Places to Visit
In addition to the "European" atmosphere of
Old Montreal, the city has
many examples of
modern architecture.
Montreal also has several well-known
museums.
Places to Stay
3-star hotels |
4-star hotels |
5-star hotels
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Places to Eat, Drink, etc
Montreal boasts an extraordinary variety of dining options. As might be expected,
French
and Quebecois cuisines are the mainstay of the local restaurant industry,
but the continuing flow of immigrants from food-happy countries has spiced things
up significantly in recent years.
For a quick snack with a cup of good coffee or tea, stop by one of the city's
cafés.
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I remember the first time I walked by the Nota Bene store on Avenue du Parc in November, 2004. A series of colorful German-made notebooks with aluminum edges were shown in the display window and I immediately thought “I am going to spend a lot of money here". And sure enough, over the following three years, I did...
Nota Bene sells an amazing array of imported designer stationery items – mostly of European and Japanese origin. If you're the type who prefers to think with a pen or a pencil in their hands, chances are you're going to love this store...
Read the rest of: "Nota Bene"»
Like every good European, I am fond of food and like it to be as fresh as possible. I've
always looked for the best ingredients to make my cooking exceptional for my wife, friends
and family, as that's whom I usually cook for. Getting my groceries fresh from the market
or straight from the farmer has always been my goal, because everything tastes better from
the people who take care of their produce and work hard to bring the raw ingredients to our
fridges.
In Montreal, I was overjoyed to find that there's more than one farmer's market open seven
days a week. One of my favorites (not only for its nice building, which I really like) is
the Atwater Market, situated very close to the Lachine Canal path, making it the perfect
stop after a walk or a bike ride...
Read the rest of: "Marché Atwater"»
Quick, where to go in Montreal on a Thursday night?
Think beer, pool, conversation and a little live music by a good local band on a miniscule stage – not to mention the spirited roar of Canadiens' fans.
Located right in the middle of
Plateau Mont Royal,
L'Inspecteur Épingle is a bar where a variety of
characters congregate to drink affordably priced pints of beer. Patrons are often perched on bar stools or lounging at corner tables beneath plasma TV screens, either listening to or ignoring the game and raising their voices just above the clinking of glasses and background music...
Read the rest of: "L'Inspecteur Épingle: Raise Your Pint, Follow the Puck"»
I am amazed and grateful at the variety of cafés in Montreal. It is a city where people love to bring their office or school work to coffee shops, since most of them offer Wi-Fi. Hot beverages are essential during the colder months, but there is a difference between hitting the chain coffee shops and arriving by chance to a café in the middle of the very eclectic Blvd. St-Laurent..
Pi Café (Café π) is basically a mixture of coffee shop, workplace, gallery, chess venue and a place for tranquility. I've been there a few times, and it is a wonderful place to enjoy a café latte or tisane while you pull out your book, computer or schoolwork in a reasonably quiet environment.
..
Read the rest of: "Café π: Coffee, Tranquility and One Hip Bathroom"»
Somebody on the site mentioned that Le Grand Comptoir
is one of the few restaurants in Montreal with friendly,
non-pretentious “single person" table service and I would
agree with them. What I mean by that is that going there by yourself doesn't necessarily present you with the typical dining-alone nuisances, like having to sit at the counter and thus forgo being able to relax in a chair, or being subjected to attitude from the host(ess) and the server. (After all, you're taking up a whole table and you'll only leave one person's tip!)
Like I said, Le Grand Comptoir
is a fortunate exception to those experiences.
You can go there alone at almost any time of day
(except the lunch hour: too busy) and find more
than a handful of individual tables to choose from...
Read the rest of: "Alone at Le Grand Comptoir"»
How many more blockbusters would you be willing to drop 13 bucks for? Personally, I'm done with it.
However, I love cinema and will be the first one to admit that renting movies is not the same as going to a movie theater. A movie theater gives you the atmosphere, the sound and the focus. In the coziness of your seat, you are "inside" the story unveiling on the screen. For good movies
(and I mean
guaranteed good movies), you have to go to one of Montreal's
répertoire (or repertory) cinemas, the best of which is Cinema du Parc.
I assumed Cinema du Parc had closed its doors a while ago, which I thought was unfortunate because it had left fewer available alternatives to watch good cinema. However, it recently reopened with a vengeance...
Read the rest of: "Cinéma du Parc"»
A staggering number of chain cafes and coffee shops in Montreal
haven't yet cornered the market on favoured hangouts. We Montrealers
enjoy our home-grown locales. Café Utopik is such a place that seems
to thrive on its independent situation...
Read the rest of: "Café Utopik"»
“MMMMMM!" was the exclamation of pleasure from a life-long New Yorker
when first sampling Montreal bagels. This was high praise indeed. This Long-Islander went on to concede that these bagels even rivaled New York's otherwise unrivaled bagels. Montrealers have known for some time that
their bagels were world class. In fact, beyond smoked meat and poutine,
perhaps no food characterizes Montreal more than its bagels. Like their
smoked meat brethren, Montreal bagels are originally a contribution of
the city's sizeable Jewish community. And just as debate might wage
between smoked meat at Shwartz's or The Main, a similar competition
exists between Montreal's top bagel bakeries, Fairmount and St Viateur...
Read the rest of: "Fairmount versus St-Viateur"»
Montreal Places
