Yokato Yokabai earned its space on the Michelin guide in 2025, and for good reason. The Japanese izakaya, creation of izakaya Imadake owner Kevin Fung, specializes in Hakata-inspired tonkotsu, with a rich, smooth broth that simmers with pork bones for over 12 hours. They’ve got a cozy, wood paneled space with minimal decorations, but the fare is their true star. If you’re lucky enough to grab one of their 20 seats—a mix of bar stools and 2-person tables—you’re handed a slip of paper to make and customize your order with broth type, saltiness, noodle style, toppings, and side dishes. They don’t take reservations, but the meal is well worth the wait.

Established on Rachel in 2015, Ichigo Ichie’s namesake, a Japanese phrase translating to “this time only,” emerges through the restaurant’s every facet. The four-floor restaurant, designed by Michel Prete, combines wood and stone with structural simplicity to merge tradition and modernity into a space that itself lives in a unique temporal moment. Its menu strikes a similar balance, uniting Japanese tradition with Quebec ingredients in dishes like yaki kinoko (mushrooms, corn, white miso cream and tarragon sauce), carbonara udon, and panna cotta au matcha. From its curated, chef-driven menu to the modern space itself the restaurant embraces its ethos and asks its patrons to do the same.

Satu Lagi brings the (entirely gluten-free) flavours of Indonesia and Malaysia to the Plateau, with dinner, drinks, and weekend brunch. Launched by Krapow’s Kevin Larken, after he spent two decades in Southeast Asia, the restaurant features a tapas style menu and a carefully curated list of cocktails. With choices ranging from a whole fried tilapia and fried cassava root to six different sambals, the dining experience often necessitates diners to invoke the restaurant’s name and get just “one more.”

Run by Hiroshi Kitano, Kitano Shokudo (formerly Otto Bistro) brings sharp French technique to a seasonal menu of Japanese cuisine. A host of classics—including karaage, chirashi, and a bluefin tuna don—are complemented with more contemporary takes, like uni carbonara and wild boar mapo-tofu, and all are executed with extreme attention to detail. With limited seating and a passionate chef in the kitchen, Kitano Shokudo fosters an intimate dining environment with a lot of heart behind it.

A counter-service spot, that’s all about the sauce, Ma Poule Mouilee is Chef Tony Alve’s Portuguese rotisserie. Alongside a list of meats and sandwiches, they serve several iterations of charcoal-roasted chicken and a poutine renowned citywide that uses São Jorge cheese and grilled chorizo. The space is unpretentious, meant more for a casual bite than a lingering meal, but the portions are generous and can also be taken to-go.

In Nikkei, the team behind Barranco fuses Peruvian and Japanese in a menu of sharply-crafted small plates. Though many fusion restaurants lack flavourful cohesion, Nikkei is one of few to execute and deliver. From its shared tasting menu to its a la carte options, dishes like Tiradito Kyuri, with scallops, leche de tigre, mint, cucumber, wasabi peas, and mujjol effortlessly blend the techniques and spices of each region. Their ornate, gilded ceiling and black walls merely add to the ambiance.

Taqueria La Matraca serves up authentic Mexican in a cafeteria-style dining room, from where you can watch your orders being made. This no-frills spot delivers exactly what it promises: “nothing fancy, just the real thing!” A modest list of starters act as the opener for the real show—street style tacos. Suadero and pastor satisfy those with traditional palates, while lengua (beef tongue) sates the moderately adventurous.

With a painting of a stately dalmatian comandeering the dining room wall, and tan coloured furnishings, punctuated by unique florals, Le Violon is recognizable for many reasons, though their contemporary menu, marrying a host of international flavours is its foremost draw. They lean seafood-forward and dishes change seasonally, in-part due to their use of Quebec produce. A wine and classic cocktail list, helmed by Andrew Park, work in collaboration with Co-Executive Chefs Danny Smiles and Mitch Laughren’s culinary suave.

