L’Orignal

Cozy chic bar restaurant just below street level in Old Port. Loft ceilings, brick walls, low lighting for best viewing. Very delicious food. I had the sausage cabbage dish which was very delicious, and big enough (after oysters and soup) to be able to take some home for breakfast hash. My friend had the cod which she claims was the best cod of her life. The s’mores dessert was amazing. I don’t normally like desert but his wasn’t too sweet and was very playful with presentation and especially flavours. The owner is great at his job making drinks, shucking clams and making chit chat. Place is definitely original, and quite packed on the weekends. We fully enjoyed our time at L’Original and plan on making a return visit very soon. Ambiance is a perfect 10.

Really cool location, the ambience is very nice. It looks a little bit like an old Canadian lodge.
The service is very friendly and takes the time to answer all my questions.
They serve a very good local stout. The food was really tasty
And the prices are good for that what you get!

We had dinner here last Thursday night around 9 pm (no reservation). Love the room and the ambiance. The décor is like a old style Canadian ski cabin in the Rockies, complete with old ski and paddling equipment on the walls. Service was excellent and the owner took the time to sit down with me to review gluten free options on the menu (and there were a lot of GF options!). I started with the smoked salmon and chose the Irish organic salmon for my entrée. My husband had the pork tenderloin which he raved about. Interesting cocktail menu and a good wine list. We were very happy with our meals and the service. It’s a funky space in the basement of one of the many old buildings in Old Montréal and only a couple blocks from the Notre Dame Cathedral. Would definitely come back here again!

the place caught me off guard a little bit~ i was expecting the place to be a bit more up-​scaled going by the pics on Unilocal~ but nope, it has quite the homey, lean back, like the-​restaurant-​next-​door kinda feel jamming to some 90’s soft rock.
the menu looked nothing special that night… i was hoping they’d have the duck magret. nbd! i got the wild mushroom fettuccine and my boyfriend got the pork chop schnitzel with fried egg.
as common as the food may sound, the meal was fantastic! everything was full of flavor! no ingredient was skimmed, it was the full portion of everything to make one delectable meal! the fettecini had a homemade feel to it which i loved! and pasta was al dente. the fried pork chop was great! bone-​in still and completely fried! only comment i have is it would be great with just a tad more sauce. luckily, my pasta had some of the mushroom sauce to share. so i ate it with my pasta which made a great combo! the fried egg was a delicious garnish. simply just yum yum yum!
i regret not getting the rabbit or the octopus there. i’m sure they are delicious! i do recommend this place! don’t be fooled by the first impression like me! this place is solid!

Okay loved this restaurant. A couple we ran into at the Brit and chip shop actually recommended this place.
That evening my friend and I went we had the maple old fashion. Which was delicious. For appetizer we shared the salmon tar tar with black caviar and fresh shucked oysters. Then we had the pasta with truffles and also the rabbit. All the food had great flavoring.
The restaurant décor was so cute. It made me feel like I was having a meal in a beautiful lodge. I’d definitely come back again next time I’m in Montréal.

Here are the cliff notes.
1. Expensive but not worth the cost.
2. Poor service.
3. Underwhelming menu.
Let me qualify this review by saying it was a huge disappointment because of what the restaurant didn’t have opposed to what we did have. After reading reviews and visiting the website I was expecting a unique dining experience. I saw myself tasting boar, bison and venison tar tar. But instead we had your run of the mill restaurant outing.
The menu was basic. Really basic. Everything I saw on Unilocal was left off the menu. I know places sell out of certain dishes but come on. No bison, boar, bone marrow, poutine or venison? When I asked the waitress about the lack of variety she just said «sometimes we have those things» no real explanation.
She brought us a $ 7 bottle of seltzer 7 dollars for a seltzer?
We had the duck tar tar which was pretty good. It was refreshing.
The next was a salmon appetizer with caviar. The flavor was one note, flat and unremarkable.
The service was not very good. Whoever the tall waiter is did a great job but our waitress was inattentive and disinterested.
Also the attire is very casual so any reviews saying otherwise are inaccurate.
It just really wasn’t worth the money. Like a few of the restaurants in the area, they seem to be content with mediocrity because they’re in a great location.
From another review I read it seems like they switched chefs recently and it doesn’t seem to be working out well.
Skip this place if it’s on your list. Or maybe you’ll get lucky and their greatest hits will be available.

