Best Spot for a Business Lunch: Café de Paris, at the Ritz-Carlton, 1228 rue Sherbrooke ouest, at rue Drummond (tel. 514/842-4212), won't disappoint, at least in its deluxe setting and polished service.

Best Spot for a Celebration: No need to rake in stacks of chips at the gambling tables in the casino to join the festive crowd at Nuances, 1 av. du Casino (tel. 514/392-2708), the gracious multi-starred temple de cuisine on the top floor of the casino. You'll get superb service, astonishing food, and spectacular views of the skyline to boot.

Best Wine List: Les Halles, 1450 rue Crescent, between rue Ste-Catherine and boulevard de Maisonneuve (tel. 514/844-2328), has a selection of more than 400 labels, carefully arranged not simply by such broad regional categories as Bordeaux and Burgundy, but by appellation. Prices run well into three figures, but more moderately priced bottles are also available.

Best Decor: With its exposed brick and stone walls, ceiling-high shelves of wine behind the handsomely turned-out center bar, and candle flames flickering in the breezes through the big open windows along the front and side, Modavie, 1 rue St-Paul ouest in Vieux-Montréal (tel. 514/287-9582), pleases the eye at every turn.

Best Value: At lunch, the all-you-can-eat Indian buffet at Le Taj, 2077 rue Stanley, near rue Sherbrooke (tel. 514/845-9015), is a wonder. At dinner, even the expensive four-course table d'hôte at Le Bourlingueur, 363 St-François-Xavier, near rue St-Paul (tel. 514/845-3646), comes in under C$16 (US$11).

Best for Kids: On the assumption that a kid who doesn't like pizza is as rare as fish feathers, get over to Pizzédélic, on The Main at 3509 bd. St-Laurent, near rue Sherbrooke (tel. 514/282-6784). They have all manner of toppings, from the utterly conventional to just short of odd, and pastas, too -- all to be eaten while looking out at the street, or while enjoying the open terrace in the back.

Best Traditional French Cuisine: Les Halles has best illustrated the glories of French cuisine for more than a quarter century with judicious evolution in its cookery rather than wrenching overhauls.

Best Italian Cuisine: Super-chic Buona Notte, 3518 bd. St-Laurent, near rue Sherbrooke (tel. 514/848-0644), may look as if it's more concerned with being a place to be seen than with what it sends out of the kitchen, but the pastas, focaccias, and risottos rival the occasional celebrity sightings.

Best Mexican Cuisine: There's a party every night at Casa de Matéo, 440 rue St-François-Xavier, near rue St-Paul (tel. 514/844-7448), starting with the birdbath-sized margaritas and dancing on through fried cactus, ceviche, and fish Veracruz. The infectious enthusiasm of the staff is often heightened by live mariachi music.

Best Thai Cuisine: Chao Phraya, 50 av. Laurier ouest, near bd. St-Laurent (tel. 514/272-5339), purveys examples of a most complex Asian cooking style at good value in a sophisticated setting that eschews snarling gold temple dogs.

Best Seafood: Fish is the mainstay of Greek cooking, and it often tastes best when preparations are simplest. Grills are paramount at Milos, 5357 av. du Parc (tel. 514/272-3522), and the fish is mere hours from the sea.

Best Pizza: The name says it all: Pizzédélic (see "Best for Kids," above), where they do anything from same-old, same-old tomato and cheese to cutting-edge designer concoctions with unlikely toppings like snails.

Best Desserts: With patisseries on every other corner, indulging in creamy, gooey, blissfully caloric sweets doesn't require a difficult search. But along boulevard St-Laurent, make the effort to seek out heavenly Kilo, 5206 bd. St-Laurent, between rue Maguire and rue Fairmount (tel. 514/277-5039). They also have a branch at 1495 rue Ste-Catherine est (tel. 514/596-3933).

Best Late-Night Dining: Plateau Mont-Royal's most Parisian bistro, L'Express, 3927 rue St-Denis, at Rue Roy (tel. 514/845-5333), doesn't need a sign out front, because it stays full nightly until 3am (Sun only until 2am). Simple but toothsome recipes prepared with the freshest ingredients keep the night owls coming.

Best Outdoor Dining: Serious food isn't the lure at Le Jardin Nelson, 407 place Jacques-Cartier (tel. 514/861-5731). Music -- classical or jazz -- is what draws the crowds, who partake of sweet or savory crepes or very good pizzas under the crabapple tree in the garden.

Best People-Watching: Any of a dozen cafes along St-Denis will fit this bill, especially on weekends, when the Plateau Mont-Royal boulevard comes alive. But Café Cherrier, 3635 rue St-Denis, at rue Cherrier (tel. 514/843-4308), might be the most fun, if you can find a seat on the wraparound terrace.

Best Afternoon Tea: Gentility and correctness prevail at the Café de Paris in the Ritz-Carlton (see "Best Spot for a Business Lunch," above), where high tea is sublimely reassuring at any time of year, but best in spring and summer, when service moves outdoors next to the duck pond.

Best Brunch: Crepes with multitudes of fillings make for Frenchified brunches at Le Jardin Nelson (see "Best Outdoor Dining", above), which are served in the garden, inside, or on the terrace facing place Jacques-Cartier.

Best Smoked Meat: It'll only throw another log on the local battle for the title of "best smoked meat," which has blazed for at least a century, but Chez Schwartz Charcuterie Hébraïque de Montréal on The Main at 3895 bd. St-Laurent, north of rue Prince-Arthur (tel. 514/842-4813), serves up the definitive version of this untransplantable deli treat.

Best Fast Food: Where else but Chez Better, 160 rue Notre-Dame, near place Jacques-Cartier (tel. 514/861-2617), where sausages and schnitzels dominate the menu, washed down with any of dozens of foreign beers.

Best New Restaurant: The young chef at Area, 1429 rue Amherst, near rue Ste-Catherine (tel. 514/890-6691), made waves with his updated bistro food and huge portions, and still does. But this year's other candidate has to be Savannah, 4448 bd. St-Laurent (tel. 514/904-0277), which offers an updated version of Southern American cookery.

Best Restaurant, Period: Ever-questing Normand Laprise and partner Christine Lamarche keep Toqué!, 3842 rue St-Denis, near rue Roy (tel. 514/499-2084), in a league of its own. It's postmodern, it's postnouvelle, it's dazzling! Nipping at their heels, though, is Nuances.