The best buffets in Montreal

If you’re the type who can’t get enough sushi in a single setting, this all-you-can-eat option’s the best of the best to fill up on dozens of rolls and appetizers until your stomach can handle another bite. Seaweed salad, specialty makis, sashimi; the sheer quality and variety here are just what you need for a full feast. And if you brought someone who needs a break from nori, rice and fish? The stir-fry and soups make just as good of an option when eating here.

Located at the Casino de Montréal, this buffet full of fine dining-quality eats proves that the slow machines and poker tables aren’t the only reason to go. Offering high-calibre options like lobster bisque, superb desserts, smoked salmon, aged beef and more, everything gets cut and prepared before you here. Our favourite part? Hitting up the raclette cheese station that’s only operational on Monday nights.

A trip to this Brazilian steakhouse’s all-you-can-eat is made all the better when considering it’s one of the best steakhouses in Montreal. The charrascos here—a Brazilian classic—are a must, where meats like filet mignon, lamb, chicken and homemade sausages are grilled to perfection and served directly to you table on the spit. All you need to do is ask for more as you watch live samba performances. If you’ve got in you after indulging, get up and join the dancers to help you digest.

The Sunday brunch at the Renoir of the Sofitel Hotel is everything a foodie can dream of. One glance at the European-style buffet conceived by the French chef Olivier Perret is enough to get your appetite up and eager. From bison and prosciutto mozzarella tartine and Bellevue salmon to trays weighted with oysters and potato mousseline with truffles, the only thing better than the dining options are pairing your choices with some freshly squeezed juice and a good latte.

Montrealers love to grab brunch on Sundays, and any real foodie will tell you that the Fairmont Hotel Queen Elizabeth’s brunch is the pinnacle. Every Sunday, Rosélys keeps the morning-to-late-afternoon tradition alive with their five-star buffet that comes with a tartare bar, Benedict eggs on demand, smoothies, piles of pancakes, fresh seafood arrivals and specialty coffees. Situated in a space that sports from swanky décor, our only additional recommendation is that you book yourself a table ahead of time. This is an exceedingly popular option in town.

Forget heading home to make dinner and eat poutine at will at this popular poutine chain, a benchmark for eating the Québec classic in Montreal. Whether you love a classic with curds and brown sauce or something a bit more eccentric, you’ve got to try the veritable poutine orgy that happens here every Tuesday at 5pm with several high-end options including filet mignon and blue cheese. As opposed to making poutine the thing you hunt down after a night out, you’ll find a nice selection of cask beers here for a one-stop night on the town.

Let's be real: There is no better chicken on earth than Portuguese-style chicken. Crispy and juicy, eaten on its own soaked in a succulent piri-piri sauce, it's pure bliss. Poulet 3 pattes, one of the restaurants with the best Portuguese chicken in Montreal, has been a major favourite for Rosemont residents for a long time for its recipes and heaps of chicken and fries served every Sunday. For only $15, you can get yourself an all-you-can-eat affair that serves up a good option for those who didn’t wake up in time for brunch. Just save yourself some space for their poutines topped with chicken, pork and chorizo.

This restaurant and bar in Saint-Michel is a unique place in town and one of our well-kept secrets for the best karaoke bars in Montreal. Here, the unlikely pairing of karaoke and fondue makes for a surprisingly winning duo to eat and sing until 3am. Starting at 8pm, anyone willing to sing will get the party up and going while a long menu of colorful cocktails is served to cheering crowds singing along and eating their all-you-can-eat Chinese fondue with beef and chicken, sided with salads, baked potatoes and other fixings.

The hardest thing here is to choose: will you do the Saturday night buffet, complete with roast beef station, or pick the Sunday brunch buffet instead, with ham on the bone, bread bar and omelettes made to measure? Both will set you back nearly a C-note, and will be worth every penny—and the trip out to Laval. The setting alone, in this beautifully renovated Sheraton hotel, will make you feel like a bad bitch who deserves their place at this Italian house of plenty. Wear your boldest jewels and don’t skip the mini sfogliatelle.

This casual vegetarian buffet in Quartier Latin is a great spot for before a show in nearby Quartier des Spectacles. It’s not strictly an all-you-can-eat—as in yes, you can eat it all, but will pay for it. They charge you based on the weight of your food, but it’s got all the perks of other buffets in that you can choose from an array of tasty offerings and fill up on exactly what you want, no more, no less.

