Our Via train from Toronto to Montreal arrived an hour late due to the train staff's failure to close a door at one of the stops. As a result, we arrived in Montreal at 11PM thirsting for some alcoholic beverages, and maybe a bite to eat.
After quickly dropping off our luggage and cleaning up, we walked down to Old Montreal to find the perfect place. It took us about 20 minutes of either places closing up shop for the night or simply tacky tourist dives serving nachos before we found the Merchant. It was crowded at midnight and still serving.
Service was a bit slow as we were adjacent to a large birthday group that was just breaking up and asking for separate bills (another conversation entirely!). The host realized the problem and began taking care of us; we had sparkling water quickly and a bottle of red soon after that. We decided to share the beef carpaccio and Cesaer salad appetizer, and it was delicuous. All the food we saw looked delicious, it's a fun rowdy atmosphere, and the DJ was playing great "old" music from the early 90s.
We liked it so much we returned the next night for drinks after the Killers concert. This place is popular and I can see why.