Best Italian restaurants in Montreal for pizza, pasta and more

Co-owners Luca Cianciulli and Maxime Landry bring finesse and fine dining experience to this Italian spot in Villeray. Having cut their teeth at Toqué!, you can expect a lot of knowledge and experience applied in both the kitchen and in the wine cellar. The menu here leans classic with dishes like Quebec buffalo mozzarella with roasted peppers and delicacies like mosto cotto alongside essential pasta dishes like cavatelli with sausage and rapini. It's a bona fide neighbourhood classic.

The buzz couldn’t be louder if this place were in the middle of a beehive, instead of on the cusp between Mile Ex and Little Italy. The It gang behind Pasta Pooks knows what simple delights are: fresh made pasta, hoagies and lotsa flowing wine, all served within a comfy corner spot that looks out onto a park. Their seasonal stuffed pasta, like the casoncelli mantovani draped in sage leaves wilted in a buttery sauce, have people fighting in the street for the last seats—not literally, but nearly.

Maybe best known for its ultra-instagrammable merch and beautifully bubbled Neapolitan pies, Elena is so much more than just a pizza place. This second restaurant from Emma Cardarelli and Ryan Gray (both of Nora Gray) is one built around the three pillars of Italian greatness: Food, wine, and coffee. The pizzas are exceptional, but make sure to leave room for pasta, especially if they’re serving the now infamous Spaghetti Ubriachi.

The first restaurant project by celebrity chef, cookbook author and Little Italy native Stefano Faita and legendary chef and restaurateur Michele Forgione, this minimalist, neo-industrial designed space is charming but also mirrors the kind of modern interpretation of Italian cooking you can expect from Forgione’s cooking. A Little Italy essential.

Once in a while, a great restaurant flies under the radar. On Laurier West, this is one of the city’s finest Italian restaurants that tends to go unrecognized even by locals. Devoid of big-name chefs or world-class design, this is a humble restaurant that has no laurels to rest on other than simple, sophisticated food that’s exemplary in its execution. Venture off the beaten path and be rewarded with some of the best veal Milanese in the city.

Occupying one of the spaces in the former Darling Foundry space in Griffintown is Le Serpent, the Italian fine dining counterpart to Old Montreal standby Le Club Chasse et Peche. The industrial chic look is the perfect combination of casual and refined with a room that seats 75, plus a stylish and slightly imposing 12-seat marble bar at its centre. The menu is contemporary Italian offering a smart selection of crudos and antipasti and splits mains into earth and sea categories. As for pasta, expect clever and thoughtful dishes like braised beef ravioli with squash and chestnuts, or linguine with speck, almonds and truffle.

Villeray's Knuckles breathes life back into an old dépanneur on Jarry Street at the corner of Henri-Julien with a vegetable and pasta-forward menu is panzerotti, a savory turnover—think pizza pockets where the flavour's cranked to 11—that's hard to find elsewhere in Montreal. It's a project that co-owner Matthew Shefler has been dreaming about starting for years, having recently closed the chapter on his professional journey behind the bar of some of the city's more lauded restaurants, most notably Le Petit Mousso. While Shefler originally thought of opening up a gnocchi bar, something along the lines of an upscaled version of the Mile End's Drogheria Fine or Verdun's Bossa, he opted to go with something that would touch on his heritage.

From owners Vito Cioccia and James Baran (both Bremner alumni) alongside Tyler Maher (previously of Foxy) and Alex Ragoussis (coming from Crew Café), Mano Cornuto is a serious contender for the best bar seat in town. The small menu is a collection of Italian no-brainers: Simple pastas, fresh salads, and almost impossibly airy focaccia sandwiches. There’s a decent wine list to dive into, but we recommend the excellent Italian-spirit forward cocktail menu. This is the kind of spot you drop by in the morning for a coffee and wind up spending the whole afternoon at talking Inter Milan and drinking campari sodas.

Nora Gray has been one of the most important restaurants in Montreal since opening in 2011. The food is simple, rustic fare, but executed at the highest level with the kind of genuine know-how that has earned them accolades that range from #19 on Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants to being listed amongst Monocle’s best restaurants in the world. Come for chef Emma Cardarelli’s world-class Italian fare and Ryan Gray’s exceptional wine list, but stay for the kind of laid-back nonchalance Montreal cultivates so well.

Verdun is home to the utterly charming Rita, and while the borough's full of returning fans, any visitor will quickly learn why it's worth a trip. This cozy Italian spot focuses on wood-fired pizzas but also puts out some beautiful pasta and classic dishes like osso bucco and braised meatballs. Former Balconville Pub alumni Joey D’Alleva and Sophie Bergeron took a risk by stepping a bit outside their comfort zone to open an Italian restaurant in honour of their grandmothers (who both happen to be named Rita). 

