A 1-day Montreal Foodie Adventure – where to eat and what to order
October 16, 2023
Montreal – one of my favorite pitstops because of THE FOOD, such wondrous food! In this article, I’m going to list down all my favorite places to chow. And believe me, there are A LOT. Are you ready? Here’s the list of places we hit up in ONE DAY. Shocker isn’t it?
Breakfast time: Olive et Gourmando
Website: https://oliveetgourmando.com/
Super delicious pastries!! We got here 9:30 and they were already full (they open at 9!). It’s so popular – the tourists we were with were all willing to wait 30mins to an hour for a seat. The local in front of me bought a whole bag of croissants 😂 Tried all the available pastries and their cuban sandwich (which is what they’re famous for)
Honestly, everything was excellent.
☀️ Almond Croissant: almonds wonderfully toasted. I could taste the almond with every bite
☀️ Kouign Amann: Always a favorite. So delectable!
☀️ Korning Hun: A light cinnamon bun to start out our day. Best start ever
☀️ Chocolate croissant: Delish!
☀️ Sconewich: Ama actually ate every single bite. I guess it’s grandma-approved
☀️ Cuban sandwich: Toasted panini
Coffee was great too! As there were no seats available, we got the pastries takeaway, then just popped by the park to eat (a convenient 2mins walk away)
Afterwards, we walked to Notre Dame and took some photos. Some souvenir shopping occurred here too. Surprisingly, prices were reasonable despite being so near a tourist attraction.
Well all that shopping made me craving for something sweet, so I decided to snack on some Beaver Tails
Website: https://beavertails.com/
Tried the bananarama (super rich hazelnut spread) and the classic (cinnamon and sugar)
Flat donuts, expertly fried! I recommend anything with the hazelnut spread mmmm 😋
From here, we checked out the Old Port, the Grande Roue, and the Clock Tower Beach. Nice place to burn some calories and get ready to eat some more!
Now, it’s finally time for lunch. Took the metro and a bus to Fairmont Bagel! Disclaimer, St. Viateur is roughly 2 blocks away, but I’ll talk about them both here because they are both super famous for their bagels.
Websites:
Montreal is famous for their bagels – specifically the rivalry between Fairmont and St. Viateur – so named because their original locations was on these streets.
Because of this, I knew I had to try both! Thankfully both can still be found at their original locations, only ~2 blocks away from each other. Montreal bagels are different from New York style bagels in that they are smaller (they look obviously handmade), less chewy, and sweeter (they’re bathed in sweetened boiling water before being baked in a big wood-fire oven). Real eggs are used, not liquified eggs. Wet yeast, instead of dry yeast.
This cooking process and ingredients are what gives the Montreal bagels that distinctive chewiness and golden crust.
We tried a variety of flavors. To compare, we got the poppy and sesame from both shops. Then we tried a variety of other flavors (rosemary and sea salt, blueberry, maple apple, cinnamon and raisin, blueberry)
Verdict: Let me preface by saying I am NOT a bagels person. But, these Montreal bagels are GREAT even when eaten on its own. I like the chewiness, I like the fact that they taste sweet (must be that honey water!). Overall, I’m just impressed by how I can eat a bagel as a snack, without any additional filling needed
Between the two, I preferred Fairmont over St. Viateur, just because I thought the bagel was softer. I found St. Viateur’s bagel to be too chewy actually
Of the flavors, obviously I liked the sweet ones more hehe. Maple apple, blueberry, cinnamon and raisin – yum!! But for purists, the sesame seed is supposed the be the most popular. The all dressed is also interesting as it has a mix of sesame, poppy, onion and garlic for that bold burst of flavor and texture!
Would I recommend? Yes, without a doubt! Try both!
Pro tip: if you want your bagel to keep fresh (it lasts for 4 days), just wrap it tightly with paper, then wrap the paper tightly with plastic. Put in the refrigerator. When ready to eat, bring it out and toast.
After this, it’s time for Drogheria Fine – Montreal’s most famous gnocchi to-go.
Website: www.lasalsadellanonna.com
Interestingly, what you pay for is NOT the gnocchi, but actually the tomato sauce – which is the recipe perfected over many years.
Unlike most, their gnocchi is not boiled first, but instead cooked with the sauce in order to control the temperature and texture.
Very interesting. Not a huge fan of tomato sauce but this was good and waaaay too filling haha. It’s right beside Fairmont Bagel so do check them out!
Next up, we hopped on over to Wilensky’s Specials – a family owned business famous for their Wilensky’s Special (sandwich made with all beef salami and all beef bologna with mustard and grilled on a roll)
Website: http://www.top2000.ca/wilenskys/
They’ve been in business since 1932!
I love the sandwich! Tastes like egg muffin, with a very generous serving of salami. Delicioussssss!!!
