Open Sat. from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Sun. from 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Mon.-Fri. from noon to 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., until 10:30 p.m. Mon. Licensed. All major credit cards. 861-6733.
 From the outside, it looks like a wooden shack ready for the next round of downtown renovations. The psychedelic entrance, when locked, may just be strong enough to keep out stray dogs and cats, but it won't stop any of the old geezers that still roam Bishop Street. But now I know what the door is for: it is a time warp to Montreal in its glorious fifties. Inside, the decor is as it was in most Montreal establishments around the Second World War. The waiters were born in the basement long before De Gaulle could even walk.
So, we ended up in this haunted house at noon, on the very day that Quebec's ex-premier Claude Ryan was buried. A sad moment for le Mas des Oliviers, because half of the patrons were older than Claude Ryan, and the other half just looked like him. It's a place of business that just happens to have food of the right era for a clientele of the same geological period.
A business lunch for four, including wine ($28 for a nice Bordeaux) but excluding tip, ran us $173. Most of us took the lunch special, which had options like a Chilean fish, rack of lamb and a steak and shrimp platter. I enjoyed a succulent filet mignon in a classical pepper sauce ($29), accompanied by mashed potatoes. In the category of basic foods, this one deserves a basic nomination.
The zucchini cream soup and the juicy pear cake were both perfectly executed as well.
 The sports doping regulators will have a ball in the kitchen, because there must be some secret Mediterranean potion there that keeps the pre-WWII staff mentally and physically alert at all times.
The prompt and efficient service is only interrupted by the traffic jam caused by double-chinned ex-ministers and small-bladdered CEOs shuffling past our table on the way to the power loo. — Reviewed by RestoSpy
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