Used this board quite a bit to come up with an eating itinerary for our Montreal trip, so I figured I should post about it.
Saturday, Aug 9
Common Man – NH border
Felt like we kind of got tricked into thinking this travel plaza had more actual restaurants. Capable egg sandwich and some great potato chips that we enjoyed over the next three days.
Shelburne Vineyard – Shelburne, VT
Liked my white tasting, and husband had a bunch of interesting options on his rosé tasting, including a red pet-nat. Grabbed two bottles to take home. Live music, nice scenery. Reservations helpful on a Saturday.
Daily Planet – Burlington, VT
Falafel burger with fries. Just what I needed after a long drive (as a passenger). Unlike a lot of veggie burgers, didn’t fall apart at all as I was eating it.
Sunday, Aug 10
Rustic Roots – Shelburne, VT
Shirred eggs with mushrooms and spinach. Didn’t end up being a ton of vegetables, but how often do you see baked eggs on a menu these days? Went great with their fried potatoes and homemade bread.
Snow Farm Vineyard – South Hero, VT
Nice view. The sweeter wines were better than the drier ones. Took home what was billed as a maple coferment—could be interesting to have with cheese or dessert.
Salle Climatisée – Montreal
In case you go on a 95 degree day like we did, I think the restaurant name is meant to be ironic. We loved it, hugely impressive introduction to Montreal dining.
Leeks vinaigrette with sunflower butter – I think I see what they were going for (peanut butter and onion sandwich?), but I might have preferred a more standard take.
Tomato salad with clams – So simple, I said I’d make this at home but I probably never will make the effort. Wonderful.
Beef tartare – Seemingly had a burnt-onion element, which worked. Grabbed some bread and (excellent) butter to go with this and the tomatoes.
Corn, chamomile butter, tarragon – This one, I might actually make at home. Perfect.
Cheese plate – A soft and a semi-soft, both very ripe. A good raspberry jam was served alongside, but honestly wasn’t necessary.
Carrot sticky toffee pudding – Verge of exploding at this point, but also delicious.
To drink – I always order Matassa when I see it on a menu, and very much enjoyed the Olla Blanc, high-acid with a bit of skin contact.
Monday, Aug 11
Fairmount Bagel
I think this had a nice texture and was capably made within the style, but I don’t think I will ever enjoy a Montreal bagel as much as I enjoy one made in New York (or even Boston). To my taste, could have used a little salt.
Reservoir
Extremely hot day, had a lager de mais and some marinated lupini beans. There was a discard tray served with the beans but we didn’t have anything to discard! I was a little worried.
Garde Manger
Just excellent! Wished we’d had four people instead of two, since there were at least 5 other dishes we wanted to try.
Razor clam – Chopped, mixed with clam mayo and roe. Like a perfect little albacore salad to me.
Turbot, chili, black rice – The rice was dried and made into a broken-up cracker, so this ended up like a bit of a fancy tostada with petite filets of turbot.
Beef croquette – 100% braised beef, no filler. Could have eaten a dozen, with even more horseradish.
Snow crab on brioche – Heavy on the crab, heavy on the brown butter. Rich, classic.
Zucchini – Seared zucchini, shredded zucchini salad, pickled baby zucchini, fried blossoms. Nice to get a vegetable; the seared pieces could have been cut a little smaller for me, but appreciated the creativity.
Lobster agnolotti with chanterelles – How bad could that be? The rich brown sauce was so good that we needed to order some bread…
Focaccia with tomato and rosemary – Saw this going by to another table and thought it was a soufflé. Took us over the top, but worth it.
Raspberry dessert – Cake, sauce, sorbet, white chocolate bark. Some greens that I thought might be raspberry leaves but turned out to be tangerine sprouts. Well-conceived and a perfect treat to cap things off.
To drink – Server recommended us a structured Sancerre. Started off pairing nicely with the raw seafood when it was ice-cold, then also complemented the zucchini and lobster as it warmed up a bit.
Tuesday, Aug 12
Croissant Croissant
We were stuffed after Garde Manger and didn’t make it out of the hotel until 12 PM. A friend recommended this and it gave us an excuse to walk up Ave Mont-Royal. “Le Cube Clementine” was pretty good, nice to sit outside eating it in a park watching our dog chase squirrels.
Ma Poule Mouillée
Felt like we needed to try Montreal’s specialty of rotisserie chicken with fries, but we weren’t that excited about it, so we decided to do it as a midafternoon snack. Split a chicken leg and fries meal, which came with a thigh and two drumsticks. Wow, this was perfect. We could barely lift up the drumsticks without the meat falling off. Even still full of croissants, we ate it all, with only a bit of assistance from the dog.
Île Flottante
My favorite dessert, and a great restaurant name. Bit of a misunderstanding, I thought I had seen on social media that Tuesdays had live music and an a la carte menu. There was indeed live music (guitar, sax/bassoon, box drums), but it was a four-course, casual set menu at $55—actually a great deal. We seemed to be getting some different dishes from the table next to us, so maybe they try out new ideas on these nights.
Scallop with fresh corn – Classic, perfectly sized, fried parsley topping.
Pork stuffed squash blossom – With marinara and a zucchini carpaccio on top, ate more like a zucchini parmesan.
Veal with eggplant and beets – Interesting combination. I don’t eat much veal, and this was meatier than cuts I’ve had before, which played nicely with the smoky eggplant.
Dessert – Lots going on—think it was something like melon slices, yogurt panna cotta, ginger caramel ice cream, fresh herbs, and mint oil. It all worked well, especially on a hot night.
