We had this in italy and loved it. Does anybody know of a butcher that makes it?

What a nice lineup of places to go to! Hope you enjoyed Joe Beef

Dante street in little italy. Forgot the name but its owned by Elena Faitas and its a block away from pizza napoleatane

Assuming that you're staying in old montreal by your picks, id say olive et gourmando for breakfast.old montreal is very quiet in the morning, not a lot happening so maybe its worth venturing to a different neighborhood like the plateau or little burgundy. On notre dame st near atwater market you can find toi moi et cafe, burgundy lion's pub and one other one i can't remember right now.

i'd recommend to go into chinatown. A bit of a walk but to have low fiber and other things that can irritate its hard. Actually you can go for vietnamese on st cats near metropolis. I forget the name but a pho soup could work for you.

My gf has UC and its not always easy during flareups.

not sure if it's too late but here goes.

Garde-Manger and Bremner, both owned by Chuck Hughes. One is french-bistro style, the other is seafood.
Kazu, Montreal's only good izakaya and seriously compares to stuff in Tokyo. A local hot spot that tourists aren't hitting up yet
Magpie, great little pizza joint. A bit pricey but good ingredients
Lawrence, fantastic brunch. My new fav place. I'm just not crazy about the coffee
Burgundy Lion, english pub. Not the typical irish pub stuff. Good for breakfast too
Ouzerie, mediterranean cuisine
Osteria Venti, rustic italian food similar to Morini's in NYC.

In that list I'd say only Garde-Manger is really on the radar for tourists because of the show Chuck's Day Off, the others are local spots.

--EDIT --
Can't believe I forgot this spot. Across from burgundy Lion is Joe beef, which right now is real hot. David Chang writes a lot about these guys. They also have another spot right next door called Liverpool House.

The Burgundy Lion Pub has a large breakfast with great bacon (tastes like ribs!)

http://www.burgundylion.com/home.php

Not sure about the wifi, never checked to be honest.

Another spot for excellent foie de gras is any of Laurent Godbout's restaurants. L'Epicier would be the best one but Version would be a good pick as well. They are about one block away from each other in Old montreal.

Nice list of places you've been already.
I'd say Joe Beef and Garde Manger are also good picks. Joe Beef has another restaurant right next to it called Liverpool House.
Go across the street to Burgundy Lion for breakfast.
Osteria Venti is the best rustic italian restaurant in the city. i'd compare it to Osteria Morini in NYC.
Kazu if you can get in. Not a high end dinning location, but it is by far THE hottest spot. It's a japanese Izakaya with great grilled food. You'll have to stand outside for half an hour to get in. It's the place locals go crazy for that tourists don't know.
Restaurant DNA would be good.

Short answer is "No"

The sushi alone is much lower quality for the simple reason that we don't get the same pick as NY does for the quality products.

As for japanese food such as ramen, yakitori and all that, it's far behind. Closest thing I found to a ramen place the caliber of Ippudo would be Sumo Ramen in china town but even at that, it's a poor substitute.

Kazu is the only good japanese place IMO. But in NYC you can probably find half a dozen spots like it. And compared to Tokyo, the other spots like Big in Japan and all that would compare to train station vendors.

I'll have to disagree with explevi, I say go to Chez L'Epicier. I loved everything about it. Even the somelier was personable and took the time to talk to us about what wines we tended to like when my girlfriend didn't enjoy a certain glass (was a paired dinner).

I don't think you can go wrong in this place, very comfortable, and Laurent Godbout is great.

I'd say keep your poutine experience to AFTER a night of drinking. It's our drunk food. Having it sober in the middle of the day on a patio seems weird. :) hehehe

PDC is great, Garde Manger is also a fantastic place for the food & atmosphere.

For bars, La Distillerie is cool, except they adhere to a VERY STRICT limit of people inside, so it can get hard to get in sometimes. But the drinks are excellent. 2 mason jar drinks and you're giddy, ready for poutine. :)

For micro brews, there are a few good places. Saint-Bock on st-denis has excellent beers, local and private imports. Food is excellent actually.

If it's nice outside, seek out St-Elizabeth's pub and sit on their back patio. small place, but beautiful.

Other things to do, I'm not sure of the schedule but you can look into the montreal symphony orchestra. It's partly subsidized by the government so tickets are cheap for an orchestra of that caliber.

If you're there on a sunday, ask around about the Tam Tams at Mont-Royal. It's a great way to spend a sunday afternoon chilling (it's what we do best!)

There is decent sushi, but not excellent in montreal, simply because we don't have the ingredients for it. The fish markets in NYC get to pick the higher quality products before it makes it to us here, so we'll never be as good. And even at that, the best sushi I've ever had was in San Fran and Hong Kong. Beats anything else I ever had.

But Sho-Dan isn't bad. As for authenticity, hard to say. What made sushi popular to the masses finally is the exploration of the chefs with stuf flike california rolls and all that. Not authentic at all and most places will have those on the menu. Not as many will have great sashimi though.

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Hong Kong Restaurant
218 Rue Duquette W, Gatineau, QC J8P2Z4, CA

Hard to find good wings here. Ye Ole Orchard has good ones, capon wings so that's where the taste difference is.

If you want HOT wings, try MacAllan's sports bar in Dorval. We tried those 2 weeks ago, OMG! I like hot, this was insane and the guy tells us he's got one more notch he can go. He uses MadDog's sauce which has a 25,000,000 scoville rating. I think if I remember they were called the "Put the toilet paper in the freezer and kiss your ass goodbye" wings. :)

they were really tasty till the heat kicked in and then after that I downed a pitcher in record time.

