Vegetarian eating in Montreal. (Eating Far and Away).

MONTREAL HAS A WELL-EARNED REPUTATION as a very progressive and vibrant city. As an urban center that goes out of its way to be culturally supportive, it has many of the same advantages as much larger cities for those interested in modern music, film, and the visual arts. Due to its bilingual populace and Franco-derived architecture, the city also has a very European feel; thanks to a favorable exchange rate, trips to Montreal can feel lavish while only having a minor impact on pocketbooks. Finally, Montreal may be the best city for international meatless food I've ever encountered, a health-conscious city that more and more favors vegetarian and vegan diets.

Before singing the praises of some excellent places for vegan meals in Montreal, a quick word on a few types of eateries you may wish to avoid. As in some areas of France, it may be difficult to get a good vegetarian meal at restaurants offering exclusively French cuisine and many French-styled cafes. At both, vegetarians might find croissants, pastries, or bagels for a satisfactory breakfast or brunch, but vegans will likely find little. That said, if looking for a caffeine boost, many of these same cafes offer drinks prepared with soymilk.

Also worth bypassing are the numerous restaurants offering a combination of Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. These establishments seem to be the equivalent of Chinese-American eateries in the United States; perhaps a fine place for carnivores to pick up cheap eats, but unlikely to have vegetarian fare beyond the occasional tofu stir-fry. The same seems true of most exclusively Vietnamese outfits. Happily, most exclusively Thai restaurants have substantial vegetarian menus.

Finally, be wary of the many couscous restaurants in Montreal. Most menus we encountered offered only a single couscous and veggies dish, yet were much heavier on the Moroccan meat offerings.

On both of my stays in Montreal, my best meal has come at CHUCHAI (4088 St-Denis), a completely vegetarian and mostly vegan Thai restaurant. ChuChai specializes in meat analog dishes made of tofu and seitan, and distinguishes itself in its complex textures and mesmerizing sauces. The best entree we had was the "beef" with panang curry, a delicately balanced combination of coconut milk, tangy curry, peanut sauce, seitan, basil, and red and green peppers--a common dish, but I've never had it prepared as well elsewhere. The lemongrass soup (offered with or without faux shrimp) was delicious, but best of all was the fried spinach appetizer. A generous wicker bowl of crisp, dry spinach, lightly sugared, with a melt-in-your-mouth texture, this appetizer alone is reason enough to plan a trip to Montreal. Somewhere in between casual and formal, ChuChai is about as expensive as vegetarian eating in Montreal gets --and yet our entrees were still around $10 American!

A close runner-up was LA FAIM DU MONDE (300 East Duluth), a hip indoor-outdoor cafe/juice bar with entirely vegetarian offerings. Your server will start you off with glasses of water with a dash of fennel flavor. From there, you can order a variety of veggie burgers, vegan sandwiches, tempeh dishes, smoothies with soymilk, and an extensive breakfast menu (the last limited to certain hours). There I had the best veggie burger of my life, their Inca Burger, a crisp, full patty made of quinoa, beets, and cashews, topped with an amazing mustard sauce (which might be too sharp for some). Their cookies, all vegan on the day we visited, are also admirable.

The only restaurant we found boasting a 100% vegan kitchen was LES VIVRES (4434 St-Dominique), open noon to midnight every day. A collectively-run, highly politicized space that also eschews refined sugar and corporately-manufactured ingredients, Les Vivres has a small menu of international cuisine that is ably prepared and sometimes surprisingly great. It's also a nice place to pick up a healthy dessert or snack, and a great place to get a sense of what's happening in the city culturally and politically--particularly if you know more than a little French.

