If you’re American, you might be feeling that bit of rising panic, that comes up your throat like one too many Tequila sours. It’s almost the holidays and you know a vegan.
Whether it’s for American Thanksgiving or you’re a keener planning a Christmas party or dinner, vegans are just so annoying, right? If you make that brined, spatchcocked god of a turkey this year, someone’s going to feel left out – or worse, slighted.
I hope you know I’m kidding a little. I’m usually the dinner party trouble maker. In fact, I can count the number of dinners I’ve been invited to in the previous year on one hand – and most of those are my parents’ friends who got stuck with me (and maybe have more recipes up their sleeves kids my age – yes, I call thirty-year-olds kids, because anyone who can’t cook risotto is a culinary child).
So, too, is anyone who freaks out about having to cook for a vegan. For goodness sake, you make a side dish of exquisite lentils from Josée di Stasio’s first cookbook, A la Di Stasio
Or you order in or go out for dinner, and everyone can order their own. But not all places have exceptional vegan and vegetarian options. You vegan friend will probably be fine with pasta and tomato sauce, but wouldn’t it be awesome if they actually had something interesting like everyone else? That’s a whole range, from vegan poutine or a burger from LOV to the all-vegetarian (and adaptable to vegan, but less cool) tasting menu at L’Atelier Robuchon.
For an upcoming Global Montreal segment, my producer asked me to talk about Montreal’s top vegetarian restaurants. Turns out, viewers want more vegetarian content. And OpenTable recently released its list of the most booked and highly rated vegetarian restaurants in Canada.
As a gluten-free, dairy-free foodie, I know a lot of places that can adapt to dietary restrictions, and make it worth coughing up $50 or $80 or $100 on an exquisite meal. That doesn’t mean edible gold. That means interesting flavour combinations, quality ingredients and a whole lot more ingenuity than just tossing a bland, expensive gimmick of a salad onto your menu.
So here’s my ranking of the Montreal top-rated OpenTable options (which OpenTable gives in alphabetical order rather than by ranking), keeping in mind that restaurants only qualify for this list if they take reservations through OpenTable. That means they’re a little more upscale than Patati Patata or La Panthère Verte, and will work for special meal out with family or friends more so than a quick bite. Like the holidays. They’re also not all vegetarian restaurants. Most are just vegetarian-friendly, which can vary from night to night as the menu changes. So don’t blame me if one night your vegan friend is SOL.
Montreal’s Top Vegetarian, Vegan and Vegetarian-Friendly Restaurants According to OpenTable
Criteria from the OpenTable website:
“Canada’s 50 Best Restaurants with Vegetarian Options is generated solely from more than 550,000 restaurant reviews collected from verified OpenTable diners between September 1, 2017, and August 31, 2018. All restaurants with a minimum “overall” score and number of qualifying reviews were included for consideration. Qualifying restaurants were then sorted according to a score calculated from each restaurant’s average rating in the “Good Vegetarian Options” category.”
Damas
Ile Flottante (former Les Deux Singes)
L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon – Montréal
Lola Rosa Parc
Lov
My Two Cents
Damas is great, but it’s very fish and meat-heavy. There’s one vegetarian main dish with rice and lentils, a lentil soup, but lots of mezze, all of which are beautiful and delicious. The place has more ambiance and a better wine list than Birona, the new hummus bar at St-Laurent and St-Viateur, though it’s a ton more expensive. Rumi is also less expensive and has a nice ambiance at the Outremont location on Hutchison. The cuisine isn’t as refined, though. There’s also Kaza Maza, which hasn’t ranked in the top 100 veg-friendly restaurants, but is also on OpenTable and has a great story. Then there’s Parisa in Verdun, which is BYOB and still surprisingly under the radar, though being open for years now. Damas is still tops in terms of refinement, but refinement isn’t always what you want.
Île Flottante – I haven’t been there yet. In fact, I hadn’t been to Les Deux Singes, even though it reigned supreme on TripAdvisor for years before rebranding. I would, but it’s not serving much that’s gluten free, dairy free and vegetarian all at the same time. I’m sure the kitchen can accommodate vegetarians, even with their five-course tasting menus, but it’s not great for vegans or me. There’s cheese or hollondaise on almost all the vegetarian options, and if you take off the cheese or the béchamel sauce, you’re not left with much – certainly not much worth the money. Certainly not five or seven courses of “not-worth-the-money.”
L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon – vegetarians, go here if you have the money, by all means. That applies to non-vegetarians, too. The kitchen can definitely also accommodate vegans with forewarning, but is it as exquisite as the rest of the menu? Well, Eric Gonzalez has the most inventive, exciting vegetarian tasting menu in town (or off-island), in my opinion. But it’ll cost you…
Lola Rosa Parc – this is a big step down style-wise from the should-be-Michelin-Starred Atelier. It’s a bit slicker than Aux Vivres, the classic rice bowl and smoothie place on St-Laurent, but not quite as beautiful as LOV (though at least you won’t be sitting right next to the blender at LOV’s de la Montagne location, or dealing with confused service staff – maybe it’s gotten better since my last visit? I do very much like the owner of Lola Rosa, who treated me like a grownup journalist even when I was just starting out with Midnight Poutine as a food editor. He cares about quality, there’s nachos, chickpea fries and gluten free poutine but also Indian curry, Tunisian chickpeas ragout and a vegan chocolate caramel pie.
LOV – I loved this place when it first opened on McGill. Absolutely fell in love. With the decor – the plants, swinging chairs, high ceilings – the wine list (lots of biodynamic and natural options) and the brilliant things that Stephanie Audet can do with root vegetable purées, oyster mushrooms and green peas. But she had to cut a lot of the coolest dishes from the menu – they just weren’t popular, and who (besides me) wanted to spend $22 on a mushroom dish? Not enough people, that’s who. Instead, they wanted more poutine with miso gravy and bean-based burgers. Which are fine, if salty – especially with that completely affordable bottle of Marc Pesnot that has the tiniest bit of effervescence.
What should be added to this list for fine dining?
Candide. No problem getting a beautiful tasting menu there, and in my experience, at least three of the dishes will be exceptional.
Nora Gray. Sure, you can get vegetarian pasta, but there’ll also be some crazy fried artichoke with toasted pecans and chickpea purée or a vegetarian hotpot that makes you want to skip the halibut.
L’Express. The warm goat cheese salad (for vegetarians) is a classic. It comes with that baguette. Ask for mustard and pickles, because you can. And vegans, ask if you can get the octopus and lentil salad without the octopus. It’s a solid meal. Ask for Dijon, also pickles. Because you can. Plus, it’s open late and has an exceptional and reasonably priced wine list.
Le Blumenthal – get the roasted eggplant main or the veggie hamburger with or without cheese and mayo.
Sushi Momo. This is my new love. It’s sushi that makes you not miss the fish (Montreal doesn’t have much good sushi anyway,, compared with Toronto, New York, Vancouver or other major cities anyway. I’d rather have roasted eggplant and some vegan purée over unsustainable farmed Atlantic salmon. There are platters and even gluten free options, so you don’t walk out of there feeling weighed down by tempura. The space is also lovely. Date-worthy.
What did I miss? Where are your favourites? And what will you be cooking for the holidays? Or will you be throwing in the towel and making a reservation?
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