We paired it with root beer egg cream soda and orange-vanilla egg cream soda (tastes like Cherifer haha). Egg cream soda originated from Brooklyn, with each store creating their own recipe. You would then add soda water to it to make it a soda. No idea why it’s called egg cream though since there’s no egg nor cream.
Overall, love how it felt like I was entering an old-school diner, and the friendliness of the staff manning the counter
Now for something sweet, it was time for Kem Coba.
Website: https://kemcoba.com/
Asian infused ice cream? Whatever does that mean? Well we went to Kem Coba to find out. Wide mix of eclectic flavors like Vietnamese coffee, medjool dates, pandan, yogurt, salted butter, peanut butter and honey, lychee rose and the like 🫶
Definitely an experience!
After all that heavy eating, time for a quick coffee break at Café Olimpico.
Website: https://cafe-olimpico-1970.myshopify.com/
Supposedly this is the local’s coffee shop of choice, so we decided to go check it out 😁
I’m not a coffee drinker so I actually didn’t know what to order. Ended up getting a cafe mocha and a cortado (half espresso, half milk). The cafe mocha was good coz it was sweet. The cortado tasted like coffee 😂
Now, for the MAIN EVENT. It was time to check out Schwartz’ Deli.
Website: http://schwartzsdeli.fr/
World famous. I wasn’t leaving Montreal without trying their best smoked meat. Founded in 1928, Schwartz has been ever ever since.
Unlike other smoked meats place, Schwartz prides itself in not adding chemicals and using their own secret blend of fine herbs and spices to marinate for 10 days. Their meat is smoked daily and contains zero preservatives.
Well I’m not a smoked meat expert, Schwartz’s is so so so good. Hands down.
We also got the turkey sandwich, which was good, but I would’ve traded it in for another smoked meat sandwich in a heartbeat.
Definitely go here if you’re in Montreal!
After this, we definitely needed to burn some calories, so we took a hike up Mount Royal – the mountain that gave Montreal its name. This was nice, and we made it up just in time for the sunset too. Ahh, beautiful!
For a step-by-step guide on the fastest way up Mount Royal, check this out: A step-by-step guide to the easiest and fastest hike up Mount Royal – Goldie Goes Global
Take the Chinese out of China (or the Philippines haha), but you can’t take our fondness for Chinese food 😂
After all that delicious meat and bagel goodness, the unanimous family request for dinner was… Chinese please haha
Time for delicious classic Qing Hua Dumplings.
Website: https://www.facebook.com/qinghuademaisonneuve/
Everything was delicious:
☀️ Hot and Sour Soup
☀️ Cold noodles with peanut butter: surprisingly good, although I didn’t taste the peanut butter. I liked the spicy kick though
☀️ Steamed dumplings: we got three varieties (pork and coriander, lamb and green onion, chicken and mushroom). My favorite was the chicken and mushroom. As this had a soup base inside, the mushroom really added that flavor! Lamb was a close second though. I looooove lamb dumplings. The pork and coriander lost because I’m not so fond of coriander haha!
Overall super happy tummy. Also so happy to be in a super efficient restaurant. They were quick to take our order, quick to serve, quick to calculate the bill.
Although, just to be perfectly honest, my aunt and uncle from Toronto say the Toronto dumplings are better since there’s more meat in it. Ha, can’t wait to try Toronto’s then
After dinner, it’s time to shop some more at Chinatown! Swear, cheapest souvenirs anywhere, although quality can sometimes be a bit suspect. But for the standard stuff – like maple syrup etc, ridiculously good prices here!!
Last but not the least, for a midnight snack, head on over to Dunn’s Famous.
Website: https://www.dunnsfamous.com/
Very 1950s diner vibe – think Archie (the comics, not Riverdale 🤣). They’re famous for their smoked meats and their cheesecake – with the smoked meat marinated for 14 days with their own unique spices, to lock in the flavor from the smokehouse all the way to my tummy!
I liked everything we ordered actually – although it can’t hold a candle to Schwartz’!
☀️ Reuben (smoked meat, swiss cheese, sauerkraut, erved on pumpernickel bread)
☀️ Smoked Meat Plate (1/2 pound smoked meat, fresh rye bread)
☀️ Smoked Meat Fried Rice (Pan fried rice with smoked meat, bell peppers, mushrooms, broccoli and onions)
☀️ Carrot Caramel Cheesecake
Everything was super good! The smoked meat flavor was so good without being overpowering! But the crowd fave was the fried rice, likely coz we missed rice so so much haha. And the carrot caramel cheesecake was literally carrot cake and cheesecake combined (more cake than cheesecake which is just how I like it)
Yay super reco, especially because it’s open till late. One of the few in the area.
And that’s a wrap! I know your tummy is thanking me (or not hehe)!