Alan and I walked down here for dinner.  Several of the other restaurants we were interested in were closed tonight.  Steak Fr\u00eetes is a small chain, about 16 restaurants mostly in Eastern Canada.  They have no liquor license apparently because patrons are encouraged to bring their own wine and there were many bottles of wine in evidence.  We drank water.\n\nThe restaurant is housed in a large room w/ high ceilings.  The wall on one side was red brick.  It's divided up into smaller spaces via a few very attractive room dividers made of wrought iron and plexiglass.  Light fixtures are suspended from metal racks which are in turn suspended from the ceiling.  We were greeted and seated at a table for two by one of the room dividers.  Chalkboard menus written in French are strategically posted around the room so they can be read from any vantage point.\n\nAs is usual in Montreal we were addressed in French by our server, Marc, who switched to English when we indicated that was the language we spoke.  He brought us menus in English.  We were interested in calamari as a starter, but wanted to know if there were tentacles.  There ensued a charades-like communication, which culminated in Marc wiggling his fingers to indicate that there were tentacles.  He was adorable.  In addition to the calamari we each ordered steak fr\u00eetes, which came w/ salad, sauteed vegetables and endless fr\u00eetes.  We also ordered a side of sauteed mushrooms.\n\nWe were brought a basket containing two very hot rolls w/ butter.  The rolls were very good.  The calamari arrived and it was among the best we've had.  The batter was crisp and flavorful and the calamari was meltingly tender.  The salads were simple, w/ butter lettuce, slices of red onion and dressing.  We were offered more rolls but declined.  The steaks arrived, both medium rare, mine more toward rare while Alan's was more toward medium.  The accompanying vegetables were tiny haricot verts w/ a couple of pear tomatoes.  The steaks were very tasty.  At Marc's suggestion we had a little sauce on the side, but the meat was so good the sauce was unnecessary.  The vegetables were very good.  The mushrooms were a pleasure  The fr\u00eetes were disappointing, lukewarm and not particularly interesting.  I was happy to skip them but Alan wanted them hot, so he asked for more that were fresher.  The fr\u00eetes server came around w/ his bowl and gave me more then started to walk away.  Alan called him back, indicating he wanted some too.  They were better than the first batch, but still not that good.  The rest of the meal overshadowed the disappointing fr\u00eetes and we were pleased.