The commercial downtown area, sometimes known as the golden square mile, is
full of modern buildings, underground shopping malls, victorian houses and of
course St. Catherine street...
- McGill campus and the McGill "ghetto", the neighbourhood surrounding McGill
university (north of Sherbrooke street between Park ave. in the east and Peel
in the west).
- Mount Royal observatory, on top of Mount Royal, best view of downtown.
Accessible from Pine ave. and walk up the long stairs or from MontRoyal street
(MontRoyal metro station and the 11 bus line) or by car (MontRoyal street then
Camillien Houde road). If you go by Mount Royal street, you'll have to walk a
little to the lookout.
- St. Catherine street between University and Guy street, just walk along,
specially friday and saturday nights. There are some nights in the summer where
the sidewalks are full and St. Catherine is jammed by cars. The same thing
happens on Crescent. That part of St. Catherine is also quite busy during
shopping hours.
- Crescent street on fridays and saturday nights (bars and clubs) between St.
Catherine and Sherbrooke.
- Faubourg St. Catherine, a place where you can find all kinds of different
foods, there are small restaurants on the third floor, and specialty shops on
the ground floor (corner of St. Catherine and Guy). For hockey fans, the
Montreal Forum in the west (Atwater metro station). St Patrick's cathedral on
Rene Levesque blvd just east of Beaver Hall. Windsor train station with it's
hall of a hundred steps (Bonaventure metro station).
- Square Phillip, during the day in the summer there are street musicians
that perform and people that sell handmade jewelry, on St. Catherine across
from The Bay.
- Underground shopping malls (see Underground "city" district).
- The Montreal
Museum of Fine Art (1379-1380 Sherbrooke Street west), there are
two pavillions, the newest one is on the south side of Sherbrooke and it's
connected by a passageway under the street to the older building. You can buy
your tickets at either pavillions.
- The temporary exhibitions are mostly at the JeanNoel Desmarais building
(the newest building) and parts of the permanent exhibition is on the 4th
floor, the rest of the permanent exhibition and other temporary exhibitions can
be found at the Benaiah Gibb building. (GuyConcordia metro station, then walk
northeast to Sherbrooke, it's on the corner of Crescent and Sherbrooke). It's
halfpriced on Wednesday evenings.
- Temporary exhibitions this summer :
- Roy Lichtenstein (pop art) until Sept. 4th. .Tamara de Lempicka (art deco),
from June 16 to October 2nd. Redpath museum (859 Sherbrooke west, on the McGill
campus), natural history (fossils, dinosaures and the likes). Free admission,
not opened on weekends. McCord museum (690 Sherbrooke street west), it's a
canadian (and native) history museum, it's free on thursdays between 18:00 and
21:00. Canadian Center of Architecture (on Rene Levesque blvd west, entrance on
1920 Baile street parallel to SteCatherine between StMarc and du Fort streets).
There are temporary exhibits on all aspects of architecture. The bookshop is
also very interesting (architecture and design). But don't forget to visit the
Shaughnessy house (attached to the center) and it's winter garden. Not opened
on Mondays and Tuesdays, and opens at 11:00am otherwise.
- Montreal Planetarium (1000 StJacques west, Bonaventure metro station, exit
from the Windor train station) call for opening hours (8724530). HotelDieu
hospital museum, on Pine ave. just east of Park ave.
- Ben's (deli) 990 de Maisonneuve west, corner of Metcalfe. . Basha
(libanese) fast and inexpensive, 930 St. Catherine west (2nd floor, over
Swensens).
- Swensens (ice cream), on St. Catherine
- L'Etoile des Indes (indian) very good, affordable, 1806 St. Catherine west
- Bombay Palace (indian) very good, affordable, 2051 St. Catherine west,
voted best in Montreal (according to the May 12th issue of the Mirror). .
- L'actuel (belgian) expensive but worth it for the mussels (1194 Peel, near
SteCatherine).
- Ritz Carlton (french) expensive on Sherbrooke west, voted the best
restaurant in Montreal if someone else is paying
- Mexicali Rosa (texmex/bar) 1425 Bishop, north of St. Catherine
- Carlo's & Pepe's (texmex/bar) 1420 Peel, north of St. Catherine
- Le Paris (french) expensive, 1812 St. Catherine west
- Peel pub (bar/tavern) cheap food, cheap beer, university students, on St.
Catherine near Peel. Also on De Maisonneuve near Peel
- Le grand comptoir (french) affordable and good on Nathan Phillips Square
near St. Catherine.
- William Tell (swiss) expensive (2055 Stanley street)
- Asha (indian) 3490 Park ave. north of Sherbrooke.
- L'entrecote St. Jean (steak&special sauce) check out the profiterols
for dessert.
- Le Commensal (vegetarian) can be expensive since you pay by the gram, on
the corner of McGill ave. and St. Catherine (2nd floor)
- Sawatdee Thai (thai) 3453 Notre Dame west.
- Le Singapour (singapor) 1452 St. Mathieu.
- Upstairs (jazz/other bar), 1421 Bishop street.
- Station 10 (alternative/other), 2071 St. Catherine west
- Peel Pub (university students hangout), 1106 de Maisonneuve w.
- Comedy Nest, 1740 Rene Levesque west (in the Nouvel Hotel)
- Comedyworks, 1238 Bishop.
- Atwater street to the west
- Park Avenue to the east
- Mount Royal to the north
- ReneLevesque blvd to the south.
- McGill, Peel, Guy and Atwater