Eating out in Montréal, part II: Bocata, La Gargote, & Olive et Gourmando

Part II of our gastronomical tour through Montréal takes us to Bocata, La Gargote, and Olive et Gourmando. Check out the other posts here: part I (Atwater Market & La Panthère Verte), part III (Resto L’Avenue, Pâtisserie Au Kouign Amann, and Cantinho de Lisboa), and part IV (Gibbys and Modavie).

First up for this post, Bocata. Bocata is a wine bar with lots of delicious small plates. They also have a regular menu...everything we had was amazing. The atmosphere was very cozy - a wall of wine behind the bar and several other walls filled, floor-to-ceiling, with books (in fact, they bring your check tucked into a book - cute!).

cute - the check came tucked into a book

Our waiter was also fantastic, very friendly, knowledgeable, and adorable. He explained several wine choices to us, made menu and wine recommendations, gave us wine samples to help us decide, and happily answered all of my questions (I always have lots of questions about menus and food). Here is our waiter, slicing the pata negra de bellota (ham from acorn-fed black pigs from Spain), which my husband had for an appetizer; he added the pan con tomate (basically, a tomato bruschetta). I had the croquette de crabe des neiges (snow crab cake) for an appetizer and the fish special for my main course. Everything was so delicious!

our awesome waiter

the pata negra de bellota - so delicious!

he also had the pan con tomate

a delicious snow crab cake

all crab!

my amazing fish dish

my husband's chop

we had to share dessert, an interesting (delicious) carrot cake - it's vertical!

Next up is La Gargote is a cute little French bistro in Old Montréal which happened to be near our airbnb rental. They have a prix fixe or a la carte menu. I had the carrot potage to start and then pasta with ham and peas in a cream sauce. My husband had a pâté starter with a steak.

yummy carrot potage

pâté with endive

my delicious pasta

steak and potatoes

Olive et Gourmando is last in this post. I'm probably the only person in Montréal who thinks this...but, I'll say it, I thought Olive et Gourmando was a bit overrated. First of all, it's packed from the moment they open until they close so it's hard to even get in and get a table...and then you feel kind of rushed out once you do sit down. I also thought the food was just...good. It wasn't anything special or original or anything not available at many other restaurants or cafés in the city. So, needless to say, we only went once. It was good, but we didn't feel the need to wait in line again a second time.

a cheese croissant

the fruit salad was interesting - currants and toasted coconut!

my husband's panini

the cappuccino was delicious

Bye for now...