L'Express

I have now come to my last restaurant destination in Montreal! At this point, I have come to accept that restaurants here do not appear to be as accessible as my encounters in Toronto, or at least not the ones that I have been going to. Luckily, the city has numerous benches outside so I had no trouble overall finding a place to change or feed my son. Our final stop, again at my husband's coworker's recommendation, was L'Express.

Restaurant: L'Express

Location: Montreal

Meal: Dinner

Day: Saturday

Son's Age: 12 weeks

Once again, we made dinner reservations for 5pm. I find early dinners are good because I don't feel guilty about interrupting other diners. I mean, how many romantic dinners happen at 5pm?

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The good news is that there are no stairs! This means we were able to easily wheel our stroller into the restaurant. Once inside, though, we had to fold the stroller and leave it with the coat hangers, as there was not enough room to bring it to the table. Our server did help us set up two chairs next to the table to make sure the car seat wouldn't tip over. 

By the way, your eyes do not deceive you - my son has a new interest in his socks, and this leads to him pulling them off his feet on a regular basis. Don't worry, we still have both blue panda socks. Back on topic: similar to the other restaurants, the washroom did not have a change table.

Again, there wasn't even enough counter space to change a baby. I'm not sure if it's just that we only went to restaurants that people wouldn't typically bring babies to, or if others would normally just change a diaper in the dining area.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As previously mentioned, the server was accommodating enough to put chairs together for the car seat as well as make sure the seat wouldn't tip over. He was also both patient and attentive and kept my water glass full when I needed to breastfeed.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I know I was at a French restaurant but I've become cognizant of what food I can eat with one hand, since my son has gotten fussy sitting in the car seat without moving (i.e. in the stroller or car). As such, I ordered the shrimp risotto.

I watch a lot of Top Chef and I know Tom Collichio always makes a big fuss about how a good risotto is supposed to spread. I think he would agree that this was a great risotto! It was perfectly smooth and creamy. It was served piping hot, but cooled down while I was breastfeeding, and even then it was still just as delicious - I find sometimes when food gets lukewarm it's not as tasty anymore. My husband ordered a hangar steak that he was very happy with as well. We ended up taking a look at the dessert menu, and even though we were both happily satiated, my husband saw that they had a floating island with caramel and felt the need to order it.

I personally don't care for floating islands (or ile flottante, as it is properly called), because I find they taste like diabetes, but my husband has quite the sweet tooth and said that this was divine and airy, albeit filling.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
The food is delicious and the service is outstanding, so while the restaurant itself isn't particularly accessible, it's worth it to come with your baby anyway.