The Top 63 Places to Eat Near Babar Restaurant
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Rank 2. Pavane
French
A long, narrow bistro on Granby's main strip, fitted out in wood and leather with a menu that keeps one foot in French-Canadian comfort food and the other in Japan. The chef came up at Joe Beef, which explains both the macaroni gratin with lobster and the izakaya-style mackerel sharing a menu without anyone blinking. Laid-back service, a room that fills up fast, and pudding chômeur on the dessert list.
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A cube of coffee-colored wood cladding in downtown Granby, ninety minutes from Montreal, with a rooftop herb garden and two crackling maple fires inside that make it feel somewhere between a steakhouse and a farmhouse. The open kitchen and chef's counter face a glassed-in wine cellar and black tables, all of it warmer than the minimalist bones suggest. The cooking is mostly live-fire, built around carefully sourced vegetables, fish, and meat. The Michelin Guide has it on their list.
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Rank 4. Espace Old Mill
Modern New American
A red-brick former mill on the Brome-Missisquoi wine route, this restaurant runs a single set menu built almost entirely from the kitchen garden just outside the window. Jean-Martin Fortier, celebrated in farming circles long before anyone plated his vegetables, grows over 40 varieties on site. The food is quietly serious, local to a degree that borders on a philosophy, and selected by the Michelin Guide.
- Air Canada 2023 · Top 10 · Best New Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Tastet 101 Must-Try Restaurants in Quebec
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Rank 5. Parcelles
Vegetarian
- Air Canada 2022 · Finalist · Best New Restaurants
- Canada's 100 Best #79 · Best Restaurants
- Tastet 101 Must-Try Restaurants in Quebec
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The dining room of this fine dining restaurant looks out over Lake Massawippi, which does a lot of work before anyone has touched a fork. The chef builds modern tasting menus on classic technique, leaning into Quebec terroir with the kind of quiet confidence that doesn't need to announce itself. A vegetarian menu runs alongside the main, and the digital wine list is deep. AAA Five Diamonds.
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Snowshoes, a canoe, and a rifle on the walls set the tone at this rustic bistro inside Manoir Hovey, where the decor reads less "hunting lodge theme" and more genuinely accumulated. The kitchen leans into traditional Quebec cooking with enough twists to stay interesting, turning out bison tartare and seared scallops with cauliflower and gingerbread crumble. Casual enough for après-ski, serious enough that the food holds the room on its own.
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Rank 10. Vin Polisson
Wine Bar
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Fourteen seats, one couple running the whole room: he cooks, she pours, and they both carry plates to the table. Sabayon is an intimate tasting menu restaurant where the chef's pastry background shapes everything, so the savoury courses build like desserts and the desserts feel inevitable. The signature wood-fired mushrooms with an arlette and juniper sabayon tells you everything about the approach. It holds a Michelin star and a spot on North America's 50 Best. Book the moment reservations open, or don't bother making plans.
- Air Canada 2024 · #1 · Best New Restaurants
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- 50 Best #34 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
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Rank 13. Beba
Argentine-Jewish American
A 28-seat Argentinian-Jewish restaurant tucked into a residential Verdun corner, named for the brothers' grandmother, which tells you most of what you need to know about the vibe. The cooking draws on Argentine, Spanish, and Italian traditions without fussing over the lineage, and boiled meats appear on the menu without apology. Ranked 27th on North America's 50 Best list, which makes the no-reservations scramble feel a little more explicable.
- 50 Best #27 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
- Canada's 100 Best #6 · Best Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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Rank 14. Toqué!
Modern French
Floor-to-ceiling windows look out over one of Old Montreal's prettiest squares, and the dining room inside glows with hanging lights against burgundy and burnt orange. Toqué! is a fine dining institution and has been for decades, with Normand Laprise steering the kitchen toward Quebec's seasonal terroir through a seven-course tasting menu at dinner. A glass-paned wine cellar holding over 700 bottles sets the mood before you've even sat down.
- AAA Four Diamonds
- Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · Canada's Best Restaurant
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Rank 15. Monarque
Modern French
The soaring room on St-Jacques splits into a buzzy brasserie up front and a white-tablecloth dining room behind, which tells you something about who comes here and why. It's a modern French brasserie doing set menus at lunch and dinner, with a kitchen trained in France and quietly serious about aged meats and local sourcing. The power-lunch crowd fills in the rest of the picture.
- Air Canada 2019 · Finalist · Best New Restaurants
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · Canada's Best Restaurant
- Canada's 100 Best #61 · Best Restaurants
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Rank 16. Joe Beef
Lyonnaise French
The napkins are the size of bed sheets, which tells you everything about the food at this Lyonnaise French restaurant in Little Burgundy. Chef David McMillan has said he doesn't like creative food, and he means it: steaks, hand-picked oysters, rabbit, sweetbreads, and a lobster pasta that regulars treat as non-negotiable. The blackboard changes constantly. The wood bar and stag head on the wall make it feel like a neighborhood pub, which is more or less the idea.
