McKiernan’s quirky decor and beautiful dining room
A version of this article was first written for Tourisme Montréal.
Do you like a side of design with your meal? These Montreal restaurants are some of the prettiest in town and would make a gorgeous addition to your Instagram feed. As always, please let me know in the comments if I’ve omitted your favourites.
PERLES ET PADDOCK
Griffintown’s Perles et Paddock is located inside a beautifully renovated garage. The pristine space houses a bar under an oversized skylight and a curtain of greenery. Blush-coloured chairs and funky lighting complete the décor of one of the most beautiful restaurants in town.
RESTAURANT MÉLISSE
Restaurant Mélisse’s dinign room
Stepping into Old Montreal’s Restaurant Mélisse is like stepping into a Pinterest board with the latest design trends. Wicker-backed chairs, a pastel-hued palette, hanging plants, dazzling lighting fixtures, mosaic floors and marble and grass accents make this airy and luminous dining room everyone’s favourite picture background. And come summertime, the terrasse is just as nice as the dining room!
BAR-ST-DENIS
Two former Pied de cochon chefs are behind this most stunning bar on Saint Denis Street in Petite Patrie. An orange bar with a corrugated front lines one side of the space while the facing brick wall is lined with dark reflective tables. The space is mostly designed with a dark palette, which makes the stunning light ceiling and its brass honeycomb pattern shine even brighter.
HENRI BRASSERIE FRANÇAISE
Named after Henri Birks and located inside the new Birks Hotel, Henri Brasserie Française is a magnificent new brasserie with the same opulence of the Birks institution. Stunning intricate moldings around the high ceiling, plush velvet seating, brass accents and a beautiful herringbone parquet flooring lend a warm and classy ambiance to this brasserie.
MCKIERNAN LUNCHEONETTE
McKiernan’s luminous dining room
Located in side an industrial monster of a building in Verdun, the McKiernan Luncheonette (from the Joe Beef team in partnership with chef Derek Dammann) is a beautiful spot to dine. Biergarten-style tables and chairs, whimsical nautical objects, high ceilings, original wood flooring and columns and strung fairy lights make this one of the best looking restaurants in town.
MONARQUE
The Montreal food scene waited 5 years with baited breath for this Old Montreal restaurant to open. The grandiose Monarque space is divided into a bar area, a bistro one and a dining room. The glassed-in kitchen is the main focal point with materials such as brick, warm wood tones, metal accents, leather seating and a stunning marble floor with a fan pattern creating a cozy yet refined ambiance.
RESTAURANT HOPKINS
Hopkins beautiful dining room
Located on Monkland Avenue, Restaurant Hopkins is a chef-driven restaurant serving a market-inspired cuisine in one of the most beautiful restaurants in Montreal. With blue and gold accents, plush seating, beautiful lighting fixtures and a mirrored ceiling to reflect all the shimmering surfaces and the back bar’s myriad of colourful bottles, Hopkins is an Instagram dream come true!
HOOGAN & BEAUFORT
Hoogan & Beaufort’s beautiful space
It is quite impossible to have a bad meal at Hoogan & Beaufort. Chef Marc-André Jetté’s cuisine is elegant and his plating just stunning. It also helps that the restaurant’s design is absolutely gorgeous. The light-flooded dining room with its 30-foot wood beam ceiling is chic yet cozy and centered around a wrap around bar and an open fire pit.
ELENA
View this post on Instagram
Pizza restaurant Elena has recently won the enRoute Magazine 2018 decor award, and for good reason. The space is slick, with lots of bold colours adorning its plush velvety banquettes. The long marble bar is lined with bright yellow stools with an electric blue art piece that would make a great background for your IG post.
AGRIKOL
Established in a small house in the heart of the Village, beloved Haitain restaurant Agrikol has garnered great reviews and become a Montreal favourite. With an ambiance reminiscent of the Caribbean by way of New Orleans with the second floor wrought iron balcony, Agrikol is chock full of unique, story-filled objects, including the oversized paintings that adorns the staircase wall. The summertime courtyard is even more charming than the indoor space.
RESTAURANT LE SERPENT
The industrial chic Le Serpent occupies a renovated factory space in Old Montreal. High ceilings and distressed cement columns make up the bones of the dreamy space as well as large windows that flood the dining room with a diffused light. The palette is a monochromatic grey that’s complemented quite dramatically by the funky lighting fixtures orange bulbs.
KAMPAI GARDEN
Kampai Garden’s beer garden concept takes up a large chunk of the Faubourg Sainte Catherine space. The large establishment has many nooks that vary in ambiance and design, from the sunroom with its plethora of hanging plants to the more intimate feel of the pool table area with its patterned wallpaper and flowery sofas.
LE BLOSSOM
View this post on Instagram
If you’re on Instagram, you’ve probably already seen Le Blossom’s central pink tree on your feed. Time to head to the Japanese restaurant and sake bar to enjoy a meal around the tree and take a shot of it for your ‘gram. The rest of the space is just as nice, with a long bar on one side and an interesting lighting system that zig zags through the restaurant like a lightning rod.
IBÉRICA
Barcelona’s tapas life is alive and well at Ibérica, a downtown Montreal establishment envisioned by Montreal star designer Zebulon Perron. The cathedral ceiling is adorned with two, impressive and oversized diamond-shaped chandeliers that loom over the busy dining room. Distressed walls, circular plush banquettes and funky lighting fixtures are some of the remarkable design elements in this trendy spot.
UN PO DI PIU
Get transported to Italy via Un po di piu! The Old Montreal restaurant is inspired by the Italian slow life and transforms from caffè to spritz bar throughout the day, with delicious bites to boot. The restaurant is made up of 3 spaces with a stunning mosaic tiled floor that’s definitely Instagram worthy.
JIAO
Jiao is surely Montreal’s most beautiful restaurants with a breathtaking décor that includes a Manga mural and oversized light fixtures. It’s the perfect spot to grab a drink and a snack after work or to linger until last call. The menu includes dim sum classics as well as revisited dishes by chef Phong Thach of Red Tiger fame.
LE 409
I am all in when it comes to Le 409’s over-the-top Indian pub vibes complete with kitsch Bollywood movie posters adoring the walls and colourful curios everywhere. The Old Montreal restaurant has a definite Old World vibe while serving great modern Indian cuisine.
I really like the aesthetics behind every restaurant the Majestique team creates. It’s all about overwhelming the diners’ senses with eclectic unique objects that surprise and amuse (and sometimes disturb) and are always a conversation starter. It feels like dining in a curiosity shop and you always discover something new with every visit.
For more gorgeous Montreal restaurants, visit Perché and Maison Boulud for their beautiful terrasses, the new Marcus restaurant for a view of the Leonard Cohen mural, L’Express for its Parisian bistro aesthetics, Le Red Tiger with its Vietnamese-inspired decor, Le Super Qualité with its colourful, Indian-inspired space and Dandy, Rosélys or Ginkgo for their overall design.
{{ PIN IT! }} Montreal’s most instagrammable restaurants
Take a look at the 15 most instagrammable cafés in Montreal.
