Two can dine out in Montreal for $18.50 to $106 and higher

Two of us ate for under $20 at Pho Bang New York, a Vietnamese restaurant in Montreal's Chinatown. I had a filling bowl of vermicelli rice noodles topped with grilled shrimp, peanuts and fresh cilantro, above. 

We spent more than $100 for two courses each at Vanhorne, a restaurant in Montreal's Outremont neighborhood that offers cuisine du marche or "cooking from the market." My wife chose this beautifully composed appetizer of lobster, watermelon, frozen yogurt, roasted bread and squid ink.  

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On our annual vacation in Montreal, we tried with only limited success to control how much we spent on eating out.

Dining out in the French-speaking city can be as sophisticated and as varied as it is in Manhattan -- with prices to match.

This year, we tried a couple of inexpensive ethnic restaurants for lunch as our main meal.

But we also succumbed to the convenience of pricey restaurants in or near the Place des Arts, center of the 35th annual International Jazz Festival, the reason we drove to Montreal.

And we made a special return trip to Vanhorne, a 30-seat restaurant where my wife and I had a wonderful five-course tasting menu in 2013, and spent over $200.

The food was as good as we remembered, but the chef had changed, and he was so inflexible we couldn't even order a salad with our dinner.

Think 'mains,' not 'entrees'

On Montreal menus, appetizers are listed as "entrees" and entrees are listed as "mains."

During our eight-day visit, we ate lunches and dinners for $18.50 to $106, including taxes of nearly 15%, but not the tip. 

I usually left a gratuity of 15%. In Montreal, many restaurants use a hand-held credit-card terminal that gives you the choice of adding a percentage tip or a dollar amount.

Go for the latter (a button under a dollar sign on the terminal screen) to avoid adding a percentage tip to the total of food, wine and taxes of nearly 15%.

And make sure you take a credit card, such as the Capital One Visa, that doesn't exact a foreign-currency transaction fee of 2% to 3%.

All prices are in Canadian dollars, each of which is equivalent to 95 cents U.S.

My wife complained Pho Bang New York served her pho with dense beef balls that were far from hot, above, but she said the anise-flavored broth was good.

Pho Bang New York

Pho Bang New York in Montreal's Chinatown has low prices, but don't expect good service or, if you don't use chopsticks, a clean fork.

This popular restaurant slings bowls of pho, the anise-scented Vietnamese soup filled with noodles, vegetables and your choice of meat.

My wife ordered pho with beef balls ($8.27 plus tax) and I had a filling bowl of vermicelli noodles topped with grilled shrimp and peanuts ($7.82 plus tax).

Our check totaled $18.49. You pay at the register. 

The shrimp with my noodles tasted fine, though they were about half the size of the colossal ones shown in the restaurant's photo menu.

My wife doesn't use chopsticks, but the waiter never brought her the fork she requested.

I got up twice and tried without success to find a clean fork in a receptacle on a table near the kitchen. She said both forks were dirty.

Pho Bang New York is highly rated on Yelp! and other peer-review sites.

Our experience shows how unreliable those appraisals can be. 

Back home in North Jersey, we know where to find great pho, Simply Vietnamese in Tenafly.


  

Garnish for the pho, left, and a bowl of spicy fish broth into which I dipped my vermicelli noodles.

When Pho Bang New York got crowded, a waiter seated a woman and her young son at our table for four.

The dining room ceiling at Pho Bang New York.

Pho Bang New York, 1001 Boulevard St. Laurent, Montreal, Quebec; 1-514-954-2032. Cash only.

An entree of wild-caught cod accented with fresh corn-mango salsa at Bistro Le Balmoral in Montreal.

A glass of Italian wine -- or half-glass to be more precise -- was $9 at Le Balmoral.

Bistro Le Balmoral

Le Balmoral is a non-profit bistro conveniently located on the ground floor of jazz festival headquarters on Saint Catherine Street, near the Hyatt Regency Montreal, where we stayed.

We like the food, but service can be brusque. The menu notes that many ingredients are from Quebec or Canada.

My wife had a Green Salad ($6.50) and a main dish of Chicken Supreme stuffed with mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and smoked sausage ($22).

My pan-seared Cod Fillet was topped with fresh salsa and served over Gingered Black Rice and Vegetables, but the meaty fish could have been served hotter ($21).

With a $9 glass of wine, ginger ale ($3.50) and taxes, our check totaled $71.28.

Chicken Supreme at Bistro Le Balmoral is served with pureed sweet potatoes and a rosemary and dune-pepper sauce. Below, a Green Salad with shaved parmesan.

Bistro Le Balmoral, 305 Saint Catherine St. west, Montreal, Quebec; 1-514-288-5992.

A ceviche of squid and shrimp, with freshly ground black pepper, was my starter at 40 Northh, a steakhouse in Saint Sauveur, a town about an hour's drive north of Montreal.

My wife's pedestrian Iceberg Lettuce Salad was elevated by a rich blue-cheese dressing with pancetta.

40 Northh

Last Monday, we took a day trip into the mountains north of Montreal and stopped for lunch in Saint Sauveur.

At a steakhouse called 40 Northh, we liked the table d'hote or fixed-price lunch menu posted outside.

