With a culinary approach that feels fine dining, but is more casual in setting and price, Hélicoptère has been checking boxes left and right since opening in 2018. Expect a menu of colourful, creative plates spotlighting plenty of seasonal fare from chef David Ollu, and don’t forget to check out sibling coffee shop Hélico Café around the corner — equally worth the visit on any Hochelaga-Maisonneuve pilgrimage.

Two-year-old Papineau Street Italian eatery Antonietta excels at all manner of pasta and pizza — its takes usually being traditional enough to satisfy the most discerning of nonnas, but creative enough to dazzle the new guard. Its menu changes often, but local veggies, plenty of parmesan and pecorino, and flavour-rich guanciale (cured pork cheek) make frequent appearances.

Tucked over in the still-developing Technopole Angus, Hoogan & Beaufort brings a distinctly earthy feel to its offering. Under chef-owner Marc-Andre Jetté’s watch, mushrooms (chanterelles and beyond), beets, turnips, and more all make appearances, often helping to showcase catches from the province’s seas and lakes.

Garlicky dips and succulent kebabs are the staples at the little sibling to longtime Villeray Syrian-Armenian restaurant Alep. Prepare yourself for flavour bombs from the rich, tangy shanklish salad, pomegranate molasses-infused muhammara, and za’atar-seasoned swordfish.

First-time restaurant owner chef Erin Mahoney swung open the doors to Joon last fall, bringing the flavours of Caspian and South Caucasus cuisines to Little Italy. Small, seasonal sharing dishes slathered in herbs and spices characteristic of Georgian, Persian, and Armenian foodways make up most of the menu, with highlights including Joon’s zucchini fritters, braised Cornish hen, and pistachio-dotted, saffron-laced ice cream cup.

Prominent Montreal chef Derek Dammann is an ardent advocate of a Canada-wide culinary identity — his cookbook, True North, is all about it. Meanwhile, his popular Plateau gastropub is where he’s known to bring it all home, with hearty flesh and root dishes from Canadian terroirs.

It’s just over six years since Little Italy’s most celebrated restaurateurs Stefano Faita and Michele Forgione opened Gema, and yet the pizzeria remains one of the best around town. It’s also the most likely to convert even the most unyielding of Hawaiian pizza skeptics with its winning pairing of smoked maple ham, oven-roasted pineapple, and mozzarella di bufala.

Pioneers of “picnic in the park” summer takeout, this well-established, wicker basket-dispensing Mile-Ex haunt is known for its delicious Southern comfort classics. Chef Colin Perry’s crisp fried chicken, satiating macaroni and cheese, and rotation of flaky, buttery dessert pies are not to be missed.

Chef Sean Murray Smith consistently wows with tasting menus that give seasonal vegetables pride of place — without being strictly vegetarian. Dishes are gorgeous layerings of interesting textures, organic colours, and playful flavour, and they’re all served up in a polished dining space.

Damas is one of Montreal’s biggest comeback stories: After a fire gutted it in 2015, it was reborn in Outremont and became better than ever. Six years later, and its spread of mezzes to hefty char-grilled mains replete with Syrian flavours of sumac and Aleppo peppers are an almost guaranteed winner for any palate.

It’s difficult to remember where Montreal’s restaurant scene was before Martin Picard wrote his love letter to Quebec cuisine in the form of Au Pied de Cochon twenty years ago. He’s since been credited with transforming poutine from greasy snack to a Québécois culinary icon with his foie gras-laden take on it, and continues to find ways to innovate at this Duluth Street staple.

This three-year-old Outremont hideaway wields coastal Catalan flavours with such aplomb that diners may momentarily forget where they are. Expect sharing plates dotted with conserves, including an ostensibly simple, yet flavourfully so-sophisticated dish of white anchovies and tomatoes on crusty bread, and a transportive wine list, all from partners (in business and life) Lindsay Brennan and Juan Lopez Luna.

The city’s bellwether bistro has felt even more indispensable since the untimely death of founder Colette Brossoit in 2014. But the oh-so-classic French offerings — think duck confit and pistachio-speckled chicken liver pâté — at this longtime Plateau darling have remained just as good.

There’s nothing quite like sitting counter-side at this diminutive corner diner as staff execute the careful choreography needed to attend to its steady stream of diners. Get a poutine — theirs is composed of string fries loaded with cheese curds and piping hot veggie gravy, topped with the requisite olive — and a burger for good measure.

