Weekend in Montreal – What Shouldn't I Miss?

[rotuts]

those who prefer ketchup on there fries, well OK

but try this: 'Cocktail Sauce' ( you know for shrimp ) with a decent amount of horseradish and a drop or two of lemon

try that.

[paulpegg]

We ate dinner at Joe Beef a few weeks ago and it was out of this world good! I know you have returned from your trip but this is for anyone planning on going to Montreal. Joe Beef is a not to miss place. Reserve early! Anthony Bourdain calls it the best restaurant in town and my local friends agree.

[SylviaLovegren]

Here are a few pics from 3 weeks ago:

That is BEAUTIFUL. Yum.

[SylviaLovegren]

Upstate NY is very much fun. I can recommend Doug's Fish Fry in Skaneatales. And for a crazy old-fashioned NY Italian place, Delmonicos in Syracuse -- the waitresses dress like mobsters with black fishnet stockings and the servings are enormous -- they're known for steaks, which are good, but the local specialty "Chicken Rigis" (rigatoni with chicken in a cream sauce with artichokes and peppers) is excellent. Also, I always enjoy ordering "rigis".

Call me a local, but if you're looking for a fish fry in upstate NY, you'd be better off going to Rudy's in Oswego than to any of the Doug's locations.

MelissaH

Interesting. Next time if we make it NE enough we'll try Rudy's. The Skaneatales Doug's has such a great location and ambience, and the beer and ice cream is good, we really enjoy it. It's a natural stop for us and we just love the town and the lake.

[LindaK]

Bump.  Any new recommendations out there?  I'll be in Montreal later this week and will have a lunch and dinner on my own over the weekend.  Staying downtown but don't mind a taxi or subway ride if it's worthwhile.

[weinoo]

You could easily pass these up...

 

That Montreal bagel thing...

 

 

 

Say what you will, they're just not as good as a classic NY bagel is.  Too light and airy, in a weird way.

 

I'll travel to Brooklyn (Bagel Hole), Whitestone (Utopia Bagels), Utopia/Fresh Meadows (Bagel Oasis), or even New Jersey for bagels, all of which will be better than these.

[Darienne]

25 minutes ago, weinoo said:

You could easily pass these up...

 

That Montreal bagel thing...

 

 

 

Say what you will, they're just not as good as a classic NY bagel is.  Too light and airy, in a weird way.

 

I'll travel to Brooklyn (Bagel Hole), Whitestone (Utopia Bagels), Utopia/Fresh Meadows (Bagel Oasis), or even New Jersey for bagels, all of which will be better than these.

Excuse me, but some might beg to differ with you as to relative excellence of the Montreal bagel.   

And I am delighted to say, that I have found another ex-Montrealer in my local neck of the woods and we are going to send an order to St-Viateur.  Now I admit, I've never had a bagel from St-Viateur, but I am going for it.

[weinoo]

Well, if you've never had a NY bagel, then you have nothing to compare it to.

 

 

[gfweb]

It's not unlike pizza. If you've never had pizza from the pizza belt (new haven to Philly within 20 miles of  I-95) you might be pleased with a lesser product. 

1 hour ago, weinoo said:

Well, if you've never had a NY bagel, then you have nothing to compare it to.

 

 

 

[rotuts]

I agree

 

Pizza Belt Pizza starts

 

and ends

 

at Pepe's   NewHaven ,  not so much the chain

[weinoo]

11 hours ago, rotuts said:

I agree

 

Pizza Belt Pizza starts

 

and ends

 

at Pepe's   NewHaven ,  not so much the chain

We can take this over to the NY thread, but you're discounting much great pizza in NYC. And recent reports from Pepe's haven't even been that great!

[weinoo]

A very nice weekend in Montreal, even with a snafu at Joe Beef, which aggravated me.

 

But prior we did stop in to LVP, consuming a few glasses of wine and a snack...

