BonnieTravel Date: June 1-5, 2022
We went on our first road trip to Montreal from June 1-5, 2022. The goal was to try out as many “must eats” as possible suggested from online bloggers. Not only did we want to try the must eats, we wanted to try them from different restaurants and compare them. A google sheet was created by all of us (including the kids) to list out where we would like to eat, type of food, address, opening hours, etc. in order to fully maximize our three days there.
Below you will find our review of the “must eats”. I also included restaurants that are not in food blogger websites, but we tried due to the high reviews or being in the area.
| Restaurant | Our Order |
| Kem Coba | Rose & Lychee Raspberry, Pandan, Sour Sop, Passion Fruit Orange, Mango sorbet |
| St. Vieteur Bagels | Sesame bagel and Raisin bagel |
| Fairmont Bagels | Sesame bagel and Chocolate bagel |
| La Banquise | Original Poutine |
| Chez Claudette | Original Poutine |
| Chalet BBQ | Rotisserie chicken and poutine |
| Schwartz’s Deli | Smoked meat sandwich & poutine |
| Au Pain Dore | Regular croissant, Chocolate Croissant, Chocolatine, Apple Fritter |
| La Bete A Pain(Griffintown) | Almond Croissant, Cookies, Baguette, Chocolatine, Apple pastry |
| Orange Julep | Orange Julep |
| Breizh Cafe | L’After Eight Crepe, Snickers Crepe |
| Juliette et Chocolat | 55% Hot chocolate and cappuccino |
| Wilensky’s | Salami and bologna sandwich |
| L’Oeufrier (Masson and De La Montagne locations) | Large breakfast menu including crepe, poutine, eggs, fruit salad, etc |
| Lasalle Drive-In Restaurant | Poutine, burger, hot dog and fries |
Kem Coba
Who doesn’t love a good, refreshing dessert? My children loved Kem Coba’s sorbet so much that we came here twice in 3 days! They serve many unique flavours, and during that time, the special was the “Rose & Lychee Raspberry” sorbet. It was delicious with a good balance of rose and lychee flavour.
There’s always a line up at Kem Coba. Fortunately, while the kids and I waited in line, hubby would grab food from other places nearby such as Fairmont Bagels and Wilensky’s.
Bagels (Fairmont vs St. Viateur)
Fairmont Bagel was very easy to get to since we were always at Kem Coba area whereas St. Vieteur was a bit further out. St. Veituer’s store was bigger and showed how they make their bagels but Fairmont was only a small cash register with pre-packaged bagels. Overall, we prefer Fairmont’s bagels. We find them slightly sweeter with a better texture. Even without any toppings, it was a joy eating the Fairmont bagels.
Poutine
Within 3 days, my son had 6 poutines pretty much to himself. The poutine itself was a meal and you could add many different toppings on it. To compare them, all 6 poutines eaten were the regular flavour.
Overall La Banquise took top honours. It had tasty gravy and chewy cheese. Chez Claudette was the runner up. Their fries were better than La Banquise and had a sweeter taste to it. The poutine from other places were mediocre but still better than Toronto’s, except for the one from Chalet BBQ. I would not recommend anything from that restaurant if you’ve already had Swiss Chalet.
Chalet BBQ
This restaurant was said to have the best rotisserie chicken in Montreal with a long history. However, to us, it was as if they ripped off the recipes from Swiss Chalet (or maybe vice-versa), but their version was worse.
Schwartz’s Deli
You can’t go wrong with a nice smoked meat sandwich from Schwartz’s. It was lacking mustard sauce but overall it still hit the spot. I would order the regular fries instead of the poutine.
Pastries (La Bete A Pain vs Au Pain Dore)
La Bete a Pain had better pastries than Au Pain Dore but it was farther away from downtown Montreal. You can easily find many Au Pain Dore all over Montreal.
Orange Julep
You may have seen this iconic restaurant with a big orange on the top. It is famous for their Orange Julep drink and we purposely drove there to try it out after visiting Mont Royale. The drink was very tasty and tasted a bit like creamsicle with a stronger orange juice taste to it. It was definitely worth a visit.
Desserts
Breizh Café specializes in crepes and there were so many to choose from! It was our afternoon snack so we went with dessert crepes which were good, but not amazing. I think it’s the variety that makes this restaurant interesting. We actually enjoyed the crepe more from L’Oeufrier in Masson more.
We only ordered drinks from Juliette et Chocolat but it was fun watching them make massive desserts while waiting for our order. It will surely give you a sugar rush eating one of their desserts!
Wilensky’s Wilensky’s is a small corner store by Kem Coba. They have an all-beef salami and bologna sandwich that’s grilled on a roll. It pairs perfectly with a cherry soda. It’s a small sandwich so you can easily grab it as a snack or purchase multiples as a meal, then head to Kem Coba for some sorbet!
L’Oeufrier
L’Oeufrier is a breakfast restaurant and their portions were huge. We ate at two different locations just because we were in that area (Masson was near the Biodome while De La Montagne was near our hotel). The one at Masson was better overall. The crepes were better, the portion size was bigger, and there were more fruits.
Lasalle Drive-In Restaurant
This drive-in restaurant was the only restaurant you would find if you were to do a bike ride along St. Lawrence River on Lasalle Boulevard. The food was quite decent (or we were just hungry)! The hot dogs were the small Montreal sized ones but the poutine was actually better than some other restaurants, such as Chalet BBQ or Schwartz’s.
