Every time we’re in Montréal, we wind up scrapping the siteseeing itinerary and going with the flow. This year we stayed at our favorite Old Montréal hotel, Le Westin. Old Montréal is the oldest area in the city. There are so many dining options and you don’t necessarily have to dine where all the tourists are.
We arrived in Montréal late in the day and didn’t have much time to explore the city. We wound up exploring the vicinity around the hotel and had dinner at a Polish restaurant called The Stash. From perogis to kielbasa to homemade apple tarts, we had a great dinner to set the trip on a good note.
For brunch, we headed to a popular spot on the edge of Old Montréal – Le Cartet. We didn’t mind waiting 15 minutes for a table since we had a chance to mingle with locals on where to eat for dinner. We were recommended Holder, a new, hip restaurant a few blocks away.
After a little siesta (yeah, we had a big meal), we headed to Schwartz’s Deli for some smoked meat sandwiches to much on while visiting the Montréal Botanical Garden, the second largest garden in the world. It ain’t like Katz’s in NYC, but they’ve got a decent sandwich.
After visiting the gardens to see the display of lights in the Chinese Gardens, we tried to go to Cacao 70 for crepes. Unfortunately there was a long queue out the door. Standing in the rain wasn’t worth it so we headed to Holder, which was conveniently a few blocks away from our hotel. We sure did luck out with our spontaneity. Though the restaurant was packed and we didn’t have any reservations, the host managed to get us a table within minutes. Service was excellent. Dinner was amazing.
For breakfast we wanted to try another hot spot in the Plateau neighborhood – L’Avenue. Unfortunately it looked like the wait was over an hour. Without any 4G/LTE on my phone I headed over to a coffee shop down the block and found out St. Viateur was a few blocks away. We had bagels at St. Viateur during a past visit so we figured, hey, why not get some for home. They freeze well anyway.
We eventually headed back to Le Cartet to get my crepe fix and to have a big meal before heading back home to Connecticut. What an adventure. All done without planning. Stay tuned for reciews on the restaurants we dined at.
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