Bringing grilled goods and mezze to the table in Laval, this restaurant from Tamer Manouchakian serves as Montreal’s more familial and moderately priced — but no less delicious — option for Syrian cuisine compared to the lauded Damas. Don’t just take from us, either; ask the large families that fill its seats every week for inexpensive tasting menus at $55 a person.

Villeray favourite Ho Guom’s extensive menu showcases a wide range of pho as well as bún (rice vermicelli) in soups and dry dishes, with copious amounts of herbs on the side. Don’t miss the chả cá lã vọng turmeric fish and their tropical fruit juices. There’s even a special meal for kids on the menu.

Rosemont’s Rose Ross aims to comfort, with seasonal, market-fresh fare. Expect fried cauliflower with a parmesan-caper vinaigrette, duck confit fettuccini, braised pork cheek with cheesy mash potatoes, and rice pudding for dessert — all in a compact dining space.

All the Lebanese favourites are here at this family restaurant, starting with tomato salad with sumac and ending with grilled meats, stuffed vine leaves, and molokhia greens. It’s been around for almost fifty years for a reason.

Chef David Ferguson’s American-esque restaurant in Petite Patrie charms with its chef’s table atmosphere. Serving what Ferguson calls seasonal French dishes with a Tex-Mex twist, that includes dishes like foie gras nachos, cheesy onion soup, beef flank steaks, surf and turf, for two and other luxurious-yet-comforting options.

Named for the mountainous passage between Afghanistan and Pakistan, this Afghan BYOB restaurant from Faruk Ramisch may be smack dab in the heart of the Plateau, but it often goes overlooked by both locals and tourists. Rich in spices, aromatics, dumplings, and noodles with lots of hefty meat dishes topped with sabzi (an paste of spinach and green herbs), it’s all rich and wonderfully filling here.

The Plateau’s stretch of Saint-Denis already goes overlooked when it comes to dining out in Montreal, and it’s hard for small hole-in-the-walls like this Italian spotto get noticed. It’s a shame, too, as their fried panzerotti and sandwiches of focaccia and mortadella or fried octopus, arugula. and lime mayo are all well-kept secrets by those who know them.

Uyghur cuisine remains largely uncelebrated in Montreal, but among those making it, this restaurant from chef Abdul Samad in a Ville Saint-Laurent strip mall offers some of the best. Grilled, stewed, and braised meats are a big draw here alongside flavorful lamb kebabs, lamb soup, hand-pulled laghman noodles, and their traditional samsa, half-moon shaped meat pastries baked in a tandoor.

唐人街的Kanbai菜單展示Si的菜肴chuan and Hunan, home to some of China’s hottest cuisines. If you’re not a Chinese reader, look for translated key words “hot” and “chili,” ideally combined with “garlic” and “sauce” to find options like poached fish filet in hot chili soup or eggplant and minced pork with hot garlic sauce. For the spice-averse, there’s an extensive range of more seasonally focused Cantonese food.

Handmade manti (tiny beef ravioli served with yogurt) and meaty Anatolian specialties await at Avesta in Shaughnessy Village. Grilled or braised, köfte and kebabs, sandwiches on lavash bread, and homemade desserts featuring pistachios, walnuts, and honey round out the menu.

Located out in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, it may be geographically obscure to those focused on what’s around the center of the island, but this restaurant from chefs Richard Taitt and Chris Eamer and pastry chef Isabelle Plourde is the city’s premier place to get a taste of New Orleans.

Classics like shrimp and grits and blackened catfish, gumbo and crab cakes, beignets — they’re all here.