 

 

Grilled haricots, with harissa yogurt, bread crumbs and mint. Delicious (and maybe we should have stayed here to eat). Haricots were on every menu, and deservedly so, especially after seeing these at both Atwater and Jean Talon...

 

 

Saturday's dinner was a new restaurant from the Toqué group, Beau Mont, in the gentrifying Parc Extension neighborhood. We'd not eaten at Toqué, so this was high on my list. Located in a semi industrial office building, quite modern and spacious inside. We decided to sit at the sparsely populated bar, comfortable and with lots of room. Great service from a fabulous bartender, and we dove in.

 

Fine technical cooking, I guess to be expected from a Laprise run kitchen, focused on local ingredients, etc. etc.  Bluefin is around, as noted on an earlier visit to Montreal, and here it was offered a few different ways. We went for the off-menu appetizer, cured and served with local artichokes and strawberry puree dotted around the plate...

 

 

A Nordic-ish (well, maybe everything is Nordic-ish?) seared cucumber, hollowed out and filled with local Beurrasse cheese, topped with cured herring row, won me over. So much so that the picture sucks...

 

 

Significant Eater opted for a really lovely pasta for her main course, while I, after reading about D'artagnan's Quebec sourced salt-marsh lamb, opted for the salt-meadow lamb from Quebec.  Lamb "steak" from the leg, with pureed coco beans...

 

 

Champignons on the side for both of us.  Cheeses, dessert. A very nice meal all around. With a bottle of wine, a martini, 2 glasses of wine, $306 CA pre tip, so quite reasonable for food this good.

 

Sunday night's dinner at Lemeac was also a winner, if a little more crazy in the service department. Including a great smoked hareng, duck confit, more haricots, a pretty damn good crab cake, moules frites, and profiteroles. Everything fine, if not revelatory. A wee bit more drinking than the night before, but the bill was exactly the same.  I found their wine prices to be more on a par with the mark up we see here, except in Canadian dollars...so it doesn't feel quite as rough.

 

Light market lunches both days. Oh, and for me, there's this fun stuff too (when in Canada)...

 

[Darienne]

On 9/6/2018 at 5:14 PM, Darienne said:

Excuse me, but some might beg to differ with you as to relative excellence of the Montreal bagel.   

And I am delighted to say, that I have found another ex-Montrealer in my local neck of the woods and we are going to send an order to St-Viateur.  Now I admit, I've never had a bagel from St-Viateur, but I am going for it.

I never got back on this one.  The bagels from St-Viateur were not good.  I didn't realize that my acquaintance used them only toasted.  Well, toasting bagels is not my thing and I wa sorry that I bought them.  

 

Montreal bagels must come straight from the bakery and be eaten the same day.

 

Sorry you did not enjoy a proper bagel in your visit.

 

[Nyleve Baar]

Ex-New Yorker now Canadian. And I even lived a stone's throw from Utopia Bagels in Queens. TOTALLY converted to Montreal bagels after son spent years at McGill. It is a different creature but an excellent one. I'll hear no negativity about Montreal bagels. St. Viateur is as good as Fairmount. But in any case they must be sesame, not poppy.

Edited October 11, 2019 by Nyleve Baar (log)

[weinoo]

No negativity; just that they're not bagels. And if they are, they suck.

[Nyleve Baar]

Let us agree to diagree.

[weinoo]

12 hours ago, Nyleve Baar said:

Let us agree to diagree.

Kinda boring, but if that makes you happy...

[rotuts]

@weinoo

 

sorry you ,missed Schwartz's

 

of course , some one from NYC wouldn't understand it.

\

I like the older sty;e bagel :  dense , plump good chew.

 

not the newer bready ones that can be cut in 1/2 and thus used for a sandwich 

Edited October 12, 2019 by rotuts (log)

[weinoo]

59 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@weinoo

 

sorry you ,missed Schwartz's

 

of course , some one from NYC wouldn't understand it.

\

I like the molder sty;e bagel :  dense , plump good chew.

 

not the newer bready ones that can be cut in 1/2 and thus used for a sandwich 

 

I've been to Schwartz's in the past and it's very good; I'm just not one to wait on line for hours for a specific food.

