The 21 Best Seafood Restaurants in Montreal

Built around a raw bar with fish pulled largely from Havre-Saint-Pierre and Rimouski, Molenne is a Mile End brasserie with a heavy focus on seafood. Leading the menu is Chef Louis-Joseph Rochefort who pairs oysters, sea urchin, razor clams, and wild caviar with Quebec meats and French-Montreal brasserie classics. Dishes like bluefin tuna carpaccio, bison tartare, Oysters Rockefeller, and crispy garnished potatoes take up the menu’s starter section, while the main plates also cover land and sea, with salmon, cod, lamb, and steak. Order à la carte or opt for one of their three tasting menus.

Brit & Chips is Montreal’s take on the classic British “chippy,” which originated in the United Kingdom in 1860. Owned by the Burgundy Lion Group, this spot specializes in fish & chips, allowing diners to customize their plates with one of three sizes (determining how many pieces of fried fish you get), and the type of fish (cod, sole, salmon, tofu, or fish of the month). Also on the menu are a cod burger, chicken tenders, and extras like popcorn shrimp, calamari, samosas, and poutine, plus beers on draft, cocktails, and wine.

La Boîte Aux Huîtres is a Jean-Talon Market oyster bar with 60 kinds of oysters, coming from across Canada and the United States. Each is shucked to order at the counter and served on crushed ice with horseradish, lemon, and mignonette. The space is small, built for quick counter service rather than a long sit-down meal, but perfect for what’s at hand—where a dozen oysters can be slurped down in a matter of minutes.

Garde Manger is an Old Montreal restaurant with two separate dining rooms—playing 80s and 90s music respectively—where seafood-forward courses roll out from the open kitchen in abundance. The menu takes form through sections of seafood, appetizers, mains, and sides, where each dish is signified by its primary ingredient: tuna, octopus, salt cod, snow crab, scallops, white asparagus, and the list goes on. In their rustic, eclectic space, with dark wood beams, warm lighting, and ornate chandeliers, enjoy a seafood platter and your own selection of dishes or a chef’s menu in four to six courses.

Opening in 1996, this restaurant is the eponymous owner Carlos Ferreira’s ode to Portuguese culture and cuisine. While it didn’t necessarily start as a seafood restaurant, with its downtown zip code and Ferreira’s clientele-forward approach, fresh catches became integral to their menu early on. Oysters, caviar, grilled squid, crispy octopus, fish & seafood bouillabaisse, and surf & turf make up just part of the menu, which is complemented by imported Portuguese wines.

At Ooh! Crabe, Louisiana-style seafood boils are the specialty, complete with special seasoning and sauces that embrace southern flavours and tradition. Choose your own seafood—headless shrimp, mussels, baby octopus, lobster tail or claws, snow crab legs, and black tiger shrimp—or from one of their pre-set mixes, like the jumbo with a half-pound headless shrimp, half-pound mussels, half-pound snow crab legs, and one lobster tail. For each, you also pick the sauce and spice level, and two included sides from white rice, corn, or boiled potatoes. In addition to seafood boils, this Pierrefonds restaurant offers fried plates and a short list of wine and beer.

Le Filet presents a marriage of cuisines in a stylish atmosphere, with Yasuhisa Okazaki helming the kitchen and contemporary fixtures courtesy of Annie Lebel and Hubert Marsolais. Training in French and Italian kitchens in his native Japan, Okazaki’s approach to seafood employs multi-cultural techniques and flavours. For appetizers, he whips up dishes like tuna tartare with confit egg and nori or grilled Japanese calamari with chorizo, tomato, and confit lemon. For mains, meats join the menu, with plates like veal schnitzel and filet mignon alongside seared scallops and squid ink linguine.

Nishinokaze is a Mile-End omakase restaurant that is more of a culinary experience than it is a typical restaurant. At one of its eight seats, customers are hand-served select sushi dishes by chef-owner Vincent Gee, a Canada and Japan-trained chef. Showcased throughout the 21-course meal are both local and imported wild seafood, a nod to the restaurant’s name, which translates to “West Wind,” and mission, to unite west and east. Every detail is intentional and meticulous, from the sushi rice to the ceramics on which each bite is presented.

At both of Sol y Mar’s locations, seafood is front and centre, as is the Peruvian coast, with the restaurants’ focused cuisine. Ceviche, fresh fish marinated in citrus, is a favourite, as is jalea, a hearty plate of breaded mixed seafood. The spaces themselves are warm, with the Villeray dining room dressed in florals, exposed brick, a ship steering wheel, and a crystal chandelier, while the Laval location presents itself a bit more casually. Enjoy live Latin and Spanish-language music on weekends, and let the rhythms of Peru set the mood.

Opening in 1994 by the Cheaib brothers, La Sirène de la Mer is a Mount Royal Lebanese seafood restaurant, where guests choose their fish and seafood and the chefs prepare them accordingly. Typical Lebanese dishes like hummus, vine leaves, kebbé nayeh, and sayadiéh (cod, rice, walnuts, and caramelized onion) are on the menu, as are other dishes like salmon tartare, clam chowder, seafood linguine, and fish and chips. The restaurant itself is clean and simple, the dining room done up in white marble columns, tablecloths, etc., and a market where you can buy whatever’s freshest, and ingredients that pair perfectly.

