Gibbys Restaurant in Old Montreal
It has been just over two years now since the Grandio Group purchased the iconic Gibbys Restaurant in Old Montreal as well as the St. Sauveur location. While the latter was closed permanently last spring, the Place d’Youville is thriving and introducing some positive changes.
I have been fortunate in recent weeks to experience both the new three course lunch menu and the beautiful terrasse. This marks the first time in the restaurant’s history that there is a dedicated covered patio section which can accommodate up to 50 diners. Gibbys is indeed now open for lunch from Wednesday to Saturday, beginning at 11:30 am. I was invited there for a kick off in June.
We chose a quiet Tuesday evening for dinner. While I say “quiet,” the main dining room was as usual packed. After dropping off our car with the valet service, we were shown to our table. Our server Fred was superb, going into great detail when describing the drinks and culinary menus. For drinks we ordered a fraise limoncello cocktail and chardonnay. As a warm basket of homemade bread, with butter and some pickles were brought to the table, we reviewed the selections and decided to start off with the seafood tower, something the new ownership introduced when they took over. What a treat this is. It contains eight shrimp cocktail, two lobster tails, 12 oysters and an out of this world octopus salad. Fred brought us our first serving of lemon sorbet, served as a palate cleanser.
There would be one more special addition a little later, with some apple brandy poured on top. The famous Gibbys salad came next, coming with their incredible homemade salad dressing, crunchy croutons and bacon bits. For the main course we shared the 18 ounce bone-in filet mignon, which came with both a regular potato and the Monte Carlo, along with fresh asparagus. We did save room for dessert, thoroughly appreciating the three later chocolate mousse.
Gibbys is located at 298 Place d’Youville in Old Montreal. For reservations call 514-282-1837. Opening hours are Wednesday to Saturday from 11:30 am and Sunday to Tuesday from 5 pm. Lunch beginning at 11:30 am Wednesday to Saturday. Log on to www.gibbys.com for more information.
Return to Chez Delmo
It has been 15 years now since ago Benoît Dessureault and Adam Bornell bid adieu to their careers in the print-media advertising business and purchased Chez Delmo, a French restaurant specializing in delicious fish and seafood. Located at 275 Notre Dame Ouest, near the heart of Old Montreal, Chez Delmo has gone through several incarnations since first opening in 1907 as a bar, gaming room and yes, a brothel. It is hard to believe that we had not been there since 2016. I assure you it won’t be nearly that long a wait the next time.
We took a 6:30 pm reservation on a Saturday night. There is evening valet parking for $15, which is no higher than the nearby lots. Cars are parked in an indoor garage. We were shown to a nice window side
table. Our server was William, who happens to be Benoit’s son. He first offered us some drinks. We went for the Aperol Spritz and a glass of prosecco. Chez Delmo is known as a French restaurant specializing in fish and seafood. We started off by sharing 12 large and delicious oysters and a perfectly prepared fresh Angus rib-eye steak tartare, with some toasted French bread. The lobster was grilled and William made sure to have the chef cut it up as much as possible in order for the lobster meat to be pulled out, allowing us to avoid the cracking of the shells. It came with rice pilaf and vegetables. This was indeed some of the best lobster I have tasted in a long time. As for the scallops, all I can say is “wow!” I would love to get that recipe. They came grilled, with cauliflower and carrot purée.
The Dover sole meunière (brought in from Holland, the fish is poached, deboned as The beautiful new terrasse at Gibbys is open for lunch and dinner four filets and accompanied Kosta and Georgia serving up delicious donuts at Frost’d by a small pitcher of brown butter on the side) and Walleye (Doré) are house specialties while you can also choose from grilled salmon, rib steak, Créole crab, pasta, lobster sandwiches and sturgeon caviar. For dessert we shared a decadent portion of chocolate mousse. William was nice enough to give us an extra bowl of whipped cream.
Chez Delmo also has a lunch menu and extensive wine list. Chez Delmo is located at 275 Notre-dame St West and open Tuesday to Friday from 11:45 am to 11 pm. and Saturday from 5:30 pm to 11 pm.
For reservations call 514-288-4288, e-mail info@chezdelmo.com or log on to www.chezdelmo.com
Frost˚d Becomes the West Island’s Frst True Donut Shop
Donut shops in the Greater Montreal area have become extremely popular in recent years. Beignes Frost˚d debuted in mid-July in a strip mall at the corner of Blvd. St. Jean and Labrosse in Pointe-Claire. I stopped by to meet owners Kosta and Georgia Maragos at this magical spot. It is bright and welcoming. Kosta is a general contractor by profession so he and his team took care of the design. Georgia, who has always en joyed baking, is running the operation day to day. In fact, she left her job handling accounts receivable for a company in order to devote all of her efforts into this project. The couple’s eldest daughter, a student at John Rennie High School, is one of the staff, while younger sister Ariana should be “in the mix” before long.
Among the initial flavors are The Frost˚d (the signature beauty, with blue icing), biscoff, oreo, apple fritter, smashed ice cream (a creamy treat mixed with your favorite toppings and choose from delicious flavors like strawberries, biscoff, nutella, oreo, kitkat, and M&M’s smashed fresh, just the way you like it), strawberry, lemon, cinnamon brioche, Boston cream, dark chocolate glaze, Belgian chocolate glaze, maple glaze, sugar and Frost˚d glazed. Kosta credits Georgia for coming up with new editions each week.
Frost˚d is located at 1000 Boulevard Saint-Jean. You can call 514-532-1677, e-mail info@frost-d.com and log on to www.frost-d.com. It is open every day except Monday.
Published at The Montrealer, August 2025 • theMontrealerOnline.com
