Really cool atmosphere to go to for upscale dining! Food: 4/5 We ordered an "unofficial" tasting menu. I thought it was expensive for what it was but the food was good! I liked the veggies, the bread and dip, the shrimp, and the pasta the most. There was eggplant, fish, and lamb, but not a huge fan of these 3 items generally, so can't really comment on them. Atmosphere: 5/5 - beautiful venue and seating. Service: 5/5 - excellent service, all waiters and waitresses were friendly and on the ball. read more

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Beautiful and elegant restaurant situated in Griffintown. We went to celebrate two birthdays for brunch. From the hostess to our waitress, the service is very friendly and excellent. Each dish,and drinks were delicious. We ordered grapefruit and orange mimosa, tea, ice latte, shrimp waffles, banana, pecan and ice cream waffles, brioche French toast with pistachio and muhammara toast with egg poached. Everything was beautifully presented and it was super tasty. Recommended! read more

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We found out about @ayla.restaurant from some out of town new friends ( Shame, again) so we weren't sure what to expect. The very friendly, helpful and knowledgeable staff helped us through it by first suggesting a custom drink tailored to our tastes and then altering our meal to suit our dietary restrictions. We were very pleased with evrything we ordered and the overall atmosphere. read more

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When To Ayla for the first time. I reserved online and the only has seating available at counter. At the time I didn't know what that meant. But once we hot there I realized we were seating right at the counter where the chef and sous-chefs were working and we could see and hear everything, which was honestly one of the most amazing experiences I have had at a restaurant. Our waiter Ali, was really great, as soon as he found out it was our first time he explained everything and made a few suggestions which was appreciated. The whole night he was very attentive, a genuinely nice guy. Now let's get to the important part FOOD. This place is a mix of everything middle easter, Syrian, Lebanese, Persian, Israeli. I ordered the lamb shank which was served on a bed of delicious lentil. My husband had lamb ragu past. For appetizers we ordered a season salad, muhammara, bread, and grilled cauliflower. Honestly everything was good. I do not have one bad thing to say. The lamb was tender and delightful, the ragû was perfectly made, the salad was fresh and aromatic, the cauliflower was perfectly grilled. Seating at the counter you saw all the amazing dishes and you saw all the care and energy they placed on sending out an amazing plate. I do have to say prices are a but high. We were two and paid about 215$ although we had two glasses of wine. A great place for a romantic date. read more

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This restaurant was recommended to me by a friend and also another friend had said it was really good so we had decided to give it a shot . The review is separated in 2 : first part food, second part service. It is on Richmond street, across from Le Richmond, a cute little hole in the wall. Attire is smart casual and there was even a patio in the back if you wanted to sit outdoors. Between each sitting table there were tables with tea sets for displays ( which were gorgeous and reminded me of my grandmothers set back home). The waitress was super nice to explain the concept and recommend items and drinks. She also mentioned the plates were small for sharing , like mezze. We had gotten a few and I'll break it down below : 1) Ekmek and Muhammara: "Turkish flat bread and roasted red pepper spread with walnut and pomegranate. For the name, they should have specified it at Pide Ekmek because when you say flat bread , it is normally referred to Pita. Regardless it was delicious and warm and the Muhammara was a great choice to go with it. 2) Yellowtail Ceviche, Watermelon, Sheep Feta, Herbs : this plate , actually any plate with fish, watermelon and feta is the traditional Mediterranean summer go to dish. It was a little splash of flavour when combined. I feel if I they had added mint shreds to it, it would have been perfect as well. Also, our table ( a party of 3), were taken a bit aback by the amount of tuna to the rest of the plate in contrast to the plate. Normally when you make a ceviche, the seafood used is the main star , but in this particular case, it was more the feta and the herbs. 3) Seared Calamari, Charred vegetables , Herb salad : our table had decided that this was the 2nd best dish so far that we had. The calamari melted in our mouths especially when mixed with the two condiments. We would really recommend this dish to try. 4) Dry Aged Lamb Tortellini, Chickpeas, Yogurt Sauce: This one was my least favourite dish, but the other two loved it. In general the best part was the Lamb itself. It was succulent, and the flavour was amazing, no words. The sauce though, I found it to be too heavy and sweet to go with Lamb. What would have been a better choice ( in my opinion) is a more light olive oil with herb sauce to elevate even more the flavour palate of the lamb. 5) For drinks , I took the Sinful Julep and my friends took the Mademoiselle and the Bon Voyage. I really liked mine since it was subtle and summery. Food recommendations from would get to maybe pass : Ekmek and Muhammara, Seared Calamari, Dry Aged Lamb Tortellini and Yellowfin Ceviche. Service : the whole staff was really nice and welcoming but there we're two major red flags for us. First one , while we were having our appetizer , 2 of us had finished so we had gotten our plates changed while the other one was still eating. She had put the food down on the plate for maybe two seconds and the bus boy came from behind ( not from the side ) and tried to take her plate away and she had to mention it twice that she is still working on her plate . Second one : we had just gotten the ceviche and it was still in the middle of the table and we were just catching up and talking so naturally we hadn't gotten the food yet. Our waitress passed us by 2 times and then asked us if she should serve us since we didn't touch it. We were taken aback because we were in full conversation ( which is fine to be interrupted in), but the way it was said was kind of rude and as if she was rushing us to eat our food. Due to that, as soon as we were done eating. I asked for the bill and we went elsewhere for drinks and desserts. Overall, the restaurant has a nice ambiance, well lighted and the food should be tried , but would I go back? Most likely not since it's one of those places you go once to try and get the experience. read more

