20 reasons to visit Time Out Market Montréal

We’re not talking some brief pop-up you need to squeeze yourself into. At 40,000 square feet, Time Out Market Montréal is—by our count—the biggest communal dining experience in town with a capacity for 750 locals and tourists at any given time. Ever had trouble getting a reservation at one of the best restaurants in town? Tried securing yourself some seats to knock back a couple rounds with some friends? Forget about it: There’s room and then some to grab a table alongside other fellow friendly Montrealers, get the lay of the culinary land and bring together dishes and drinks from the best chefs and mixologists around town. Come see it for yourself.

You won’t just eat well at the Time Out Market—you’ll drink well, too. Curated by our editors, the Time Out Bar features cocktails from drinking dens on our DRINK List. Here’s a taste of what’s on offer: Cocktail recipes from Coldroom, Gokudo, Perles et Paddock, Le 4e Mur, Cordova, Le Mal Nécessaire, Pelicano, El Pequeño, Le Royal, and Le 132 Bar Vintage; the beer bar’s taps are flowing with Dieu du Ciel, Archibald, Microbrasserie de Charlevoix and Pit Caribou; and our wine bar’s racks loaded with reds, whites, and an exclusive selection of natural and orange wines. You thirsty? We got you.

Pastry wunderkind Jeffrey Finkelstein’s bakery Hof Kelsten has long been known as an essential stop on any local carb crawl. Now, having teamed up with Hof’s pastry chef Suyin Wong, they’ve put together this new dessert-focused concept Hof SuCrée which promises an entirely new avenue of sugary offerings. Prepare your sweet tooth for babka ribboned with chocolate, brownies with a caramel drizzle and ingenious all-dressed croissants. We’re already in love with that last one, by the way—it’s the perfect blend of the city’s history of Jewish flavours with the traditions of French viennoiseries.

If you’re looking for the heights of high-end dining in Old Montréal, you can’t do better than Le Club Chasse et Pêche—if you can land a table, that is. At its Time Out Market outpost, chefs Claude Pelletier and Mélanie Blouin execute plates like braised pork knuckle risotto, marinated and grilled octopus, and a tantalizing sweetbread and lobster-filled brioche bun sandwich, all crafted with supreme elegance. The best part? As essential as it is to eat at their flagship (one of the best restaurants in Old Montreal), no reservation is required here.

If someone asked us what should be on their Montréal dining bucket list, we’d reply that Romados is right up there with the best of them. The signature recipe for Portuguese rotisserie chicken, slathered in bright-orange piri piri sauce with sides of poutine (and who could forget those tantalizing pasteis de nata?), has garnered this institution its loyal following. Now, for the first time ever, you won’t have to queue up in the Plateau to get your hands on any of it—this is the first time ever you can grab a half chicken and fries outside their flagship restaurant.

Paul Toussaint’s Caribbean soul food has captured our hearts (and stomachs) ever since he returned to Montréal from Haiti in 2017. Now, our market provides a new stage for the chef to strut his stuff. There’s no shortage of passion and energy in Toussaint’s food, whether it’s his crackling griot with piquant pikliz, accra fritters or the fall-off-the-bone pineapple-and-rum ribs. You won’t even have time to lick your fingers before you find yourself ordering seconds.

Burger T! ain’t your average casse-croûte—not by a long shot. Toqué! chef Normand Laprise’s showstopping gourmet burgers are crafted with beef, lamb or veggies, and each recipe promotes the farm-to-table movement with a careful seasonal selection from Québec terroir. Laprise’s work in the kitchen is a keystone in the local culinary scene, and that makes his Burger T! a must-eat in our book. As if that weren’t enough, his new eatery at the market features all-new feel-good comfort food like hot dogs and milkshakes.

Montréal is a city that loves food, and that’s why our market has to have its own cooking school. The operation is in good hands thanks to Ateliers & Saveurs, the first culinary institute of its kind in North America to offer cooking workshops alongside mixology classes and wine tastings. No matter your skill level, you can learn new recipes or master old ones under the guidance of chefs with years of experience. Don’t forget: You can have your class and eat it, too.

Foxy has few equals: With its combination of fine dining and a menu of rustic, wood-fired plates, the Griffintown restaurant has been an instant hit ever since it opened in 2015. It’s the kind of place where the wine keeps flowing while dish after delectable dish is kissed by smoke, sparks and char. At their market eatery, chefs Leigh Roper and Vincent Russell bring their A-game with pulled-duck coleslaw, oysters with burnt-onion mignonette, roasted turmeric cauliflower and some never-before-seen chicken wings—and that’s just to start.

