An honest breakdown on Montreal.

Now that I told you guys my story of having gone to Montreal, I thought I’d do a breakdown. For future posts, I might just do it all in one story and see how that goes if it is not long enough.

Reflecting back.

Maybe we went to Montreal on a bad weekend given that it was a time when a lot of college kids were coming back to school. The drinking age is much lower in Canada than the US so we ran into more underaged people than we would have liked. Walking around just seemed like we were in a place with high schoolers finding alcohol for the first time. So how does Montreal compare?

The food.

The food in Montreal was amazing, not really to the standard of food in southern US cities but for a Canadian city, it did well. I have heard that Vancouver is worth checking out due to its quality of Asian food but we will cross that bridge when it comes. If you like French Cuisine, you cannot get better in North America than Montreal. I highly recommend trying out some Duck Confit when you are in the city.

The sights and views.

In one word, beautiful. Montreal is definitely a paradise for people looking to find nice views and a green city. While Canadians say Vancouver is prettier, I think Montreal held its own for sure but this is all coming from an American. Quebec City nearby was prettier but for a city its size, Montreal was a beauty. You see a lot of great sights but most importantly, it is very clean compared to most US cities I have been to and Toronto.

Check out Mount Royal for an unforgettable view of the entire city and others crowding around for the same view as you. I’d rate the city as a photographer’s dream, definitely go with a nice camera if you can afford one.

The people.

Some say the French are rude, I don’t think that extends to French Canadians. I found the people in Montreal to be very helpful so as long as you stay on St. Laurent street and areas that have more French Canadians. Once you start getting more towards the Anglo side of Crescent Street such as the area on Maisonneuve and St. Catherine St, you start encountering more of the Toronto crowd which will be a lot more rude. Now this is also the area where you start to see small appetizers of the downfall of city life that you see in American cities such as an aggressive homeless population, though not to that degree.

Now for the part my regular readers have been waiting on, the nightlife and dating scene.

In other words, the part we will spend a great deal speaking about.

The women.

While not bad looking, I don’t really think they are really much to write home about. Good mix of different races but you won’t really find that many stellar women in the city compared to say an NYC or a Miami. I actually found that in terms of how the women looked, Montreal was only slightly better than Toronto if we are being honest.

In my visit, I found that the best looking women I ended up talking to were usually from Ontario and either going to school in Montreal or visiting. The best looking woman I chatted with was a bartender who kind of looked like Gal Gadot and was originally from Vancouver. Maybe the local women decided to take a break from the scene due to the weekend being one where college kids were getting back.

While approachable and friendlier than their Toronto counterparts, I don’t think we can mistake courtesy for kindness. My friend and I actually had more luck with women from Ontario so perhaps being out of that Toronto environment makes the women more approachable than in their own city. As you got to the parts of the city catered more towards the Anglo population, the women became a lot more rude.

The vibe.

Montreal had the friendly to tourists as long as they remain tourists vibe to it. Most people were courteous but once you started going out, it did give off that closed off vibe to it. Once nighttime hit though, you found that the average population was much more standoffish than in other big cities. Clubs were cliquier and more uptight with the door guys being more rude than you would encounter in other cities. I remember one cold raining night when this guy who didn’t dress for the occasion was trying to get into a bar with a long enough line, they put a cover charge on him at the last minute.

A weird vibe with Montreal is that you end up feeling more hospitality once you run into the odd Ontario or Anglo Canadian that made their way into the more French part of town. My thoughts are, they themselves are so fed up with the Anglo coldness not fitting them that they run away even from the more Anglo part of town to be in the more French part of the city.

You still got the tough guy grunt vibe from going out in the city as many people from Ontario still poured over. I remember chatting up a girl whose group was on the way only to have this short black guy, clearly an orbiter, grab me and ask if everything is okay. I smiled and talked to the girl again only to find that she was laughing at the whole ordeal and telling her friend to back off. We parted ways but you saw and ran into aggressive guys throughout the area.

Definitely more of a daygame city.

My biggest regret is not hitting daygame enough in Montreal, if I had done so, I think we would have been happier. Montreal is not really that much of a nightgame city from what I saw. The bars are all crowded, have cover charges if they are decent, and the ratios suck in a big way. We often found that there were maybe five girls to twenty guys at time at a lot of the bars in the city. You would go to find that most clubs were catered exclusively for you to come with friends, not to run any game.

One caveat with nightlife is that there tend to be crowds out on the street so if you are to chat up a girl, your best bet is doing it on the street itself. You have a significantly higher chance of getting a number or for it going anywhere compared to doing it at the bar itself. I had an easier time chatting up women in line at clubs than the clubs themselves.

The verdict.

Come in with low expectations of the nightlife, consider even going to the strip clubs in the city itself. Do not buy into the hype around Montreal being a great city for game, it kind of sucks to be honest from my experience. Go for the sights and go to enjoy the culture itself, do not go for the nightlife as you’ll likely have more fun in a college town. I plan to return to Montreal for a longer stay only because it was a beautiful city with nice people.