Montreal’s culinary scene

A Quebec breakfast at La Binerie Mont-Royal features eggs, boudin noir (black pudding) and the diner’s specialty, house-baked beans.

The entrance to Auberge Saint-Gabriel, North America’s first inn, built in 1688. Today it is one of Old Montreal’s special restaurants.   ( Alan Solomon/Chicago Tribune )

A baker at St-Viateur Bagel prepares some of the coveted rolls for the oven. The bakery produces 1,000 hand-rolled Montreal-style bagels a day.   ( Alan Solomon/Chicago Tribune )

Lunch or dinner at the Chalet Bar-B-Q has, since 1944, meant chicken — here, deux cuisses de poulet (or double leg of chicken).

A major renovation and tweaked menus have helped restore energy to Moishes, a landmark steakhouse in Montreal since 1938.   ( Alan Solomon/Chicago Tribune )

From the outside, Chez Doval looks like your average pre-Starbucks coffee shop — but try getting a table at this Portuguese favorite on a weekend night. Montreal legend Leonard Cohen lived around the corner.

The seafood couldn’t be much fresher than at Milos, where Greek immigrant Costas Spiliadis opened a Montreal neighborhood restaurant in 1979 and built it into an international brand.   ( Alan Solomon/Chicago Tribune )

Fresh seafood is a big draw at Milos in Montreal.   ( Alan Solomon/Chicago Tribune )

A routinely magnificent starter at Toque!: Seasonal snow crab with crispy bread, cucumber, turnip, day lily and kalamansi mayonnaise.

Sharon Wilensky, owner of Wilensky’s Light Lunch, displays a freshly pressed Wilensky Special, the legendary sandwich created here in the 1930s by her father, Moe.