Restaurant in Outremont, Montreal

Damas

Damascus Under the Chandeliers

3.5 of 5

Walk in off Van Horne and the room tries to seduce you before the menu does. Chandeliers, carpets, deep reds, a bar fit for a sultan with a mortgage. My suspicion of a pretty dining room is professional and well earned. Here the kitchen backs it up.

Chef Fuad Alnirabie comes from Damascus, and he cooks like a man who refuses to let Syrian food be reduced to a hummus plate and a shrug. Yes, there is hummus, and yes, it is good. Push past it. The kibbeh nayye is lamb tartare with bulgur and walnuts, clean and bright. The fried kibbeh comes armored in pistachio. Fattet makdous layers lamb shoulder with tahini and yogurt into something you will think about on the drive home. Friki, smoky cracked green wheat, arrives under braised short ribs that surrender at a look. Order a whole sea bass if the table is big enough to argue over the bones.

This is not cheap, and it does not pretend to be. You are paying for a room, a staff that actually guides you through the menu, and a cook who has spent years proving that the food of his city deserves fine linen. Weekends there is brunch, which is the softer way in. Either way, share everything, ask the server what to order, and believe them.

Order this

Kibbeh nayye, pistachio fried kibbeh, fattet makdous, friki with braised short ribs

The damage

$$$

Go

A weekend brunch, or dinner when you are paying for someone you love

Find it

1201 Av. Van Horne, Montréal, QC H2V 1K4

Website

damas.ca