Le Gourmet Burger

http://www.legourmetburger.com/ 



Located on Bishop, adjacent to Concordia University this small joint perhaps serves some of the best burgers in downtown Montreal. The thick beef burger patty is packed with flavour, taste and most importantly, it’s also juicy – “juicy” might usually be a tacky adjective to describe a beef patty, but perhaps necessary in this case to emphasize the fact that many other burger joints in this city have failed to achieve this feat and their patties are just too dry – making the burger a little too chewy. To my pleasant surprise, Le Gourmet Burger avoided to make this. There’s a choice of 5 burgers: chicken, beef, bison,veg and chilli. I’ve tried the beef and bison and both were well made, but beef is usually my personal choice when it comes to burgers. All burgers come with complementary toppings of lettuce, tomatoes and caramelized onions. However, there is an additional charge for cheese ( a large variety of fresh cheese is offered) and there is a wide variety of paid toppings ranging from simple Guacomela, bacon, fried egg - all the way to some “fancy” fois gras! There is also a choice of many different types of sauces such as chipotle, wasabi and the LGB house sauce just to name a few. 
Along side the burgers they serve regular fries, sweet potato fries or a mix of both neatly presented in a trendy cone shaped metal holder which definitely gives a contemporary touch. They also serve coke and sprite in old fashioned glass bottles which I personally like a lot (since it tastes better) and they also serve a wide variety of less obvious drinks such as cherry coke and homemade lemonade and iced tea.

All in all, this is great place to try if you want to treat yourself to a well made burger served in a relatively more contemporary setting which is not over priced (under $10 for a burger including some additional toppings). They also have a special promotion offering a trio (burger, drink and fries) for $11 - making it a very attractive offering compared to its competitors.

Brit N Chips

This spot is the only place in Montreal which attempts to serve the traditional English Fish & Chips in the City of Montreal. We tried the Haddock and the Cod, and both were done very well, but the latter was slightly better with regards to taste, for this particular meal. Both were served with traditional “chips” along with the malt vinegar on the side, with the tarter sauce at no extra cost. Out of all the spots which I've tried so far, this one gets closest to the authentic English recipe in Montreal, while charging a reasonable price of around $12 per plate, consisting of 2 pieces of fish and a generous portion of "Chips". 

The neat , clean restaurant displays an easy to read menu and offers a decent meal for someone who is craving this type a specific traditional meal, but do not walk in there with super high expectations of finding the crispy batter crunch and ultra soft inner white meat you would expect to find off a street cart in Central London, England. 

Kazu

Kazu: Located on Saint- Catherine Street near St. Marc, this small authentic Japanese restaurant is a definite place to check out for foodies. For the entree we had the tofu salad along with the chicken skewers. The tofu was delicious, had the perfect texture and the sauce was slightly tangy but went really well with the overall salad. For the main course, we had the shrimp okonomiyaki, a housefavorite, which is a Japanese style shrimp pancake with cabbage and onions. it was very different, a little strange at first taste because the pancake was half cooked which made it a bit too chewy, but after a few bites it starts to grow on you and the generous portion of shirmps keep the meal interesting. Along with that dish, we also ordered the BBQ beef over rice with vegetables. 

This dish was less original than the previous but the meat was full of flavor, very thinly sliced and what added most to the taste was the fact that it was still attached to the bone. For desert we had the sake ice cream, which comes in a small bowl filled with a shot of saki. The idea is to take a scoop a small spoon of the vanilla ice cream and then dip it into the saki before going for the kill ! All overall fantastic experience and but the only draw back is the 30 - 40 minute line up in front of the restaurant before getting a seat since there are no reservations - kind of reminiscent to a few lower east side restaurants in NYC 

Garage Beirut

Garage Beirut: I had almost given up hope of finding a genuine Lebanese restaurant in downtown Montreal, until one fine sunny day I was brought to this place by a friend for lunch. Modestly located in a relatively discreet downtown location, this is a small cosy restaurant boasting an authentic Lebanese menu.

The Shish Tawook ( grilled chicken cubes sanwich) was tender, fresh, flavorful and extremely well marinated. Strongly recommended for all you chicken lovers. The Kebab (lamb sanwich) was rich in flavor giving of a great aroma of arabian spices and the tenderness was just right. The chef, who is originally from Beirut, Lebanon did a great job grilling the meat. This mind you, is not as easy and obvious as it sounds. Not to bad mouth any restaurants in particular, but MOST of the well known ones find it difficult to grill their kebabs to perfection. The Baba ghanoosh was delicious as well as an appetizer.

This is by far the best and most authentic Lebanese food I've had in Montreal. It is reasonably priced and close to Concordia Universirty. I will definitely go back here again to try some of the other dishes.

Verdict: 2 thumbs up