Characterised by boundless curiosity, chefs Charles-Antoine Crête and Cheryl Johnson have wowed diners time and time again at their flagship restaurant, Montréal Plaza, which boasts highly accomplished flavours and creative presentations. While the dishes concocted by these culinary wild cards typically keep you guessing, there’s one thing you can count on: vibrant signature dishes, such as whelk gratiné with miso butter, sturgeon cream and eye-candy tartares. Better still, check out their new deli concept Montréal Plaza where the stale sandwich-salad-soup combo gets a serious kick-start as the chefs crank things up to 11 with an unexpected array of techniques and flavours.

Dyan Solomon and Eric Girard’s café Olive et Gourmando has been feeding its insatiable crowds for more than 20 years. One taste is all it takes to understand their staying power, from the cups of pick-me-up coffee to the savory Cubanos and the Egg on Your Face panini. But why let Old Montréal have all the fun? At the market, Downtown gets a direct line to these champions of breakfast.

It takes incredible skill to make ice cream tempting to Montrealers who spend half the year in sub-zero temperatures. That means Dalla Rose had to up its game, and up it the creamery did: Fruits, spices, seeds and vegetables are mingled together to create some irresistibly smooth creations. Whether you take your treat by the bowl, cone or sandwiched between two cookies, their ice cream, sorbet and gelato make for a divine dessert.

When Moleskine opened in mid-2016, it marked a vital chapter in Montréal’s second wave of Neapolitan-style pizzas—an encore performance from restaurateurs Bruno Braën and Catherine Bélanger after the instant success of their wine bar Pullman next door. Chef Frédéric St-Aubin’s Marguerite, Américaine, and Salsiccia pizzas are all made with delectable ingredients, such as the house sausage, stracciatella di bufala and fior di latte cheeses, and, yes, oodles of olive oil and tomato sauce.

Malls like Centre Eaton de Montréal are among the city’s best malls where we go for high-end brands, sure, but not always to #shoplocal. Leave to the founders of Signé Local, Vanessa Lachance and Maxime Tremblay, to curate the market’s retail space in a way you won’t find in any other mall. Specializing in bringing together the best products from Québec—food, fashion, décor, cosmetics, you name it—from across the province, this is where you go to get your hands on authentic goods. Whether you’re looking for a gift for a special occasion, ways to load up below the Christmas tree (it’s never that far away!) or just treating yourself to new trinkets, you’ll find it here.

Grumman ’78’s chartreuse-green truck practically resuscitated Montréal’s street-food scene in 2011, serving fusion tacos that find few equals elsewhere. Owners Gaëlle Cerf and Hilary McGown have continued setting a high bar for flavor with chef Sébastien Harrison Cloutier, whose fresh takes on Latin American and Tex-Mex dishes include tomato salad with cornbread crumble, the ooey-gooey Papas ’78 (with sweet potato and queso) and tons of delicious tacos.

It’s all too easy to get hooked on this richly aromatic Vietnamese cuisine. Chef Phong Thach’s eats are positively packed with flavour, from classics like the piping-hot pho and banh mi to creative new takes like the beef jerky–topped papaya salad, a Vietnam-style French dip, and grilled skewers of coconut chicken, lemongrass beef and soybean curd. We say you should take some time to really savour these dishes, but we know you’ll inhale them.

You don’t know what a salad bar can be until you’ve chowed down at this chef-driven operation. The only thing better than their calculated cuts of veggies, covered in rich sauces and plant proteins, is the lightning-quick pace at which they serve it. In addition to this vegetable-forward restaurant’s usual suspects, get excited for its all-new plant-based hot dogs. Foodchain is one of the rare places where we can’t wait to eat our greens.

Hideyuki Imaizumi’s Old Montréal spot Marusan may look small on the outside, but it’s got some big flavours on the inside. Kaiseki-trained chef Tetsuya Shimizu serves a wide array of traditional dishes and multicourse omakase services with equal parts precision and deliciousness full of umami, from savory bowls of ramen and donburi to teishoku meal sets that balance flavours and textures perfectly. You won’t regret digging in to any of their rich fare—it’s love at first bite.

In Italian cuisine, attention to quality ingredients always reigns supreme, turning basics like meatballs or ladlefuls of sauce into something unforgettable. The cantina Il Miglio promises the same: Founded by chef Claude Pelletier and perfectly executed by the talented chef Michele Mercuri and the renowned Giovanni Rasile—the artisan responsible for the pasta program at Le Serpent—the dishes here speak volumes in their simplicity. Trust us on this one: It’ll be some of the best damn pasta you’ve ever had in your life.

Online shopping has become so common that people rarely buy things at a brick-and-mortar store. Sure, tech and all its wonders have made our lives more convenient, but they have also curbed our human need to congregate. No longer: Time Out Market Montréal is a part of the retail revolution that’s bringing us back together and deepening our connections to each other. With the Centre Eaton de Montréal hosting our culinary and cultural hub as well as shops and other attractions, don’t be surprised if you find yourself wondering where the time went the next time you’re downtown. It’s cool to hang out at the mall again.