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GuideUpdated July 15, 2026

4 Best French Restaurants in Old Montreal, Montreal

The best french restaurants in Old Montreal, Montreal — each rated 4.0★ or higher. Top-rated at 9.4★. Curated by TastyPals.

The best french restaurants in old montreal in Montreal are Le Club Chasse et Pêche, Restaurant Bonaparte, BARROCO, and more. Start with Le Club Chasse et Pêche if you want the strongest overall first pick.

By Sophie Laurent•4 ranked picks•Published July 15, 2026•Updated July 15, 2026
Methodology•Editorial team
Le Club Chasse et PêcheRestaurant BonaparteBARROCO
4 Best French Restaurants in Old Montreal, Montreal
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Top picks at a glance

#1Le Club Chasse et PêcheFrench • Old Montreal • splurge#2Restaurant BonaparteFrench • Old Montreal • splurge#3BARROCOFrench • Old Montreal • splurge

Who this guide is for

This guide covers the highest-rated french restaurants in Old Montreal, Montreal. Whether you live in the neighbourhood or are making the trip, these picks are sorted by quality and review depth to give you a fast shortlist.

Quick picks

Le Club Chasse et Pêche
French • Old Montreal
Le Club Chasse et Pêche occupies a stone-walled cellar in Old Montreal — low ceilings, dark wood, no windows — a room that has been deliberately engineered to make time irrelevant.
Restaurant Bonaparte
French • Old Montreal
Restaurant Bonaparte has occupied the same Old Montreal address since 1984, and that duration alone signals something worth interrogating.
BARROCO
French • Old Montreal
Barroco occupies one of Old Montreal's candlelit stone rooms — exposed brick, low ceilings, the kind of cave-like intimacy that the neighbourhood's 18th-century buildings produce almost effortlessly.
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Editorial details
Published: July 15, 2026
Last updated: July 15, 2026

On this page

  1. 1. Le Club Chasse et PêcheView →
  2. 2. Restaurant BonaparteView →
  3. 3. BARROCOView →
  4. 4. HolderView →

How the restaurants compare

Le Club Chasse et Pêche
Old Montreal • French
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
splurge
Best for
Special occasion
Mood
Old Montreal
Editorial restaurant image stand-in for Restaurant Bonaparte
Google
Restaurant Bonaparte
Old Montreal • French
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
splurge
Best for
Special occasion
Mood
Old Montreal
BARROCO
Old Montreal • French
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
splurge
Best for
Special occasion
Mood
Old Montreal
Editorial restaurant image stand-in for Holder
Google
Holder
Old Montreal • French
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
splurge
Best for
Special occasion
Mood
Old Montreal

How we chose

We looked for restaurants that feel like a strong fit for the guide topic, not just the most obvious names in the city. The shortlist favors rooms with clear mood, dependable pacing, and enough distinction to help someone decide faster. Read our full methodology →

Room tone

Lighting, pace, and general energy all need to support the reason someone clicked this guide.

Food fit

We favored restaurants that feel best suited for the moment, not just restaurants with broad reputation.

Useful range

The final list tries to give readers enough variation in neighborhood, price, and style to compare real options.

