In the absence of the Michelin Guide and San Pellegrino's World's 50 Best Restaurants, Canada's 100 Best, launched in 2015, serves as the most definitive guide to this nation’s top cuisine contenders.
Delicate squash soup with braised veal ($16) at Joe Beef, which was voted as the third best in Canada in 2017
You might have heard about how expensive a fine dining experience can be. Luckily in Montreal, affordable fine dining options are not that difficult to find. Thanks to the highly competitive restaurant industry here, many excellent restaurants offer surprisingly good-value lunches for college foodies on a budget.
Lemon Jivara, Manjari Cake with cinnamon, yogurt sorbet ($19) at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon Montreal
I have collected the costs for a meal without drinks, from two-course lunches to 12-course feasts, at all 25 Montreal restaurants (beating out Toronto!) who made it to the Canada's 100 Best list in 2017 with the hopes that you will try at least one of them. I have also selected three of the best value restaurants and made recommendations of what should be ordered based on my personal taste.
Chart 1. Want to spend the least and get the most?
In this first chart, bars indicated in yellow means you have to visit that restaurant during weekday lunch hours in order to spend the least to get the most. Blue bars mean the restaurant either doesn’t open at lunch service or doesn’t have a lunch menu differing from the dinner menu.
Some restaurants offer a fixed price lunch for 2, 3, or 4 courses. For other restaurants that do not offer fixed price menus, the food cost was calculated by assuming a 2-course meal with a relatively cheap appetizer and the cheapest main course.
The cheapest one you could get is a two-course lunch for $27.25 (after taxes and tips) at Impasto. The most expensive one on this chart is the 12-course dinner tasting menu for $110.29 (after taxes and tips) at Le Mousso, which only opens for dinner from Wednesday to Saturday.
Chart 2. How much will it be if you go luxury?
In Chart 2, I collected the cost of a luxurious meal, without drinks, for each restaurant. The cost after taxes and tips would range from $58.39 to $185.84 this time. With the cheapest one being the 4-course menu at Candide restaurant and the most expensive one being ordering 4 courses from the a la carte menu of Maison Boulud.
For restaurants with tasting menus, the prices of the tasting menus are used. For those without, the price was determined by choosing the most expensive dishes from each menu section, which makes it a 3 or 4 course meal.
Chart 3. How much would you save if you want to be frugal?
In Chart 3, the blue columns showed the minimum food cost, and the orange columns showed the dinner tasting menu prices. The purpose of this chart is to show you that at some restaurants, you could actually save a significant amount of money if you choose to dine at lunch hours.
Best Value Restaurants
1. TOQUÉ! ( Ranked #2)
TOQUÉ!, as a flagship restaurant of Quebec Cuisine and the only Canadian restaurant who made Elite Traveler Magazine's Top 100 Restaurants list 3 years in a row, is probably the closest you can get to a Michelin-Starred dining experience in Montreal. It is ranked second in Canada's 100 Best in 2017.
Crosnes, celeriac, herbs, walnuts, quail egg at TOQUÉ
The lunch at Toque is a steal. It is a “Table d’Hote”, which means you can choose an extremely fancy main course and get an extremely fancy first course of your choice for free. It comes with a complimentary coffee, tea, or infusion as well as a mini dessert in the end as an accompaniment.
To be really “frugal”, you could actually go at lunch, choose the cheapest main course and then the most expensive first course to come with the main for free. In the end, you will only have to pay just $28 (free Arctic char, $28 tagliatelle, and a complimentary coffee and mini cake) for what would cost you $60 ($26 Arctic char, 28$ tagliatelle, $4.5 coffee, $1.5 mini cake) at dinner!
We don’t have to be so stingy though, so allow me to present what I would order for a luxury lunch at Toque:
1. Confit arctic char - Scallions, radish, fennel, bonito mayonnaise
2. Walleye ($32) - King eryngii mushrooms, beet, squash and sweet clover puree, thyme and lemon sauce
3. Cappuccino + complimentary mini cake
Total cost: $32 + 14.975%tax + 15%tips = $41.52
Note: Toque changes their menu frequently.
ant when she comes to Montreal to visit me, beating Toque and Le Filet!
If you were to go, be prepared that the restaurant will be filled with people wearing business attire. But do not panic - as people who love food, we are all equal.
2. Estiatorio Milos (Ranked #36)
This beautiful Greek restaurant has an unbelievable lunch deal of $25.17 for 3 courses, which makes them always fully booked at lunch, so go reserve now! The clean Mediterranean ambiance made it my mom’s favorite restaurant when she comes to Montreal to visit me, beating Toque and Le Filet!
If you were to go, be prepared that the restaurant will be filled with people wearing business attire. But do not panic - as people who love food, we are all equal.
A lunch appetizer at Milos: organic salmon tartare, sesame flatbread, microgreen salad. ( Included in the $25.17 set menu)
Recommendations:
1. Smoked salmon from Nova Scotia served with capers from Santorini, lemon and olive oil
2. Lamb chops charbroiled, served with oven roasted Greek style potatoes and steamed vegetables
3. Karidopita (Walnut Cake)
Total cost: $25.17 + 14.975%Tax + 15%Tips = $32.66
Note: Milos has a relatively constant menu.
3. Bouillon Bilk (Ranked #34)
Bouillon Bilk is your best choice for a fancy weekday get-away lunch to help you distress from all the school work. It is right next to Metro Station St Laurent and literally within walking distance from McGill (at least before the snow comes).
A lunch dessert at Bouillon Bilk- panna cotta, honeyberry, vanilla, buttermilk, cherry, bourbon ($8)
Recommendations:
1. Clam, corn, red pepper, breadcrumbs ($8)
2. Quail, potato, bacon, caper, sour cream, radicchio ($16)
Bouillon Bilk is your best choice for a fancy weekday get-away lunch to help you distress from all the school work. It is right next to Metro Station St Laurent and literally within walking distance from McGill (at least before the snow comes).
Total cost: $24 + 14.975%Tax + 15%Tips = $31.10
Note: Bouillon Bilk changes their menu frequently.
Data Methods:
Bouillon Bilk is your best choice for a fancy weekday get-away lunch to help you distress from all the school work. It is right next to Metro Station St Laurent and literally within walking distance from McGill (at least before the snow comes).
I created an Excel spreadsheet to generate the charts. For each restaurant, the menu prices were obtained either from their websites or from pictures of chalkboard-written menus found on the internet. The three charts above all showed costs after the 14.975% and 15% tips because who doesn't like the concept of “you pay what you see?" All menu prices were taken on October 26th, 2017.
If you’re interested in getting the Excel file of the data I collected, grabbing some food with me, or chatting about anything, you can send me a message to my Instagram zhes_cooking_mtl. Happy eating!