A variety of lean, regular, and extra fat sandwiches ready to be eaten (each $5.90). Oh and do you see that sign up in the corner? The one about 13.95/pound of smoked meat that is hot or cold? My friend bought about 6.6 pounds of that (almost a small baby!) to bring back to Toronto. I’m guessing her family is still enjoying small chunks of smoked meat from Montreal!

Pickles always make sandwiches taste so much better! Another food item you must eat while in Montreal is poutine! This poutine was from a restaurant in Old Montreal. Cheese curds make a big difference in poutine. They must have that squeaky feeling to it as you bite in. Drizzled with just the right amount of gravy and accompanied with little nibblets of fries.

Schwartz’s Montreal 
3895 Saint-Laurent Blvd.
Montreal, QB
(514) 842-4813
http://www.schwartzsdeli.com/

     To complete our grand food tour of our full day in Montreal, it felt quite appropriate to eat at a french restaurant. We chose Le Pois Penche mainly because a co-worker had recommended it. Looking at their menu you may be slightly taken aback by their rather expensive prices. They are after all a traditional brasserie with all the usuals complete with a list of overpriced wines. They also advertise themselves as an upscale dining experience that is unpretentiousness with good service. While some reviews by patrons (e.g. chowhound, travelocity, expedia etc..) agree with them, most that I found while researching a bit about the restaurant found them to have rather pretentious and arrogant waiters, bad service, but solid food. My friends and I decided that we would try out the restaurant for ourselves and see how it went. First, to start our visit to the restaurant on a positive note, we made a reservation for 8:30pm on a Saturday night one day before our visit. The woman on the phone seemed rather friendly and was quickly able to confirm that their prix frixe menu ($23) was still available for a Saturday night dining experience (this was the main reason we wanted to try this restaurant).  
     Upon arriving at Le Pois Penche, the atmosphere seemed hurried and laid back at the same time. Making a reservation ahead of time was a good idea as we were quickly shown to our table while other guests waited a tad longer. The restaurant was fairly full for 8:30pm, there were patrons at the bar, enjoying their meals with friends and at the oyster bar. We sat down and were quickly given some crunchy baguettes to chew on. The waiter introduced himself, gave a few suggestions about wines (although wasn’t very certain about recommending a particular type of white wine), and drink orders appeared fairly promptly afterwards.

There were 5 prix fixe available all paired with our choice of soup or salad. There was the pan seared salmon, the ‘Curtis chicken’, steak frites, fillet of sole, and the pappardelle pasta roasted duck with spring truffles. For $23 this seemed like a fair price. Here is what we ended up ordering.  

Lobster Bisque: Another try at lobster bisque, hoping that it wouldn’t be as salty as the one at L’academie. This one included some sour cream which was a nice complement. It also helped that the soup was hot, creamy, and not too salty!

The Salad option

Pan seared Salmon with fresh seafood broth & garden vegetables

Fillet of sole: with tomatoes & feta cheese, black olive tempenade  and “fresh tomato salad” (in this case, I think it became 2 pieces of bok choy!?). Really odd combination with the large pieces of boy choy. Somewhat out of place right?

By the end of our prix fixe meal all appeared happy with their selection. Service may have been inconsistent at times (e.g. waiting for refill for water), but still fairly decent as they were attentive to requests. Their only drawback was that it took a tad longer to complete the request. We didn’t find anything close to the negative remarks made by other previous patrons and we enjoyed our time at Le Pois Penche. I would recommend, though, that if you were to go to order off the prix fixe menu. This really seemed to be the best choice for quality, quantity and cost. Other entrees around the restaurant looked equally appetizing, but I’m certain it was for a much higher price! We ended our meal with some delicious profiteroles as one of my friends had never tried them before. They were light, fluffy, stuffed with vanilla ice cream (which I think is much better than cream) and perfectly delicious. Drizzled with just the right amount of chocolate sauce they were a great end to our meal. 

Le Pois Penche
1230 de Maisonneuve Ouest
Montreal, QC
(514) 667-5050
closest station – Peel
www.lepoispenche.com

huge macarons!

Of course samples make it even better!

Look at those pied!

 Since I was after all in a macaron house, I had to pick up a box for my family. I picked up Noisette (hazelnut), Pistache (pistachio), Citron (lemon), Fruit de la Passion (passion fruit), Chocolat au lait (Milk Chocolate), and Framboise (raspberry). One box of 6 macarons was $8. Next stop after sweets is something salty! On the way to our next food destination, we stopped by St. Viateur Bagel and picked up a dozen fresh hot bagels to bring home. Despite the bagels’ freshness beckoning to us, we were stuffed – mainly from lunch at the market and eating a good plate of samples at the macaron house!