Went here on our last night in Montréal for dinner. Between the two of us we had Mackerel Croquet’s (they’re special for the night) which were delicious — a little smokey and cooked perfectly. For dinner we had the rabbit with ricotta gnocchi and wild mushroom fettuccine. The fettuccine dish was delicious. Would easily order it again. The rabbit dish was good but not great. It was a little salty and the gnocchi was overcooked and dry — I wouldn’t order it again.
The service was decent. The bartenders were really nice but they weren’t the most attentive. WE didn’t mind it because they were really nice while we were there but we have had better service. Overall we would go again. I was really deciding between 3 and 4 but went to 4 given that I rarely will go back to a 3 restaurant and I wouldn’t think twice about going back here.

Absolutely amazing. I’m not sure if I enjoyed the food (Rabbit Gnoochi, Bison Burgers, Rabbit Poutine, Rabbit Pâté), the drinks (ask for a Hot Shot), the dessert (Nutella S’mores), or the staff (I sat at the bar and talked with Mike all night), but this one one of my favorite dining experiences I have had in a long time. The food was amazing and had a great presentation, and the staff were professional and welcoming to us being from out of town. I couldn’t recommend them higher.

Chef Louis has since left the establish. Boooo. But I will follow him anywhere, that’s how amazing he is!

Wow! Inventive and tasty beverages. My aunt and I enjoyed their braised venison ravioli special as our appetizer and then I had the rabbit poutine as my main and she had the bison burger. Both were delicious. The service was fantastic and the overall atmosphere was like an upscale yet rustic chalet.

Fantastic experience at a low key restaurant– 5 star food and service without an uppity attitude.
To begin with, the oysters were fresh and delicious– loved the freshly grated horseradish on the side. The venison tartare was amazing– the meat was fresh and the flavor was perfect. The crispy toast was a perfect vessel for it. For our shared entrée, we split the schnitzel which was delicious, though it was rather on the thick side. The mushroom spätzle is was served with was also amazingly delicious.
The drinks were tasty-​fresh flavors and strong. The voyager martini with gin and grapefruit flavors was my favorite.
We would definitely return to this wonderful, cozy restaurant if we ever visit Montréal again.

The service was excellent, friendly and informative. The food was outstanding. I’ve been here twice and everyone at the table loved their food. My favourite has to be the venison steak. Unbelievable. Cooked perfectly and just the right amount of food.

Lovely little place with nice décor.
Enjoy our meal in general. Quality of food Is good. Ingredient are not only the regular beef and chicken. The service was great as well, water glass is filled often. Tho when we first arrive the restaurant wasn’t ready for us. (Reservation at 6 got there at 5:40) no waiter or receptionist greeting I mean 5:40 isn’t that much in advance. If restaurant not ready they shouldn’t leave the door unlock or open. It was awkward. However the rest of the night compensated for the little negligible detail. The menu seems to change they were printing new menus when we arrived.

Entertained some friends coming in from Asia here on a short notice. It’s was Sunday night so the place was a little quiet, which is totally expected. Décor of the place was very nice, with the stone walls and wood that can be seen everywhere. Service was attentive, food was good. My friends were ecstatic with the dishes.

The most awkward dining experience I had in a long time. High quality food with diner like service. Not sure if you should dress in a shirt and tie or in tshirt, jean and baseball cap. The food is high quality, the presentation is that of a white table cloth restaurant. But food is served on chipped plates and the waitress is someone you expect from a 24 hours diner. Nothing really goes together. Come here for the food. The décor is warm but don’t expect much else for the money. Plus the menu is limits to 3 – 4 entries.