Inspired by a host of Eastern culinary traditions, from Quebec to the Mediterranean, Bungalow reflects the seasons with their cuisine du marché, or market-driven cooking technique. Though the venue is dimly lit, dishes like risotto, steak frites, and octopus, cooked using fresh ingredients, liven the room, and wine from their carefully curated list pairs perfectly.

Au Pied de Cochon is a meditation on decadence, a place that, in its first year on Montreal’s culinary scene, rejected previous fine dining conventions and created something indulgent, bold, and entirely unique. Foie gras on poutine, foie gras nigiri, foie gras stuffed in a pig’s foot—these are the items marking the restaurant’s menu and mood. Though subversive for its era, Au Pied de Cochon’s foundation lies on traditional Quebecois fare, sharing rich flavours in a somehow humble manner.

The retro-chic, French-inspired Chez Victoire has been a Plateau essential for bistro fare since its opening in 2010. And its kitchen, fronted by Chef Alexandre Gosselin, turns out a monthly rotating menu showcasing local ingredients, with plates like tuna tataki, cavatelli, and roasted califlower. In addition to a wide selection of international sips, their wine list features natural, organic wines from small producers in Quebec. Come for a cozy meal, linger over dessert, and let the kitchen’s seasonal rhythm set the pace for the night.

The BYOB rendez-vouz Le Pégase, helmed by Chef Michael Audet-Laparé, masterfully refines French classics in a Parisian neo-bistro style setting. Expect welcoming, attentive service—and bread served with butter and pâté—that makes the experience feel special without ever feeling stiff. You can enjoy dishes like black pudding, goat cheese profiteroles, frayed rabbit, and apple tarte tatin at their pristinely set tables, while sipping on your favourite bottle in their thin stemmed glasses.

Bar Vivar—a wine bar inspired by both Spanish cuisine and tavern design—rests on one of the Plateau’s most beloved streets, a charming fixture of the area. The product of Georges Greiche and Patrick Oakes, two Joe Beef alums, this 40-seat space outlines a condensed menu of bites on a blackboard, Greiche’s tortilla being the most notable, alongside a list of wines, sherries, and vermouths handpicked by Patrick. Seating guests in a mix of wooden high tops and blue banquettes, with stemware hanging from the walls and soccer on the television, Bar Vivar is both comfortable and atmospheric.

Bringing Syrian cuisine to Saint-Laurent, Talal Sabbagh’s Brocard is a family affair, serving traditional dishes that have come straight from his mother, Nahla’s kitchen. And it doesn’t stop with the restaurant’s team—Brocard’s take on traditionals like kebab, Fatet Mozat, and a number of mezze, shouldn’t be eaten in isolation. Every dish carries the warmth of a shared meal, rooted in generations of Syrian hospitality, enhanced by Sabbagh’s own journey to Canada just seven years ago. They’re meant to accompany conversation, accented with the occasional pause to sip Lebanese wine and beer.

What emerged from Nicolas Gamache and chef Maksim Morin’s commitment to build a restaurant they wanted to work in every night is Le Chien Fumant, with its everchanging menu toting international flavours. While their start in the late aughts brought 2am closing times, their project has since been reinvented, now more assured in its position in Montreal’s culinary sphere. Morin brings imagination and technique to each plate, from a soft boiled egg, to endive salad and weal sweetbread. Expect a large array of canapes, small plates, and main courses, and additional luxuries in the form of caviar and cheese.

L’Express, a Plateau mainstay since its inception in 1980, is a Michelin guide-selected ode to classic French cuisine. The space itself does much of the work, with mosaic tile floors, deep red-lacquered walls, and banquette seating that transports you somewhere between Paris and the Main, as does the heavily French-leaning wine list. But their unwavering dedication to the canon, via steak tartare, bone marrow, and Croque Monsieur—all executed with a quiet confidence—is what truly shines through, and has secured L’Express’ resilience.

