Wonderful classic Italian food, excellent service and a great casual atmosphere.\n\nOur third night in Montreal and we asked the concierge for a restaurant with good food, mellow atmosphere and not too expensive. He recommended Venti just up the street from our hotel.\n\nVenti has a local feel to it, not pretentious, relaxed and casual. When you enter you will see the chefs busy at work. We were seated at a cozy table at the rear of the restaurant surrounded by the Old Montreal buildings classic brick walls. \n\nOn the walls were slate boards with the evenings specials and libations.\n\nOur waiter was attentive and spent several minutes explaining each course on the entire menu, this was unusual and really a nice touch.\n\nHe offered a taste of several wines as we struggled to decide on our aperitif. We settled on a delicious Pinot. Great crusty Italian bread with a light olive oil dip on the side set the tone for the great meal ahead.\n\nFor appetizers we had a very simple but wonderful arugula salad dressed with olive oil, lemon, freshly grated Parmesan and pine nuts. We also had a mozzarella bread with artichoke spread which was interesting and tasty.\n\nFor our main course there was a rigatoni oxtail stew, cod with olive and capers in a light tomato sauce and my personal favorite, a squid ink pasta with baby octopus and cuttlefish (5 star dish). \n\nIn all, a great meal with a truly local feel in the touristy section of Old Montreal. So glad our amazing concierge directed us to Venti!
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