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Old Montréal is home to some of the city's hippest and most charming bistros and fine-dining restaurants—all tucked into heritage buildings. Foodies eat wild game and fresh seafood while drinking imported wine. Many of the better restaurants have a reasonable table d'hôte at lunch. Daily changing menus written on chalkboards are a common sight, since market-fresh food is popular.
You'll want to keep coming back again and again to this charming little gourmet convenience store and café with its mint-green façade and single-origin coffee. Le Petit Dep proudly stocks local products, including prêt-à-manger (ready-to-eat) soups, salads, and comfort foods such as chili, pasta, and vegan shepherd's pie. There are also mouthwatering home-baked goods and candy in bulk. There is a second Old Montréal location at 461 rue St-Sulpice.
The expertise and irreproachable service at Le Serpent truly make it an essential stop on any Montréal foodie itinerary. The industrial-looking space caters to trendy diners, and almost paradoxically, serves sublime Italianate plates that could be mistaken for comfort food if they weren’t so elegantly presented. Nothing disappoints here, from the sommelier picks to the meat, fish and pasta dishes down to the delectable desserts.
Influential types arrive at lunchtime en masse for a table at this bustling bakery and sandwich shop where vegetables are organically grown in a nearby garden. Crowd pleasers include the Cuban panini sandwich and the #24 salad with pickled daikon, peanuts, roasted marinated tofu, fresh herbs, and soba noodles. There is now a second location in the new Royalmount mall.
Frequently named one of Montréal's best restaurants and Canada's third best by Canada's 100 Best ( canadas100best.com), a meal at Toqué! is not so much about sustenance but rather about experience. Toqué is slang for "a little stubborn," as in the chef's insistence on using fresh, local ingredients; consequently, the menu changes daily in accordance with market offerings but foie gras, duck, and wild venison are on constant rotation. Some patrons wouldn't consider ordering anything but the seven-course C$205 dinner tasting menu.
