Even though they are many restaurants from which to choose in Downtown Montreal, scoring a good, quick lunch remains a challenge. The options available to us range from the food court of a mall to a fancy restaurant for a business lunch. An abundance of la cages and rotisseries from large chains populate the landscape at this time of day, These places are passable, for the most part, but not great.
STYLE RESTAURANT
Deville is a new American diner-style restaurant on Stanley Street. The property offers sandwiches, salads, hamburgers, pasta and drinks of all kinds. It's a very good option for lunch or a cocktail with friends after work.
DECOR
The restaurant has a retro chic that calls to mind the 1950's with a bit of a modern update. Dark colours with white accents are prominent here, as are an abundance of mirrors and a well0lit bar area. The chandeliers on the ceiling steal the show. Take together, the place is extremely inviting.
AMBIANCE
The Deville sports a friendly, warm atmosphere that comes to brilliant life inside the daylight hours and reflected across the mirrored interior. There was lots of action in the diner at lunchtime, but that was no surprise. It is a diner, after all.
CLIENTS
The restaurant attracts clients of all ages. During the lunch rush, business people bellied up to the bar in the company of students.
WINE LIST
The choices of the grape are copious here, with options hailing from wine-producing regions the world over. And the inspired resident temperature control system makes the experience better still, by maintaining the wines by the glass at the perfect temperature.
MEAL
To start, I ordered a Caesar salad. The dish was beautifully presented, with the layers of leaves incorporated into one another, and the assemblage topped with a vinaigrette, bacon and homemade croutons. The whole affair was very fresh and the house dressing was delicious. Then came my burger, the Louis Lunch. Its two four-ounce patties of Colorado-bred corn-fed beef topped with iceberg lettuce and cheddar and Swiss cheese, and in the company of coleslaw and an order of some truly exemplary French fries was delicious, and big enough to share with a friend. The satisfying consumption of these two dishes notwithstanding, I still didn’t feel equipped to form a meaningful opinion about the Deville. And so I ordered up some mac & cheese and did not regret it. The macaroni was covered in rich cream, butter and a generous layer of grated cheese. Delicious, but not light! Exceptionally, I did not order dessert, although the restaurant offers traditional milkshakes and it appears that their donuts enjoy an excellent reputation.
SERVICE
The service was very good. The waitress was not afraid to make suggestions of wines or dishes. Altogether very professional for an American diner.
PRICE: My meal, with two glasses of wine and an espresso, was $ 65 after taxes.
