Cloakroom

Verdict

Cloakroom is worth seeking out if you are a wine-forward diner who values depth of list over dining-room theatrics. Located at 2175 Rue de la Montagne in Montreal's downtown core, this is a venue built around the bottle as much as the plate. Booking is easy relative to the city's more competitive tables, which makes it a low-friction choice for explorers who want serious drink programming without the month-long wait. If your priority is food-first fine dining, Toqué or Jérôme Ferrer - Europea are the stronger calls. But if the wine list is your compass, Cloakroom belongs on your shortlist.

Portrait

The address puts Cloakroom in the Golden Square Mile, a neighbourhood dense enough with hotel bars and expense-account dining rooms that it should be easy to overlook. The venue's name signals its spatial philosophy: intimate, tucked away, deliberately off the main stage. Expect a room that rewards proximity over scale — the kind of setting where the distance between tables actually matters and where a couple or a pair of colleagues will feel more at home than a table of eight.

The wine program is the defining reason to book here rather than elsewhere on the same street. Montreal's bar and restaurant scene has several competent lists, but venues that treat the cellar as the editorial centre of the experience are rarer. For the wine-focused traveller who has already worked through Mastard and wants a room where the sommelier conversation is genuinely the point, Cloakroom fills that gap. Comparable wine-driven experiences in Canada tend to require more planning: Restaurant Pearl Morissette in Lincoln is a destination trip, and AnnaLena in Vancouver demands a cross-country flight. Cloakroom is accessible, central, and easier to book than its quality tier typically suggests.

Timing matters here. Weekday evenings tend to offer more attentive service and a calmer room than weekend nights, when the Golden Square Mile fills with hotel guests and pre-theatre traffic. If you want the wine conversation to breathe, Tuesday through Thursday is the window to target. The venue is less oriented around a seasonal menu cycle in the way that Sabayon or Tanière³ in Quebec City are, which means there is no single optimal month to visit — the list itself is the draw year-round.

For solo diners and couples, the spatial configuration makes Cloakroom a natural fit. The intimacy of the room is a feature, not a limitation. Larger groups should confirm in advance whether the layout can accommodate them without fragmenting the experience across multiple tables. For group dining in the same price neighbourhood, Europea has more flexible floor space.

How It Compares

See the comparison section below for how Cloakroom sits against Montreal's broader dining field.

Explore More in Montreal

• Our full Montreal restaurants guide
• Our full Montreal hotels guide
• Our full Montreal bars guide
• Our full Montreal wineries guide
• Our full Montreal experiences guide

FAQ

• Does Cloakroom handle dietary restrictions? Contact the venue directly before your visit. With no published menu data available, confirming in advance is the only reliable approach , do not assume flexibility on arrival.
• How far ahead should I book Cloakroom? Booking difficulty is rated easy, so a few days' notice is typically sufficient. That said, if you have a fixed date in mind, booking a week out removes any risk, particularly for weekend evenings.
• What should I wear to Cloakroom? Smart casual is the right call for the Golden Square Mile at this price positioning. You do not need a jacket, but you will feel underdressed in sportswear. Aim for the standard you would bring to Mastard or a mid-tier wine bar.
• Can Cloakroom accommodate groups? The room's intimate scale suggests it is better suited to two to four guests. For larger parties, confirm directly with the venue , and if flexibility is the priority, Europea has more room to work with.
• What should I order at Cloakroom? No menu data is available to give a specific steer. For a wine-focused visit, ask the sommelier to drive the pairing , that is where the venue's value is concentrated.
• What should a first-timer know about Cloakroom? Come for the wine program, not as a food-first dining destination. The room is intimate and the booking is easy, which makes it a low-pressure entry point to Montreal's serious wine scene. First-timers at Toqué or Europea will find those rooms more food-driven; Cloakroom tilts the other way.
• Can I eat at the bar at Cloakroom? The venue's spatial setup is consistent with bar seating being available, but confirm when booking if bar dining is your preference. For a solo visit, bar seating is worth requesting.
• Is Cloakroom good for solo dining? Yes , the intimate room and wine-forward focus make it well-suited to solo visitors who want to engage with the list and the staff. It is a better solo call than 3 Pierres 1 Feu for a wine-led evening, and easier to book alone than Toqué.