Les amis de la montagne

Beautiful park. Nice cafe. Bathrooms currently not working. There are porta potties.

Decided to take my children (both under 6 y o) to skate and the queue was really long, and not to mention it was -25 with the wind shield this past weekend. They already had their skates, but I was told I had to queue up to get 2 red bars for my children. After having waited +1hr, we finally got on the ice, and my kids couldn’t skate because at that point they couldn’t feel their toes. I explained it was inhumane to have young children queue up that long. It’s ok being out in the cold while you’re moving, but we were stood queuing. I returned the bars including the skates I decided to rent for myself literally 5 mins after we got on the ice. And they were also reluctant to give me my money back. Why can’t there be 2 queues? 1 queue for skates and 1 queue for bars. It was unfair for my kids to queue up just to get a bar each. They could see I was alone with 2 children. They could have easily turned this negative experience into a positive one.

Awesome tube riding, and skate ring

Warm, family friendly and good food choices

A cosy place in the mountain to relax use the bathroom and have a warm hot chocolate and a sandwich

Inside Maison Smith after a loong walk from the bottom of Mont Royal by McGill University, we enjoyed much needed beers, lovely cafe fare and a pleasant atmosphere. Great way to finish our Mont Royal hike before grabbing the number 11 bus back down to the Mont Royal neighborhood.

Les Amis de la Montagne is home to the non-profit group mandated to preserve Mont-Royal, and as such designs activities such as forest cleanups, bird-watching excursions, skating challenges, and environmental workshops. The onsite museum is the perfect place to learn about the amazing biodiversity preserved here, replete with time capsules, chronology of events leading to the creation of the park by Olmstead, and a collection of period photography, wildlife taxidermy, maps, and scientific facts, figures, and curiosities. the onsite Boutique is the perfect place to buy mementos found nowhere else, including creations of local photographers, writers, and artists. For this reviewer, the asset which continues to surprise me and guests I bring to the Café Les Amis de la Montagne, is the consistent quality, range of offerings, and ambiance of an eatery with no oven, little preparation space, and a continuous stream of customers expecting restaurant service from a tiny team trying to do their best. I have patronized this beautiful fieldstone building, featuring a gorgeous terrace during summer, many times in every kind of circumstances, i.e. snow storm, monsoon rain, hurricane wind gusts, tour buses, school classes, and food critics ad nauseum, and I have never had a bad meal, cold coffee, or careless attitude. What I have experienced causes me to share the great news of the Restaurant Pavilion at Beaver Lake being taken over by Les Amis de la Montagne and their resident culinary magician, Gabrielle Acherman, who will spin her magic in a location sadly in need over the last years. Congratulations to all Les Amis de la Montagne for caring for our mountain for locals, tourists and future generations.

These people are some of the most self righteous I have come across. We had a conversation with them about bikes on the mountain and their opinion was basically “we can’t cater for every trendy fad that comes along”. Closed minded and self serving. The mountain is a man made public park, not an ecological environment to be saved.

Difficult reason for being there (loss of my partner) but beautiful location and helpful staff.

I love the whole concept of this group of dedicated people. Who else will preserve this Montreal treasure?