There’s a small bar in downtown Montreal that I like to frequent every so often with my friends, it’s called “Vol de Nuit”, situated at the corner of Prince Arthur and St-Laurent street (next to the Scotia Bank). I was there recently and noticed a decrease in clientèle. While I prefer nights when it’s not as packed, I felt bad for the waitresses who live off the amount of tips they make every night. With that said, here’s a review of the place for everyone’s pleasure. 🙂

First thing you’ll notice is that there is no flashy sign outside (just a small neon saying “Vol de Nuit”) the place is pretty low-key and secluded from St-Laurent. A lot of people seem to miss it when they walk by it, but the place still gets quite a bit of traffic. I think a lot of their clientèle is word of mouth. I only knew about this place after my friend Alex brought me there one night. In return, I brought my other group of friends there and we’ve found it to be quite an enjoyable spot for having a drink or two.

Once inside, you’re usually greeted by the bouncer (who happens to change every time I’m there) who nods firmly and says hello. You should obviously return the greet and smile at the same time. 🙂 Vol de Nuit isn’t a big place, but it can easily pack 100 people from what I can estimate. You’ll find a decent amount of tables and chairs for all your friends to sit. Of course, when it gets packed, you’ll have to either stand at the bar or simply drink standing up (which I oh-so-despise doing). But every time I’ve been there, I’ve been lucky to find a table and some chairs with my buddies.

On one side of the room, there is a jukebox machine loaded with music. For 50 cents or so, you get to choose a song to play over the loudspeakers in the bar. I find it’s a great addition to the place. Fortunately, the songs aren’t blasted in your ears so having a conversation between your friends without screaming and listening to the song is very possible. This type of atmosphere is usually very hard to find in many bars these days, as they usually turn up the music so loudly that your conversations are washed out.

In one corner of the place, there’s a slew of video lottery terminals (VLTs) with keno and some card games. A few of my buddies are junkies when it comes to these machines, and they play on them each time we go there.

The place is decently clean but one must remember that this is a bar. The washrooms aren’t the greatest but they’re better than other places I’ve been to. One thing I’ve noticed is that the soap dispensers actually dispense soap. A rare find indeed.

To conclude this review, I give Vol the Nuit an 8/10. I just wish the place was a little bigger and that parking downtown wasn’t such a chore (good luck finding a spot nearby!). But the latter is not the bar’s fault, so this is a great place nonetheless for some weekend fun with your friends.