Julian C.
Yelp
From the moment you heave open the Cathedral heavy front door (which you may have to do if the doorman is understandably sheltering from Montreal's arctic temperatures) you're in another world: wood panelling, stained glass, Gone With The Wind style sweeping staircase, and a bar and a restaurant that screams - quite delightfully - of a bygone era (between 1890 and 1920 at a guess).
In Montreal for three days and it wasn't just the -24 degree 'with windchill' that kept me eating and drinking here. I just couldn't see the point in risking an inferior experience outside when it was so warm and pleasant in.
Breakfast either in my room or in the cosy dining room was both picture and palate perfect: oatmeal with all manner of delicately dried fruit and nuts and a maple sugar lump, heaped smoked salmon on one of Montreal's famous bagels (soft, tasty and edible as opposed to endlessly chewy like most bagels), with shaved red onion, cream cheese and freshly-cured and sliced capers, hot milk automatically supplied with your coffee... and pleasant, intelligent service; neither groveling nor over-familiar.
Lunch: Scallops en croute - some serious yum. Dinner: wild mushroom risotto - creamy beyond belief.
The Hotel portion of Le Mount Stephen is a separate but conjoined building. If the public areas are turn of the century before last, the rooms are turn of the week before last: ultra modern, with automated everything - from a toilet whose seat automatically flips open as you come in range, and with a pre-warmed seat and choice of waste evacuation 'style' on a flanking control panel - to various and sundry styles of lighting, heating and window covering status, all under the control of a touch screen mounted on the wall. The bed is plush, the in-room coffee via a fancy little Italian espresso machine, and the shower beautifully lit and perfectly operating.
I'll confess I got a great deal on Priceline. If I'd paid normal 5-star prices and/or if this had been in mid summer, I'm not sure my feelings would necessarily have been any different but the feeling of having somehow won the lottery here might be dialed back a little.
But no matter, should I be back in Montreal anytime soon, Le Mount Stephen will be my first choice. I'm not sure if this advertises itself as a boutique hotel but it has that feel, albeit slap bang in the center of the financial district and, seemingly, with all the mod cons and facilities one could wish for.
A very good experience.