The upmarket choice when it comes to Italian food in Montreal. Chef Graziella Battista brings a high level of finesse and technique to her cooking that both elevates Italian cuisine while also paying close attention and care to maintain a respect for tradition. Graziella is often considered the standard of excellence by which all other Italian restaurants in the city are judged. While the restaurant’s known to set a high standard, it’s especially endearing when considering how the chef can still be seen bustling in her kitchen during services.

It took little time for this Italian cafeteria counter and grocery shop sourcing Calabrian goods to steal a lot of hearts in its home borough of Verdun. They've got it all when it comes to casual goods, from $5 gnocchi in oyster pails to chicken parm and meatball options that kill it in the sandwich department. Walk in with one hankering and leave satifying another, as they're stocking shelves with fresh caciocavallo, orzo salads, pastas for tomorrow night's dinner, and a lot more.

A former drug store counter, this tiny service window is a Mile End staple and one of the best cheap eats in town. The team at Drogheria do one thing and one thing only, gnocchi in tomato sauce. Look around the neighbourhood on any given afternoon and you’ll start to notice the emblematic Chinese take-out boxes stained with bright red tomato sauce that has become a symbol of the neighbourhood. At $5 a pop, it might be the best deal in town.

The little brother of legendary pizzeria La Bottega, this al taglio pizza counter is the heart of its neighbourhood. Stop by any time of day and you’ll hear a mix of French, English and Italian being spoken as neighbours stop by for a bite. Roman style pizza is its main drawcard, but they also do great gelato in the summer and a fine bombolone. The star attraction’s the potato and caciocavallo pizza, so make sure to grab a slice or two washed down with great coffee, a glass of sparkling water on tap, or a bitter Crodino soda.

Maybe the Mile End’s best-kept secret, Barcola is one of those amazing restaurants that you’re liable to have never heard of. Chef Fabrizio Caprioli spent years training in Trieste, Italy before eventually moving to Montreal to work at the now-closed-but-not-forgotten Italian supper club Buonanotte. Barcola was opened after Caprioli went looking for a change of pace. The menu is small but mighty, offering a choice of three appetizers and three mains that change regularly. Whatever’s on the chalkboard, it’s all spot on.

Located in an airy and luminous former garage in Little Italy, Luciano is the kind of restaurant you can imagine yourself dining al fresco as the sun slowly sets in the summer. This is a no-frills, no pomp place for good Italian food. Pull up one of Luciano’s colourful chairs and tuck into a plate of Cavatelli with meatballs or a classic beef carpaccio with aioli. Don’t shy away from the wine list either, put together by former Toqué! sommelier Angelo Forchiero that’s sure to please with plenty of bottles coming in at under $60.

Since 1999, Lucca has been combining Quebec ingredients with Italian techniques to generate a lot of fanfare. The menu reflects the seasons and is located just down the street from Jean-Talon Market, so the ingredients are always exceptionally fresh and of the highest quality the city’s got. The food is certainly delicious at Lucca, but it’s the service and ambiance that sets this restaurant apart. Allow your server to take care of you, and you’ll be in for a truly wonderful meal.

In the space which was formerly the beloved Little Italy institution Hostaria, Mucca is a first-of-its-kind Italian steakhouse. Mucca—Italian for cow—is a temple to beef: The steakhouse prides itself on sourcing ethically-raised, grass-fed animals, and they dry age the beef in house in order to provide the highest quality product. For the slightly less carnivorous, they also offer a decent selection of homemade pasta.

A neighbourhood trattoria that embraces the fundamental philosophy of Italian cooking: Cook simply and use the best ingredients. Chef Anthony Botazzi’s menu is Italian-influenced, but focuses on highlighting the best ingredients available in Quebec. To reflect that concept, Botazzi hits the market every morning and changes the menu depending on what looks good that day.

A unique restaurant in Montreal, Il Bazzali allows you to reserve  a spot for an opera evening, where the chef Davide Bazzali is the tenor. From Wednesday to Saturday, take advantage of the "Table d'hôte Opera" for an evening as fun as it is delicious, to enjoy fresh stuffed pasta and antipasti. The quality of the menu's apparent when you consider its proximity to Little Italy for imports and to Marché Jean-Talon for picking up what's freshest from the province's farms.

Billed as a snack bar, Fiorellino does its thing in three locations across the city, starting with its original location downtown on de la Gauchetière. The restaurant combines experience with eye-catching design and damn good food with a kitchen that dishes out some of the best pizza in town. It’s a place that merits return visits with its rotating plate of the day, which—whatever it is—is always delicious and easy on the wallet.