Self-taught, titular chef Hiroshi Kitano, takes over the kitchen at Kitano Shokudo, preparing a short but focused menu of Japanese seafood. His chirashi, uni carbonara, and ikura don are regular favourites, with a list of specials to complement—often including various fresh sashimi and mazemen (broth-less ramen). Inside, the dining room is, like the menu, small but charming, with a warm wooden bar and geometric light fixtures punctuating the green tables and red accents throughout.

Verdun’s Le Godot is a gastronomic site where seafood often takes the lead, presented in small plates with artistry and attention. Whereas most upscale restaurant tasting menus would run customers over $100 a head, Le Godot’s $85, 6-course option rivals the best in the city. Local produce, technical panache, and, of course, unique flavours—with dishes like scallop crudo, scampi prawns, and curry mussels—are on the rotating menu, while the green-filled dining room, plush bench-seating and all, makes for a relaxed, yet luxurious, meal.

Le Canal is a hole-in-the-wall, Pierrefonds seafood restaurant that, from its exterior (and interior), might not seem much. A blue “poissonnerie” window treatment welcomes customers from the outside, while long tables with white paper tablecloths and various whole fish and filets sit on ice in the back. All negative preconceptions will dissipate, though, when the meal arrives at the table. Order a whole sea bream or sea bass, served with rice and salad, a shrimp plate with fries or rice, fried calamari, mussels, or whatever else you select from the counter.

Restaurant et Poissonnerie Zeina is a storefront in Côte-des-Neiges that knows exactly what it is. If it wasn’t already clear from its name, this hybrid restaurant and fishmonger sells and serves seafood, with little exception. Mediterranean and Middle Eastern flavours are integrated throughout, with a menu that features seafood platters, fish and chips, grilled swordfish, and whole fish, mussels, and even seafood linguine. Everything is cooked and plated simply—no fancy sleights of hand, just flavourful tradition.

Seau de Crabe’s signature seafood boil can be found at one of their many island locations, with 15 possible combinations and three kinds of sauces. Choose from many different buckets, including the festive ocean bucket, New Zealand mussels bucket, shrimp & mussels bucket, or sea feast bucket; add on the Cajun, creamy Cajun, or Seau de Crabe signature sauce; and decide on the spice and sides. If you don’t want a bucket, they also offer fried plates, loaded poutines, and salads.

Le Majestique is a Saint-Laurent blvd. eclectic restaurant and oyster bar that highlights seafood and seasonal vegetables through a series of small plates. Plain oysters run you $3.5 each, while their oysters with mujjol caviar, cucumber, and ponzu are just a dollar more. The kitschy decor, with wood panelling, mounted deer heads, and vintage swivel stools, belies a serious commitment to seafood. Smoked mackerel tartinade, Quebec-style shrimp salad sandwiches, and marinated salmon are all on the menu, as is a showstopping seafood platter, craft cocktails, beers, and wines.

Open since 1979, Estiatorio Milos in Mile-End is Montreal’s original Greek seafood institution and a longstanding destination for diners across the island and beyond. At the centre of the white-tablecloth-donned room sits an iced fish market, where diners select a whole fish, before it’s charcoal-grilled or roasted in a sea-salt crust. Also on the menu are Milos Classics, familiar Greek dishes including Greek spreads, pita, and crudité, saganaki, grilled sardines, zucchini flowers, and Greek salad.

Chef Helena Loureiro’s take on Portuguese cuisine, Old Montreal’s Helena, is built around petiscos (the Portuguese counterpart to Spanish tapas) meant for sharing. Seafood runs through the menu—cod croquettes, grilled octopus, squid and grilled shrimp tagliatelle, and Caldeirada-style black cod, taking up just part of the options. The warm, colourful dining room and a Portuguese-heavy wine list of over 100 vintages pave the way for a lively, refined meal, well-suited for celebrations and special occasions.

Marcus Restaurant + Terrace, set inside Montreal’s Four Seasons Hotel, is a modern brasserie with a third-floor terrasse overlooking downtown. The menu is seafood-forward, with a tower of oysters, cocktail prawns, snow crab, sashimi, and Nordic prawn salad; grilled octopus with endive salad; Canadian black cod; and lobster pasta with chilli. The space is built around an open-concept raw bar and grill, making for a bright and social atmosphere by day, and lively nighttime ambience after dark.

Park, named for Korean-Montrealer and Japan-trained chef Antonio Park, is a Westmount restaurant that converges Korean and Japanese influences into thoughtful seafood dishes. The restaurant sources fish both locally and from Japan, which is then used in plates like bluefin tataki; oysters with kimchi, lemon, lime, and maple mignonette; and various kinds of sushi. The warm, wood-heavy dining room centres around an open sushi bar, with a large triptych of a tuna overhead.

In 1934, Mr. Delisle and Mr. Morissette opened a three-floored Chez Delmo, part seafood restaurant, part gaming house, part brothel. 30 years later, the top two floors were closed, and just the restaurant remained. Though its appearance may have gone through updates and renovations, very little on the menu has changed since its opening, with the Dover sole meunière house specialty and a two-day process of making lobster bisque. Many dishes, like the sole, are meant to be shared, though they also have single servings, like fish ‘n’ chips, a lobster roll, and scallops.