best of mtl issue 2025
Arts & Life, Best of MTL

The 2025 Best of MTL issue is here!

by Lorraine Carpenter

Our May letter from the editor.

The Best of MTL 2025 is here!

And the city has spoken.

Over the past four months, Montrealers voted for their favourite Montreal things in our annual Best of MTL readers poll.

What a time to be celebrating all things local. Our country and its economy are being threatened by a dictator. We just experienced a simultaneously unifying and polarizing federal election. The Habs were still in the playoffs when this magazine went to print. (Let’s not talk about the playoffs.) Stressful as hell. 

Luckily we live in an incredible city that has so much to offer; it always has your back. No matter what’s going on, we can never lose sight of the joie de vivre that makes this place magical.

We like to think that this poll serves as a cheering section, a reminder, a connection to the things that make this city great, and something to celebrate — just as the seasons shift from winter to summer.

Here at Cult MTL, we’re grateful for all our readers and all the voters who took the time to think about everything they love in this city to fill out this poll. As always, it’s our mandate to salute the artists, promoters, organizers, reporters, restaurateurs and retailers who keep Montreal’s heart beating. 

The Best of MTL poll is open and democratic, with no editorial influence or interference. Ballot-stuffing is automatically weeded out by our survey software, and while we are always glad to see so many people make an event of voting via social media campaigns (and love seeing third-party get-out-the-vote tweets), we remain neutral during the polling period.

Cult MTL has been running the Best of MTL readers poll since 2013, but it bears mentioning that the survey follows in the tradition established by the city’s defunct but fondly remembered alt-weekly newspaper the Mirror. Respect.

Our website will feature all the individual categories in this poll over the course of the year, showcasing every winner in all the Top 5s. (To see our Food Editor Clay Sandhu’s annual critique of your food picks, aka “Resto Wrongs,” please click here.)

We thank everyone who voted and promoted the poll. Participation continues to grow every year, making the 2025 results more representative of the city than ever.

To all the winners: congratulations. 

We’re proud to bring you the Best of MTL 2025. ■

The 2025 Best of MTL issue is here!

Best of MTL cover artwork by Whatisadam.

To view the readers poll results, please click here.

Posted in Arts & Life, Best of MTL

by Lorraine Carpenter

Editor in chief
Lorraine Carpenter was born in Montreal and studied communications and journalism at Concordia. She co-founded Cult MTL in 2012 following the closure of the alt weekly newspaper the Mirror, where she worked as a writer and editor for 12 years. She’s dedicated to supporting the cultural scene in Montreal and maintaining an independent voice in the Canadian media landscape.