A fave among the students at Concordia University, this all-you-can-eat sushi joint is a fun time when you really want to push the boat out. Fill up on fish, BYOB sake and gossip all at once and make it a night to remember by spending all that energy at some cheesy club on Crescent!

There’s something  about a hotel breakfast that makes you feel like a world traveller even if you just came over on the metro. Osco! is a posh place to start any day, so treat yourself to breakfast here and pair a plate of your choice—eggs Benny with bacon and mushrooms, mayhaps?—with access to the alluring cold buffet. Fruit salad, yogurt parfaits, baked goods aplenty… it all awaits you at the Intercontinental.

Is it the finest Chinese restaurant Montreal has to offer? No, no it isn’t. Is it a guaranteed good time every time? Yes. An absolute landmark on de la Gauchetière in Chinatown, Jardin de Jade is a world where mountains of egg rolls, sweet’n’sour spare ribs, General Tao chicken and fried noodles await gleeful plucking. The vast dining room is well cozy, so grab your best buds, saddle up in your stretchy pants and order a couple of Tsing Taos to go with your endless feast.

Whoever thought to combine Korean BBQ and all-you-can-eat buffet deserves our thanks. Previously a branch of the Mon Ami chain, HoHo is good for more than a laugh—it’s great for its buffet, for instance. Pick from an extensive menu, from BBQ to classic dishes like dukbokki, ramen and seafood pancakes, and have your fill. Best thing is, kiddos under 3 eat for free.

Pair your weekend morning brunch with a little live jazz at this old school Old Montréal steakhouse. Pick one of the alluring mains (could be steak and eggs, could be lobster linguini—your choice!) and help yourself to the gourmet buffet table for all the sides, sweets and accoutrements you could want. Only on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:30 am to 2 pm.

Nestled in industrial Ville St-Laurent, Sawadika serves up all-you-can-eat Thai and Szechuan food all week, for lunch or dinner, in a relaxing, sunnily decorated environment with palm wallpaper and bamboo lanterns. Dig into papaya salad with impunity, green curry galore, pad Thai for days—plus it’s a BYOB.

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A trip out to Brossard will be rewarded with this Epcot of restaurants, where you can eat all you want from the four corners of the globe within an outlandish dining room decorated with, among other things, a partial Eiffel Tower. It’s a fun place for kids, or for families with very disparate tastes—the menu literally spans tacos, pizza, General Tao chicken and all sorts of roast meats from the slicing stations. Go on weekend nights, when you can get all the crab you can eat.

This anime themed spot in Shaughnessy Village draws the crowds for its flambéed sushi —but what’s fun is that they also serve up grilled meats, udon and ramen on their all-you-can-eat menu. The incredible décor, ceiling included, will set the tone for a celebration.

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We all love an izakaya, let alone one that’s all-you-can-eat. Biru-Biru will load up your table full of tataki, including pork belly, shrimp and tender beef, as well as a selection of tartares. The sushi menu is also packed with unique choices, including a standout volcano roll stuffed with cream cheese.

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Half à la carte, half buffet, Maharani offers a twist on the format: rather than having vats of curries wasting away under heat lamps, if you choose the all-you-can-eat format you can order from the wide-spanning Indian menu as many times as you like, and the friendly chefs will prepare the food fresh on command. It’s a tactic that saves on waste and pleases palates at this Parc Ex hot spot from 11:30 am to 3 pm and again from 5 pm to 10 pm every day.

The Laval outpost of this small Syrian chain doles out a mean Middle-Eastern breakfast buffet on Sundays, including an endless spread of cheeses, labneh, breads aplenty, falafels, hummus, foul mudammas, olives, jams, eggs and so much luscious fresh fruit and veg. It’s a great start to the day in a vast room whose ceiling you’ll be mesmerized by, we promise.

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For a Sunday brunch of another kind, head to LaSalle, where Bocci’s Italian brunch buffet attracts the community for its affordable abundance. Italy isn’t known for its breakfasts, typically (an espresso and a coupla nutellotti usually do it), but this is brunch—a lazy, shared affair where the conversation is long and the choices are enough to fulfil you for firsts, seconds and thirds. There are typical Canadian brunch musts like bacon and waffles on offer, but also a huge spread of antipasti, meats, seafood, pasta dishes and desserts.