A Venezuelan eatery specializing in the stuffed corn bread pockets known as arepas. Theirs are filled with your choice from a borderline overwhelming array of fish, veggie, and meat options. Since 2018, a move to a far more capacious locale, has meant much shorter wait times.

Chef Pamika Sukla has been in the Thai restaurant business for a while with her eponymous restaurant Pamika, but at newer, more casual eatery Mae Sri, she really hits the spot. It’s billed as a kuai tiao restaurant, so the rice noodle soup is the obvious choice — it comes in an array of tangy and spicy varieties, adorned with pork belly, shrimp, and more.

This Chinatown nook has been luring passersby with chefs skillfully pulling noodles in its front window for years. The Lanzhou-style noodles are the staple, with beef slices in a deeply-flavoured broth, and at $10 for a “medium” bowl, it is almost comically large. Other menu items like the Dandan noodles also fare very well.

Chinatown’s premier Hong Kong-style barbecue joint is run by second-generation owners Eric, Edmund, and Edward Ku. Since taking over, they’ve experimented with adding fried chicken and homemade chilli sauce by the jar to the menu, but the char sui and roast duck that garnered attention for the first generation of owners are still standout.

There’s a reason why locals keep on coming back to Olive & Gourmando: It’s just that good. A small menu centres around sandwiches (the Cuban is a fave) and other lunch fare like a soba noodle salad, but their simple and tasty breakfast offering is also a good option. There’s really no wrong move here, but if you can’t decide, why not pick up the restaurant’s cookbook and keep feasting at home?

What began as a small samosa and sweet shop in 1986 is now one of Montreal’s Indian eateries of choice — even though its vegetarian-only menu omits usual crowd-pleasing options like creamy butter chicken. Pushap’s thalis are cheap and curry packed, and its stuffed pyramids of golden-fried dough are still a shoo-in.

Hawaiian dishes, like shoyu tuna poke and chicken furikake, expertly collide with Filipino ones — lecho kawali (fried pork belly) and calderada osso buco, braised in tomato sauce, for example — at Le Petit Vibe. The relative newcomer to Côte-des-Neiges also serves Birria tacos.

Montreal’s oldest Caribbean restaurant continues to make soft, flaky roti every day at its Côte-des-Neiges location, filling them up with delectable and spicy chickpea, goat, and chicken curries. Simple, cheap, and oh so filling.

Expect long lines prompted by a strict no-reservations policy and cramped (though cozy) quarters at this indispensable Japanese spot. From sashimi, tuna belly, and okonomiyaki (a savoury Japanese pancake), to barbecued beef short ribs and 48-hour stewed pork, the menu is long, and totally worth the multiple trips downtown needed to explore it.

Looking for famed Montreal smoked meat that isn’t Schwartz’s? Head to Snowdon instead for a deli that’s been open since 1942 and still within the same family. Snowdon Deli’s status as an iconic Montreal eatery is based on far more than just doing smoked meat on rye with mustard: Grab anything from matzo ball soup to latkes, knishes, or blintzes.

One of very few places to offer Malaysian or Singaporean food in the city, Satay Brothers has over the years evolved from a seasonal market stall founded by two brothers and their mom to a bustling, destination-worthy restaurant on the Notre-Dame strip. Stellar peanut-sauced satays, steamed pork belly buns, shrimpy laksa, and coconut-topped rendang have propelled them to icon status on the city’s restaurant scene — with that early-days stand at the Atwater Market still very much in the picture.

From the McArthur schnitzel sandwich to the towering mound of chickpeas, eggplant, and cucumber on challah for the Moroccan toast, it’s pretty much impossible to go wrong when ordering at this St-Henri brunch-and-lunch haunt. The team behind the next-generation Jewish nosh bar is also at the helm of pandemic breakout star and fried chicken purveyor Bucky Roosters.

With over three-quarters of a century to its name, NDG landmark Chalet Bar-B-Q has won the hearts of multiple generations enamoured with its charcoal-broiled bird and its arguably unmatched gravy.

This Monkland Village spot is beloved for its array of vegetable and meat wats (the Ethiopian equivalent to stew or curry), served on injera, a thin, but spongy flatbread — ideal for absorbing the dishes’ interlacing flavours of garlic, cumin, ginger, and turmeric. Be warned: wait times can sometimes be long at this family-run establishment.