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Stopped by Ayla on a recommendation from a friend for our first night in Montreal. The theme of the restauraunt is sustainable, no-waste Epicurean cuisine; taking inspiration from Moroccan, Turkish, and other MENA countries. The menu was fairly short, which I took as a good sign that everything would be delicious. They recommend sharing, since the dishes are served without any sides. There are lots of vegetarian options to choose from, as well as seafood. We ordered some dips and bread to start, along with a ceviche with watermelon and chilies to start. The hummus was incredible. So rich and nutty, I could've just eaten the whole portion with a spoon if we didn't have more food coming. The ceviche was a great pairing with that since it was so light and refreshing. The watermelon added a hint of sweetness to balance out the acidity and spice from the chilies. There was a bit of a mix up with some of the dishes at the start of our meal, and they brought three or four that we didn't order, but it was sorted out fairly quickly. I'm willing to chock it up to them being fairly busy that night. Next up was the smoked eggplant. I'm not normally a fan of eggplant but it was highly recommended8 by our server. It came with four different sauces on the plate which IMO were the stars of the dish. One was made from the charred skin of the eggplant, another from green chili and parsley, a taking, and finally a mango salsa. Finally, we ordered two lamb dishes: the kebab and the skewer. The meat on the skewer was perfectly cooked and so tender. It came with an eggplant based sauce that was alright, but I tried it with the yogurt dip we had instead and it paired really well. Our other meat dish was much richer. The kebab is covered in some sort of dark stone fruit sauce that also packed a spicy punch. They were PACKED, so definitely be sure to make a reservation. It's worth the trip if you're in town and looking for some good eats. read more

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Bartender made the best drinks. Nothing on the menu. We just described a drink and he made it. And by the way. Food was amazing! read more

If I could give this restaurant 100 stars I would. Reynald is THE MAN!!! I visited with my team a little over 20 of us and he didn't miss a beat. Everything that came out was good. I tried to smuggle the roasted eggplant back into the states and couldn't . Anyway if you want EXCELLENT food, drinks, and service go ahead and book a reservation at Ayla. Should rename it to THE AYLA not to be confused with other read more

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Amazing sophisticated Mediterranean food. My current favourite in Montreal. Service, food quality, presentation, valet parking. Has it all. read more

If you like to experience explosions of tastes, you must try Ayla. My friends brought me here after their first amazing experience and I do agree that it's definitely on my list of favs for some of their dishes. The staff was great. I think there was definitely some new employees but let's not get into unnecessary details because everyone is having a hard enough time already The highlights for me were the "sides" I loved loved loved their labneh. Such wonderful balance in taste, like no labneh I've tasted before (super addictive, I'm warning you!) The hummus was there on the top of that list, creamy & flavorful Then there were delicious smokey whole roasted aubergine, refreshing sunchoke salad and fennel salad (which I personally preferred without the cheese but my friend who loved cheese enjoyed it) For the mains, we had Cornish hen, grouper and seafood rice. Everything was delectable even though the rice was probably accidentally salted twice. An absolute recommendation!!!! read more

