The 18 Best Restaurants in Montreal’s Hochelaga-Maisonneuve

Bagatelle prepares French bistro classics from its Rue Ontario restaurant, complete with a menu that leans on whatever’s fresh at the market and a bring-your-own-wine policy. The kitchen turns out duck confit, foie gras au torchon, and filet mignon, alongside a handful of dishes that wander beyond the country’s limits, like a burrata di bufala starter, pan-seared octopus with chorizo, and a rack of lamb finished with a Provençal garlic crust. There’s a five-course tasting menu priced at $85 for those who want a full tour, and brunch service on the weekends.

Named for the spinning maple seeds that children often call “helicopters,” this restaurant, from Chef David Ollu, centres on a multi-course tasting menu built for sharing, alongside à la carte small plates, with the lineup shifting weekly depending on what local producers and the restaurant’s rooftop garden have in season. At one moment, Ollu may be preparing a mushroom gnocchi, duck tartare, or scallop dish. The next, he might feature veal sweetbreads or a shrimp bisque. To drink, expect signature cocktails named after fruits and vegetables—haskap, strawberry, pea, sea buckthorn—and local beers.

Hélico, a café and patisserie that opened its doors in 2018, occupies the same building as Chef David Ollu’s evening restaurant Hélicoptère. The pastry case is the draw for most regulars: croissants, kouign-amann, brioche, cannelés, and a brownie that’s known around town are all made from scratch each morning. The savoury side is comprised of a breakfast sandwich (buns courtesy of Aube Boulangerie) and a rotating set of sandwiches, salads, soups, and pastas. Like its mother restaurant, everything is built around what’s in season.

After opening in 2023, Aube quickly made a name for itself, a reputation rooted in its outstanding sourdough bread, with a blistered, dark crust and open crumb. The viennoiserie case is no less strong, exhibiting classic and filled croissants, kouign-amann, financiers, babka, and more. The daytime menu extends into sandwiches built on house-made focaccia, baguette, and croissant, like one with mortadella, soppressata, pesto, arugula, havarti, and bomba sauce, plus granola and soup.

État-Major rests in a corner space on Rue Ontario, with big windows pulling in daylight and a kitchen, led by Chef Chrystel Tremblay, that runs a bring-your-own-wine format built on French technique and Quebec-sourced ingredients. The menu is succinct, with a select number of entrées, plates, sides, and desserts, and shifts according to what’s in season. Locally grown asparagus, grilled octopus, and foie gras might helm the appetizers section, while magret de canard and salmon tartare may anchor the main dishes. You can order à la carte, or opt for the 5-course tasting menu.

Heirloom’s Neapolitan-style pizza is fired in a wood oven and finished with ingredients like prosciutto, lemon and limoncello-ricotta, fior di latte, and artichoke. Fresh pasta (pappardelle with rabbit, spaghetti carbonara) and shareable starters like fried calamari, veal meatballs, and arugula salad round out the food menu, while a curated, mostly private-import wine list and a heavily Italian cocktail menu handle the drinks. A short dessert menu finishes off the meal. Inside, it’s got an industrial yet inviting atmosphere—exposed ducts overhead, warm wood tables, and a long bar backed by subway tile and rows of wine bottles.

Taking over the former La Belle Province, Resto-Bar Le Pick-up has a diner’s bones, with its original benches and tables, while giving the space a refresh that results in a space halfway between retro casse-croûte and neighbourhood bar. It prepares an elevated, contemporary menu of comfort-food staples—burgers, chicken sandwiches and wings, and vegetarian variations, salads, and french fries—all homemade, from sauce to buns.

Ten years into running the Blind Pig, owners Antoine and Mathieu decided it was time to build another restaurant. Rufus & Anna is the result: a modish rotisserie and cocktail bar with wood floors and walls and rattan-back bar chairs. Its kitchen embraces comfort with smoked chicken and rotisserie classics anchoring the menu, alongside various sandwiches, smoked salmon, steak chimichurri, and a few salads. Rather than a standard cocktail list, this one is built as a journey, with each drink corresponding to a leg of the Rufous hummingbird’s migration, spirits and flavours correlating to each region on the route.

The name suggests a roadside stopover, though there are no rooms for reservation here, just a restaurant and wine bar built into the shell of a bank. Shaped around the bar and the glass-enclosed wine cellar behind it, with coherent wooden table and chair sets, brown leather banquettes, and ambient lighting, the room is easy to settle into for a casual evening. Seasonal, market-driven dishes are on the menu, with plates like crispy eggplant, mushrooms and escargot, tuna tataki, and ricotta gnocchi, all built for sharing.

