Montreal Restaurants

Restaurant Tips

To avoid disappointments, one of the first restaurant tips to remember is to make reservations when planning a business lunch or family dinner in a Montreal restaurant.

Get advance knowledge by making specific inquiries about menu, prices, access and special arrangements.

You can also ask the restaurant to fax you a sample menu and a wine list, or you can check on their Web site if it's advertised.

It might be important to you to end your meal with a cheese selection and Port. But, don't wait until the moment arrives, only to find that nothing of the sort is offered.

Wine Expert Tips

When eating out at a Montreal restaurant, diners tend to find the pairing of wine and food most perplexing. Yet, this part of a dinner should be simple and agreeable.

The first restaurant tip you should remember is that you are not expected to be a wine expert. Most Montreal restaurants have waiters that understand wine lists, or they have wine experts also called sommeliers.

The best sommeliers are down-to-earth, dedicated to making your dining and wining experience joyful, and ready to guide you to the best values lurking on their lists. Make use of these people.

Experts love being asked for their advice.

If you have a particular price in mind you might point out an example on the wine list and ask if it seems like a good choice. The waiter or the sommelier will immediately get your drift and find a selection in your range.

Do not order the most expensive wines on the list or the cheapest. In a good Montreal restaurant, all the wines have been selected with care and you can be certain that most of them will be decent. Price is never a guarantee of quality.

Wine Tips

The basic concept of pairing wine and food is to compliment and enhance the aroma and flavours of both the food and the wine.

Reds go with heavier meals, whites with lighter meals, red wine with red meat, and white wine with white meat.

Another concept of pairing wine with food is selecting a light-bodied wine with lighter food and a full-bodied wine with heartier, flavourful dishes.

You may look for the usual grape varieties like chardonnay, merlot, and cabernet sauvignon or check out the wine lists in Greek, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese restaurants where you can encounter terrific wines.

Watch out for old whites. Even the finest chardonnays get tired and begin to oxidize after four years, which means they begin to taste a bit like sherry and lose their fresh fruitiness.

In general, avoid whites on wine lists dated 2005 or earlier. Sure, a few rieslings can go longer, as well as sweet dessert wines, but avoid older dry whites unless you want to flirt with disappoinment. The same goes for reds in general, which have a slightly longer shelf life, as many have seen more oak, perhaps adding a few years to their longevity.

The vast majority of reds before vintage 2005 are beginning to dry out now. The fruity power is beginning to fade, and the tannins and acidity growing more evident at the expense of their fresh fruit.

Young and fresh Portuguese whites are not only thirst-quenching, but also highly food versatile.

Southern Italy and Sicily are putting out magnificent value wines, and there are still good finds from Spain.

Austria's gruner veltliner is gaining some acceptance, Greece is coming on strong, and Argentina's malbec is very appealing.

Wine and restaurant tips can be used as general guidelines for pairing wine with food, but there is only one important rule. When dining at one of your favourite Montreal restaurants, choose a wine you know and like.

Tips on Tipping

How much should you tip? Regular Montreal restaurant tipping is 15% of the bill before tax. Excellent or exceptional service can be tipped at 20%. A tip can be reduced by a few percentage points for a bill inflated by alcohol due to the fact that alcohol service does not represent a great deal of extra work for the wait staff.

It is always unfair to avoid tipping or to leave just a token amount. If you are angry or upset with some aspects of the service you should speak to the staff. Don't penalize them for incidents that might have annoyed you but for which they were not responsible.

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Restaurant Tipping (MBK)

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