I started with a Ceviche of Squid and Shrimp, and finished with a grilled Wild King Salmon Fillet and simple fresh cabbage salad ($24).

My wife had an Iceberg Lettuce Salad with a sinfully rich dressing and the 40 Northh Burger with brie, arugula and french fries ($19).

We didn't notice that our lunches included a dessert course, a small chocolate souffle and ice cream, but didn't have room and sent the waiter away when he brought them.

I asked for fruit instead, but the waiter said there wasn't any available. I settled for black coffee. Our lunch check totaled $49.44.

Next year, we might try Saint-Sau, a pub with vegetarian dishes on the lunch menu, or Chez Denise.

The 40 Northh Burger.

Saint Sauveur's main street, Rue Principale, is lined with flower boxes and restaurants.

The cathedral's cool interior is painted in pastels.

40 Northh, 235 Rue Principale, Saint Sauveur, Quebec; 1-450-227-6673. Lunch served Mondays to Fridays.

To be continued with Brasserie T!, Vanhorne, Le Petit Alep and Hyatt's Regency Club.

Dinner for 2 in Montreal for under $100

A cold yogurt, cucumber and mint soup with cracked black pepper at Le Balmoral, the non-profit restaurant in the Maison du Festival, headquarters for the 10-day Montreal jazz blast that ended on Sunday.

A big pile of fresh greens in a tasty yogurt dressing topped my dinner entree of sliced smoked salmon with capers and caper berries.

Bistro Le Balmoral operates year-round, but it is closed on Sundays.

My wife had a green salad before her entree of flank steak and potato.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

After three expensive dinners in Montreal, we were looking for something a little more reasonable before going to see Vieux Farka Toure, a group from Mali, in what was once French West Africa.

We checked out some of the pop-ups in and around the Place des Arts, but their menus were limited to such casual fare as crepes, pork sandwiches, fish and chips, and quesadillas.

On a previous trip in 2011, we had tried poutine -- a Montreal fast-food specialty of french fries topped with cheese curds and gravy sometimes referred to as "a heart attack on a plate" -- and it no longer has any appeal for us.

So we headed for Le Balmoral, a non-profit restaurant in the Maison du Festival, headquarters for the 10-day international jazz festival that ended Sunday.

We arrived early, a little after 4, and a singer was rehearsing on the bandstand. 

We were seated right away, given menus and poured glasses of water.  Then, the servers, gathered around the bar, forgot about us.

When we decided what we wanted, I had to get up and ask a server to come over and take our order.

A young, overweight woman took the order, then offered us large rolls. 

My wife took one, but when I declined, muttering something about being on a no-bread diet, she snatched away my bread plate and butter.

Dinner for $80

I had a refreshing cold yogurt, cucumber and mint soup ($7), followed by a dinner platter covered with slices of smoked salmon and a pile of fresh greens in a yogurt dressing ($18.50).

My wife had a green salad ($7.50), and the grill of the day -- flank steak with baked potato, accented with fresh arugula and a few crunchy green beans ($22).

I finished with a double espresso, which was served with a little warm milk ($5.75).

The meal, with 15% taxes and tip, totaled about $80 (all prices in Canadian dollars).

We sat at an outdoor table for breakfast last Thursday at Eggspectation, below, before heading home to New Jersey. The restaurant's motto: "Grab the day by the eggs."

Eggspectation

We ate liberally from the large breakfast buffet at our hotel, the Hyatt Regency Montreal, that was included in our WBGO tour of the International Festival de Jazz.

I started with juice and a plate of fresh fruit, continued with a bowl of yogurt topped with nuts and dried fruit, and finished with a made-to-order vegetable omelet and steamed green beans.

There were chafing dishes filled with bacon and sausage, and an enormous roasted ham on the bone for meat-eating guests, plus piles of croissants, bagels and other bread.

But when we extended our stay one night, the rate didn't include breakfast, so on Thursday morning, we walked a few steps to Eggspectation for a great send-off.

Breakfast Parfait at Eggspectation is a delightful combination of non-fat Greek yogurt; cooked quinoa, flax and wheat bran; fresh fruit and a cup of warm, pourable honey ($8.95).

My wife had a vegetable-and-ham omelet served with potatoes, tomato slices and fruit (about $12).

Driving back to New Jersey last Thursday, we stopped at the Black Bear Restaurant & Bar in Pottersville, N.Y., where I had fresh brook trout for lunch ($12.50).

Second Cup

One night, on the way back to our Montreal hotel, we stopped at Second Cup, 1122 Rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest.

Think Starbucks with Middle Eastern-style wraps -- thin pocket bread and such fillings as chicken and vegetables, hummus and falafel ($5.95).

Brook trout

Driving back to New Jersey, we stopped at the Black Bear Restaurant & Bar in Pottersville, N.Y., where fresh brook trout was on the menu.

The trout was butterflied, grilled simply and served with canned corn ($12.50). 


Bistro Le Balmoral, 305 Rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest, Montreal; 1-514-288-5992. Closed Sundays.

Eggspectation Desjardins, 190 Rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest, Montreal; 1-514-288-6488.

Black Bear Restaurant & Bar, Exit 26 Northway, Route 9, Pottersville, N.Y.; 1-518-494-9972.


More Montreal

Here is a link to a post about our 2011 visit to Montreal:

A 19-pound lobster awaited its fate