- Canada's 100 Best #51 · Best Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Tastet 101 Must-Try Restaurants in Quebec
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Rank 17. Jérôme Ferrer - Europea
Modern French
Floor-to-ceiling windows look straight into the glass-walled kitchen, so the brigade becomes part of the spectacle before the first course arrives. This is fine dining on the grander end, with silver service, Magdalen Islands lobster, and Appalachian venison built around Quebec terroir and French classical technique. A Michelin star sits above the door. The maple pre-dessert and aperitif pork rinds read as nostalgia, which turns out to be a smart move in a room this polished.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · North America's Best Fine Dining Experience
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · Canada's Best Restaurant
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Every course arrives when all thirty plates are ready, chefs carrying them out in unison while someone narrates to the whole room. Le Mousso is a tasting-menu restaurant where the chef's background in fine art bleeds into the choreography: the sommelier takes a turn at a makeshift stage, the kitchen cheers each dish, and the whole thing runs about three hours. A Michelin Selected Restaurant, and dinner here is closer to a performance than a meal.
- Air Canada 2023 · Top 10 · Best New Restaurants
- Air Canada 2016 · Finalist · Best New Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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Rank 19. Bibine Buvette
Modern New American
A covered terrace and a big bar set the tone at this convivial little bistro in Drummondville, where the kitchen leans on Quebec producers and a garden for a short, sharp menu that changes with what's good. Scallops, venison, halibut, house bread with garlic confit butter, maybe a dozen options total. The cooking has a vinegary, punchy quality that keeps things interesting. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand.
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Rank 20. Restaurant Panacée
Contemporary New American
About 20 seats wrap a circular counter where the chef cooks in full view, which sets the whole tone of this intimate contemporary restaurant. The menu moves with the seasons, leaning on fermented vegetables and bright, acidic vinaigrettes to give each plate its edge. The staff keeps things warm and loose, so a solo dinner here feels less like a reservation and more like someone let you into the kitchen.
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- Air Canada 2024 · Finalist · Best New Restaurants
- Cult MTL The Top 25 Restaurants in Montreal Right Now
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Stone walls, wooden beams, and leather armchairs make this Old Montreal French restaurant feel like a private club where the membership requirements are a reservation and good taste in wine. The menu rotates with the seasons, leaning on local ingredients and the kind of sauces that remind you why French cooking got famous in the first place. The vibe is dim, intimate, and quietly romantic.
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Rank 23. Foxy
Wood-fired Mediterranean
The gilded logo on the window and a permanent haze of wood smoke inside tell you what this Griffintown restaurant is about before you've sat down. Deep gray walls, long bar, and shiny wood surfaces set a moody, modernist tone for wood-fired Mediterranean sharing plates. The kitchen leans heavily on local and plant-forward produce, with fire as the organizing principle. A Michelin Selected Restaurant.
- Air Canada 2016 · Top 10 · Best New Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The Infatuation The Best Restaurants In Montreal
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Rank 24. Nora Gray
Italian
The striped black-and-white awning marks this low-lit Italian restaurant on what is otherwise a quiet residential stretch of St-Jacques. The kitchen takes familiar Italian foundations and nudges them somewhere unexpected without making a fuss about it. Fellow restaurateurs and Montréal creatives fill the room most nights, which tells you something. Griffintown has changed around it, but Nora Gray has been the neighborhood's dinner-party reference for a long time.
- Air Canada 2012 · Top 10 · Best New Restaurants
- Tastet 101 Must-Try Restaurants in Quebec
- Cult MTL The Top 25 Restaurants in Montreal Right Now
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A plain façade on rue Sainte-Catherine hides a quietly ambitious modern restaurant that sits somewhere between casual lunch spot and date-night destination. The kitchen leans on delicate plating and sharp contrasts of texture, and the private-import wine list is the kind of thing the knowledgeable staff are happy to walk you through. Evenings skew a little dressier; lunches draw the crowd that figured out the value.
- Air Canada 2011 · Finalist · Best New Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Tastet 101 Must-Try Restaurants in Quebec
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Rank 27. Oncle Lee Kăo
Chinese
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Rank 28. Le 9E
French
- Air Canada 2024 · Finalist · Best New Restaurants
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New International Cocktail Bar – Canada
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Rank 30. La Spada
Roman
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Rank 31. Le Serpent
Italian Mediterranean
A former foundry in Griffintown, with ceilings high enough to lose a secret and exposed brick that somehow looks intentional, is now one of the more atmospheric Italian-Mediterranean restaurants in the city. The Carrara marble bar is a fine place to sit alone and feel cosmopolitan. Crudos lean bright and citrusy, pastas run deep and rich, and the menu is short enough that everything on it earns its spot.