Been here twice. Food was good the first time so we went back, but the waitress was extremely unprofessional on our second visit.
Both myself and my girlfriend ordered an Arctic Char dish largely based on wanting to try the Pear Kimchee topping. We both received our dish, couldn’t find any of it, and assume it was just used in the broth or something similar. While wrapping up a nearby table received the dish with the correct topping and we brought this up with our waitress. Her immediate response was «There’s nothing we can do», so I asked to speak with her manager about it. My girlfriend left the bathroom to find our waitress yelling about the issue to the manager, whose solution was to «offer to do a shot» with me.
Really not interested in returning for a third visit when there are so many other good options in the area.

We stumbled upon this little place for a Saturday brunch. The service & food was amazing, we couldn’t figure out why this place was empty? I asked one of the cooks, they’ve only been open for 3 hours and we were the 8^th guests.
This place was fantastic!

Really amazing food in a fun, relaxed atmosphere. We were seated immediately upon arrival, even a few minutes in advance of our reservation. For a party of 4, we split 3 appetizers — ricotta gnocci with spring vegetables and rapini pesto, venison tartare, and salmon gravlax over rosti potatoes. The gnocchi was quite a bit more spring vegetables than gnocchi, but the gnocci that was there had a beautiful sear on it that enhanced the flavor of the dish beautifully. The tartare and the gravlax were also very tasty and interestingly prepared.
For mains, 2 of us (including myself) had the quail in white wine Dijon sauce, 1 had the duck breast in rapini pesto, and 1 had the venison chop. All of the entrees were MASSIVE, and none of us were able to finish the entire thing. The quail was the best I’ve ever had, and the sauce was incredibly flavorful and paired well with the vegetables and potatoes as well. I probably ate a stick of butter in the process, but it was worth it. Tried pieces of the duck and venison as well. The duck was tasty and perfectly cooked, but very rich. The venison chop was tasty as well, and came plated on the biggest hunk of buttery-​cheesy mashed potatoes I’ve ever seen intended for one person. We opted out of dessert, since we couldn’t even finish the entrees in front of us. All in all, a fantastic meal that was worth the price tag. Definitely recommend this place to locals and tourists alike!

Let me start out by saying this place has a fantastic Polish-​born bartender that works hard striking up conversation and shucking oysters with conviction and skill.
The restaurant itself is quite a gem. Nestled at the garden level of a side street by the Notre Dame cathedral, the lighting and overall ambiance is perfect for making you feel like you’ve picked the best place to relax and eat on a weekend night.
The food was similarly well thought out and unique. I can’t even remember the name of my fish — but it was apparently similar to what would happen if a salmon hooked up with a whitefish. Really tasty. The Baby Dutch dessert and Venison appetizer were both solid As.
The oysters were also fantastic. Home made sauce and fresh sliced horseradish. That being said, savor the flavor since they’ll be gone in about 45 seconds.

One word, Wow! This place was absolutely outstanding. I had heard good things and I was finally able to stop in during my latest trip to Montréal. I’ve tried eating here before, but I had never been able to get in because I always forgot to make a reservation.
We started with the venison tartare which was absolutely mind-​blowing. For my main course I had the steamed cod with smokey broth which was also excellent. I’ve heard that the menu here changes pretty regularly, which makes sense for a place like this that aims to serve the freshest meats.
Overall, I will definitely be returning here the next time I’m in Montréal.

Soupre de groupe avec des collègues. Plats excellents, goûteux, bien exécutés. Service impeccable. Cadre attrayant, ambiance festive. Super expérience. Seul bémol (et je né sais pas si le vin était fourni par le resto ou l’organisateur du groupe), la liste des vins semble ordinaire. À vérifier si c’est important pour vous.