kid-friendly resto advice?

[MaeveH]

Help! My brother-in-law, his wife, and their two-year-old twins are coming from the prairies to visit. Though we'll be eating at home much of the time, we'd like to take them out somewhere kid compatible and typically montrealish (and possibly write about it). Any suggestions? I'm kinda stymied...

[carswell]

You'll find some suggestions here, Maeve: Kids and Food, Need some suggestions for picky eaters

[MaeveH]

Thanks Carswell! I should have checked the backlog first. Some good recs there. Too bad spaghettata's changed, though, that would have been perfect.

You'll find some suggestions here, Maeve: Kids and Food, Need some suggestions for picky eaters

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[gus_tatory]

MaeveH--

if the kids like Chinese food--and i'm sure you can find SOMEthing they'll eat--kids are really well tolerated/treated at Beijing in Chinatown.

you could also take them for dim sum on the weekend at Ruby Rouge or Kam Fung: that's enough of a pandemonium already that a few unruly kids would fit right in...

good luck!

[cook-em-all]

I second Beijing. Kids cam be found there at all hours.

[MaeveH]

Thanks for the further recs. We ended up at La Paryse, with pretty good results, and also ate out in Quebec City. I'll admit my eyes have been opened to the absolute need for high chairs, and just how few places have 'em (even those you'd think would).

I would have loved to do Beijing and dim sum if the family had been here longer. I suspect the parents would have been a little weirded out, but maybe not. Saskatchewan has a Chinese resto in just about every small town (thanks to the railway workers needing something to do after they were no longer required for cheap labour). They were certainly game for anything, and looooved Jean Talon Market (and Schwartzs, and Portuguese tarts, and croissants, and...). I'm impressed that ice cream parlours lke Ripples and Bilboquet have tiny kiddie cones, too. Maple ice cream sure wires up the wee ones before bedtime, though.

Maeve

[thom]

I can't believe I didn't think of posting here sooner...

We're leaving sunny Manchester for Canada on Tuesday; our first major trip with our whirling dervish of an 18 month old son. God help us on a seven hour flight. We're flying into Montreal for a friends wedding, and then have to drive out to the Auberge Hatley. I have two child-related questions:

Firstly, and not that it will make much difference as we are going anyway, I wondered if anyone has any experience as to how the Auberge Hatley copes with kids. I realise as the place is a Relais and Chateaux the food will probably be excellent, but it all looks quite stuffy and formal, and I wonder how they might cope with requests for simple off-menu toddler suitable food?

Secondly, we are not planning to linger in Montreal (I realise we are missing out, but for simplicities sake we're driving straight out to the hotel) but we may hang about if the traffic is bad (we land at rush hour). If we decide to kill a couple of hours is there a decent unpretencious child friendly restaurant where we could kill a couple of hours? I'm thinking well cooked well sourced comfort food, and ideally it would be somewhere easy for a virgin to left-hand driving to find in a city he doesn't know...

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Cheers

Thom

[identifiler]

That's a tough call, if it's nice outside and you have a couple of hours to kill. I would drive up to Laurier street and have some food at Lemeac on an off hour. You could also take your kid to Au Pied de Cochon which is kind of a luxury shack, tavern. Parking around there is not easy though. If you want to go a bit more getto, you can taste terrific sandwich and pastries in the old Montreal at Olive and Gourmando, plenty of sugar for the kids ! The Holder Brasserie would also work well. Even L'Express. The trick is to set your day up on an off timing (late lunch or early dinner, when there is less people around). You will be able to eat outside at Lemeac, that's also a bonus for throwing food at pigeons !

Reguarding Hatley. First of all, the Hatley folks should continue the great service philosophy of the Germains familly, these people will make everything possible for you. They will suggest timing, table, seating, food, etc... They are top notch for that stuff and may even have the best temp baby sitter to play in the yard... make sure you just let them know.

Should you have more meals to have in the area. There is a small pub for junk food in Hatley. You can also drive across the lake to Hovey Manor which is slightly less stuffy than Hatley and be sure to grab a table at Table Tourigny in Georgeville if you want to go to food heaven, kid friendly... sure, it should, it's almost like having a meal in someone's kitchen...

