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| - We were in Montreal on a Saturday night looking for somewhere to go for dinner with a few friends in the Plateau/Mile End area. We were reservationless, hoping for some good food without a wait outside on a cold January night. Everyone knows there are a ton of great restaurants in Montreal - especially that area, but if you haven't planned ahead it can be very hard to avoid waiting a long time for a table and spending an arm and a leg when you get there.
Luckily, just as we were about to give up hope I stumbled across Cartel Street Food Bar on Yelp. We called, they had a table for us, and we were off to a great find. This place has unique dishes at a reasonable price. I'm convinced we won't be able to get in here without a reservation once it's discovered. The ambiance is nice, the service is helpful and friendly and the food is good.
The menu is, as the name leads you to believe, inspired by street food, specifically from Southeast Asia and Mexico, as well as some fusion between them.
There were five of us out to dinner, all interested in trying lots of things. The waitress suggested that three sharing plates plus some appetizers would be an appropriate amount of food and she was right.
From the sharing plates we ordered the top three (duck, chicken and pork) and to start we ordered guacamole, crispy wontons, duck wraps and oysters. Everything was fresh tasting, full of flavour and tasty. I would have liked for the food to be spicier, but I know that a lot of people are looking for less spicy food. It has enough flavour that the low spice wasnt' a deal breaker for me.
For that food, plus drinks and tax (but before tip) we ended up paying a bit more than $150, so the prices are very reasonable. We're looking forward to making this a more common stop when we're in Montreal.
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