night) and with TV’s on all the walls, it can’t be categorized as a classy French bistro. We had a couple of simple mains – salmon with hollandaise and asparagus for her, confit de canard for me. Both were good solid dishes. Not outstanding, but pleasing and simple. The duck was a little crispier/drier than usual, but the meat fell off the bone and the accompanying sauce was nice on top of the patates and shrooms. The salmon hit a similar note. The home run of the night was dessert… freshly prepared beignets, filled with a shot of chocolate, lightly coated with sugar and served hot with melted caramel to dip in. I’d go there again just for the dessert.
Price: $75 for two before tip for two mains, two drinks each and dessert.
Beer: Kieth’s on tap. This was the one thing that did remind me of a brasserie… Kieth’s was the best they had.

Liverpool House

Address: 2501 Notre Dame W.
Phone: 514 313-6049
Website: http://www.liverpoolhouse.ca/
Reviews: EatWell Montreal, MartiniBoys Review, MontrealFoodie, Lesley Chesterman
We ate here for the first time last night. We’ve eaten at Joe Beef once before (for under $100 no less) and liked the food and ambience. Liverpool house is larger and more comfortable than The Joe, and the prices are slightly less staggering, although its still not an economical night out. We enjoyed the fresh oysters and some of the other entrees were also quite good. For mains, you have to like meat with a capital M. There was one “vegetarian dish” a risotto topped with wonderful mushrooms but with veal juice in it (which was very tasty as risottos go) and they had a fish dish for two which we didn’t sample. Everything else was lamb, veal, boudin, etc. (which we also didn’t sample). I hear the menu changes often, so perhaps it was just the day we picked to go that had limited stuff for our tastes (at least among the main dishes – entrees were more varied). Overall, probably worth a return visit, particularly with old friends in town where you want a nice relaxed but trendy place to go and you don’t mind dropping a little cash.
Update: A return visit yielded a very different menu. Still lots o’ meat, but now with several great fish dishes, including a baked whole Mediterranean sea bass and some great halibut.
Price: Trending towards expensive – $120 for two with one main, three entrees, one glass of wine and a couple of pints of beer.
Beer: Bierbrier on tap

Garage Cafe

Address: 275 Hickson
Phone: 514-768-4630
Ended up here while trying to go to El Patio a few doors down (which was closed for some reason). They have a nice sidewalk terrasse and with all the windows open, the inside has a nice atmosphere as well. Food was simple bistro, moules et frites, fish, burgers and fries, pizza, etc. Nothing fancy, but a great place to have a relaxed meal.
Price: Not expensive: Under $50 for two with beer, wine, tax and tip included
Beer: Cheval Blanc on tap