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16 Montreal Restaurants With Strong Dessert Games

Cordon off part of your stomach for sweets at these spots

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Dessert menus can seem to be something of an afterthought for restaurants, and sometimes it feels like it’s hard to escape pedestrian fondants and panna cottas (although some places do them well).

Fortunately, it’s not a problem everywhere. The restaurants in this map have some of the city’s best meal-ending sweets. Only restaurants feature on this map — if it’s patisseries and bakeries you’re looking for, there’s a separate guide for those.

It bears mention that, as one restaurant owner tells Eater, pastry and dessert chefs can be the ultimate luxury hire for many restaurants, and are simply out of financial reach for many smaller operations. As such, some of Montreal’s finest desserts are the realm of fine dining spots, from Toqué to Leméac, or hotel restaurants like Maison Boulud or Rosélys. But some smaller operations have excellent dessert programs too — H4C in St-Henri and dessert-focused Ratafia in Little Italy, to name just two.

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Le St-Urbain

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Given that its owner (chef Marc-Andre Royal) is also behind bakery La Bête à Pain, it should come as no surprise that the desserts at his flagship restaurant in Ahuntsic are on point. Choose between options like beignets with warm caramel sauce or banana tartlet with lime and coconut.

Impasto

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Chef and co-owner Michele Forgione's dessert have a distinctly Italian feel without crossing any lines into cliché — ricotta figures prominently.

Ratafia

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The only restaurant on this list that almost exclusively offers dessert (plus a small selection of savoury small plates), Ratafia is a “wine bar” that pairs its beverages with high-concept sweet treats from pastry chef Valentin Rouyé. It also does a three-course dessert tasting menu for those looking to go all-out.

Lawrence

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Lawrence's classic desserts (think tarts and pies) feature touches of Britain and France are evidence that simplicity can be key to a successful dessert menu, and that it's not always necessary to mix every wacky flavour available.

Summer pudding
Lawrence/Facebook

Au Pied de Cochon

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Although even bigger props should go to PDC's sugar shack dessert program, it's a tiny bit outside the scope of a Montreal-centric map. But the mothership on Duluth, with mapled-up classic pouding chômeur and pies aplenty eminently holds its own.

L'Express

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Probably the most down-the-line classic desserts on this map, L'Express swings towards both French (profiteroles) and American (apple pie) with simple plates tightly made.

Leméac

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Pastry chef David Courteau's extensive dessert list is loaded with classic French overtones — crème caramels and profiteroles are there, but extra notes from ginger to popcorn push it to a higher plane.

Le Club Chasse et Pêche (et al.)

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Just one of award-winning pastry chef Masami Waki’s (pictured) three dessert menus across the city, Le Club Chasse et Pêche’s desserts take rural-feeling tastes of Quebec (corn, squash, apples), crafting them into hyper-modern creations. Waki also does desserts for sister restaurants Le Serpent and Le Filet, meaning they are also great options for the sweet-toothed.

As with Toqué’s savoury menu, desserts at this fine-dining establishment lean heavily on local, Quebec ingredients and as such, change with the seasons. Expect composed plates like mascarpone and juniper cream cannolo with haskap berry gel. 

A milk chocolat ganache, with pistachio sponge cake, oil powder, raspberry gel and crisps
Toqué/Facebook

Monarque

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This ornate space in Old Montreal comes from the owners of Outrement’s Leméac. The dessert menu from Lisa Yu is fairly extensive, featuring updated takes on classic sweets like Paris Brest and rum baba.

Calva Baba
Monarque/Facebook

Rosélys

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Rosélys, in the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel, features high-end desserts from chef Jean-Marc Guillot at a surprisingly reasonable price point. Enjoy a chocolate entremet to end a meal or try out the afternoon tea, served with petits fours aplenty. 

Maison Boulud

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Trust this posh outpost for New York chef Daniel Boulud in the Ritz Carlton to have a solid dessert menu. It might not be cheap, but you can always go for dessert and a nightcap if you don’t want to splurge on a full meal.

Loukamades (honey doughnuts or dumplings) are the dessert star at this upscale Old Montreal Greek restaurant, but other offerings feature fun mixes of Greek and western European flavours, such as ouzo ice cream plus black chocolate and cherry mousse.

This restaurant from the Olive et Gourmando crew is known for its grill skills, but save room for desserts that manage an impressive feat of being both homestyle and high end at the same time — hey there, choco-mint ice cream terrine.

