GaZette Bistro | Bar — Restaurant in Montreal

The restaurant has a nice decor and ambiance. On a Friday night the restaurant was not busy and considering what we experienced that is no surprise. Unlike some hotel restaurants whose amazing offerings make it a destination for locals, I can't imagine this restaurant so close to so many alternatives would ever be.

We started with French Onion Soup. It was served appropriately. The cheese was good, the onion soup a little too sweet (but I accept that some would like that), and the bread was crunchy but tasted old / stale (which I can't imagine people would like).

I had a rotisserie chicken which was plated attractively. The chicken came out slightly on the dry side. The rosemary was not the strong ingredient in the Rosemary Cabernet Sauvignon sauce making this a sort of rich and sweet sauce. The pairing of ingredients was unique. Somehow the nuts did enhance the combination but overall I wouldn't recommend this dish.

We also had a burger and a Caesar salad. The burger was average but the Caesar salad surprisingly was done with a proper dressing that had a light anchovy flavor. The croutons were not stale (unlike the bread in the French Onion soup) and had an appropriate garlic flavouring. Too light on the cheese in the salad though. The burger was good.

Chocolate lava cake was well plated and had a nice chocolatey flavour with fresh raspberries, whipped cream, and other milk and white chocolate crumbles around it. It was a bit on the small side compared to other chocolate lava cakes or chocolate souffles you might get. It was semi-warm but not the oozing warm to hot chocolate you might expect.

Service was below average which shouldn't have been the case considering the restaurant wasn't that busy. The only saving grace was that the bar tender would sometimes see that we were bored and not being served and step out from the bar to backfill for the waiter. We timed how long it took to get the bill... it was over ten minutes.

In summary no items got 5/5. If I had only a burger, Caesar salad, and chocolate lava cake at the bar I might have given this restaurant a 4/5. But French Onion soup shouldn't go wrong, chicken should be moist, lava should be hot, and service...

I was staying at the Westin in Montreal, which is a beautiful property located very close to the historic Old Montreal part of town. I decided to give this restaurant a try, mostly out of convenience. I've found in my travels, that most of the time, restaurants that are attached to hotels are not very good. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of food and service at The Gazette.

When my partner and I arrived at the restaurant, the hostess asked if we had a reservation. Apparently it was a busy night, as the Montreal Grand Prix had just finished earlier that afternoon. But she found space for us at one of the communal tables near the bar, which was just fine.

The waiter arrived quickly to greet us, take our drink orders, and bring a basket of delicious fresh-baked rolls.

We started with the Gnocchi Carbonara, with lobster, green pea, parmesan, an. truffle fried quail egg. It was creamy and delicious, with so many flavors happening.

For our main courses we had the Sauteed Scallop, which comes with giant shrimp, mussels, clams, crab claw – gnocchi corn, speck ham, and tomato seafood broth. The seafood was fresh and cooked perfectly.

We also tried the Grilled Piri Piri Chicken, which comes with kale, chorizo sausage, multi color potato, grilled bell pepper, marinated red onion, and queso fresco cheese. Again, amazing flavors that all worked so well together. My only complaint here was that the chicken was over cooked, so much of it was really dry. I used the bell peppers and red onions to add some moisture to the dry chicken. It helped a little, but this dish could have been a home run if the chicken was cooked properly.

Overall the dinner was much better than I expected, and at the end of the meal I could just take the elevator upstairs to be back in my hotel room. I probably would not make an effort to return to this restaurant, unless I was staying at the Westin again, since there are so many other new places to try...

Visited Gazette for a brunch with my family 08/13/2016. My wife ordered roast salmon plate and was very happy with how it was done. My order went not so well. I've ordered roast chicken sandwich expecting what was in menu description. For the start I've got a burger with a beef. They replaced it with sandwich and apologies. Fine with me, mistakes happen. Let me describe what I got: chicken - right out of the freezer, may be it was roasted week or so ago but it was frozen, hard to tell how old it was. bread was "grilled" on a dirty grill, got burned pieces of previously prepared food on it. lettuce - fresh. tomato - absolutely tasteless, with some traces of red color. Three out of four ingredients are not done right. Amazing. Well, if one will go and buy a $3.95 pre-packed sandwich at a grocery store's deli (picking it from the freezers) they will get an idea about what I got at Gazette sans burned food on a bread, off course. After my complain they took my plate away for a "kitchen review" and analyzed that for a while like there is some doubt about the quality. Finally I got an apologies and been asked for complementary desert since I refused to order another main. Ordered coffee. And... they charged for it. At that moment I was so irritated that I said nothing. Paid the bill and we left. Small note on a side: they do not use tablecloth. For some reason they put rectangular leatherette mats which they just wipe with cloth in between different parties. Do not put your silverware down there - you might get sick from bacteria people bring there from the toilet. How this passed sanitary inspections is beyond my...