If you still think Montreal hotels are just for a night's stay and not a killer meal, think again. Many local hotels have been stepping up their dining game considerably over the past year.
While some might dismiss them as mere stopovers for tourists, places like Restaurant Stanley are changing perceptions. Located in Centre Sheraton Montréal's redesigned Grand Hall, it sits on the historic grounds of the first Stanley Cup final in 1894. And it's setting a new standard for hotel food.
A colourful dessert with coffee.Courtesy of Restaurant Stanley.
Redesigned by the local interior design studio Camdi Design, Stanley’s long and open dining room is located at the base of a huge street-facing glass façade, creating a supremely slick place to drink and dine.
Because of its size, it’s just as equipped to handle intimate date nights as it is for pre-Habs game eats, satisfying a family visit from out of town, or serving as a place to eat before you continue your night elsewhere.
The inside of the restaurant at night.Courtesy of Restaurant Stanley.
Looks aside, the restaurant has an interesting take on sharing plates. While too many restaurants to count in the city will tell diners that their menu’s meant to be shared with the whole table — implying that you order multiple small dishes to pick at — Stanley’s chef Alexandre Martin has developed a more unique menu design.
Apart from a few snacks and sharing plates that range from seafood towers and tartare tasting platters that feature three types to snack on, many of the menu’s main plates have "me/we" options where nearly every dish has both single serving and sharing portions. One can think of it in terms of ‘small’ and ‘large’ sizes.
A plate of savoury bites.Courtesy of Restaurant Stanley.
On top of that, the restaurant offers breakfast services, as well as two- and three-course table d’hote menus that let diners pick and choose as they wish.
With a focus on Quebec products, Stanley offers everything from local cheese, meat, and vegetables to seafood from the province’s coast. The choices here have a wide range of choices to meet a lot of demands, going from French classics to grilled steaks, poke bowls, and pasta, but the menu isn’t so big that something tastes like it was simply slapped on.
The windowed façade of the restaurant looks out on boulevard René-Lévesque.Courtesy of Restaurant Stanley.
Most of all, the kicker at Stanley is the level of quality they’re bringing to their food and service; as a restaurant based inside of a hotel, the staff is ready to make an impression on whoever’s dining out there, treating you like it’s your first time in the city.
Restaurant Stanley
Courtesy of Restaurant Stanley.
Where: 1201, boulevard René-Lévesque Ouest
When: 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day
Why You Need To Go: You can bank this spot as your default place for eating out downtown, thanks to the wide and well-executed variety of food at every mealtime of the day. It's also good for both large groups and intimate get-togethers.