Restaurant Bitoque

Second visit for me in 4 years, now as a pescatarian. So I had the fish tapas: «sardines» and «croquettes de morue» (which I unfortunately had to return because it was wayyyy too salty). An Even-​with-​beer-​too-​salty kind of taste.
Our waiter was very nice about it though, and offered me to replace it: I opted for the grilled squids — and my taste buds were very pleased. $ 11 for two medium-​sized «mollusques», perfectly grilled with spices and a delicious white, light sauce, a lot of it. Sadly, my friend had the steak (surlonge), and struggled with it the whole time. Lots of nerves/​tendons, but the cooking was good. Overall we had a good experience. Bitoque is a good value and ideal to share plates and try a bunch of different things. They serve generous portions. Oh, and bring some gum or fruity Ice Breakers lol Lots of garlic and spices but so worth it :)

Soooooo good!!! A BYOB Portuguese restaurant but on a higher scale.
The waiter was extremely friendly and helpful. The appetizer sardine pâté is wonderful. My boyfriend took the lamb dish (I HATE lamb. I am not in love). I took the flank steak with frites. Melt in your mouth. I can’t wait to go back!!!

Service très bon malgré que nous avions attendu longtemps pour notre plat principal. La qualité y était, très bon au goût mais j’avais encore faim après les 4 services et pourtant je n’ai pas de grande appétit.

Great bring your own wine.
It’s a great place for a simple night out with a good experience.
Sometimes they get overwhelmed when there are too many patrons but you’ll enjoy your time if you’re in good company as the ambiance is warm and comfortable.
It’s never empty a good bet if you don’t want to spend your last dollar. Especially compared to the other restaurants in the area.

Un excellent «Apportez votre vin»! La nourriture est très bonne et le service sympatique… mais beaucoup trop lent! Nous avons même quitter avant le dessert et le café puisqu’il y avait plus de 2h30 que nous étions là! C’était un mercredi soir, et le restaurant n’était pas plein. Je n’ose imaginer un soir de week-​end! Mais nous y retournerons sûrement…pour la bouffe!

A good BYOW is a hard thing to find and certainly something you cherish once you find one. Especially in Montréal where outside of a few well-​known ones, it is a somewhat barren wasteland — mostly in terms of the quality of the meal itself. It is nice to save on the alcohol cost but if the meal is not up to standards, I would rather pay the premium elsewhere. After a long weekend course, I was invited to a dinner with my family at a portuguese BYOW near the Atwater market that I had never noticed before, Bitoque.
From a visual point of view, the space is nice and functional. Thankfully Bitoque stays away from the kitschy look can see in some «traditional» Portuguese restaurants. Cream-​colored walls with nice artwork all around the room, banquets, wooden chairs and honest-​to-​goodness white tablecloths. On a busy Saturday as it was, the room was rather noisy but not overbearing. My one issues was that the tables were rather close together so when the room is fully occupied as it was, there really isn’t much room to move or even sit slightly away from your table.
Bitoque offers both a standard «a la carte» menu as well as a tapas menu. For this particular evening, we stuck to the tapas offering. First up, pastéis de bacalhau — fresh cod croquettes on wakame salad and cilantro aïoli. I could leave the salad underneath but the cod croquettes had the right exterior crunch to pair with the flaky fish inside. The aioli brought some nice freshness and creaminess to the dish as well. Not the best I’ve ever had but a solid starting point.
Next up, we had the chouriço grelhado — grilled chorizo on coleslaw. The coleslaw here was rich and cool which was very important because dear god, their chorizo was hot! Hot in the spicy sense of course… note that I am a bit of a wuss in terms of spiciness so the rest of you may laugh at me here when you order this dish. Given my previous experiences with chorizo, I wasn’t expected that so the coleslaw helped soften the blow so to speak. Regardless, the chorizo was nicely grilled up and very flavourful.
Our third dish was lulas grelhadas — grilled calamari with lemon vinaigrette. As one would expect from a solid Portuguese restaurant, the calamari was nicely fresh and perfectly grilled. The unique touch here was that lemon vinaigrette — creamy and acidic, it was a nice change to the usual squeeze of lemon we usually do. Note that there was still a wedge of lemon present if you wanted to but frankly that would have made the dish too lemony and not really enjoyable.
The special of the night was a portuguese poutine. Funny how I have had two Portuguese plays of poutine in such a short time apart! This one was quite good if not as rich as the previous one I’d had at Taverne F. A nice mix of flaky cod, cheese and crispy matchstick fries.
Finally, to finish off the meal, we went with a staple and a family favourite — the pasteis de Nata. Served with some cinnamon, this lovely little egg tarts were the perfect end as they always are! At this rate, I should just learn to make them… I would save me some money although likely hurt the waistline somewhat!
All in all, Bitoque was a solid tapas experience from beginning to end. While perhaps nothing really stood out, the quality was consistent across every dish and we left our table stuffed food wise and having gotten to enjoy a few excellent bottles of wine without gasping at the bill at the end of the night. I would call that a win-​win. Bitoque, you have officially entered my rotation of BYOWs.
Cheers!

Wôw ! et re-​wow! Je suis allé qu’une fois au Bitoque et j’ai été franchement épaté. Ce trésor caché de St-​Henri n’a pas fini de m’y voir. J’ai essayé le Borrego ao vinho do Porto (Jarret d’agneau braisé garni d’une sauce au Porto, servi avec pommes de terre rôties et légumes). J’en ai été renversé. Juste à y penser, j’en salive encore. Comme dessert: les pastéis de nata, ces merveilleux petits flans aux œufs servis en duo. Juste trop, trop bon. C’était un samedi soir et le resto était bondé, alors pensez réserver.

Let’s start with the only bad point of the place: it can be long between your tapas, the meal, and the dessert. I don’t know if it was the kitchen that didn’t managed to supply to all the meals and plates during the evening, but we spent almost 4 hours in this restaurant for our entire meal! And with an energetic toddler, it can be sometime a pain in the ass, all the waiting…
Yet, the server was amazing, courteous and polite. The entire food served was amazing: this restaurant’ specialty is clearly seafood. We had a crisp and light fish’n’chips; fried calamaris; fried cod cakes; swordfish and veggies meal; shrimps and scallops risotto. I could go on and on with the enumeration of food we ate, but it was simply delicious, light, and stuffing!
Since it’s a ‘bring your own wine’ place, the bill at the end of the night is quite low for all the quality food we ate. It’s just a nice restaurant in Saint-​Henri to have, and I’m will gladly go back there for more!

This place was yummy.
Had the sardines and fried calamari for appies — both were good.
The scallops and prawn dish for dinner was amazing! Mmm still thinking about the delicious risotto that came with it.
Dessert was the key lime pie which was just good.
Overall a solid restaurant, nice ambiance, good food, ok prices. This place will not disappoint.

So this is what I like to call, your mom and pop’s idea of a cool restaurant.
It’s not trying to be anything else but a place that is enjoyable and serves good food. I like to think of it as the upscale Saint Henri resto for the regular folk.
The portion’s are generous, the food is good and feels like its something I would get at my mom’s house, you know, not to fancy. Is this making any sense?
If your in between Atwater avenue and De Courcelle street and you don’t have a reservation for the cool places go to Bitoque. Don’t forget to bring your own wine! Have a nice meal and remember the wine can break or make the meal so pick wisely!
This is a meat and seafood heavy menu!