- Air Canada 2014 · Finalist · Best New Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Condé Nast Traveler The 28 Best Restaurants in Montreal
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Rank 33. Candide
Modern New American
Tucked behind an old church, this converted rectory keeps its bones visible: exposed brick, parquet floors, and tables made from salvaged pew wood. Candide is a prix-fixe restaurant where the monthly menu follows whatever the market dictates, leaning heavily local and mostly plant-forward. The terrace fills fast in warm weather. A Michelin Selected Restaurant, it's the kind of dinner where the room does half the work before the food arrives.
- Air Canada 2016 · Finalist · Best New Restaurants
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Condé Nast Traveler The 28 Best Restaurants in Montreal
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Rank 34. Garde Manger
Seafood
Chuck Hughes' seafood-forward bistro in Old Montreal hides behind a modest door in Old Montreal, opening into paneled ceilings, leather banquettes, and a chandelier that has no business being that dramatic. The blackboard menu shifts with the day, leaning heavily on oysters, wild prawns, and whatever else arrived fresh. The open kitchen splits two dining rooms buzzing to a soundtrack of unapologetic 80s and 90s hits.
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Rank 35. Hélicoptère
Contemporary New American Coffee Shop
A contemporary bistro at the edge of Hochelaga where the menu changes with the seasons and the kitchen has a clear point of view. The chef came up through Bouillon Bilk, and that pedigree shows in cooking that's composed without being fussy. The café at the back, Hélico, handles daytime traffic with light bites and good coffee, so the room shifts character depending on the hour.
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A long counter, a partly open kitchen, and a minimalist room just off the Quartier des Spectacles mark this as a relaxed spot for sharing plates rather than a sit-down-and-settle-in kind of night. The same team behind Bouillon Bilk runs the show, and the tapas-style menu moves through combinations that feel considered without being fussy. The Michelin Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks with the vibe: good cooking, no ceremony required.
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Rank 37. Ferreira
Portuguese
A long bar tiled in azulejos anchors this polished Portuguese restaurant on Rue Peel, where the room feels like it can't quite decide between Lisbon and a Manhattan brasserie, and pulls off both. The kitchen leans hard into fish and seafood, and the wine list runs to some 400 labels, mostly Portuguese, with ports and rare spirits that give the sommelier something to talk about. Upscale but not stiff.
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Rank 39. Gol’s Lanzhou Noodle
Lanzhou Noodles
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Rank 40. Tiradito
Nikkei Peruvian
Most of the seating wraps around a Tetris-shaped open kitchen, which tells you immediately what kind of place this is: a snack bar built for watching the cooks, not lingering over a bottle. The palette runs aqua and salmon, the vibe is tropical without trying too hard, and the food is Nikkei Peruvian, meaning Japanese technique folded into Peruvian flavors. Small plates, bold colors, a lively crowd, and a tiradito that earned the restaurant its name.
- Air Canada 2017 · Finalist · Best New Restaurants
- Condé Nast Traveler The 28 Best Restaurants in Montreal
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Rank 44. Le Vin Papillon
Natural Wine Bar
The wine list runs entirely to natural and biodynamic bottles, which tells you everything about what Little Burgundy bistro Le Vin Papillon is going for. It's a sharing-plates spot from the Joe Beef team next door, with a menu that shifts on the chefs' whims. The room is lively and genuinely welcoming, the kind of place where the Michelin Guide has taken notice without anyone seeming to have dressed up for the occasion.
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Rank 45. Place Carmin
Brasserie French
A blood pudding Tatin is either a very confident move or a very Montréal one, and at Place Carmin it reads as both. This French brasserie in a converted industrial space runs high ceilings, skylights, and spherical fixtures overhead while the open kitchen does the real decorating. Duck à l'orange and foie gras terrine anchor the menu, and weekends bring a brunch and a Sunday roast that the neighborhood has clearly been waiting for.
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A blackboard menu, sharing plates, and a bring-your-own-wine policy set the tone at this low-key Montréal bistro. The kitchen leans into seasonal Québec produce from small farms, turning it into rustic, flavor-forward plates you pass around the table. The room itself is put together with recycled materials, which feels fitting given how seriously the place takes its sourcing. Pack a bottle and settle in.
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A curtain rises to dramatic music before the meal even begins, which tells you everything about the register of this omakase counter. Twenty-plus courses move from chawanmushi through nigiri made with fish you may not recognize alongside cuts you absolutely will, including otoro and Hokkaido uni. The pacing is relentless in a good way, and the theatrics are sincere rather than silly, which is a harder trick than it sounds.
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Rank 50. Kwizinn
Haitian
Haitian poutine made with plantains and lobster tells you most of what you need to know about Kwizinn. It's a bright, casual Haitian restaurant in Verdun, the neighborhood southwest of downtown that's quietly become one of the more interesting places to eat in the city. Slow-cooked meats, spicy sauces, and recipes passed down through the chef's family form the backbone of the menu. Save room for the house-made donuts with mascarpone banana cream.
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- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · World's Best Rooftop Restaurant
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Winner · North America's Best Rooftop Restaurant
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