Have gone to Café International about 4 or 5 times in the past 10 years. I always enjoy the decor and ambiance. The comfortable seating with multiple large screen tvs make this place pleasant to be in. In Summer, their outside terrace in the little Italy part of St-Laurent street is great for people watching.
In past visits the food has been hit or miss. A consistent hit used to be the coffee, the calamari salad and the service. A recent visit, in July of 2011, left me disappointed as neither the calamari salad nor the service was up to par. I didn't have any coffee as the service was so slow and inept I just wanted to leave asap.
The calamari salad had a fraction of the calamari they used to put in and it seemed they forgot to put the lime juice in the dressing which made the dish very bland.
We also tried the fried calamari and the tomato and buffalo cheese pizza for the first time. Although it wasn't bad the batter on the calamari tasted like Kentucky Fried Chicken batter. The portion was generous.
The pizza crust was thin and tasteless. The tomato sauce was ok but very runny (there was a puddle of liquid in the plate half way through. The buffalo cheese tasted so bland it was hard to tell it was buffalo at all.
Overall not a satisfactory experience, specially not for the price they charged. You can do better only one or two doors down for the same price. I would not recommend Café International any longer.