Tamisé, a sushi restaurant on Rue Ontario, takes Japanese traditions and adds a contemporary edge, offering classic nigiri alongside vegan maki and signature flambéed rolls. Torched scallop, maki filled with red tuna tartare, a futomaki with fresh lobster in it—these are the kinds of inventive bites you’ll find. Three kinds of private-import soy sauces are available to accompany each piece of sushi, as are a selection of imported sakes and wines, and Quebec spirits.

I Primi is a simple pasta counter run by three friends, built around the idea of doing Italy’s first courses well, rather than trying to cover a whole menu. The concept stays narrow: pick from a handful of fresh pasta shapes, choose a sauce, then add on if you want—whether stracciatella, spicy honey, or chicken. It also has a number of apéritivo bites, like meatballs and salads and focaccia sandwiches. It’s for takeout only, with no tables inside, making it a perfect go-to for a weekday lunch or a nighttime picnic.

El Pacifico pushes south along Mexico’s coastline for inspiration, pulling from Pacific fishing towns rather than the capital-city style of cooking that dominates Mexican menus elsewhere in Montreal. Fried calamari, ceviche, and birria are just part of a culinary repertoire that’s nearly equal in meat and seafood. It’s a dim, well-worn space, with a bar running the length of the room that churns out palomas and margaritas alongside a smaller selection of mezcal cocktails. Tuesdays bring a $3 taco deal, and happy hours run most days, while weekend brunch services bring in additional items.

Ask anyone who’s been to Chez Simon what to order here, and the answer is almost always some version of the smash burger: thin, well-charred patties stacked high and sandwiched between a soft bun. The kitchen also turns out poutine of many variations, plus hot dogs, patty melts, and grilled cheeses. The space is snug, fitting a handful of tables around an old bar, but cozy like a neighbourhood diner. A small selection of beer to wash it all down rounds out the simple menu.

Maison Jofei was founded because Joseph (Jo) and Faye (Fei) couldn’t find decent Hainanese chicken rice anywhere in the city, so they decided to make it themselves. The menu wanders intentionally around Asia rather than sticking to one regional cuisine. Dishes range from the catalyzing Hainanese chicken rice to a Hakka gnocchi made with taro and tapioca paste, pork, mushrooms, and dried shrimp, and a fried beef po’boy sandwich. Sauces and broths are all made in-house, and the room evokes an antique alcove—plants, mismatched vintage pieces, and seemingly thrifted paintings scattered around.

Cerf-Volant is a bring-your-own-wine restaurant that’s bolstered by a menu that’s constantly surprising, with dishes like mushroom pierogies, daily crudos, and duck breast with avocado, lemongrass, cilantro, and peanuts. While you can eat fully à la carte, there’s also the option for a 5-course tasting menu that ends up being relatively affordable, once you take into account that your bill won’t include alcohol. The inside isn’t overly stuffy, containing standard wooden tables and chairs and banquette seating on the room’s perimeter.

At Les Canailles, you’ll find Georges Blais running the kitchen, plating mains that run somewhere in the $26-44 range and tilt French with a Mediterranean streak. Lobster bouchées to start, fried polenta with chorizo and scallops, and a Mediterranean tuna tataki comprise just some of the menu. The space itself is stripped down but not void of charm, with a chalkboard listing specials, a decorative tile floor, and garage door-style windows that let in fresh air during the summer.

Open around the clock on Sherbrooke East, Miami Déli looks like a diner that got left on pause sometime in the ‘90s and never noticed the rest of the world evolving. Palm trees, tropical murals, and a wall of fish frozen mid-swim set the tone before the menu, which can’t be described by a simple category, even lands on the table. Chicken souvlaki, fish and chips, smoked meat pizza, lasagna, poutine, Chinese-style fried rice, and breakfast served straight through the day—it’s an eclectic smorgasbord of cheap eats, perfect for after a night out, or whatever time of day you get the craving.

The decor at La Pataterie hasn’t been touched in over three decades, but that’s hardly an issue. The restaurant’s fries are the reason to come, if you couldn’t already tell from the name. They’re twice-fried, crisp on the outside, soft in the middle, with a faint sweetness. Everything is made to order, with burgers coming off the griddle fresh, not the product of frozen patties, and the prices stay stubbornly low, with hot dogs remaining just under two dollars.