 

Now - as to the bagels, since agreeing to disagree is disagreeable to me...

 

The older style bagel (dense, somewhat plump, chewy crumb AND a great crust) is hard to find these days, but I've got a few decent enough places I still go to. And these days, you can be sure I'm buying (if they have them) mini-bagels, which are the same size as bagels of yore were at one time.

 

As you know, old @rotuts, when bagels started to become sandwich bread (something they were NEVER meant to be), that pretty much screwed the pooch for us old-school bagel lovers.

 

[rotuts]

indeed.

 

way back when  

 

( bring up the Violin section , please )

 

Schwartz's didn't have a line , but was always full

 

never understood why MHSM never seeded itself Here , There , Everywhere.

 

and this discussion has been had here.

 

I guess I should be great full :  a " Medium Plate " from time to time

 

would have by now possibly killed me 

 

but w a smile .

[TicTac]

On 10/12/2019 at 8:26 AM, weinoo said:

Kinda boring, but if that makes you happy...

 

All right, I'll bite...

 

You mentioned that St V's bagels were too 'light and airy', are NY's more akin to what...red bricks?!

 

I mean, Montreal bagels are already at the far end of the 'heavy' bagel spectrum, yet you complain that they are not dense enough?!  I cannot admit to having a NY bagel, nor will I ever (having recently gone GF) but I will say that Montreal bagels are close enough to hockey puck density for me!

 

 

 

 

 

[MetsFan5]

I’ll be in Montreal in a week. I suspect my hunger could be motivated by the legality of a certain plant. 
 

  The TimeOut food hall has some interesting items. Given the temperatures up there, I will need to be majorly motivated to travel more than a quarter of a mile from the hotel. 

[Steve R.]

Whether your taste buds become overstimulated or not, I'd appreciate commentary on where you wind up eating for my stay in May.  Not that I've been there yet, but I assume you can get around underground more than in most places so staying near your place of stay may not be a necessity.    https://montrealundergroundcity.com

[weinoo]

We recently spent 5 days in Montreal, after a quick visit to Burlington - this was a driving vacation. I got some tips from Steve and a few others about the current scene, as well as from the restaurants I follow on various social media platforms.

 

We stayed on the Le-Plateau-Mont-Royal, in a nice AirBnB, and the street it was on turns into a pedestrian only street during the summer, which was excellent. No noise, no traffic, perfect for strolling.  Were literally across the street from an outpost of St. Viateur, so I was able to grab hot bagels each morning for breakfast. Without apology, I'll just say they're pretty lame, but...

 

 

 

And yes, I know everyone likes Schwartz's, but not being one to wait on a line for a sandwich, we tried another highly-regarded deli.

 

 

Snowdon Deli.

 

More to come.

Edited July 5, 2022 by weinoo (log)

[Darienne]

29 minutes ago, weinoo said:

We recently spent 5 days in Montreal, after a quick visit to Burlington - this was a driving vacation. I got some tips from Steve and a few others about the current scene, as well as from the restaurants I follow on various social media platforms.

 

We stayed on the Le-Plateau-Mont-Royal, in a nice AirBnB, and the street it was on turns into a pedestrian only street during the summer, which was excellent. No noise, no traffic, perfect for strolling.  Were literally across the street from an outpost of St. Viateur, so I was able to grab hot bagels each morning for breakfast. Without apology, I'll just say they're pretty lame, but...

 

 

 

And yes, I know everyone likes Schwartz's, but not being one to wait on a line for a sandwich, we tried another highly-regarded deli.

 

 

 

Snowdon Deli.

 

 

 

And if I'd been asked...I would have recommended the Snowdon Deli.  It's where Ed and I used to go.  Just down the street from the Main Florist.  My Grandmother started the store many many decades ago on the Main (St. Laurence).   As for the St. Viateur bagels...I agree with you.  We bought ours on Decarie, near the Snowden Deli.