For a quick meal, a vegetarian's best friend will be LE COMMENSAL, a completely vegetarian buffet boasting four locations in Montreal (1720 St-Denis, 1204 McGill College, 3715 Queen Mary, and 5043 St-Denis), as well as locations in Toronto and Quebec City. Here you serve yourself and pay by the weight of your tray; unless you make an effort to gorge yourself, $10 Canadian should do the trick. Every item is marked according to your diet (V for vegan, L for milk ingredients, and O for egg ingredients), and about 50% of the items are vegan. The salad bar is always admirably fresh, the vegan seitan pie is unforgettable, and the vegan date bars are a great dessert. While it sounds like a cafeteria, the atmosphere is more sophisticated, and the food at Le Commensal is as good as at many gourmet vegetarian kitchens in the States; it's your most dependable vegan meal in many Canadian cities, an admirable chain I truly hope will venture south of the border soon.

If you get the urge for a midnight snack, Montreal has many options for you. Your best bet is to head along the 2000-3500 corridor of St-Laurent, a boulevard lined with dozens of Lebanese restaurants offering unbelievably cheap falafel sandwiches, falafel platters, and vegetarian platters (usually letting you pick from a line of dishes like hummus, fool, grape leaves, and roasted veggies). Some of these establishments are open 24 hours, many more at least until the bars let out around 3 am.

Another 24-hour stop attractive to vegetarians is the FAIRMOUNT BAGEL BAKERY (74 West Fairmount), found further north off of St-Laurent. Montreal's first bagel bakery (around 100 years old, with a good half-century at the current location), Fairmount offers such novel bagels as mueslix and flax seed, as well as all the usual suspects, you can also buy locally-made hummus and lentil hummus, as well as other vegetarian and vegan spreads. Vegans may wish to ask before ordering bagels, however, since some bagels may include egg ingredients. Many of these establishments are located in close proximity to each other, and most within a small swathe of the city which begins south and stretches along the northeast side of the mountain that overlooks Montreal. St-Denis, beginning around the 1500 block, anchors a neighborhood called the Latin Quarter, while further north it becomes the main drag of the Mt. Royal shopping district; both feel similar to Washington, DC's Georgetown, with the Latin Quarter being a little funkier and Mt. Royal a little tonier. St-Laurent (a bit bohemian) and St-Dominique (residential, with little bubbles of commerce) both run parallel to St-Denis, and Duluth is a quieter, cafe and bistro-lined street connecting these other three.

Those areas mentioned above are all readily accessible by foot, bike, car, bus, and Metro. However, should you find yourself stuck in another area--further downtown, for instance--vegan food is still in ready supply. We weren't in a downtown food court that didn't have its own falafel stand, and the McGill College Commensal--very near Montreal's largest hotels, theaters, and department stores--attracts throngs equally businessperson, student, and

tourist. For your sweet tooth, several ice cream shops around town had soy-based ice cream (and Edensoy for shakes) available. Health food stores are widespread, including some in Metro stops, and many neighborhood grocers had more vegetarian food than their US counterparts, including pre-packaged Le Commensal dishes.

Finally, one element some travelers might expect to complicate a stay in Montreal is the perceived language barrier. Yes, French is the first language for most natives of this city. However, in most places mentioned above, all employees also speak English fluently, or nearly so. Most menus will be printed in both languages. The language etiquette seems to break down as follows. If you are truly fluent in French, most people in Montreal (even more so in Quebec City!) would prefer you speak French. However, since most people in Montreal speak English as well as you or I, if your French is somewhat haphazard (or nonexistent!), speak English. When you are greeted with a "Bonjour!" or "Bon Soir!" politely respond "Hi!" or "Hello," and the conversation will proceed in English. This avoids potentially irritating your server by initiating a conversation in French that you can't complete. Even if you end up somewhere where English is not spoken, it may comfort you to know that the word "vegetarian" is not only pronounced about the same in both languages, but also fully understood by anyone you'll encounter in Montreal.

Perhaps the best thing about eating vegan in Montreal is that these eateries I mentioned were just the cream of a crowded crop. One gets the sense that this is a city of limitless discoveries, its friendliness to vegetarians consistent with its omni-present bike lanes and recycling bins, verdant parks, astonishing cleanliness, and overall cultural sophistication.

Eric Allen Hatch is a former VRG employee Living in Maryland.