Originally opened in 1954, Café Gentile is one of Montreal’s oldest continuously operating Italian restaurants. Café by day and restaurant by night, the Westmount outpost of the original café located farther to the north—another classic spot, but with a more restricted menu—is one of the better standbys of downtown. The fried calamari is a nightly classic and you can’t go wrong with their bucatini Cacio e Pepe, but do yourself a favour and go for lunch when espressos with a chicken cutlet sandwich will reveal why this spot is as popular as it is.

While it’s known for being a classic Little Italy pizza joint, Napoletana is so much more than that. What started off as a bar and pool hall for Italian immigrants in 1948 has, over the decades, become an ambassador for welcoming Italians and non-Italians alike to Little Italy. The pizza is the star here, but the selection of pasta and antipasti is also worth noting in how it’s as diverse as it is delicious. The restaurant also features a bring your own wine option, so grab a bottle of something nice on your way over.

Located in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district and in the Le Central food hall, Heirloom is a great place to enjoy a pizza straight out of a wood-fired oven that's accompanied by a small glass of natural wine. With the restaurant's setup, it's versatile in its space so you can go alone, as a couple or with family, especially when considering the wide appeal of the menu.

Gema is the pizzeria of well-known chefs Stefano Faita and Michele Forgione, who also own Impasto, a restaurant specializing in fresh pasta, Vesta, and the snack bar Chez Tousignant. The Neapolitan-style pizzas at Gema are simply topped, but always with top quality ingredients, in addition to dough that's thin and just charred enough, and eaten a little too easily. One pizza per person, a salad made up from the nearby Marché Jean-Talon and some suppli to share, a possible glass or a bottle, and you're all set here.

Not only one of the best Italian restaurants in the city, but Da Emma also ranks among Montreal’s finest and most beloved institutions. Hailing from Rome, chef Emma Risa and her husband Lorenzo Aureli left Italy and moved to Montreal and opened Da Emma in 1993. Since then, the restaurant has been visited by throngs of locals, tourists and celebrities whose photos with Emma adorn the walls of this Old Port trattoria. Reservations here are hard to come by, so reserve well in advance.

Segreta, meaning cave, didn’t stay underground for very long—the buzz for this tiny spot nestled near Denise on the stretch of Beaumont in Parc Ex was strong even before it opened. It’s been a fan favourite ever since, slinging square slices of Roman style pizza whose delectably crisp-bottomed dough is topped with the classics and beyond, from spicy Italian sausage to sizzling pepperoni cups to a magical mix of potato and rosemary. Pick up some Italian imports from the small selection of groceries while you’re there.

Chef Massimo Piedimonte’s Italian heritage mixes with his French cuisine training and experience at global icons including Noma at the industrial-chic Cabaret L’enfer, where the tasting menu is all about local market flavours and a slow-food approach to Italian dishes. Book well ahead so you can be part of the 30-odd people enjoying the tasting menu du jour, which may include dishes like sweetbreads with artichokes and mushrooms, house-made burrata with black currant oil, spaghetti with razor clams, stuffed agnolotti with squash and sage, or crispy-skinned doré with saffron. (Drool.)

Opened in 2001, this Little Italy gem often flies under the scenesters' radar, but patrons like it like that. It’s a fine dining haven with white table cloths and glittering glassware but the attitude is homey and chill, and the food—pure indulgence. Chef Roberto Stabile is a master with meat, so while the pasta is a must (the orecchiette with sausage and rapini, mmmm), don’t miss out on a secondo like the signature grilled veal chop or the excessive but celebratory grigliata mista, featuring flank steak, lamb chops, veal sausage and shrimp.

When we declare a restaurant one of the coolest secret spots on the continent, it’s for good reason! Gia may be hard to find, somewhere in the no man’s land between the St-Henri Home Depot and the overpass, but when you do find it you’ll step into the best of Italy, all casual and cool and effortlessly tasty. Go there to share a bottle of Amor Por La Terra with a bunch of tempting antipasti and some grilled meats, like the Calabrese style pork ribs or the sausage served with a side of whelks.

A bar where the nosh is pasta: it doesn't get much better than that. The wine list may be the main draw to this St-Henri hangout, but David Pellizari’s menu dovetails it perfectly. It’s all about Italian snack foods—focaccia, zeppoli, arancini, polpettes, not to mention the to-go imported goodies from the dispensa—and the fresh pasta. Oh, the fresh pasta. The tortiglioni with mushrooms and garlic is all the comfort in the world distilled into a bowl, while the campanelle smothered in hearty ragu is brightened by a lip-smacking gremolata you’ll be back for again and again, guaranteed.

Make your next posh date at this Westmount restaurant, where luscious risotto topped with meltingly tender lamb shanks can be enjoyed with mafaldine served with shrimp and saffron butter. The refinement seeps from the quality of the ingredients all the way to the décor—heck, even the flower arrangements are talking pieces. Try the refined house cocktails, or dare to spy the prices on the wine list. Only top-notch vintages here.

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