Chez Delmo earns its century-plus reputation every service. The address in Old Montreal has been feeding the neighbourhood's lawyers, judges, and financiers since 1934—the barstools still bear the names of regulars—and the kitchen has resisted every passing trend with something close to pride. Dover sole meunière arrives deboned tableside. The lobster bisque takes two days to make. The 1938 tomato cream soup recipe hasn't been touched.

When the place relaunched in 2011 under Benoît Dessureault, the goal was restoration. Seafood sourced for quality, plated without artifice. A mural by Montreal artist Carlito DalCeggio replaced the old porcelain fresco above the bar, but the tin sign out front, hand-hammered by a sheet metal worker, still stands.