Last updated November 24, 2008
As a city known for its lively and varied culinary scene, it isn't surprising that Montreal also has a crew of curious and critical food bloggers keeping an eye on things and reporting on their finds as they go. Some of the blogs are old standbys and others come and go in the manner of the blog world, where an initial burst of enthusiasm is sadly often followed by a rapid decline as inspiration fails.
This page will list the food blogs I know of, and will try to keep an meta-eye on the food-blogging scene. If you have any news on this topic please email me with a note. In most cases if I notice a blog's been neglected for awhile, I'll remove it from this page.
Also, please keep in mind that not all food bloggers constantly update their content. Don't make big plans to go to any restaurant without calling first.
Nicholas Robinson's Montreal food blog is always good fun. He's also the owner of possibly the longest-lived of the local food blogs, montrealfood.com, which has a good archive of resto reviews but hasn't been updated much lately.
Chowhound has a Quebec discussion board that is more often than not focused on Montreal, as people ask, answer and debate questions about restaurants and cookery. This too is all in English, being part of a site operated by Americans, and has several stalwart commenters who can be relied on for interesting opinions.
One of the most delightful Montreal food blogs is ...an endless banquet, run by professional cooking writers A.J. Kinik and Michelle Marek. These two get around, so not all the entries are about Montreal, but many of them are. Their master lists A to M and N to Z encapsulate a vast amount of knowledge, both on the best places to eat and to source excellent and recherché groceries in the city. They also feature recipes and general thoughts on food and eating. All in English.
Midnight Poutine is a collective effort by a cabal of Montreal bloggers. Given the name, of course some of their entries are dedicated to food, some in English and some in French.
Banlieusardises is a well-established blog with a wide interest in local food. Martine, who does this one, even maintains an English-language spinoff.
Montréal Bouffe looks promising, with solid entries so far, with good recipes, and La somptueuse bombance, which started well, is veering into rather introspective territory, for a food blog.
Bob Le Chef promises l'anarchie culinaire and, lately, is mostly being used to promote his new cookbook.Under the High Chair is the musings of a young mother and gourmande in the city. Pictures and recipes, too.
Longtime Montreal blogger Ed Hawco says Blork blog is about "food, Montreal and me".
A Food Year is doing opinionated resto reviews in English plus a few other food stories.
Food with a Point calls itself "a palatable report on gastronomy from an amateur perspective" with some resto reviews and other remarks on cooking and food.
Metro Boulot Resto links its reviews to the closest metro station. The reviews are terse, but you usually get your choice of English or French (click on the "shortest path to one's stomach" quote in either language). Would benefit from dating their reviews.
A Culinary Escapade is a Montreal-centric food blog done by someone who signs off as judyfoodie.
Montreal Breakfast Review is just what it says, an assessment of breakfast and brunch places.
Jeremy and Vinita's is a Montreal restaurant guide with terse entries and minimal design foof on a page at McGill: a good effort, but not updated assiduously enough – at least, dates on their reviews would make it more useful.
The Ethicurean, dedicated to the idea of eating well yet sustainably, has a Montreal-based contributor who's had some interesting entries on community gardening and access to organic farmers' produce, but hasn't updated since June.
Urban Spoon's Montreal section is acting as an aggregator of restaurant reviews and is nicely organized, but in neglecting reviews in the French papers they're missing a lot. They're based in the U.S.
La gourmande modeste offers tasty food on a budget. In French.
Have I missed something? Let me know.