The best desserts in Montreal, dish by dish

This isn't your typical, almost too-rich layered pastry topped with vanilla and chocolate icing. This is the stuff dreams are made of: impossibly delicate caramelized maple phyllo dough hiding pockets of deeply rich whipped clover cream—the perfect finish to our dinner at Bonheur d’occasion, the Saint-Henri spot that recently ranked 6th best new restaurant in the country.

Au Kouign-Amann’s namesake kouign-amann is best described as a sweet upgrade to a croissant for those who prefer a more saccharine pastry option. Layers of laminated dough are folded with butter and sugar which caramelizes as it bakes, causing the final product to have an outer layer shattering almost like glass upon consumption and an interior that’s soft, flaky, sweet and incomparably delicious. The best part is that it’s available by the slice or the whole pie, but if you want the latter, order ahead of time. Don’t be that jerk who buys up the whole thing on the fly.

While several creations set Sachère Desserts apart from the pack like the Sacher pie, scones, and soft-serve ice cream that rotates weekly in the summer, what catches our eye are the layered cakes. On the menu since day 1, the cakes are a big hit with customers, and the chef offers gluten-free and vegan versions. Banana-chocolate-passion fruit, matcha-white chocolate, or the chocolate-caramel—whichever you pick, it'll satisfy.

It's a layered honey cake that's popular in Russia, but Ratafia's Montreal version makes the original creation blush. This Little Italy dessert and wine bar's take is a burnt honey cake with a honey-glazed nougat, sour cream and chamomile whipped cream, finished with roasted buckwheat and some flowers. Sublime.

Cannelé, a Bordeaux pastry made predominantly from eggs, sugar and flour may appear simple at first glance, but getting the technique down is harder than it looks. Mamie Clafoutis has served them since they opened the first bakery in this small chain in 2008. They have the perfect balance of crunchy exterior to custardy centre, with a vanilla-rich flavour and just a hint of rum.

We could have easily named the gourmet Carré Doré that reminds us of the Snickers bar, the famous lemon pie, the baba au rhum, the fraisier, or the millefeuille... But the croissant des rois is what you'll find few of at Chez Potier. Maybe that's what makes them taste all the sweeter: An incredible croissant base, the best almond paste on the market, then fully soaked in maple syrup to give it a wonderfully soft texture. The term "des rois" refers to the galette des rois, since the ingredients are so similar.

Originally developed from the idea of a ‘dry salad’ by chefs Charles-Antoine Crête and Cheryl Johnson, this regular installment on the whacky restaurant’s dessert menu is a stupendous achievement in eating pure fun. A deep coffee mug is filled with marinated blackberries and white chocolate mousse before being covered with fragments of dried fruit purée, topped with a quenelle of berry sorbet and finished with a dusting of powdered sugar. It’s a combination of flavour, temperature and texture that’s unparalleled among restaurants here. Enjoy.

Pastry chef Stéphanie Labelle has a definite knack for whimsical pastries, putting a refreshed spin on classics like lemon tart and éclair. However, if forced to narrow it down to a single option, her mille-feuille is the way to go. Crisp layers of puff pastry encase layers of both vanilla and caramel whipped creams, combining delicacy with decadence. Still, that doesn’t mean your visit to this pastry shop can’t include eating a little bit of everything you see. We won’t judge.

After a bombastic meal at Au Pied de Cochon that’s been coated in foie gras shavings, it’s difficult to still find the room for—or generally want—dessert. Their pouding chômeur, however, is definitely worth saving room for. It may not look like much, but when you take cake, soak it in brown sugar and cream and top it with a melting scoop of ice cream, it’s hard to say no. It doubles as a Québecois classic as well, so consider eating one to be a civil service of patriotic duty.

If the line-ups here on a hot summer day are any indication, they’ve got something going with their ice cream, period. That being said, their seasonal swirl cones are the money maker. Changing every few weeks from combos like sour cherry and almond to blueberry and honey, the best summer challenge is to try and eat them all. Pro-tip: Check their Twitter feed for updates on their lines so you can have a sense of how long you’ll need to wait.

If you've ever passed by Samos Bakery and Pastry, chances are you've seen it: It's huge, plump and surrounded by other gargantuan, decadent creations. But, this donut? It's the epitome of simplicity. Don't expect a donut with lots of surprises and funky flavors, but rather ultra moist and simply delicious. If you want to find out what a plain sugar donut should taste like, this is the standard. Don't forget to leave with the danish or the twisted pastry that caught your eye in the window.

A bit off the radar, Ernestine is tucked away on Laurier Street in the Plateau. Once inside, it’s a bit like Willy Wonka’s shop for grown-ups with elegant takes on childhood treats. Out of everything you can sink your teeth into, their croque-mous are a a necessity. A homemade take on Turtles, with generous amounts of caramel and walnuts coated in either milk or dark chocolate, we dare you to try stopping at just one.

