Chez Alexandre — Restaurant in Montreal

Arrived on a busy Friday night on Grand Prix weekend, one of Montreal's biggest tourist events of the year. Reservation for 8 made well in advance.

Atmosphere was good, lots of people, busy etc. - our group was generally optimistic when we entered.

We were then escorted upstairs where no one else was seated, no ambiance at all, and hidden away in a corner.

Waitress who appeared to be perhaps working her first night ever managed to get our very simple drink order very wrong. When asked about what cocktails the bartender could make, we were told (politely) that she didn't know because she doesn't drink. Ha! After 20 minutes of waiting and confusion we managed to get a few beers and 2 vodka sodas in hand. Ridiculous.

We ordered calamari for an appetizer for the group. The pictured microwaved, frozen garbage was delivered - the plate as shown is untouched by us. An absolute embarrassment. Starving, we ate it. Got in our orders - nearly everyone requested the most generic steak bavette- 1 or 2 brave souls ventured outside the box and got lamb.

After nearly 40 minutes most of the dinners arrived, all except mine (event was my bachelor party, incidentally).

10 minutes later my under cooked steak arrived when everyone else was finishing.

We also had requested a cigar bar room as part of our reservation. I guess that was a waste of time, because all spaces were filled and we were never even given options on this front. Completely disregarded by the staff on this request.

Thankfully, the other 2 nights we had reservations at real restaurants. This establishment is a joke, it was so pathetic we could only laugh. I go to Montreal for this weekend most years. Half the trip is about the food and culture of the city. rest assured, chez alexandre, I will never be coming back to this laughable dump of an establishment, I resent that my friends paid full price for late, cold, undercooked food, bad drinks and absolutely no charm, atmosphere, or redeeming qualities. You ignored our request, couldn't get anything right, and made less than 0 effort to make up for it. The very worst example of customer service and food quality I have ever seen in 15 years of visiting this city.

The waitress, bless her heart, was at least earnestly trying her best.

Do not waste your time at this sad, passe´ tourist trap. I should have...

I had a very lovely lunch at this restaurant. Did you know it was the first the serve draft beer back in 1982?

The owner Monsieur Alain welcomed us at our arrival and he was extremely friendly and helpful. In fact, all the staff was. There seemed to be a lot of regulars which is always a good sign. I guessed this happens when the owner is there for more than 40 years. The décor: It's a french brasserie and does look like any one in Paris. Even the chairs in the front section are the exact same rattan-like you'd find on a French terrace. Extremely traditional and kitsch, in a comfortable way. The attention to detail is put on what matters. Tablecloth are impeccable, glassware is top quality especially for champagne, silver cutlery. The owner told us there would be some renovation soon to freshen up the place.

Food: Simple but very pleasant. I started with a duck and foie gras terrine with lentils. It was tasty and soft. My friend had the fish quenelle. It was even more flavorsome. For the main course I took the duck confit. Obviously! (I'm in love with duck) it was very classic but well prepared. The salad missed vinaigrette but the potatoes were crispy and good. My friend took the fish of the day, a bar filet. It was simply put in the plate, without any side dish. Even by itself, it was the best dish of the whole meal. Tasty, fresh, and just lovely. Wine: We were told Alexandre is the place to drink Champagne. And so we did. We had a piper-Heidseick by the glass and then a bottle of Charles Heidseick. They have an agreement with this champagne so they put it forward even if they have great other choices. It is an underrated champagne which a always enjoy a lot. The prices were very reasonable. They don't have a sommelier on site but the wine card was built up by Jessica Harnois, herself. Other little detail, they have Badoit for sparkling water instead of the usual Eska. I like it better, but that's some personal choice.

Overall, I'd say it's an old-fashioned place with a lot of history and stories. It has a lot to...

I was pretty disappointed with my experience here. I reserved weeks ahead for a Saturday night in their cigar lounge. The day of my reservation, I called to make sure all is good and I got the confirmation.

My friends show up first, early, for the reservation, and the restaurant tells them there's no such reservation. Once I get there I ask them how my reservation disappeared when I had called earlier in the day with no issue. An employee goes up to check the cigar lounge and after about 5 minutes, he comes back and says that they were able to make space for us. I again ask what happened to my reservation, if they found it, and he says they had it but there wasn't room, that other guests had arrived and they just gave our reservation away. We were never late for our reservation so I don't know why they didn't honor it. We were crammed in and it was quite uncomfortable until other guests eventually started leaving.

The service was very slow from the waitress. It took 30 minutes for us to get our drinks that we ordered. We would have liked to order multiple rounds of drinks but because the waitress never came back to check on us, we only had one round.

We had also bought cigars. The waitress brought out the box of cigars and listed each one and their price. It was a little suspicious that they had ones marked Behike but priced at $120. Once the waitress left, another guest sitting next to us commented on the price of the Behikes, also stating it was suspicious how cheap they were and thinking that maybe they are fake. Maybe the waitress got the wrong price?

Either way, I'm pretty unimpressed and disappointed with my night here. Do not recommend and...