Restaurant Pino

Had the salmon fettuccine and quite enjoyed it. The cream sauce was delicious and the fish is something I’ve never tried before in pasta. The window seating above the street makes for entertaining people watching as well. Service was prompt and the restaurant kitchen is open later than most of that stretch.

Come here for the second floor balcony. It’s refreshing to be able to sit and people watch while enjoying a good drink. There’s also something satisfying from being on a second floor balcony as opposed to it’s first floor counterpart.
We started off by having the bruschetta. Their bruschetta is piled high on each piece of bread they give you. You can really taste the fresh ingredients, but for some reason it all seems to fail to come together in the end. There is something missing. This ended up being a theme of our meals there. My girlfriend had a pizza with pesto and grilled chicken pieces. The chicken could have been spread out a little more throughout the pizza, but this could be the way they do it in Italy so I can’t judge. This dish also seem to struggle to bring everything together. bThe dish I had was a creamy pasta with goat cheese and walnuts. I actually really enjoyed this dish but somehow think it needed just a little more kick.
Being on the tourist trap of a street that is crescent, I wasn’t expecting cheap prices. Many of their dishes are more on the expensive side but considering some of the ingredients and the nice location it is pretty justifiable.
Our waitress smiled and was very nice and didn’t bother us too much which I liked. We could have received more water even though we had order drinks though. Other than this very good service.
In the end I prob wouldn’t go out of my way to go here, but if I was with friends and wanted to relax with a drink I would definetly hit this place up.

Came here on a really hot day.
They don’t have a very good fanning/​air conditioner system but a good terrace view and also very original foods.
Their service is very nice and easy to order.

Pire service de tout les restaurants qui existent…
1– La serveuse nous demande ce qu’on veut boire et on débute par lui dire qu’on commencera avec de l’eau. Elle nous répond que le restaurant à aussi du vin… et que comme dans le film coyote ugly elle serait prête à lancer à la figure de ces clients l’eau qu’il lui est demandée.
2– La serveuse nous emmènent des verres d’eau sale…
3– La serveuse n’offre pas le dessert qui est inclu dans la table d’hôte
4– la serveuse ce chicanne avec son patron devant tous les clients
5– Elle demande à mon ami qui paie le bill de lui donner la machine avec sa carte de crédit dedans pour y inscrire elle même un montant de pourboire (Et oui vous avez bien lu)…
On finit par lui donner 13% de pourboire et elle crie que nous sommes des voleurs et qu’elle devra payer la différence de son propre salaire.
TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE

Food is mediocre. Brunch falls completely flat. Wait staff are somewhat nice, bartenders tend to be nicer. I would go for a drink if everywhere else was full, otherwise, I’ve seen people wait for 50+ minutes for their food. No thanks,

Disclaimer: I came to Pino on a Friday, which was the coldest day of the year with about 25 people, therefore my appreciation might have been altered.
What I liked: Restaurant is pretty roomy. The resto has an upper floor for bigger parties. The view gives on to Crescent and de Maisoneuve. The portions were reasonable. The price was too. I had the chicken al palio which was decent. I suggest ordering pasta, because theres a large selection and it comes with a decent amount of protein or vegetables. The crowd seems reletively young (early and late 20s), especially when I was there. The drinks are averagely sized, I didnt check the price though.
What I didn’t like: My friend who was the birthday girl had made a reservation for the correct amount of people, but when she arrived places were missing. We were stuck reorganizing the seating our selves. I feel they really work hard to give a true italian feel by allowing a 45 minute delay between serving everyone else and then serving me. The music wasn’t appropriate at all, a mix of rap with some asian sounding stuff. Given that it was the coldest day of the year, most of us froze upstairs waiting to get our plates and then waiting to pay.
Conclusion: not my favorite resto. I wouldnt call it «authentic» food, although the disorganized managament seems authentically italian. You’ll probably not see me back here. The only thing that could bring me back is the location. But not the food.

When its hot outside and you want to people-​watch, come here and sit at the terrace on the 3^rd floor. Great views.
$ 8 vodka sodas.
Pizza w/​chicken was meh.

Cute spot with outdoor seating on the upper wrap around balcony.
Grilled octopus and french fries with white wine made for a great lunch and pretty reasonably priced.
Service was quite friendly and there was no problem doing separate checks for a large group (a really nice options found in most Montréal restaurants with the portable card readers… NYC needs to get on that stat!)

