Damas Restaurant

A "Real" Taste of Syria

The interior is well thought-out; they managed to make it very oriental without it being tacky or too “ethnic”. We did enjoy the suspended brass lights and “diwans” along the walls. Damas offers traditional Syrian dishes while introducing new elements. For starters, you will find hot & cold mezzés, a couple of salads and soups. Then you will find the token “grillades” that pretty much every Arabic restaurant in town offers, and finally the authentic dishes that Syrians would call “home” food. The service at our table was just good; the waiting times were acceptable and our waiter checked on us repeatedly. However, near the end of the night, we thought there was some lack of professionalism at the bar area (right next to where we were seated), when the staff had a lady friend over and they were all chit-chatting, surfing the web on a laptop and watching a game on TV. All-in-all, we enjoyed the food at Damas tonight, and it brings us pride as Syrians after seeing the rave reviews it got in the media and on blogs. Hopefully Montrealers will now know how Syrian cuisine really differs from its more common Lebanese counterpart. The restaurant still needs to work a bit on its service, but we will definitely be back.