Restaurant du Vieux Port, as well as its sister restaurant, Modavie, are terrific. Both offer the charm, great service, food, and cost you are looking for. Modavie also offers jazz upstairs, and its food is a little more Mediterrainian but has some French influences as well. Enjoy!!

I found Restaurant du Vieux Port to be a very busy place, not much of a romantic feel to it. The food was fine but they sure pack them in and out of there. I'm certain that one of the regulars here will come up with a better suggestion. Perhaps it would help if you advised where you are staying.

We are actually staying at the Hotel du Fort... but location df restaurant won't matter too much, as we have a car or will cab if we both plan on having some drinks.. I am looking forward to this hotel though, as it looks nice. It was hard to find a B&B at later notice for that weekend...especially one without a shared bathroom - no thanks! Thanks for your advice!

You could consider this restaurant, it's very cozy.

pierreducalvet.ca/english/restaurants.html

Search for calvet in this forum to see what else I wrote about the place.

I would recommend Da Emma, a restaurant you mentioned in your post. While we were in Montreal earlier this year, we were told about the restaurant by people who live in the city. It is very quiet, with subdued lighting and interestingly enough is housed in the old women's prison in Montreal. I really enjoyed the ambience in this restaurant, it's nice to see something a little different and imaginative. The food was very good. I had a pork dish, and even though I am not big on meat, I really enjoyed my dinner. My husband had a pasta dish, that he really liked as well.

If you don't order expensive wines, I think you can keep your total under 150.00

Good luck.

Re Da Emma

Unless you eat at on the terrace, adjacent to their parking, the restaurant is located in a basement and is quite dark. Some people don't enjoy this, especially in the summer.

If you order wine other than by the glass, you will likely exceed the $150 budget.

A small, smart casual restaurant in little italy is Primo e secundo:

radio-canada.ca/television/…primoSecondo.html

A restaurant that you might find romantic and somewhat less expensive than Da Emma is Da Vinci, located in a victorian on Bishop Street (it has crown moldings, a fireplace, all the good stuff, small and intimate):

http://www.davinci.ca/english/index.htm

thanks everyone for the advice so far.. 3 weeks until we go!

any thoughts on Modavie?

Yes, I have thoughts on Modavie and they are not especially good. If you don't care about food and/or jazz, you may like it.

LoveViva, you may wish to look at this place:

http://www.stashcafe.com/

The prices are reasonable, the food was very good, the ambiance was cool and romantic (try to reserve a window table) and they have a piano player who will tinkle the ivory will you dine. My wife wanted to go back the following night.

Wherever you go, I hope its a great evening.