The Bottom Line
Pros
- Love the pre-appetizer pickles and nice touch with the palette-clearing lemon sorbet.
- Steaks are outrageously fantastic.
- Portions are fantastically massive.
- Staff know their wine.
- Magical ability to get everything right, from complimentary bacon bits to free valet parking.
Cons
- Prices are corporate card high.
- Frilly apron dress uniforms imposed on serving staff have got to go.
- Vegetarians shouldn't bother: menu is limited to red meat, some fish and seafood.
Description
- Location: 298 Place D'Youville, corner of St. François-Xavier, below St. Paul
- Get There: Square-Victoria Metro
- Phone: (514) 282-1837
Guide Review - Gibbys Steakhouse - A Montreal Restaurants Review
It was a mid-December evening of flurried weather and it took my dining companion three times as long to get to the Old Montreal steakhouse, a dining institution housed in what used to be stables 200 years ago. But he didn't care that he couldn't see more than ten feet in front of him. He'd been to Gibbys before and judging by the two-thirds full dining room on a Tuesday, it would take more than a snowstorm to keep this group of dressy meat eaters at bay.Leaving our coats with Gibbys' vegan coat check staffer, my first impression of the dimly-lit, spacious dining room didn't form until I got accustomed to the (timeless?) uniforms worn by the serving staff, with colors that seemed to match the weathered woodwork. Our first waitress, low on congeniality but professional, recommended a 2005 Sonoma Valley Cabernet Savignon by Schug, a solid choice that worked wonders with our slabs of red meat.
I chose the mignons of beef Diane with the sinfully fatty (and delicious) Monte Carlo potato, double baked with bacon, sour cream and chives. The dish came with two aged fillets mignon and the sauce, cognac-based with black peppercorn, shallots and mushrooms, was perfection. Now my dish was slow-motion-eye-closing good but I dare anyone to find a steak in Montreal that can top Gibbys' one and a half inch thick New York cut pepper steak with cognac and Madagascar green peppercorn sauce, aged up to 31 days.
Finishing off the meal with complimentary mint chocolates, our waitress recommended the Gibbys' Chocolate Delight, a cylinder-shaped chocolate mousse dipped in dark chocolate with crunchy chocolate nuggets of some sort. I'm not a big chocolate cake fan but I took a chance anyways. The outcome? Sweet damnation.
With all things considered, Gibbys was fabulous. Now I didn't pick up the bill. But those $50 steaks were worth every penny.
