The 17 Best Jazz Bars In and Around Montreal

A speakeasy-style cocktail bar in the Plateau, Bootlegger has been running its Sunday jazz night since 2016—a reliable weekly ritual. Local bands headline at 9 pm in the red-lit, vintage-feeling setting, accompanied by $1 oysters and a craft cocktail menu. Wednesdays are Latin jazz nights, and Thursdays offer elegant, stripped-back solo performances, while a daily menu of shareable bites, tartare, burgers, and sandwiches maintains the bar’s refined-casual atmosphere.

Upstairs Jazz Bar & Grill was founded in 1995 and has remained one of Montreal’s few dedicated jazz venues ever since. Its semi-basement setting favours exposed brick, beams, and dim lighting, creating a casual yet intimate space that puts the music and musicians front and centre. Local and international talent take the stage each night, as audience members listen and order from a menu of snacks, salads, plates, and drinks.

Rather than a restaurant that happens to book bands, Dièse Onze has built its reputation as a serious jazz room. Musicians play live most nights, with lineups of lyrical modern, manouche, swing, and other subgenres, and a weekly series draws crowds for specific acts and nights. The ambience enhances each performance, with candlelight, close quarters, and tables arranged so patrons can watch the stage. Plus, drinks and food to enjoy while you’re listening.

Founded by three young musicians as a downtown home for Montreal’s jazz scene, Cabaret Jazz L’Entracte was built specifically to give emerging local players a stage alongside more established performers. Its non-profit operations maintain an ethos of community and affordability, as audiences are encouraged to actively engage with the club’s musicians, and tickets remain modestly priced, as low as $10 apiece.

Sora 45 is a restaurant by night, café by day, on the 45th floor of Place Ville Marie. There, sushi and hot dishes are brought to the table with craft cocktails, while espresso and tea drinks make up the menu’s earlier counterpart. Lesser known, perhaps, is Sora’s live jazz series, with performances every Tuesday night, from 8 to 11 pm. If you want to enjoy unique, Japanese-inspired dishes and mixologist-concocted drinks alongside resonant saxophone and rhythmic piano sounds, Sora’s the place to go.

Just below HENI, in Little Burgundy, is Badin, a cozy listening lounge that seats just two dozen. The space is low-lit and moody, flaunting vintage hi-fi speakers and a vinyl-stocked DJ booth, making for the perfect atmosphere to enjoy their weekly Wednesday jazz nights. Paired with one of the drinks off their eclectic menu—featuring flavours like shiitake, corn, bell pepper, artichoke, and mustard—you’ll have a night to remember.

Though Jardin Nelson is first and foremost an Old Montreal restaurant, it treats live music as a daily fixture, rather than an occasional draw. Its flower-filled courtyard makes for the perfect venue, as jazz acts fill the space every day from early May through Thanksgiving. Tiered terrasses and split-level seating give most tables a clear line to the stage, where groups of varying sizes play the standards. Sets run alongside a menu of crêpes, salads, and cocktails, but you’ll want to go here for the music alone.

Grumpy’s is a charming downtown dive bar, with affordable drinks, a bring-your-own-food policy, and regular Wednesday jazz nights. While some might think of jazz shows as inherently upscale, Grumpy’s strips it down, void of any cover fee or dress code. Local acts take the bar’s small stage, playing to a room that’s there for the music and the cheap pints. The place to go if you want the soulful music but not the prices to match.

With Magpie Magique’s 1920s prohibition-era speakeasy concept, complete with a hidden entrance and red-lit interior, jazz nights fit right in. Bands take over Friday and Saturday nights, and keep the volume at a decibel that lets conversation continue, rather than overtaking the room’s chatter. The sound pairs well with their classic cocktail program and food menu, with small plates like salmon tartare and several pizza options. Charging audience members $10 per show, it’s not the cheapest place you’ll catch a set, but it remains relatively affordable, nonetheless.

Datcha treats jazz as the night’s more relaxed prelude, hosting a trio every Thursday before the room transforms into an equally percussive, though significantly louder, DJ-run territory. The candlelit Russian speakeasy setting stays consistent throughout, but Thursdays add a $6 or $7 cover and a tarot reader alongside the band. For those who enjoy both the jazz and nightclub scene, you’ll get a two-for-one, as one flows effortlessly into the next.

Tucked into the stone vaults beneath Hotel Nelligan in Old Montreal, Lovebird is a cocktail bar and music salon where jazz takes centre stage, alongside soul and acoustic performances, each night. There are three live sets each evening, all headlined by local artists. The dim lighting, velvet textures, and enveloping soundscape add to the experience, as does their list of signature cocktails, featuring flavours such as pandan, pink peppercorn, passionfruit, and nori leaf. Elevated small plates are also available, including smoked oysters, chicken nuggets with caviar, and beef tartare on focaccia.

Three floors below street level in Old Montreal, Subterra is the audio lounge of SonoLux—Quebec’s first contemporary art hotel. There, jazz, soul, and funk comprise the foundation for a casual yet culturally engaging night out. Hard bop and blues classics echo out every Thursday from 8 to 11 pm, from Subterra’s resident jazz quartet. To pair, cocktails, desserts, and amuse-bouches are on the menu.

The upscale restaurant at the Four Seasons, Marcus Restaurant and Lounge, is best known for its Michelin-recommended menu, but its lounge is quietly becoming a nighttime destination in its own right. Its Wednesday night music programming—Marcus Social—draws from Montreal’s intimate, atmospheric jazz scene of the 1970s, well-matched with the space’s velvet-chaired, floor-to-ceiling windowed interior. Live bands animate the room, harmonizing perfectly with Head of Mixology Jay Lawson’s seasonal cocktail program.

Modavie is a French bistro and wine bar nestled in the cobblestone streets of Old Montreal, where jazz has been part of the rhythm each night for nearly three decades. Live bands take the floor seven nights a week, and during weekend brunch, filling the warmly lit, two-floor room with jazz and blues from 7 to 10 pm. With French and Mediterranean classics on the menu—duck confit, braised lamb shank, and moules-frites—you can listen and dine at once.

Barbossa has long been a neighbourhood fixture on the Plateau stretch of Saint-Laurent. Mondays are devoted to live jazz, Tuesdays to Latin and world jazz, while the rest of the week pivots to house and techno-focused programming with regular DJ sets, all resounding from a small cove in the back of the bar. Candlelit booths, a compact dance floor right in front of the stage, and affordable drinks make for a well-balanced night.

House of Jazz Laval has been presenting the city’s finest jazz musicians since 1981, with live shows every evening, and two sets on Fridays and Saturdays. The programming varies across jazz, soul, Latin, and R&B, drawing both local artists and touring acts to a room built around the stage. A small cover charge applies depending on where you sit. If you’re closer up front, it costs a little more, but you’ll be in the best spot to enjoy the show.

Le Verre Bouteille, a Plateau neighbourhood bar, has an enduring live music room with jazz appearing regularly. Alfred Rouleau opened the spot in 1942, a space made for an affordable night of drinking, food, and accompanied music. Now under new ownership, the bar’s spirit remains, with up to five shows per week. Programming schedules intimate trio sets and open jam nights alongside folk, French music, and spoken word.