Another staple of my restaurants to visit when in Montréal. Prices are what you would expect from a nicer looking spot in the area. The carpaccio was delicious. The spicy shrimp pasta was a disappointment as it was not spicy, the basil was soaked into the dish voiding the flavour and fragrance basil is supposed to give. The other pasta dish ordered was a deliciousness creamy mushroom sauce over penne which was superb. For $ 100 dinner I would have expected a bit more.

My husband and I stopped in for a late dinner Saturday night around 9:00pm. We were given a table immediately, but the waiter was so surly and miserable that his attitude really ruined our evening.
Although we were clearly speaking English, he spoke to us in French — when he even spoke at all… Mostly he just grunted at us or ignored us.
The food was mediocre at best, the «rolls» were more like hot dog buns, the caprese salad boasted unripe tomatoes, no balsamic vinegar and some sort of pre-​packaged pesto sauce that looked like baby diarrhea… The salmon was bland and smothered in cold sun-​dried tomatoes that were presumably some sort of sauce. I had the filet mignon, which was edible but could have been cooked in a microwave for all the (lack of!!) flavor.
Definitely would NOT recommend this place to anyone.

I wanted to love Pino – a lounge with an extensive cocktail menu, a canopy-​covered balcony, etc. – but it was just OK, in my opinion. Maybe it was the overly strong smell of Parmesan cheese from the next table, the lackadaisical service or the fact that the place was pretty dead on a night when the other Crescent Street bars were hoppin’.
I would give Pino a lower score but that lychee-​tini was exactly what I needed. I wouldn’t make a point of coming back to Pino but I did enjoy sitting on the balcony, taking in the cool breeze on the rainy night.

Pino is a decent place to relax for a drink but it seems to be struggling with an identity crisis of «am I a pub? am I a restaurant? am I a lounge?» — and it was indeed a bit odd that such a huge venue was relatively empty on a rainy Friday night. especially since the rain didn’t seem to be stopping the crowds on Crescent Street from going to other places.
they have an outdoor seating area upstairs with a long canopy over it — this was great, because we got the cool fresh air and none of the rain. and it’s actually fairly spacious, wrapping around the entire place (it’s on the corner).
I ordered some of the house white wine. it was about average, though it also was fairly cheap, so I’m not complaining too much. service was pretty fast too.
the fact that it is so roomy here might have made it seem less busy than it was. there were plenty of patrons up near us, but there were two HUGE rooms inside (on the second floor alone) that were empty. what gives? maybe they focus more on large-​scale events.
seems like an alright place to relax for a drink or two, but not much more. I like low-​key, but it was a bit too low-​key for me.

Wow. Just awful.
Easily the worst meal during a weekend in Montréal, where the food is, on average, really great.
Onion soup was incredibly bland. Watery and tasteless. Three people in my party got it and none of us finished even a quarter of it.
For the entrée, I ordered a pizza. Oh man. All of the ingredients came straight from a can and were clumped in weird bunches across the surface of the pie. The olives were barely drained and the crust was overly doughy.
The waitress seemed to mean well but she didn’t seem to understand how bad the food was there. And so she seemed annoyed at our lack of enthusiasm for the place. The management is responsible for the poor quality of this place, not the poor waitress who served us.
The only thing it has going it is the location as it is in the middle of a popular part of town.
We should have learned our lesson as soon as we walked in as it wasn’t very crowded.

We had breakfast here, and it may have just been an off day, but it was a little disappointing. The food was good, but our toast arrived ¾ of the way through the meal after 3 reminders, and coffee refills were slow. The waiter was very nice but a little scattered and said someone didn’t show up for work. It was pretty quiet in the late morning, but walking past later in the day, it seemed to be much busier.

