[kool maudit]

my montreal knowledge is a bit out of date... but anyway:

i really like taverne dominion square. it's a bistro with excellent cocktails and whiskies, and a great and convivial place to enjoy your moules frites and the like. people will tell you about l'express, but i think it's gone downhill.

i have had some great italian food at nora gray, which is very hearty and a fun place in general.

schwartz's is great, but if you like deli and not just smoked meat, the main across the street has a fuller menu. karnatzel, chopped liver, pickled herring... it's the real deal.

for poutine, you can't go wrong with la banquise but i actually prefer chez claudette on laurier. it's a tiny, 24-hour, 1970s-looking place and the gravy is very marrow-y and salty.

on the high-end, club chasse et peche has repeatedly served me some of the best plates of food along a whole-entire-life-type timeline, but it's a sedate room. couple-y, quiet, reserved.

oysters at maison publique in the eastern part of mile end is a good evening. in the same area, i have had great food at lawrence up on st-lo around there... they had a gnocchi-and-cow's heart dish that was very good and made my girlfriend wince at its ostensible grossness (organs are good though!)

if garde-manger has kept it up, it's not to be missed. amazing seafood, great room, convivial and just top-notch. creative kitchen.

au pied is great if you are capping (rather than starting) your night. chaleureux, sleepy. maybe i just have a bad metabolism or something, but picard weighs me down. so rich and amazing though.

joe beef is a classic, but le vin papillon is macmillan's newest thing and i find chef-owners kind of maintain one standout at a time.

ganadara is really standout cheap downtown korean. i prefer it to even omma, which is ostensibly a higher-end thing. all of the east asian cuisines have a few star representatives in montreal, but there's not the depth you'll see in toronto or vancouver because of demographics. so its important not to just go anywhere.

cheskie bakery in mile end is the sort of thing that is not uncommon in crown heights but which canada has few examples of. black and white cookies, for instance. do not forget that montreal was and is a really key jewish diaspora city. you can't overlook jewish food when considering montreal.

dillallo burger is the best burger, i think. forget those douchy "kobe" places. it's all hype and glossy fabrics. burgers should be cheap.