Café Bazin

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Known for both its sweet and savoury options, Café Bazin has some of the best desserts in the city thanks to established pastry chef, Bertrand Bazin, who also owns the place. Go for the quiche and stay for the crème caramel. 

H4C par Dany Bolduc

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Having recently re-opened after renovations and some retooling, dessert at St. Henri’s H4C is a package deal as part of chef Dany Bolduc’s five- or nine-course tasting menus. Expect creative plates featuring local ingredients such as sea buckthorn and rhubarb.

Le St-Urbain

Given that its owner (chef Marc-Andre Royal) is also behind bakery La Bête à Pain, it should come as no surprise that the desserts at his flagship restaurant in Ahuntsic are on point. Choose between options like beignets with warm caramel sauce or banana tartlet with lime and coconut.

Impasto

Chef and co-owner Michele Forgione's dessert have a distinctly Italian feel without crossing any lines into cliché — ricotta figures prominently.

Ratafia

The only restaurant on this list that almost exclusively offers dessert (plus a small selection of savoury small plates), Ratafia is a “wine bar” that pairs its beverages with high-concept sweet treats from pastry chef Valentin Rouyé. It also does a three-course dessert tasting menu for those looking to go all-out.

Lawrence

Lawrence's classic desserts (think tarts and pies) feature touches of Britain and France are evidence that simplicity can be key to a successful dessert menu, and that it's not always necessary to mix every wacky flavour available.

Summer pudding
Lawrence/Facebook

Au Pied de Cochon

Although even bigger props should go to PDC's sugar shack dessert program, it's a tiny bit outside the scope of a Montreal-centric map. But the mothership on Duluth, with mapled-up classic pouding chômeur and pies aplenty eminently holds its own.

L'Express

Probably the most down-the-line classic desserts on this map, L'Express swings towards both French (profiteroles) and American (apple pie) with simple plates tightly made.

Leméac

Pastry chef David Courteau's extensive dessert list is loaded with classic French overtones — crème caramels and profiteroles are there, but extra notes from ginger to popcorn push it to a higher plane.

Le Club Chasse et Pêche (et al.)

Just one of award-winning pastry chef Masami Waki’s (pictured) three dessert menus across the city, Le Club Chasse et Pêche’s desserts take rural-feeling tastes of Quebec (corn, squash, apples), crafting them into hyper-modern creations. Waki also does desserts for sister restaurants Le Serpent and Le Filet, meaning they are also great options for the sweet-toothed.

Toqué

As with Toqué’s savoury menu, desserts at this fine-dining establishment lean heavily on local, Quebec ingredients and as such, change with the seasons. Expect composed plates like mascarpone and juniper cream cannolo with haskap berry gel. 

A milk chocolat ganache, with pistachio sponge cake, oil powder, raspberry gel and crisps
Toqué/Facebook

Monarque

This ornate space in Old Montreal comes from the owners of Outrement’s Leméac. The dessert menu from Lisa Yu is fairly extensive, featuring updated takes on classic sweets like Paris Brest and rum baba.

Calva Baba
Monarque/Facebook

Rosélys

Rosélys, in the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel, features high-end desserts from chef Jean-Marc Guillot at a surprisingly reasonable price point. Enjoy a chocolate entremet to end a meal or try out the afternoon tea, served with petits fours aplenty. 

Maison Boulud

Trust this posh outpost for New York chef Daniel Boulud in the Ritz Carlton to have a solid dessert menu. It might not be cheap, but you can always go for dessert and a nightcap if you don’t want to splurge on a full meal.

Ikanos

Loukamades (honey doughnuts or dumplings) are the dessert star at this upscale Old Montreal Greek restaurant, but other offerings feature fun mixes of Greek and western European flavours, such as ouzo ice cream plus black chocolate and cherry mousse.

Foxy

This restaurant from the Olive et Gourmando crew is known for its grill skills, but save room for desserts that manage an impressive feat of being both homestyle and high end at the same time — hey there, choco-mint ice cream terrine.

Café Bazin

Known for both its sweet and savoury options, Café Bazin has some of the best desserts in the city thanks to established pastry chef, Bertrand Bazin, who also owns the place. Go for the quiche and stay for the crème caramel. 

H4C par Dany Bolduc

Having recently re-opened after renovations and some retooling, dessert at St. Henri’s H4C is a package deal as part of chef Dany Bolduc’s five- or nine-course tasting menus. Expect creative plates featuring local ingredients such as sea buckthorn and rhubarb.