Bonnys is one of those old stand-by veggie havens: high salad quotient, cloth napkins, fresh pressed juices and a friendly and easygoing staff.

Imadake is part of a sea change in Montreal, a city that’s becoming a haven for izakaya, traditional Japanese pubs. Izakaya offer booze, but also focus on small tapas-like dishes of fried and grilled (sea)food, ideal for picking at over an evening of Sapporo or Asahi.

Although Cava is a new restaurant, it has achieved instantaneous Mile End street cred as part of the Milos empire of deliciousness. While Milos offers an extensive seafood menu, and the deceased Petit Milos was an upscale sandwich shop, Cava focuses more on traditional Greek cuisine.

Comfortably ensconced on a leather banquette at Jane, sipping on a dark and stormy (homemade ginger beer, dark rum and a slice of lime), a sense of deep satisfaction swept over me.

I’ll admit it, from the moment I walked through the door, I was inclined to like Lawrence. Strings of light bulbs run the length of the place, which is decorated with old wooden crates and tins, fuzzy paintings of raw meat and oysters that hang on the brick wall, and there’s the highest ratio of window-to-wall space in all of Montreal.

I knew I was in trouble when my duck confit burger came with two plump slabs of foie gras. I was emotionally unprepared for such decadence. Plaisirs Coupables, a new restaurant located at Peel and Sainte-Catherine, is exactly what it sounds like: a roomful of guilty pleasures.

Montreal, being spiritually and geographically far from coastal England, has a fish ‘n’ chips culture that is underwhelming, to say the least.

Good for your wallet and even better for the long cold winters Montreal shares with Northern China.