12 Carb-Loaded Montreal Restaurants To Help You Hibernate Through The Weekend (Or Winter)
Thanks to world-famous food like our bagels and poutine, and with help from local legends like pizzaghetti, if there’s one city in Canada that stands out among the rest for eating up carbs, it’s Montreal. The only thing that gets in the way of getting it is a harsh winter season.
That’s why we came up with a list of Montreal restaurants that’s bursting at the seams with carb-loaded options seemingly suitable for the proverbial hibernating bear — so you can eat your fill and wake up when it’s spring.
Here’s where you want to eat in Montreal when you want to load up on carbs:
Le Petite Vibe
Where: Le Central, rue 30 Sainte-Catherine O., Montreal, QC
Why You Need To Go: With a smash burger, fried chicken with citrus sauce, tater tot poutines and birria tacos, this Filipino-American snack bar inside the downtown food hall Le Central was made to help you load up on calories. Best of all, they’ll deliver it straight to your door, so you won’t have to go far from the cave of your living room or bedroom to get your hands on it.
La Belle Tonki
Where: 1335, rue Beaubien E., Montreal, QC
Why You Need To Go: Wintertime calls for hot soup, so what’s better than a big bowl of soup? We’ll do you one better: What’s better than a big bowl of cheese-covered ramen? Billing itself as the only restaurant in town where you can get pho and poutine in the same place, La Belle Tonki’s Poutine Week-winning dishes kill it when it comes to carb loading.
Paulo et Suzanne
Where: 5501, boul. Gouin O., Montreal, QC
Why You Need To Go: You’d think La Banquise and its pages of poutine options would take the top pick when it comes to loading up on carbs, but this Cartierville diner takes things two steps further. Think plates loaded with cheeseburgers that are *surrounded* by poutine, slices of steak, onion rings, and crispy fried jalapenos. Eat here and you won’t need to eat again all week.
Jukebox Burgers
​Where: 11798, boul. Salaberry, Dorval, QC
Why You Need To Go: Leave it to a diner that came up with an eating challenge to serve up all the carbs you want. If you eat from their menu full of stuff to get stuffed like deep-fried cheese curds, milkshakes, mac and cheese, fried chicken, poutine, huge chilli dogs, and—of course—burgers, you’re going to need someone to take you out in a wheelbarrow.
Saint-Houblon
Where: 6700, boul. Saint-Laurent, Montreal, QC
Why You Need To Go: It’s all about the all-you-can-eat brunch and bottomless $35 mimosas at this brewery with three locations in the Montreal area. Offered every Saturday and Sunday between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., they’re serving anything and everything you could want for carbs, from confit duck poutine to bread pudding with beer caramel and okonomiyaki.
Sunny's Dinette
Where: 2705, rue Notre-Dame O., Montreal, QC
Why You Need To Go: This new breakfast and lunch spot in Little Burgundy is great for eating a ton both during breakfast and lunchtime. Early on, they’re doing eggs Benedict and breakfast casserole, while afternoons involve stuff like cubanos, braised beef platters on garlic confit mash, and plates of crispy chicken with fries. Enjoy your food coma.
San Gennaro
Where: 69 Saint-Zotique Street E., Montreal, QC
Why You Need To Go: When it comes to huge amounts of carbs, this Little Italy cafe and pizzeria is perfect for both sweet and salty options. Grab boxes of bomboloni stuffed with vanilla, chocolate or pistachio cream, cannoli, or cookies, or go for one of their large al taglio pizzas that can come smothered in toppings like sausage or smoked cheese and slices of potato.
Cosmo's
Where: 5843, rue Sherbrooke O., Montreal, QC
Why You Need To Go: With eats so greasy that someone made a documentary about it, this tiny diner in NDG is where you want to go when you need an absolute calorie bomb of a meal. Whether it’s the crispy fried hash, the breakfast burgers with cheese and sunny-side eggs, or their famous creation sandwiches, they’ll be all you’ll need to eat to fill up and retire for the rest of the day.
Bucky Rooster's
Where: 3981, rue Notre-Dame O., Montreal, QC
Why You Need To Go: A lot of the spots on this list will feature fried chicken on their menus, but when it comes to the premiere place to eat it, you want to get it from this Saint-Henri pop-up-turned-restaurant. Their ten-piece bucket—plus a five-cheese macaroni or huge slices of pie if you’re feeling extra—will be a great companion to a day indoors.
Provisions
Where: 1142, ave. Van Horne, Montreal, QC
Why You Need To Go: Thanks to their own in-house butchery, this Outremont restaurant has its own deli counter. That makes for stacked brisket sandwiches and cubanos, burgers, steak and cheese, the odd lobster roll, and regularly changing menus of specials that merit lots of return visits. One item will be more than enough for a meal, but no one’s judging you if you grab two.
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Mayhem
Where: 4433, rue Saint-Denis, Montreal, QC
Why You Need To Go: This Plateau restaurant’s got a whole section of its menu dedicated to bao buns stuffed with fried chicken, fried fish or braised pork, this restaurant makes for an easy grab-and-go option if you plan on hibernating back home. If you want to stay for a bit longer, try their garlic noodles or bulgogi ‘bolognese’ if you really want to fill up.
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Pasta Express
Where: 1501, rue Fleury E., Montreal, QC
Why You Need To Go: When it comes to carb loading, few things get better than pasta. When it’s cold outside, however, you’re going to want a lot of it. That’s why this all-you-can-eat spot is the best. For $18, you can eat as much as you like from eight different types of pasta, from spaghetti and linguini to gnocchi and tortellini, and there are 13 different sauces to put on top of it all.
