Set inside the Sheraton Hotel downtown, the long lounge of Stanley is set below its towering three floors of windows looking out onto René-Lévesque Boulevard Ouest. Operating at just about all hours of the day, it ain’t just for people staying at the hotel, and that’s a good thing: Their menu is uniquely set up with different single-person and sharing portion options with only slight bumps in price. Want that steak or tartare platter for three or four people? No problem. Wolf it down for yourself? That’s an option, too. Thanks to its chef Alexandre Martin, all of it is cooked with an absolute precision you love to see in a hotel setting.
Coming from the folks behind the Thai stylings of Mae Sri, Le Garden Room’s sub-basement spot facing Concordia University is a posher option from the restaurant family: An in-house fountain and lots of greenery create a secretive, in-the-know ambiance, while a menu with all the greatest Mae Sri hits—and then some—bring the flavour. Fried chicken and papaya salads, Hainan steamed chicken, curries, classic plates of pad Thai, and heaped plates of kuay tiaw haeng (bowls of noodles with no broth) packed with spice, aromatics, and fresh herbs. Pair all that with some boozy drinks, or iced coffees and green tea milk if you’ve got work in the morning.
Don’t miss this lunch and weekend brunch spot inside the multidisciplinary art space of Maison Alcan in the Golden Square Mile. Coming from the team behind the Italian destination Beatrice, Chef Michael Coppa’s designed a crowdpleaser of a menu at Améa that is genuinely playful. Bombolone sandwiches with cream cheese and smoked salmon? Lafayette croissants? Stacked brioche French toast loaded with whipped pistachio cream and macerated strawberries and savory crostinis? It looks good, it tastes great—you couldn’t want much more than that.
The standalone wood-fired restaurant Hoogan & Beaufort has already made Angus Technopole a destination in Montreal, but with Annette, there’s a cherry on top when heading out east. It’s a plant-filled, wine-forward spot with live entertainment and a finessed menu where chef Marc-André Jetté can really shine, full of comparably smaller plates fed by the chef’s own butcher shop. That means you can expect dishes like boudin croquettes, beef tartare, sweetbreads, and lamb chops alongside lighter vegetarian dishes to round it all out.
A multi-tiered hospitality concept taking over the upper floors of Place VIlle-Marie, Hiatus has truly set itself up to do it all: An outdoor terrasse with Mediterranean raw bar dining on the 44th floor, a bar with snacks on the 45th, and a full-fledged restaurant on the floor above that (the 46th and highest in the building) cooks up Japanese and French plates with technique interplay between the two cuisines. That translates to things like ramen or nori tacos as well as foie gras tartelettes and arctic char. With ambitious interior redesigns by Sid Lee Architecture, Hiatus has among the highest and most highly-prized tables in the city when it comes to lavish dining.
