Location(s):
A. 732 Sainte-Catherine Street West, Montreal
B. 1658, rue Saint-Denis, Montréal
www.les3brasseurs.ca
(All images photohogger)
Let me start with the pros of the restaurant:
Amazing beer-battered poutine. Great atmosphere: loud, bustling, was fun to be there during the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Food (pros & cons):
Everything was grease-central (could be a pro for some?). The fish and chips came with overly battered and overly deep fried fish, so much so that the fried shell separates from the fish. 
The flatbread pizzas are so thin, which some peopel may prefer, but I say why bother! You practically have to eat the whole thing with a knife and fork which I know some prefer for eating pizza, but I like to pick it up like a pie. Loaded with lots of veggies so it wasn't bad. 
My understanding of, and the way I make, a Nicoise salad is with tuna, hard-boiled eggs, beans, tomatoes, olives, optional artichokes, red pepper and anchovies, all on a bed of lettuce. This one came with smoked meat instead of tuna. Since all of us eat mostly only fish, we opted for no smoked meat. It was alright, but would have preferred more of the original style of a nicoise salad. 
The beer-battered poutine (that we didn't order) was delish. We ordered regular poutine and thought that what we got was regular poutine, and wondered why it was so greasy. But as far as greasy poutine goes (which it all mostly is, anyway), it was a winner!
The cons of the restaurant:
What is with the section of the restaurant that is also part dish-clearing station/garbage take out? Please get rid of this section! I understand one has to clear the dishes and take out the garbage, but is there not a wall behind which this could be done? We had to sit there and be a witness to a server scraping off the plates into the trash and worse see one of them struggle to pull out the garbage bag from the trash can - minus gloves! Then the trash can fell over with a crash! Not something that you want to see before (or anytime) you get your meal.
Then, we were billed for the beer battered poutine ($8.99) which we ate unknowingly as we thought we'd simply ordered the regular poutine ($5.99). I realize it's only a difference of $3, but it was still the server's mistake which she acknowledged and insisted to correct but the manager then said couldn't be reversed. So our server told us not to tip her instead. How ridiculous is that? Needless to say we DID tip her on top of their mistake. She gave us each $5 gift cards to use back in Toronto. Thanks but you won't see us running over there anytime soon.
Sitting next to the kitchen on visit number two (St. Denis location), we had a clear view of all the cooks in the kitchen, all the orders given, all the plates being served, and all the accidents, such as the dropping of a plate of salad near our end of the table. A hearty dose of salad dressing landed on four of us and what did they do to make up for it? "2 beers on us!" Thanks fellas...we were only a group of fifty! And the group menu they gave us was crap. Four options for dinner included: some flatbread with chicken dish, some sausage and sauerkraut dish, some veg lasagna and some chicken skewer dish with fries. I had the veg lasagna and it was soggy, covered in cheese and tasteless.
Besides that, the restaurant is so cramped (why else would we have been right beside the kitchen?) that our server(s) kept squeezing their ar*** between our two tables to get to another section of the restaurant. This happened all night long and I received several scrapes to my back from their pens! Definitely not a good dining experience.
I don't know who the three brewers are but they need to get their act together. The beer they brew? Not one of them did I fancy...but I'll let Beerhogger review them for you. 
Overall, A had slightly better food and service, whilst B is somewhere I never wish to dine again.
One can hope that Toronto's location is better, but I'm not holding my breath.
A.
B.
TRAVEL: Montreal: Nil Bleu
Location:
3706 Rue Saint-Denis
Montreal, QC
http://www.nilbleu.ca/
Hands down the best Ethiopian restaurant I've been to thus far. But don't ask me, ask my Mom and Mom-in-Law who couldn't stop raving about it. And they know how to cook, if you know what I mean.
The dishes we ordered were:
YETIMATIM SALAD $4.95 (tomatoes, onions, green peppers seasoned with lemon and olive oil dressing)
the VEGETARIAN PLATTER FOR TWO $27.00 (potatoes/cabbage/carrots, lentils, spinach)
and YEASSA TIBBS $14.95 (sole cooked with green peppers ginger).
One thing to note is that the fish came on the same platter as the veggie platter, which may not be good for those who are strictly vegetarian so be sure to make this request when you order!
We also ordered the house wine, which was a Spanish red and quite good.
They gave out damp napkins to wipe our hands with but didn't take them away like one would with hot towels, so we realized we had to keep them, and it made sense later as we ate that it was easier to wipe our fingers with. Be warned that you will leave with turmeric stained fingers nails (even after washing) after dining here, but let me assure you, it's well worth it!
Everything was delicious...and the injera kept coming until we were completely and utterly stuffed.
The exotic decor, which is what I want my home to look like (think animal prints, African sculptures, white leather couches) is beautiful and seems very new. 