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Nice ambience, food is delicious and well presented. Cocktails were amazing in comparison to what you get nowadays and the service is top tier! read more

A truly wonderful eating experience! The food was impeccable, the service was of the highest order and the environment and decor was gorgeous. Would go back again! read more

I'll first start by saying that the service by Francois, our waiter from Toulouse was impeccable. He is the reason we remained calm through our experience. The recommendations for both food and drinks were on par and people like this make the brand! We ordered almost everything off the menu bc we were a table of 6 and we had some big eaters For a restaurant that holds itself to such a high standard, at the very least, you hope not to find a piece of plastic in your lamb shoulder especially at 150$ a plate. Yes a piece of plastic. When we showed our waiter the plastic, he immediately brought it up to the kitchen. The only answer he could come back with from the kitchen was that it must have dropped into our food at plating because otherwise the plastic would have melted with the lamb in the oven...To add insult to injury, the chef came out once our meal was done and attempted a very poor and insincere apology to the likes of: sorry about the plastic. It's never something we'd want to happen but you know, our staff is junior so these things happen...Ummmm no these things don't happen, regardless of the tenure of your staff. We weren't expecting anything from the restaurant, but this subpar excuse was unnecessary and ruined the rest of our experience at Ayla. We won't be coming back and we certainly would not recommend this restaurant. read more

Worst service, just awkward and slow. Chairs are uncomfortable, plates are the wrong proportion. For example, a fish for two comes with 7 asparagus and they give you appetizer sized plates to eat. The plate was so small that my fish actually fell off my plate on to my purse and it was too slow to say anything, so I just ate it, despite $90 for average white fish for two. You have to beg to get you courses under 45 minutes. For drinks they harass you the moment you sit down and assume you will order wine and a cocktail on the spot. If you don't, they will be back and in your face within 3 minutes. When I say in your face, I mean 1ft away from your face. The food was very tasty but the rest is not worth a bill of $325+ for two. Go elsewhere for that price. Too bad, the restaurant if they had attention to detail would be great, but for what they charge it's unacceptable. read more

Pricey but great food and drinks. If you want Mediterranean cuisine this spot is quick and the service is kind.

We are visiting from California and this was our last dinner in Montreal. We are familiar with Mediterranean cuisine and wanted to try something different and away from the tourist path. We did not expect such a fantastic experience. This was the best meal I ever had. Kudo's to the fantastic chef and the entire team. I wish Micheline would visit them. Had the flat bread with just the right specks of zaatar and a muhamara dip.Shared the tomatoes and feta cheese salad and the aged lamb skewers with ratatouille Also had the walnut cake. The flavors were divine and surprisingly changing and bold. The type of food I imagined when watching 100 feet journey type of movies. Too bad we live so far away... read more

We went there for the first time because we are used to going to the Richmond and it was full... it's right across the street so we gave it a try. we were mainly very disappointed by the staff, food and service !! this is run by a bunch of young unprofessional and inexperienced staff. We sat down and we did not even have time to order our drinks that the server started explaining the menu in lengthy details ... it was so long we thought it was a dissertation ! They had changed the menu so he must have explained about 20 items on the menu ...there is no way we could have remembered everything and it was such a waste of time! Then the service was poor and we ordered a bunch of plates to share and the fish of the market... which was very disappointing ! We wanted to ask for salt and pepper since the fish was tasting absolutely nothing but it took so long to get the attention of any of the servers that we had time to finish our plates!! The Barman made so much noise doing his drinks .. he was tapping his shaker on the counter so hard , that every time everyone turned around ... like he was trying to break the counter ?!? The guy was clearly wanting some attentionThey wanted to move us to another spot ...we had to argue to stay at our place... and they made a big deal of the fact that we could keep our place ...it was very disappointing overall ... they also charge 16$ for a mocktail ...I will never go back! read more