To drink – I asked for a white and a red; they gave me an Austrian grüner veltliner and a pinot/gamay from Quebec, both of which were quite natural and went well with the dishes. Husband got a negroni and then asked for “whatever goes with the main course”, intending to get the wine pairing, but they ended up making him a bespoke scotch-cherry cocktail. I had more than a couple sips, because it did pair very nicely with the main dish.
Wednesday, Aug 13
Nouilles de Lanzhou
Felt like we could do something different after a couple days of Quebecois food. Nice chew on the noodles. Dan dan noodles were ordered spicy but were pretty tame—not sure if that’s more typical of Lanzhou.
La Buvette Chez Simone
Beautiful patio, way over-ordered. Cod fritters (accras), dried duck, grilled green beans with dijon, chicken liver mousse, green salad. All excellent, but green beans and chicken liver were the favorites. With L’Express closed for renovations, the mousse with pistachios here was perhaps the next best thing. Drank a cocktail and a rose from Quebec.
Pichai
Hip thai. Spice levels definitely exceeded my expectations from the noodles this morning.
Duck laab with grilled hearts – Nicely herbaceous, beautifully fresh cucumbers.
Chickpea tofu with chard – The chickpea tofu reminded both of us of the panisse frites they used to serve at Frances in SF. Chard was served cold but with an extremely tangy and flavorful sauce.
Scallop, chanterelle, and zucchini curry – Real deal on spicing; I was sweating. Heat was balanced well by the sweet scallops, herbs, and even the fragrance of the jasmine rice a bit.
Shaved ice with mango – OK, we over-ordered again. Necessary remedy after the curry.
To drink – Interesting by-the-glass menu: long, almost no grapes listed. Husband got a drier Moselwein and I got something high-acid with skin contact from the Jura. Also split a nice, refreshing cocktail that was only described as “green.”
Thursday, Aug 14
Au Kouign-Amann; Boulangerie Le Toledo
Husband flagged Au Kouign-Amann and I noticed it was right next to Le Toledo on an Eater list, so we tried both. Le Toledo was standard-good; Au Kouign-Amann had a short menu but beat the pants off of it. Unexpectedly light cheese croissant, decadent and gigantic slab of kouign-amann. I’d definitely come back.
With all the pastries, along with some fries and a beer on a terrasse in the afternoon, so we weren’t hungry until…
Restaurant Nolan
A server at Garde Manger recommended this one—nice to walk around a new neighborhood we hadn’t been to. It had cooled to mid-70s, so we ate outside.
Tomatoes and cucumbers – Standard, came with labneh and capers. A bit crunchy.
Beef tartare – Topped with feta and cherries, both sounded odd but worked. Interesting texture, almost like a ham. Could have been the type of cow, or maybe they salt in advance?
Beef tongue – Sliced paper-thin, skewered, grilled, topped with a fennel-dill slaw. Nice, and appropriate for summer. Meat itself reminded me of a cheesesteak in its texture and char.
Enoki fritters – Mushrooms inside were whole and almost juicy, very good.
Gnocchi with corn and chanterelles – We were served bread at the start of the meal and saved it all the way to this one, because we expected the sauce to be good (it was).
Cheese – A buttery half-crottin of goat served in this Lovecraftian arrangement. Tapioca cracker was odd on its own, but somehow worked well with the cheese and strawberry jam together.
Pavlova with berries – Classic, will always get pavlova when I see it. Filled with a cherry “gel.”
To drink – Tried to splurge on a JL Chave Hermitage, but they couldn’t find the bottle and figured out they’d sold it a couple days ago. Just as well: after we ordered it but before they came up empty-handed, an extremely obnoxious table sat down behind us that probably would have ruined our enjoyment of the bottle (we asked to move tables). Ended up ordering by the glass—a straightforward Grenache and an interesting, medicinal Marsanne, as well as a low-ABV cocktail with cherry, amaro, and tonic.
Friday, Aug 15
Automne Boulangerie
Had a cardamom bun, rhubarb muffin (maybe fine polenta or buckwheat?) and a cruffin. All good, but Au Kouign-Amann was definitely the best on this visit. Bread looked great, so we grabbed a seeded loaf to drive home.
Mamie
0.5L rose, ouefs-mayo, thinly sliced tomatoes with what seemed to be a tomato-sunflower butter. Perfect little afternoon snack in perfect weather. Didn’t over-order this time.
Fromagerie Qui Lait Cru?
Really not needed, but we were in the neighborhood so we stopped by Marché Jean-Talon to get a soft cheese (chèvre à ma manière), some crackers, and some berries from Quebec.
McKiernan
Tired out, wanted something straightforward. Very happening, very young, very loud.
Deviled brussels sprouts – Just plain good; not sure what “deviled” meant, but there was not too much on them to take away from the brussels sprout flavor.
Corn on the cob – Flavors of elotes, not too much Quebecois about it except the provenance of the corn, but was great.
Rose rigatoni – Tasted like penne alla vodka I make at home, which is a compliment.
Lemon meringue pie – Thick, excellent.
Maple Donut – Took one home for breakfast the next morning; smelled good but not very exciting.
To drink – Pimm’s cup, Canadian red that I think was called “Rote-Cotie”, espresso.
Saturday, Aug 15
Snowdon Deli
Eggs over easy, two latkes (gigantic), smoked meat, and rye toast. I had smoked meat at Schwartz’s about 15 years ago, and it shines more brightly in my memory. Still, a great breakfast.
Country Store – Johnsbury, VT
Stopped outside of town to charge our car for the drive back, walked into town along the railroad track. The maple creemee was the best frozen dessert I’ve had in a long time—cold, melting, and balanced between sweet, cream, and slightly sour flavors.