I came here with a group of 7, we were just trying to find an average price restaurant, with good variety of food that everyone will have something they can eat. I’m not expecting a lot when it’s a situation like this, but this restaurant was not able to live up to my already lowered expectation.
Food:
The server brought us two baskets of complimentary bread with a dish of olive oil and vinegar. The bread looks decent, they look like some homemade croissants. But, the texture was awful! None of us can take a second bite of it, it’s so dry! It taste like it’s either a few days old or it has been microwaved multiple times! Also, the olive oil to share? what is this? Are they expecting everyone to dip in that plate? It’s so gross… and inconvenient. Its okay to share butter or other spread, but I’ve never shared olive oil before.
We ordered an Italian sausage pizza as appetizers to share, it was average, the crust was too thick… nothing special.
Main course, I ordered a veggie primervera, which is just vegetarian pasta with tomato sauce. It did not satisfy me either, overall very blend and in terms of vegetables, I was expecting some portebello mushroom, big slice of eggplants and cucumber, cherry tomato… but instead, it’s all thinly sliced, you almost can’t see them in your pasta, and just regular mushroom that were shrunk after cooking. The tomato sauce was also too glue-​y…
Dessert — I shared a Tiramisu with a friend, it’s the type that comes in a cup with lady fingers at the bottom of the cup. This was like one of the worst tiramisu you can get at a restaurant. It tastes like store bought, and made one week ago. The cheese on the top are already becoming chewy and jello like! We only had half
The food are so terrible, when the server came and ask how were the food, I actually said it tastes bad (because he saw our unfinished tiramisu) and I think he was offended.
Service:
He forgot to bring the spoon for people who ordered pasta. SO this is what happened, I asked for a spoon as soon as he puts down my plate of pasta, and it took him like 5mins to come back because he went off and took care of other tables and he forgot… when he came back, he only brought 1 spoon for me, not for my other friends who were also having pasta. (well, you’d expect him to bring enough for everyone who’s having pasta, that’s a standard utensils to eat pasta, especially it’s an Italian restaurant, how do you not know that) …Later, my friends that are sitting at the other end of the table had to ask him again for spoon…
Ambiance:
nice patio of second floor… maybe you can come here for drinks, but just don’t eat here

Tried to go here but they don’t allow kids after 8:30. My kids were a bit upset, they have never been refused service.

The food was ok. Our calamari was a tad overcooked and the gnocchi a little dense. The shrimp and asparagus risotto was very tasty as was the Italian pizza. 2 beer each and our bill was around $ 95. I don’t think we would go back as it wasn’t that memorable.

Not too bad. Probably deserves 3.5 stars but I need to give it 3 to compensate for the over-​raters.

Let me preface this, by saying I haven’t been here in over a year, but! for the last 4 – 5 years when I have been coming to Montréal for work/​play, this has always been my favourite restaurant/​lounge and never fails.
Their menu is standard, but changes everytime I come. Agree with Lauren W. about the Gnocchi. This was the first time I tried it and I love it! Everything here is very good, except once I got the Gorganzola + Endive salad and I wasn’t pleased — but not the fault of the restaurant, I think Endive is an acquired taste.
The food is mainly Italian. It’s on the busy street of Crescent, and one of the less touristy spots. They have 2 levels, a more loungey one at the bottom, and more restaurant on the top. They also have a nice balcony out there, and perfect for people watching. Same for the downstairs as it’s walled with large glass windows.
It brings back a lot of memories for me because I have been here so much, and always bring people here.

Absolutely incredible!
The Gnocchi al Gorgonzola is to die for. My Caesar salad was also great. Our waiter was super friendly and was cracking jokes with us the whole time. Nice relaxed atmosphere, great eats, and fairly priced drinks. Got a table really quickly, and the service was fast and efficient. Two big thumbs up for this place :)

Great fun to eat at, drinks aren’t too bad. Especially if an event is in town, crescent street is usually the first to be closed off for foot traffic which brings an ombiance to your meal. Coming from san Francisco, the food is solid!

C’est un des resto branchés au coin de la rue Crescent et de la rue Ste Catherine. C’est un resto de Pimps, (passez moi l’expression) il y a de la pintade. Rien que l’entrée vaut la visite, matelassé cuir, rien que ça.
La cuisine (qui se veut italienne) est correcte sans plus, les prix des plats sont justes (voir bon marché pour les pizzas) par contre les prix boisons sont un peu élévés. 8 $ (sans taxe et sans tips) la pinte de KEITH ROUSSE, c’est un peu éléve contre 5à 6 dans les autres établissement mais l’on paye le cadre (qui est sympatique, ok branché) et surtout l’emplacement balcon surplongeant la rue, c’est très agréable.
A faire en groupe, lors de sortie d’avant boîte ou à 2.