My hubby who'd eaten at Nil Bleu perhaps 12 years ago didn't remember it looking like this! The fancy bathrooms round up the upgraded look. 
The service was a tad slow, but since we weren't in a hurry, it didn't bother us and overall the service was sweet and attentive. Thank you to Chakib & Rahel for making our Moms very happy :)
Great place for dates or groups and has outdoor seating. I've already recommended Nil Bleu to my family and friends who are visiting Montreal next month!
Juliet et Chocolat
Location:
1615 Rue Saint-Denis, Montreal
Juliet et Chocolat
One of the places we stopped in at for a few pralines. I can't remember now how much they were; I have the receipt somewhere, but I do remember them being quite pricey.
They looked like the ones I'd once bought from Costco a while ago...this one pictured below is a little beaten having been the sole survivor to make it on film.
The last praline from Juliet et Chocolat....
If you like fancy chocolates like I do, it's a good place to try out. These pralines weren't too exciting, but I'd go back and try something else there.
TRAVEL: Montreal: La Banquise
Location:
994, Rachel Est, Montréal
Train ride to Montreal: $144
One order of Classic Poutine from La Banquise : $7
Trek to taste the highly recommend poutine in Montreal after eating a full breakfast across town and before a full tea then running back to catch the train: priceless
Open 24 hours!
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="384" caption="Classic Poutine $7"]
[/caption]
Squishy cheese curds!
- We cleaned up well
Place was packed!
TRAVEL: Montreal: Chu Chai
Location:
4088 Rue Saint-Denis, Montreal, QC
Cost: approx $90 for two (incl. glasses of wine)
www.chuchai.com/
Mock duck, you say?
I never thought I'd actively scope out a vegetarian Thai restaurant...but that's what we did when we were in Montreal. Coming highly recommended from more than a few friends, Chu Chai is a trendy zen-like Thai resto boasting authentic thai dishes made from completely veg/vegan friendlyproducts (ie. soya, tofu, seitan).
In Toronto I've only tried a handful of veg restaurants, such as Fresh, Cafe 668 and Le Commensal, that too mostly under the persuasion of my mock-meat eating friends, so I'm no expert on the best veg restaurants in Toronto. I've heard Vegetarian Haven, Urban Herbivore and Hibiscus are good but haven't gotten around to trying those out, yet. [By the way, a great site for you veg eaters is the Toronto Vegetarian Association: www.veg.ca]
Now back to Chuchai! With no reservations, we took a cab out to St. Denis around 9pm on Saturday night, and found the place to be pretty packed. We were assured that we'd be seated as soon as they could get us a table leaving us to wonder about the one vacant table to our left. We were then told that the table had been reserved but the patrons were now more than 1/2 an hour late. I guess that table had our name on it, afterall.
Eyeing the dishes on the tables made us realize how famished we really were but a quick glance at the menu proved we'd be taking a while longer to decide what to eat!
Finally, after much deliberation and chats with our friendly and helpful server, we decided on won ton soup and dumplings in peanut sauce to start.
The dumplings in peanut sauce was not only lip-smacking good, it was
plate-scraped-with-fork-many-times-over-because-you-can't-literally-lick-the-plate good. Damn. Just remembering it now makes my mouth water.
And the won ton soup was a perfect complement to the sauciness of the dumplings. Yum!
Next we got a mock beef and duck dish.
The mock duck curry was amazing with pineapples, green peppers and tomatoes. The beef dish suggested to us came with bamboo shoots and was also a curry (I was expecting more of a dry/fried dish - should have gone with the beef with chili and basil afterall!) Still, they were both really good.
Both had amazingly accurate meaty textures from the seitan (wheat-gluten) in highly flavourful curries; however, the mock duck beat out the beef dish that was recommended to us.
My only gripe is the miniature portion of the serving of rice...argh! Seriously? The sticky rice we ordered (not included with the dishes) arrived in a fancy basket which I thought was at least the depth of the basket...only to discover that the rice was sitting in an even shallower basket within!
There was barely enough rice for one person in there! We had to order a second, plain rice, which came in a white ceramic bowl; still a small size but more of the standard side-of-rice bowl. Combined it was barely enough to finish the curries (which didn't stop us from finishing the curries, mind you - they were so tasty). Besides the ridiculousness of the rice portions, Chuchai is a winner in taste, presentation, and service....a delicious place for both veg and non-veg eaters.
We're already planning to bring my sister and family of vegetarians out to Chuchai; and I have to admit, I can hardly wait to go back (even though we both felt slightly ill afterwards...perhaps from all the soy/gluten or peanut sauce? Not sure).
Also, Chuch the restaurant next door, under the same ownership, is more of a casual (and cheaper), take-out place which allows you to BYOB but perhaps instead, I can Bring My Own Rice?