La Colombe

Address: 554 Duluth E.
Phone: 514-849-8844
Reviews: montrealfood.com, Martiniboys
We had a business dinner here a few weeks ago. The atmosphere of this resto is quite nice – although it is a small place, it feels large. Everything on the menu here seems to have a bit of a sweet touch to it. No matter whether its the poisson du jour or something a little more meaty, the sauce for each had a sweet touch – a little maple here, a bit of caramelized sugar there. Overall it was reasonably good, but having eaten at Le P’tit Plateau the week prior, it seemed to be lacking just a little something. Probably worth a return visit, although not obviously so.
Price: $220 for four including tax and tip.
Beer: La Montagnaise (Brasseur La Tour a Bieres)

Le P’tit Plateau

Address: 330 Marie-Anne E.
Phone: 514-282-6342
Reviews: Amazingly, there are none that I can find
Le P’tit Plateau is a Montreal BYOB institution. They’ve been serving great food in a great atmosphere for eons. A recent visitor from Germany was in town and wanted a taste of the local cuisine. P’tit Plateu didn’t let him down. I had a great confit du canard while our visitor had the fois gras follwed by some great venison. As usual, everyone left satisified. About the only bad thing you can say about the place is that they only have two seating times for dinner – 6:30 and 8:30. If you get the early seating, you have to be out before the next crowd and if that doesn’t work for you you’re out of luck. But its a small price to pay. It’s probably the best BYOB in the city.
Price: Usually $50-60 a head after tax and tip
Beer: Blanche de Chambly

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

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)

La Trattoria

Address: 1551 Notre-Dame W (@Guy)
Phone: (514) 935.5050
Website: http://www.latrattoria.ca/
Review: Old Montrealfood.com review?
We’ve eaten here twice in the last year, both times as celebratory diners for friends. It is in kind of an odd spot, separated from the trendy strip of new restos further west on Notre Dame and way down at the end of the streeet on Guy. It is a standard fare Italian BYOB. The specialize in pizza and pasta. The pasta is pretty straightforward. Nothing to write home about, but not bad either. For some reason, no one has yet tried the pizza in either of our two visits. It looks like it comes out of a wood oven, so perhaps we’ll try it if we go again. Overall, I think its a bit pricey for a simple BYOB ($30-40 for a table d’hote, $18-20 for a pasta dish) and we won’t go out of our way to eat there. But we don’t veto it if others suggest it. A true middle of the road.
Price: Moderate – $60 for two with tip
Beer: Bierre Nouvelle (Saint-Sylvestre) and DHAM

Souvenirs de Bangkok

Address: 1925 Ste. Catherine W.
Phone: (514) 938-2235
Review: MontrealFood.com
OK. So far I’ve had a bunch of good reviews on this website. What about places I’ve eaten which haven’t met expectations? Introducing: Souvenirs de Bangkok, a BYOB Thai place. I should start by saying that I lived in Pasadena for a few years and had really good, fresh, authentic Thai at least once a month, and for a time, I cooked a lot of Thai myself (Pad Thai, Steamed fish, Tom Yum soup, red curries, green curries, mussaman curries), so I know a thing or two about the cuisine.
I’ve eaten at Souvenirs de Bangkok twice. The first time, many years ago, I was with a large group of friends. I brought beer as I don’t drink wine. They refused to let me open my beer – the liquor laws were a little tighter 8 years ago. I didn’t think much of the food then, but I chalked that up to being grumpy over being sober around an increasingly silly-drunk crowd. I returned here several months ago, again with a group of friends. The food was disappointing yet again. Strike that. It was bad. The curry was soggy, the fish wasn’t very fresh. It had me belching all evening. There really wasn’t anything redeeming about the meal…. except that they let me open my beer this time.
Don’t go here… Phayathai is just a few blocks over and is much, much better.
Price: Inexpensive. About $15 per person
Beer: Blanche de Chambly

Grenadine

Address: 2004 l’Hôtel-de-Ville
Phone: (514) 287-0099
Website: http://www.grenadine.ca/
This is a great little (10 tables!) BYOB with a nice cozy atmosphere. It is run by a couple from France. He cooks, she serves. Food is simple French bistro with a bit of an Asian influence. The portabella smothered in bleu cheese is even amazing to those who don’t like bleu cheese (that would be me). The rest is good yummy fare with great bread.
Price: $50 per person with tax and tip
Beer: A couple 750 mL bottles of Blanche de Chambly to share around.