[Chrisser]

Identifiler, I would hardly call Olive et Gourmando ghetto! More of a casual pastry-sandwich shop and highly recommended if you have kids in tow.

[thom]

That's brilliant feedback, thanks so much for the suggestions.

We fly tomorrow first thing, so I'll let you know how we fared on my return.

Cheers

Thom

[slebowitz]

Any kid-friendly recommendations for Quebec City? My wife & I are visiting from the US right now with our 2 year-old and 5 year-old. I'm eager to try the locally raised foie gras I read about.

We stumbled upon Le Bistro L'Ancetre in Trois Rivieres en route from Montreal to Quebec. Menu was mostly Italian standards nicely prepared. We & our 2 turkeys felt very welcome. Our waiter surprised them with colorful kiddie cocktails when they asked for lemonade, and he had no trouble substituting a pasta and splitting the dish for them. It helped that we ate early and outside so the kids could run around between bites (there's indoor & outdoor seating).

Edited June 11, 2005 by slebowitz (log)

[identifiler]

slebowitz, please read the quebec city post I will add on there.

Yes, Chrisser, you're right... I meant gettho in the nice bohemian girl with Dior enlarged glasses_I_code_for_video_games bi in a loft kind of way.

I also suggest Le Continental on St-Denis.

[thom]

All,

Just to say that the trip to Canada was wonderful, and the Auberge Hatley in particular was utterly outstanding.

As to where we ate, well I have to admit we copped out a little bit. Not telling experienced parents anything they don't know here, but however much of a gourmet/food snob you are, convinience does become a bit of a driver to your dining choices, especially when you are in the middle of such an exhausting trip (with temps in the 90's...).

On that note, we skipped straight out of the airport and hot-tailed it directly up to North Hatley. The weather was so hot that we didn't really do much roaming around (my better half was obsessed with keeping out fair-skinned, sun-block slathered toddler out of the sun) so we ate most of the meals in the hotel. To be honest, when the food is as good as the Auberge Hatley (and especially when breakfast and dinner is included) it would be a crime not to.

Looking back on our whirlwind multi-city trip the details of individual meals escape me. We ate the first night in our rooms, and after about 16 hours straight of travel the food was good enough to raise our weary eyebrows. The high points were my scallop starter with citrus and beet puree, the goats cheese starter, and my main of rabbit. Oh, and the desserts, with a top drawer apple tart, and incredibly light but intense fruit sorbets.

What impressed me about the dishes was the compostion and balance of ingredients, the effortless and unshowy techniques demonstrated, and the precise and intense flavours. I don't eat French formal dining on a regular basis, but that first meal reminded me of exactly why I should make the effort to do so more often.

I hate to get all low-brow, but I have to say I found the breakfasts just as enjoyable the next morning. Delicious home made granola, a great selection of fruit, cold meats and cheeses, and really, really good pastries. In fact, the pastries were so good (we seem to struggle for good croissants in the UK) that the first morning I ate two mini-muffins, two croissants, and too choclatines. And cereal. And a cooked breakfast. The only let-down was the sausages, which I found tended to split, and had a slightly gelatanous quality.

We ate in the restaurant the next night, and standards were maintained. For some reasons the dishes don't stand out so clearly (though I think I had the guineau fowl as a main), but the quality was undoubtably as high, and the sommelier helfully gave us an indiots guide around their impressive wine list, and we enjoyed some well chosen glasses to accompany each course.

The wedding meal the next night was also great, though the company (and possibly the celebratory drinking) was so overwhelming that again the details escape me, though a buttery foie gras starter lives in the memory.

I must congratulate the hotel on the level of service and child-friendly flexibility we received, which was absolutely outstanding. They were even kind enough to knock up some simple pasta with tomato sauce for our toddler (which needless to say was delicious). Most staggering of all was the fact that they did this at five minutes notice, about two hours before they catered for about 100 guests at the wedding dinner. Considering the strain the kitchen must have been under to accomplish this was wonderful.

So, thanks for all the tips and feedback here - sorry we didn't get to act on more of them - and for the reassurance about the Auberge Hatley - which was absolutely spot on. We will be coming back to Canada.

Cheers

Thom