Where to Eat in Montreal and Beyond
Eating well around Montreal splits into two parts: a short list of genuine city icons you can knock out in a couple of days, and a different kind of eating once you’re out on the day trips, wine, cider, and a maple season that only happens once a year. Here’s how to handle both.
In the city: four names that matter
Schwartz’s Deli on Boulevard Saint-Laurent has served Montreal smoked meat since 1928, a sandwich runs about $9.75 and the line moves fast even when it looks long. La Banquise in the Plateau serves 30-plus varieties of poutine, fries, cheese curds, and gravy, close to around the clock, the closest thing Montreal has to a national dish under one roof. Fairmount Bagel (1919) and St-Viateur Bagel (1957) are the two Mile End rivals, a block apart, wood-fired and boiled in honey water, denser and sweeter than a New York bagel, and locals genuinely pick sides. Beyond those four, look for tourtière (a Québécois meat pie, especially in winter), the BYOB “apportez votre vin” custom at many restaurants, no corkage fee, and a solid craft-beer scene led by Dieu du Ciel. For everything else, Jean-Talon Market in Little Italy and the Art Deco, canal-side Atwater Market are worth a wander for produce, cheese, and prepared food, even if you’re not cooking.
On the road: what the day trips add
Quebec’s sales tax, 14.975% (GST 5% plus QST 9.975%), gets added at the register everywhere, city or countryside, and tipping runs 18-20% pre-tax, factor both into a real food budget. Out in the Eastern Townships, the wine route around Magog and Lake Memphremagog is the main draw, book tastings ahead on weekends, especially during fall foliage season. Montérégie, around Mont-Saint-Hilaire, is apple and cider country, best visited in early fall for picking season. If your trip lands between late February and April, a sugar shack (cabane à sucre) feast, maple taffy poured on snow, tourtière, and the tail end of the maple harvest, is a genuinely seasonal experience that doesn’t happen the rest of the year, don’t expect to find it in July.
Booking notes
Weekend wine tastings and popular sugar shacks fill up, especially around Quebec’s fall foliage and spring maple windows, so book those a few days ahead rather than showing up. Read more: our day-trips guide has the timing and access details for the Townships, Montérégie, and every other stop on this list.