Montrealers love restaurants and throughout the city there are hundreds of eating establishments providing terrific value and excellent food.

Nancy Marrelli and Simon Dardick’s fourth edition of Cheap Thrills Montreal: Great Montreal Meals For Under $15.00, is a collection of ninety restaurants, sixty of which are new discoveries, and thirty are updates from their previous books.

Most of the restaurants reviewed in the book cater to people, who are looking for something different, while at the same time keeping the tab under $15.00 excluding the tax and tip. As the authors have mentioned, “This book is about eating well in Montreal. It is an adventure into many parts of a fascinating city in search of good food at reasonable prices.”

The entries embrace a wide range of cuisines reflecting the diverse nature of Montreal’s multi-ethnic culture. Menus, portions and ingredients of the various restaurants are creatively presented, which entice readers to indulge in a variety of inexpensive and often exotic experiences. On any day of the week we can savor food from Korea, Peru, Italy, Pakistan, Italy, Syria, Haiti, Jamaica, Brazil, China, India, Israel, Senegal, Poland, Thailand, Portugal, Greece, and many more.

Organized alphabetically, this slim tome easily fits into your back pocket, and you will have little difficulty in following the summations of the restaurants and their menus.

Each description is preceded with mention of addresses, metro information, phone number, hours, credit cards accepted, wheelchair access and average cost of the main course. Mention is also made of take-out and delivery services. One word of caution, there are no quality ratings of the restaurants.

In most instances, there are succinct and sometimes humorous comments describing the establishment’s décor. As an example, if we refer to Ma’s Place, it is described as “small but the wall mural makes it seem like you’re are cutting through the jungle on a sunny, hot day. There are four tables inside, with more on the sidewalk”

In addition, the end of the book contains specialty and neighborhood indexes. Absent, however, is web site information. Some of these restaurants do have their own websites, and it would have been interesting to examine their menus before deciding to visit them.

Cheap Thrills is geared not only to Montrealers, but also to the visitor, who very often is at a loss as to where to get the “most bang for his restaurant buck.”

Weather you use the book as a guide to find new culinary experiences or a cultural experience, you are sure to benefit from it.