I’ve long wanted to visit Brasserie Magnan (Magnan’s Tavern), 2602 Rue St. Patrick: a huge vintage restaurant that opened in 1932. About a 10-minute drive from downtown Montreal and located in a semi-industrial part of the city, this is a wondrous, mainly blue-collar eatery popular with working fellows and recommended to me by several chefs who go there to chow down on the famous roast beef on their day off.

I had a super lunch there and skipped the daily special of the 10-oz rib-eye steak to savour a delicious plate of roast beef (6-oz) for $15.75 accompanied by mashed potatoes and smashed turnip. The coffee – a barometer of any restaurant’s attention to detail – is excellent. Read more…