Can anyone recommend a restaurant in Montreal to celbrate my birthday? I like continental,seafood and Northern Italian menus. As I am on a restricted diet,I can't indulge in the fine French food Montreal has to offer. Thanks in advance for your help!

I ate in a wonderful Italian restaurant last weekend in Montreal -- Lombardie's at the corner of Rue Duluth and Rue Denis. It doesn't have a liquor license, but you can buy a bottle of wine across the street that a waiter will serve to you. I don't know if reservations are accepted, but get there early (by 6:30pm) or expect to stand on line for at least an hour.

Blu Marine on Peel.Good Italian Seafood.<BR>Cafe Ferriera on Peel .Portugese seafood.<BR>

Here are a few more:<BR>Hosteria Romana - Rue Metcalf. Itailan, small quiet, with strolling musicians.<BR><BR>Le Jardan de panos - Duluth. Perhaps Montreal's most popular byob spot. all kinds of interesting brochettes & Greek food. A very lively, festive place.<BR><BR>Bazou - Maisonvieu East. Another lively, hip, byob place. Very unusual, eclectic menu.

Cafe Cherrier has a continental menu and a lot of seafood options -- try the broiled salmon with goat cheese. Menu seems to change daily. It's on the corner of Rue Cherrier and Rue Denis. Just checked my credit card statement -- 2 glasses of wine, starter, entree, dessert and coffee came to $30 USD with tax and tip.

Lslie, <BR>did you go to the new store that was in the EATONS building? <BR>We have decided to visit Montreal in Oct.I think I will be doing some Christmas shopping <BR>I also have your recommendation for Lombardies on my list.

Kate, surprisingly, I did not buy anything on this trip, except for a tin of cookies in a quaint candy shop on Rue Denis. Brought the cookies back to my office, and they were devoured. I was informed today that I should return to Montreal to buy more cookies for my co-workers -- I might just do that in February. There were lovely shops on Rue Denis -- make sure you go into the Lush store. The soaps and bubble baths are awesome, and you can buy what you want by weight. I only passed by Eatons, and spent about 20 minutes in the underground, as I was on my way to an actual metro stop.<BR><BR>There are a lot of nice little boutiques on St. Paul that you might be interested in peeking into. I guess I wasn't in the mood to go shopping as the stores looked so crowded. But, I did pass by a HMV, and it had excellent prices on CDs and DVDs.

Leslie-Thank you !!! I had completely forgotten about Lush! Now I don't have to wait until the next trip to London!<BR>Last year we did buy some good cd's at the HMV store, there is a restaurant called Cafe Ferriere that played really good Brazilian music, so we went to the store and bought it to listen to on the ride home<BR>February in Montreal should be interesting, hope you like snow kate