The Best Seafood in Montréal

A painting of a Dalmatian anchors the dining room, which tells you something about the mood: elegant, but not stiff. This is a seafood-forward tasting restaurant in the Plateau where co-chefs Danny Smiles and Mitch Laughren cook with a clarity that favors the ingredient over the flourish. The pastry chef's reimagined classics are a reason to stay for dessert. It holds a spot on North America's 50 Best Restaurants list.

1. The 50 #15 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
2. Air Canada 2025 · Best Dessert · Best New Restaurants
3. Canada's 100 Best #8 · Best Restaurants

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.

1. Canada's 100 Best #51 · Best Restaurants
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Tastet 101 Must-Try Restaurants in Quebec

Marcus Samuelsson's Canadian debut sits inside the Four Seasons Montreal, but the terrace restaurant earns its own look. The menu moves from crudos and seafood towers to robata-grilled cuts and whole fish, the kind of progression that suits a long, leisurely dinner rather than a quick bite. Expense accounts are comfortable here; personal ones survive happiest at happy hour. AAA Four Diamonds.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Cult MTL The Top 25 Restaurants in Montreal Right Now

The menu at this seafood restaurant on Avenue du Mont-Royal shifts with whatever came off the boat, so the kitchen is essentially never cooking the same thing twice. The room fills fast and stays loud, which makes it feel more like a dinner party than a reservation. Counter seats are worth grabbing if you're solo. The Michelin Guide lists it among its selected Montreal restaurants.

1. Air Canada 2011 · Finalist · Best New Restaurants
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant