Le Fripon

Awesome mussels. For under $ 20, I got a huge bowl of buttery, perfect seasoned and cooked mussels and fries. Great outside area to people watch and a large selection of beers. Service was also very friendly.

Have lived in Montréal for over 35 years and finally tried this restaurant. Nothing exceptional. Tourist trap. Don’t waist your time or money. Got the burger and it tasted moldy. Will wait another 35+ years to try it again. Nachos platter was out of a box.

Le serveur était très impoli. Il a presque crié quand nous avons demandé une question sur un plat qu’il nous a apporté qu’on avait pas commandé. J’ai trouvé qu’il était trop hostile envers nous et les autres clients. Les autres places dans le coin sont plus agréables!

There is nothing good about this restaurant for me to talk about. We were 6 who went on a Saturday night, it was windy so we decided to eat inside rather than on the terrace. The lighting inside is like a pink fluorescent light which distorts the colors around you. Therefore you really don’t know what you’re eating. Let’s start with the service, HORRIBLE. First of all how can you be located in the most touristic part of Montréal and have your waitress only speak french??? The waitress just looked really unhappy, she came to ask us what we liked to drink, we asked her to give us a few minutes, she said fine but she looked pissed, she came back 30seconds later and asked us for our order again. We told her we need more time since this is our first time here. This scenario repeated itself 3 times. I was the only one who spoke french so I had to translate for everyone.
For appetizers two of us wanted onion soup which I ordered, we also ordered the main dishes as well. She left and came back 30 minutes later with one bowl of soup. We assumed the second one was on its way but after another 30 minutes of waiting for the second soup, my uncle had to actually get up and go find someone. When she finally came to our table she starts bickering with me that I only ordered one soup. Who argues with the customer??? After that she became arrogant as soon as someone would take a sip of water she would fill up their cup, every 2 minutes she would ask are you happy? But not in a nice way! Finally after 1hour and 15 minutes we got our food, we had ordered 2 Skewer of beef filet Mignon (cold and not cooked the way we ordered), 1 Grilled Hamburger garnished served with french fries (meet was burnt), 1 Lasagna «Al Forno» (the sauce tasted like detergent), Fettuccini Alfredo, (sauce was not fresh) and Fish and chip (way below average). All in all, this restaurant should be closed down, this was the worst experience I have ever had, my husband and I both got sick afterwards. I wouldn’t recommend this to my worst enemy.

Estuvimos para un brunch y la relación calidad servicio estuvo bien, lástima que el precio se disparara un poco.
El servicio fue muy atento y relativamente rápido. Estuvieron pendientes hasta el final de que todo estuviera correcto.

Not sure what all the negative buzz is about. We actually had a great time and good service here. Our waitress was very attentive and friendly. We were seated right away at a nice table with a view of the street. The waitress recommended some local beers and we were very happy with them. Tasty Canadian beer! They have over 200 beers here… pretty unique selection!
We ordered the spicy mussels and a salad and both were very good. The mussels were just the right amount of spicy and a huge portion (maybe 30 mussels) enough for 2 people easily to share.
We closed out with some dessert, and overall had a nice experience. It wasn’t the best place I’ve ever been to but the mussels were very good and the service and view were good. Can’t ask for much more.
There are a lot of restaurant options in the old city area of Montréal and it was tough for us to decide which one. Would recommend!

Stopped on a relatively not very busy Tuesday evening. Service was very friendly but rather inattentive. I t was reasonably priced, but whether it was drinks, bread, etc, it was definitely on the pretty slow end. We both ordered fish and it was excellent. As I said, I have no concerns with the quality of the food. The ironic thing is that there were 3 or 4 servers, often talking to each other, and only 2 to four tables of customers. After we finished, food & drinks, it probably took 15min before I finally had to wave to our server. We finally got the check.

Came here with my boyfriend as we were walking by the old port, since the patio looked appealing. He had ordered club sandwich and for the price, it could have been a larger sandwich. I had ordered the mussels with fries and it was pretty good, the sauce was great as well. Service was pretty quick, no complaints there and the patio is very nice as mentioned, close to all the entertainment. I had ordered the locally made raspberry beer and it wasn‘t that great.
Parking is hard to find, you‘re best walking place to place or finding parking elsewhere. Traffic is ridiculous in old Montréal as well.

The service was horrible. I went in to ask for a table for two and the waitress looked at me, continued talking to her friend, and only after I asked again did she acknowledge me. After I was seated it took them a while to take my order, and by then I already knew I wasn’t going to visit again. The food itself was mediocre, (might have been tainted by the horrible service). I would recommend going to Jardin Nelson across the street for good food and awesome service.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
Our experience was very similar to Sean D’s posted earlier. The service was by far the worst we have experienced in Montréal.
Same thing as Sean: wait staff avoiding eye contact lest they have to actually pay you any attention. After 45 minutes and not even a glass of water; and having asked two wait staff, and the barman (who told the manager) if we could be served we finally gave up.
On the way out I asked to speak with the manager to let him know. I expected him to at the very least apologize but instead we were subjected to a barrage of vitriol. He pointed to other people and said they had been waiting 45 minutes or more too, and swung his arm in a gesture to indicate many more like them — like this was an excuse. I told him it is ok to wait but at least some acknowledgement and maybe a glass of water would be good. He made some excuse in an overly loud voice, like he had an audience, that he was running around. I suggested he hire more staff. More rudeness, so we gave up and left.
It was a shame because we had guests over from the USA, and while it was a tourist trap, we were tired after a day at the Old Port and figured it would work.
That sort of attitude should not be rewarded.
Never again. If I could give zero stars I would.

we happened to cross this place when we were looking for seafood in Old Montréal. They serve meat on a skewer suspended upside down! I have never seen such thing and it was awesome! Their lobster and mussel special was delicious. Portions were good for the price of entrees. Great place. Will come back again.

5 stars if you are looking for a outdoor patio with good service and cold drinks for people watching along Jacques Cartier…
We ordered the Fish and Chips as well as a Fripon Pizza — fries were pretty good but the meat on the pizza tasted bad funky and the fish was below average. On a positive note, the service was excellent.

I don’t give out a whole lot of 1 stars… maybe I should just end it there! ;)
Before I start I guess I should say that I should have known better to find a good lunch stop in the heart of tourist town.
The service was terrible. Pretty much the worst I have had. The person seating us was great and we were off to a good start. Then it took 20 minutes to have someone even come over to us. The wait staff was buzzing around, avoiding eye contact completely. We finally had someone come and ask if we’d like a drink. Two of the people in my party asked a couple questions about their extensive list of Quebec microbreweries. They have a ton of selection on there but no description as to what the beer is like. The waitress told us she doesn’t know anything about beer and was making us feel uncomfortable for taking so much of her time asking a question. So I ordered a few I thought they would like. So a restaurant with dozens of specialty beers but she doesn’t know anything about beer…
10 minutes later our beer arrived, we went to order but she said she will come back to take our order.
Now we are easily 45 minutes into our lunch and haven’t even ordered food. Again, it was obviously painful for her to come to our table and take our order, (table of 3 people by the way). She said she will come back with more drinks at that point as well. The food took an average amount of time to get to us and it was not our waitress and there were no drinks. I would’ve like vinegar with my fries, but did not see our waitress through the whole meal. Yes, our glasses were empty for the rest of the meal. No water and no bread either… I mention bread because a funny thing we noticed, (with all the time on our hands), was that every table that the other waitress was serving had a basket of bread… none of the tables that ours was serving had bread. That probably would have slowed the service down even more.
I went inside to use the washroom, spotted our waitress and just asked for the bill. As she brought it over I got the evil eye stare like I’ve done something wrong… an hour and a half to eat a sandwich and fries, (which cost $ 18 or so), no water, no 2^nd beer… and I have somehow offended her.
This is a bit of a rant, but hey…

We went for brunch and had waffles. The waffles are huge and really cakey. I personally like cakey, but the waffles were not well received by other people I was with. The service was excellent, very prompt and polite. It was kind of pricey considering we just got waffles and the bill came to nearly $ 35. It was nice to eat outside; eating brunch outside makes me feel real fancy.

Look up in the sky… is it a french restaurant? A German restaurant? An English pub? Or how about a Mexican restaurant? Neither, this place was having an identity issue. It was however the worst restaurant I have ever encountered. Baaaaad service, warm drinks yummy! It was grimey and smelly. We were going to order food, but it looked awful at the next table.
Hostess was hot… but dumb as a stick.
We ended up at MCdonalds.

En plein milieu du Vieux, avec une belle terrasse donnant sur la Place Jacques Cartier, le Fripon est un bon endroit pour prendre une bonne bière. J’y ai déjà mangé à quelques reprises, et bien que ça soit bon, ça n’est pas trop différent non plus. Ce qui vaut la peine au Fripon c’est la quantité de bières qui proviennent d’un peu partout au travers du monde avec une sélection impressionnante de bières québécoises. S’ils n’ont pas celle que vous désirez, ou si elle n’est pas assez froide, on vous en recommande d’autres qui sont aussi bonnes que votre premier choix. Les serveurs, qui de mémoiré y travaillent depuis longtemps, connaissent très bien leurs produits.

Came for the outdoor seating on a lovely summer night with our 3 kids. We were seated right away.
First off, our waitress was great — really friendly and helpful and anticipated things we might have needed with the kids, which is always very appreciated.
Our food was all decent. We ordered a Croque Monsiour for the two bigger kids to share, and somehow ended up with chicken breast instead of ham. They were hungry and dug right in and loved it, but it was certainly not what we ordered. We didn’t say anything because the kids were happy to eat what they received.
I got a salmon burger which was a little dry but otherwise decent. Hubby got a bowl of french onion soup which he enjoyed but said it wasn’t anything amazing. He finished what the kids didn’t eat for the rest of his meal. Really we weren’t overwhelmed by anything we received, and ¹⁄₃ of the order was incorrect. The stellar service we received bumped the rating from 2 stars to 3.

Great beer selection, mediocre food.
The mussels mariniere with pommes frites is generously portioned and one of the better items on the menu. The best part about Le Fripon would have to be their outdoor seating — they have a terrace right along Place Jacques-​Cartier, which is perfect for people watching.

Le Fripon is an all-​around middling choice. It was starting to rain in Old Montréal, and there was a cute hostess here, so we decided it was time to stop for lunch.
The food was average… they had a wide variety of menu choices, but no real specialty, so nothing was great, nothing was really bad. The pizza on a baguette looked more like a cheese-​sandwich to me… I guess it just depends on if you eat it open-​faced? Also, the croque-​monsieur looked exactly like the pizza, except for the added ham. Our waitress was nice, but a little inattentive. When we asked another waiter for something, he told us that «our waitress could help us» (in other words, «not my problem»)… that was disappointing.
Despite these, the patio was a nice place to sit, even during the midday showers today, the TV in the bar had ESPN on, and the full bar had a *huge* selection of beers from around the world, so I’ll give it three stars.

This place is in the popular section of Old Montréal. We had our first Monsieur Croquette — who knew a ham and cheese sandwich could be so tasty. We also had the smoked salmon which was very satisfying. The service was good and attentive. The best part is the location and the view from the patio for people watching.

Worst run restaurant ever. Seriously. I know this is a tourist trap, but I’m from NYC and thought I could handle it.
I came here because they have a pretty descent beer menu. My boyfriend and I were seated right away by a polite hostess right outside. We received menus and that’s it. That is where the service stopped.
There were 3 waitresses running a total of maybe 12 tables outside and not a single person even brought us water, looked at us — nothing.
We waited and waited. I stared the hostess down and tried to get her attention from 4 feet away but she didn’t care. Only one waitress was manning a few tables well but apparently we weren’t in her section. I tried to get someone’s attention, as did my boyfriend.
A couple who looked like had been sitting there for 5 minutes longer than us finally received their beverage 20 minutes after we were there. So after 25 minutes, we got up and left. We couldn’t take it anymore. There were about 4 or 5 tables in the same position as us. Didn’t get to order, with menus on hand trying to hail down waitresses that were busying chatting it up and looking busy inside but actually doing nothing. Believe me, I was watching.
The food looked crappy and overpriced and the beers weren’t worth the effort. If I could go up to the bartenders that were clearly under worked, I would have.
Steer clear or spend the end of days waiting to be served.

Here I am, visiting the second most beautiful city in Canada (obviously after Vancouver) and after a five hour flight I am pretty much starving to death, (that little packet of bits and bites didn’t really cut it.)
The crew decides to head out and find some pub grub, so we head towards old Montréal. We stumble upon Le Fripon, since it is one of the few places that has a couple of veggie menu items, and most pubs don’t seem to have much. I order a cesar to kick off my vacation, and the pizza with artichokes, red peppers, onions, and other veggies. My cesar arrived and just by looking at it, I knew I was going to be disappointed. Cesars should have a dark red colour from not being watery and from the addition of worcestershire sauce.
Then my pizza arrived. Can you tell me what kind of restaurant serves a pizza cut only in half that is stuffed with fries in the middle of it??? W.T.F? Ok. I know I am in Montréal, which wanted to be its own separate country and all, but are they really *that* different over here? Not only was it super hard to hold a giant half pizza and eat it, (because its blasphemous to eat pizza with a fork and knife), but the sauce on the damn thing was like a spaghetti marinara sauce. The sauce made the cheese slide off the pizza because it was runny, which made the pizza have cheese leprosy.
I ate the fries, they were actually pretty good, and had half of the pizza packaged up for the BF to eat when he is hungover, because BF’s can be like dogs and eat anything when they are drinking. Not that dogs drink, but you get the point? My bill was like $ 27, which was a bit pricey for such crappy food. Needless to say, I think that this place is just a tourist trap because of its location, and there is this horrible ballad singer/​busker outside that pretty much ruined our dinner by singing a cover of «Tears in Heaven.»

i imagine the food here is quite amazing but we came for drinks only. they have over 100 beers from all over the world and a great terrace! i had the peche mortel and la fin du monde beers. both delicious! my friend’s mango margarita was pretty strong too. what gives this place 4 stars is that it was a sweltering night: 90+ degreses and our hostess lent us her fan until she personally brought us two glasses of water. now THAT’S customer service!