Come for the pizza and stay for dessert at Pizzeria Gema all year round, or just hit up the service window around the corner from the front entrance in the summer. Their frozen custard might not be fancy, but it’s everything you want in a frozen dessert: Cold and creamy without being excessively icy in the slightest.

A simple bun, you say? Yes, it is, but try imagining reproduceing this simple brioche perfectly every time: Even many pastry chefs haven't broken the secret to doing so, baking a soft, chewy, and buttery thing with a slight aroma of orange blossom; but Montreal's own Brioche à tête bakery has managed to do so to the point of making it the name of their business. They produce many, many other delicious pastries as well, but the brioche à tête is the best.

The shelves at Cheskie’s are adorned with Jewish pastries of all shapes and sizes and between all the flavours of rugelach that are available here, what you really want to opt for is their chocolate babka. Imagine a cinnamon roll, but instead of cinnamon and sugar, it’s filled with a chocolate paste so rich that it’s almost like eating brownie wrapped up in bread dough.

Canadians can be pretty picky about their doughnuts, especially when considering how Tim Hortons is steadily becoming a major national export. That said, one of the Montreal versions that easily holds a candle to—it not overshadow—our preference for fat, squishy, chewy rings of fried dough is found here, and it’s a vegan one to boot. Léché makes a lot of stellar options, but our favourite’s the passion fruit glaze which brings a refreshing kick to an otherwise heavy repast. Bonus: Sign up for one of their donut-making classes to figure out how it’s done.

This Saint-Henri establishment made a name for itself first as one of its neighbourhood’s premier pastry shops, a small shop with a heavy focus on country-style pies with crumbling crusts and fruit-heavy fillings. They unfortunately don’t sell by the slice, instead opting to serve mini two-bite pies whose flavours range from classics like key lime and blueberry to the bonfire, a take on smores that’s topped with a torched marshmallow. Come to try one and leave with a box of six.

This happening lunch spot in the heart of Old Montreal serves up sandwiches and salads galore, but their ever-impressive pastry counter is worth its weight in gold for its cartloads of cookies, croissants, brownies, brioche, and more. Chocoholics are encouraged to try their killer chocolate cookies; the dough itself has dark chocolate melted into it, to which bittersweet, milk, and white chocolate chips are then stirred in.

This Montreal institution and the city’s culinary ambassador to France has a dessert menu with all of the French bistro classics you’d expect, from chocolate tart to baba au rhum. But it’s their île flottante, “floating islands” of soft meringue nestled in rich custard, that are a hot-ticket item. So much so, they’re often selling out mid-way through dinner service. Don’t be afraid to order dessert first to make sure you get to try one.

Montreal’s pastry options are vast with its regular injections of young guns contributing to the scene. As a result, sometimes the more old-school, traditional options are easy to forget about. Eating cannoli at Little Italy’s Alati Caserta can rectify that problem though: They are far from forgettable. Serving their ricotta-filled bites for over 50 years, they’ve expanded to include flavours like tiramisu and pistachio. Honorable mention goes to their zeppola.

A Montreal staple since 1971, Afroditi is a Greek bakery specializing in elaborately decorated cakes for all occasions while staying true to their heritage with a variety of different baklava options. Whether you prefer your baklava filled with walnuts, almonds, or pistachios, this bakery has you covered with the best in town, bar none.

Truth be told, there isn’t exactly the richest of traditions for pies in Montreal; a surprising feature of the food here when considering how much we love our diners. That means that when pies are done right, we flock to it, and that includes this chain of local pie shops. Their mile high takes that could easily pass as slices of cake are irresistible, the most irresistible of which is the Rockabrownie and its stratigraphy of chocolate, cream and cake.

Treat yourself to what’s easily Montreal’s most famous cookie at Griffintown’s Maman, famously beloved by Oprah (yes, that Oprah). This very sweet treat has an incredible contrast of textures, between the crunchy, nearly brittle edges and the soft, verging on underdone middle stuffed with chunky morsels of Skor, marshmallow and chocolate. It’s wondrous.

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It’s the stuff of legends—just google an image of it and you’ll understand why. As one of the preeminent French bistros in town, Leméac draws happy hordes to clink glasses over beef tartare, herb-crusted veal liver steaks in wine sauce and duck leg confit. But it’s worth saving some room: the desserts are simply stellar, and who steals the show? The pain perdu: baked, eggy brioche bread, about six inches high, smothered in lashings of maple caramel sauce and crowned with a perfect scoop of condensed milk ice cream.

Love your carrot cake mile high? With seven layers? And the most delectable cream cheese frosting between each of them? You got it at Westmount’s Nick’s, where the classic diner style desserts (the hazelnut-chocolate cake is also a stunner) follow up meals of high-stacked sandwiches and generous salads with a Californian twist. This hot spot has been serving locals since 1920 and has been legit through every changing era.