Café Ferreira

Address: 1446 Peel
Phone: 514-848-0988
Website: http://www.ferreiracafe.com
Reviews: MontrealFood.com, MartiniBoys
Ferreira is one of the best Portuguese restaurants in the city. Its renown for its great food and service. On a recent visit (on someone else’s generous tab), we started with a mixed plate appetizer to share. This was a great way to start for those who can never make up their mind, with a delicious selection of sardines, octupus, calmari and quail. The sardines, in particular, were a real hit – delicate and not overly fishy or oily. For main plates, Ferreira is famous for its porcini crusted black cod in port reduction. Two of my dining companions branched out and sampled a new black cod dish, served over a risotto. Good, although not quite living up to the legendary port reduction. My dish was the hit of the night – whole cooked Portuguese dorade. For a fish lover, this was an absolute delight – meaty yet light at the same time. The dessert didn’t quite stand up to the rest of the meal (the molten chocolate cake was slightly overdone) but was still very good. Overall, you won’t go wrong with Ferreira for a fine dining experience. Just be sure to bring your wallet.
Price: Expensive. With most main plates starting at $30, a bill of $80-$100 a head is easy to hit with tax, tip and a few drinks included.
Beer: Sagres – a light Portuguese lager.

Chez Le Portugais

Address: 4134 St. Laurent
Phone: 514-849-0550
Review: Montreal Mirror
We ate here last evening. It is a simple resto just south of Rachel. The specialty here is pesticos – Portuguese tapas. We ordered several seafood dishes (mussels, shrimp, calmari), all of which were okay. The mussels were a little overcooked and the sauces were all a little over salty, although the shrimp was better balanced with other flavours. We also had a veggie option (rapini) which was similarly over salty, but not bad. The best dish of the night was the chorizo, which came sizzling over an alcohol flame. Great presentation and good flavour. Overall, the place is not bad, but not great either – a true middleman. You can eat here if you are in the neighborhood, but I would not go out of the way for it.
Price: Reasonable. For us, it was $50 for two with 5 tapas shared and a little wine and beer.
Beer: Sagres – a nice light Portuguese lager

Bitoque

Address: 3706 Notre Dame W.
Phone: 514-303-6402
Website: http://www.bitoque.ca/
Reviews: Sarah Musgrave Review, Hour Review
We ate here last night. Nice atmosphere and very friendly service. We wandered in with no reservation and while they were packed, they were happy to start us at the bar and we got lucky that a table cleared out within 5-10 minutes. They offer both tapas and main plates. We opted to go for just tapas as the spousal equivalent wasn’t all that hungry. Overall, our opinion was probably between that of Sarah Musgrave and The Hour. The calamari was nice and tender, but they went a bit heavy with the garlic and spice (and we like garlic). The cod croquettes were okay – not awful, not great. The sardine pate, mussels and tomato topped with chèvre were all good. Overall, although I wouldn’t say we came out blown away, we liked the place for its charms and good attempt at interesting food. Montreal does need more restos in this price range – there’s lots of good cheap eats and lots of good fine dining in this city, but not much in the middle range where you can get some good food with great atmosphere for a good price. I’ll try this place again with work colleagues as it fits in our budget nicely.
Price: $70 for two for five tapas plates, two glasses of wine and two pints of beer with tax and tip included. Probably about the same if you got one tapas and one main plate
Beer: Griffon rousse en fut