Bryan Rajarison opened the only authentic Malagasy restaurant in North America, 325 F, at twenty-three, using the recipes he learned in adolescence to devise the menu. Turning the dining room into something closer to a homecoming, Rajarison’s slow-cooked meats, fragrant rice dishes, and layered spicing reflect a Madagascan flavour defined by centuries of migration from East Africa, India, China, France, and the Middle East. From the Tamatave soup, named for one of Madagascar’s major cities, to Rajarison’s signature Ravitoto, each dish aims to introduce this little-known cuisine to Montreal’s population.

Simplicity is redefined at Noren, a 10-seater lunch counter that is open for a mere three and a half hours, four days a week. Here, the dishes speak for themselves, and the long queues snaking out front—even before partners Élyse Garand and Hidenori Tsuda open the doors—are proof. Their menu is a modest but skillfully executed directory of traditional Japanese fare that shifts weekly, with offerings often including okonomiyaki, an onigiri of the day, and some form of a raw salmon and rice bowl. At Noren, scarcity is the point, and it seems Montreal has recieved the message.

Known for their catch-driven menu, Le Filet’s seafood-forward, Michelin-guide level cuisine marries French and Japanese influences with precision. From the mind of chef Yasuhisa Okazaki, alongside chef Claude Pelletier and Hubert Marsolais, emerge dishes like tuna tartare with confit egg and nori and seared scallops and squash ravioli. The space outdoes the menu in theatricality, with a long black slate bar and open kitchen, accented by architect Annie Lebel and Marsolai’s lavish use of stainless steel—from interior walls to exterior facade—so the whole restaurant catches light in an oceanic way.

Chez Claudette, with their bright yellow storefront and kitschy, classic window lettering, is hard to miss. The Quebecois diner, serving comfort food that spans over 40 varieties of poutine, plus sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, and a breakfast menu (for late risers only—they open at 11 AM), is unfussy in the way only a true neighbourhood spot can be. Sure, the Plateau has fancier options, but few as beloved.

This little deli, standing on Saint-Laurent for nearly 100 years, needs no introduction. Schwartz’s makes what is largely considered the best of Montreal smoked meat, and its reputation has resonated worldwide. The deli itself is a time capsule, red leather diner stools dot the wooden counter, cases with their old-school logo hold a variety of meats waiting to be served, and a wall of newspaper and magazine mentions greets you when you enter. Smoked meat sandwiches or plates, poutine, french fries and dill pickles—they stick to timeless classics and execute them effortlessly.

Puglian cuisine forms the foundation for La Panzeria, an Italian café owned by baker-chef brothers Pierpaolo and Davide Sansone. Flavours from different cities in the region appear in each dish, from the Lasagna di Mamma—named for their Mamma Francesca who can often be found in the kitchen—to the simple Panzerotti, filled with mozzarella and tomato. Tucked below street level on Saint-Denis, in a modern-yet-rustic space, La Panzeria is at once enchanted by its Italian roots and charming to its patrons.

This union of pan-African gastronomy and Quebecois produce in Le Virunga’s kitchen is the outcome of a decade of collaboration between Afro-Portuguese chef Maria-José de Frias and her daughter Zoya. Earning a spot on the Michelin guide in 2025, their curated menu produces stand-out dishes like Moto wa upendo: a rack of Quebec-raised mutton, chef’s spiced jus, spinach salad, and purple sweet potato. The restaurant’s walls reflect complimentary inspirations, with warm terracottas, woven textiles, and flickering candlelight. Together, mother and daughter have created something that feels both inventive and traditional—a kitchen shaped by two continents and one shared vision.

Behind Ohayo Café is Hiroshi Kitano (Kitano Shokudo) and a roster of Japanese dishes, alongside a coffee and tea menu, including matcha, hojicha, and black sesame lattes. The menu is short, but considered, and specific to Japanese cafés—featuring chicken kaarage; keema curry with minced beef and pork; ramen and soba dishes; a panko-fried ebi burger with a brioche bun, homemade ketchup, and yuzu mayo; a tamago sando; and more. At Ohayo, the distinction between café and restaurant dissolves, with casual diners and remote workers sharing tables in the brightly lit space.