One of the many famous St. Viateur Bagel cafes

Bagels all ready to be bought & eaten hot!

  La Maison du Macaron
4479 de la Roche 
Montreal, Quebec
closest station – Mont Royal
tel: (514) 759-9290
www.lamaisondumacaron.com

St. Viateur Bagel
3 locations throughout montreal. I went to the one at 1127 Mont Royal East
tel: (514) 528-6361
http://www.stviateurbagel.com/content/?id=63



Juliette et Chocolat
various locations across town.
1. 1615 St-Denis
2. 377 Laurier Ouest (corner of Parc)
3. 3600 St-Laurent (corner of Prince-Arthur)
http://www.julietteetchocolat.com/ 

Lots of vendors with food to sample & buy!

Yes, you’re seeing clearly! That entire bucket (smaller ones) of roma tomatoes is $5!!

Rows upon rows of fresh vegetables & fruits.

hot hot peppers!!

Charcuterie, meat, pastries and desserts to purchase.

Their lunch special that day was your choice of half a sandwich, a salad, and a soup or dessert with a hot drink for $11.51. Pictured above is half a ham & swiss with a side salad.

I went with the dessert as I had heard so much about it. Strawberry shortcake.

Another ‘salad’ option to accompany the sandwich.

Marche Jean-Talon

http://www.marche-jean-talon.com/

Subway: Station Jean-Talon or Station de Castelnau (the market runs for several blocks along Rue Jean Talon)

La Première Moisson

http://www.premieremoisson.com/index/ 

various locations around Montreal. This one was located inside Jean-Talon Market.

Since Restaurant l’académie had been recommended by a few friends we decided to eat there on our first night in Montreal. This also worked out well as we had planned on walking down St.Catherines street to do some shopping before heading to dinner. 

Lobster Bisque ($2.95) notes: We were super excited about this soup originally as we craved something warm. Unfortunately, this particular lobster bisque was super salty, to the point that we could not taste the lobster or any seafood flavour at all. Luckily their fresh baguettes came in handy to help sop up the soup – but by this time we used it mainly to have something hot in our system.

Fettucinie Nastabe: Smoked Salmon, green onions in a cream sauce ($15.95)

Spaghetti Bolognese: tomatoes & viande ($14.95)

Linguine Vongole: clams in a tomato and white wine sauce ($15.95)

     Thankfully, the pastas tasted much better than our starters and were a decent portion size. I ended up eating most of my pasta as leftovers was not a viable option given that we were staying at a hotel with no fridge. Plus, we doubted that we would actually eat the leftovers when we got back to the hotel.

also note: restaurants close early in Montreal!

     This past weekend, I headed to Montreal for a girl’s trip. We decided that the most economical, time saving, and relaxing way was to use Via Rail to travel there. This was definitely the best choice, since our Via rail itinerary had us leaving Toronto Union Station at 6:50am arriving in Montreal at 12:30pm. To make our trip extra relaxing, we ended up staying at the beautiful Le Westin Montreal ; partly because it was situated in the perfect place (with Old Montreal behind the hotel and new montreal in front), their heavenly beds & heavenly shower heads of course, and finally what made it much more affordable was their ‘pay rates equal to your birth year‘ (i.e.paying regular price for the 1st night, and then the ‘pay your age’ for the 2nd night).
     Right after settling into our hotel, we set out to explore the city and to get ourselves some lunch; albeit a late one as finding our hotel, checking in and settling into our room took a bit of time. Since Olive & Gourmando was only 0.68 km from our hotel in Old Montreal we decided to head there. Upon arriving, there were quite a few people in the restaurant. Our wait was not too long – about 10 minutes and we were soon shown our table. Ordering at Olive & Gourmando reminds one of being in a Marche where a table is reserved for you, you`re handed a piece of paper and when you order you pass your paper over so she can write down your order. Once you`re done ordering, you sit down and wait for your food. Thankfully, my ability to read French although limited was not horrible so I was able to make out the various sandwiches and soups available for the day.

One of the only hot sandwiches left: goat cheese melt with carmelized onions and ketchup for dipping

pastries galore!

Tomatoes, cuban chicken, guacamole – this one had a  slight kick to it after a few bites

These very very delicious – a bit on the pricey side though for 3.25 each Olive & Gourmando  http://www.oliveetgourmando.com/ 351 St. Paul West Old Montreal, QC Tuesday – Sat: 8am-6pm Le Westin Montreal 270 St. Antoine West 514-380-3333 closest to station Square-Victoria or Place d`armes http://www.westinmontreal.com/