I really wish I remembered the name of the place. In Val David, where the trail goes into a parking lot, there's the cabin where you can go in and get tourist info, bathrooms etc. Across from there, there's a restaurant. You have to cross the parking lot and it's just at the base of the hill. If it feels quaint and artsy, with a collection of different kitchen tables, you're there. The food was great there, the drinks were innovative ,and it was all healthy.

That's a great ride you're doing, and val-david is a nice little stop.

You're actually in a good spot for good cheap food. Other alternatives are the pubs. Some pubs have good food like McKibbins on Bishops .Beer's not the cheapest though, avg irish pub price. St-Denis st is another great area to go for good cheap food. Mont-Royal (get off at mont-royal st and turn left or right. I recommend right)
In those areas, it's almost hard to go wrong.
If it's nice and you want a terrasse for a pint, try St-Elizabeth's pub but if that's full (most likely) then head to St-Sulpice.

Chez L'épicier in old montreal is excellent. Really nice comfortable place with the charm of the neighborhood, and excellent staff.
http://www.chezlepicier.com/en/index2...
I've heard excellent things about DNA, but haven't had a chance to go yet
The hot place right now is still Garde Manger, but you'll be working hard trying to get a reservation! It is excellent though, the lobster risotto was sick!

I tried Kazu last night with a friend and we loved it! I'm glad to have japanese food in montreal finally, instead of sushi all the time. I always end up going to NYC to get good stuff and I can finally have a fix at home!

We ordered the Gyozas, grilled asparagus, BBQ pork neck and as per the many recommendations here, the Salmon & Tuna salad. Along with Asahi beer cause they ran out of Kirin (too bad).

The Gyozas were pretty good, excellent sauce. It was strange that they were all connected together by a thin crispy layer of something, I couldn't figure out what. Still the better ones I've had in the city (not that they're easy to find). The grilled asparagus was delicious but it's hard to mess that up to be honest. The Tune & Salmon salad. I'd say if you're looking for a good meal, have that. If you're starving and have a healthy appetite, get something else with it. I liked all the flavours in it, enjoyed it thoroughly. The BBQ pork necks were great! Next time i think i'll try the 48 hours pork but I'm definetly going back.

Sorry it say, it isn't. It wasn't BAD, but i've been on a hunt for japanese food in Montreal for a long time. I'm fed up of sushi being considered THE ONLY japanese cuisine. Italians can make more than pasta.

I tried Ichiban last week, it was alright. But I went there cause I didn't have time to wait at Kazu which I wanted to try. I can't compare it to Kazu yet cause I still haven't been, but this wasn't a very good place. I had a super ramen soup with the pork. The pork was overcooked, and lean. Service was ok though.

About Art Java, it USED to be my favourite place, especially since they make proper lattes. The food was also excellent when it opened. But in the few years, it looks like it was sold to someone else because the quality took a MAJOR drop. Items were disappearing from the food menu (and that i would expect because too many items were used only on one dish, so I could imagine the spoilage), the place wasn't kept up properly and looked dirty, especially the display cases. But mostly, the coffee experience wasn't the same. I had 3 bad espressos in a row there, and that was it. Haven't been back in 2-3 years.

Can anybody else confirm this? This seems to coincide with the opening of the 2nd branch, so maybe it was sold to someone with deep pockets and profits only in mind.

Thanks sweettoothMTL! I did a search before and couldn't find anything.

Cherylmtl, no kidding! I hate that decision after a great meal of "Do I take a chance on the coffee or not?" Depending who i'm with, and where we are, I sometimes just say "Let's go <X> and get a coffee"

Au petit Cochon and Garde Manger are excellent choices, you're not going wrong with those two.
Other recos in case you can't get a reservation:
ANY PLACE of Laurent Godbout. He's an excellent chef. He has Version and L'Epicier in old montreal, as well as La Fabrique and Duo more in the downtown/plateau areas. Duo is interesting because it's him and another chef that create two sets of menus.
Cuisine Et Dependance: http://www.cuisineetdependance.ca/ daily menu, changes depending on market availability. Excellent for a good price
Biere et Compagnie: http://www.bieresetcompagnie.ca/ mussels, a lots of french cuisine with items from the province. The duck confit is awesome! Lots of beer, over 100. Some local, lots of imports. Every beer has it's own glass and coaster. (meaning a sapporo from Japan will be served in a sapporo glass, with sapporo coaster) which is kind of impressive when you consider that they have over 100 beers.

But I'd try for Garde Manger and au pied de cochon. Garde Manger can be tricky to get a reservation because the girl who takes care of the reservations isn't the best at calling people back when you leave a voicemail. The place is great though, very comfortable, simple but excellent cuisine.

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La Fabrique
306 Av 4E, Saint-Paul-De-Montminy, QC G0R3Y0, CA

Cuisine Et Dependance
4902 Boul Saint-Laurent, Montreal, QC H2T1R5, CA

It might already be in one of the links, but I like l'Avenue on Mont-Royal street.
922, avenue du Mont-Royal Est
The Eggs benedict are great!

If you're like me, you enjoy finishing a nice meal with a proper espresso but it's incredibly hard to get one that understands the ACTUAL meaning of allongé, crema, etc. So how about a list of "espresso safe" places? Cafes and restaurants

Cafe Olympico
124 Rue St-Viateur Ouest
Montréal, QC H2M 2T6

Cafe Milano
5190 Jarry E
St-Léonard, QC H1R 1Y4, Canada
(514) 852-9452

Au pain dore (was surprised by this one)
5549, avenue De Monkland,
Montreal, QC H4A 1C8

Bar Mainstreet
I can't find the address, but it's on St-Laurent, corner of Rachel

I know i'm missing a lot but it's a starter.