4 ranked picks

Le Club Chasse et Pêche — Le Club Chasse et Pêche occupies a stone-walled cellar in Old Montreal — low ceilings, dark wood, no windows — a room that has been deliberately engineered to make time irrelevant. The name declares the kitchen's commitment: hunting and fishing, land and sea handled with classical French precision rather than rustic informality. Chef Antonin Mousseau-Rivard has maintained the restaurant's position among Montreal's most serious fine dining destinations for years, and the consistency of that reputation is itself worth noting. This is not a room that chases trends; it holds a position and defends it. Because no specific dishes are currently verified for this review, what can be said with confidence is that the kitchen's reputation rests on its handling of the two poles announced by its name — game and seafood — treated with the kind of technical rigour that justifies a special-occasion price point. Diners consistently describe the experience as unhurried and composed, the pacing calibrated to a long evening rather than a quick turn. The wine list is reported to lean heavily into Burgundy and the Rhône, which is the correct call for cooking of this register and ambition. Whether the kitchen fully earns the cheque on any given night is the question every serious room must answer service by service — but the weight of accumulated reputation suggests it answers it more often than not. Practically: this is a booking-ahead proposition, particularly for weekend tables, where a week or more of lead time is the realistic minimum. Corner tables in the cellar are reportedly the ones to request. Plan the evening around the room's pace rather than your schedule — arriving with somewhere to be afterward is the wrong approach entirely. View restaurant →
Restaurant Bonaparte — Restaurant Bonaparte has occupied the same Old Montreal address since 1984, and that duration alone signals something worth interrogating. Four decades in a city's most photographed neighbourhood is not achieved through charm alone — it requires a kitchen and a room that consistently justify the occasion. The space divides across three distinct halls: L'Impératrice, anchored by a fireplace; the Verrière, which draws on filtered natural light; and the Centre, oriented toward the street. The Empire styling throughout risks tipping into theatrical pastiche, but by most accounts the décor functions as backdrop rather than headline, which is the correct hierarchy for a room at this price level. The menu positions itself as classically French with deliberate Québécois accommodation — a pairing that can read as either honest or obligatory depending on execution. The bisque de homard relevée au gingembre is one of the kitchen's more discussed starters, known for precision in its seasoning rather than volume or showmanship. The magret de canard rôti, finished with maple and wild berries, is a combination that could easily collapse into sweetness; diners consistently report that the kitchen keeps that balance in check. The crème brûlée et foie gras de canard poêlé sur toasts de pain d'épices is the most theatrically conceived dish on the menu and reportedly lands on the right side of composed rather than gimmicky — though it remains the kind of pairing that asks the kitchen to exercise real restraint. At price level three, Bonaparte is squarely in special-occasion territory, and the consistency of its reputation across four decades suggests it meets that expectation more often than not — through room quality and dependable execution rather than novelty or reinvention. Reserve L'Impératrice if the occasion calls for privacy, and plan to linger. View restaurant →
BARROCO — Barroco occupies one of Old Montreal's candlelit stone rooms — exposed brick, low ceilings, the kind of cave-like intimacy that the neighbourhood's 18th-century buildings produce almost effortlessly. The space has a reputation as one of the more genuinely romantic dining rooms in the city, and from everything written about it, that reputation is architectural rather than atmospheric sleight of hand. The room does the work. The pacing, the low light, the gap between tables — it all points toward a slow dinner for two rather than a loud table of six. The cooking is Mediterranean-leaning and built around a wood grill, which shapes the menu's character more than any single dish. The paella is considered the signature — reportedly made to order, centered on the socarrat, that toasted, caramelised crust at the base of the pan that separates a committed paella from a casual one. The saffron-and-seafood construction is what diners consistently come back to. The wood-grilled meats and the seafood plates carry the same rustic confidence the room calls for, and the bone marrow has developed a following among tables looking for something rich and deliberate to share. The wine list is said to lean Mediterranean, which tracks with the menu's overall logic. This is, by most accounts, a date-night room first — the food earns its place, but the stone interior is doing meaningful atmospheric work alongside it. That distinction matters: Barroco is not a place where the cooking alone drives the evening, but a place where room and menu are genuinely calibrated to each other. Book ahead for weekends, and when you do, it's worth asking specifically for a table in the stone room rather than near the entrance. View restaurant →

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Holder — Holder has operated out of Old Montreal since 2003, founded by brothers Maurice, Richard, and Paul Holder, and the room makes its intentions clear before the menu arrives. Designed by the late Luc Laporte, the space runs to high ceilings, brass fixtures, and generous windows that frame the cobblestone streetscape outside — the architecture of a brasserie that takes European precedent seriously without treating it as costume. Two decades of operation in a neighbourhood that cycles through restaurants aggressively is itself a form of argument. Chef Simon Laplante's menu stays close to French brasserie logic, and the dishes Holder is consistently recognised for reflect that discipline. The Tartare de saumon au yogourt et caviar de Mujjol is built around contrast — the caviar's brine working against the acidity of the yogourt — and is reported to be one of the more considered openers on the menu. The Onglet de boeuf grillé à l'échalote is a cut that rewards kitchens willing to treat it correctly, and it functions here as the kind of bistro centrepiece the rest of the menu is arranged around. The Crémeux au chocolat 70% closes the meal without embellishment — a preparation that diners describe as precise rather than showy, which appears to be the house register throughout. At price level three, Holder is positioned as a special-occasion address rather than an exploratory one. Service is widely described as professional and unhurried; pacing reflects a room that understands its clientele is there for the duration of an evening, not a transaction. It is a kitchen that pursues reliability over novelty, and in Old Montreal on a weekend night, that is a defensible position. Book ahead, and anchor the table with the onglet and the salmon tartare. View restaurant →

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