So here goes – feedback time…

We tried to go to Mondo Fritz first and I am sad to say that, yes, it has closed down. But you may be pleased that in its place Shwartz’s is extending. We didn’t get to sample their delights however because the queue was really long and we were too hungry.

So on we cycled to La Chilenita for Empanadas. And the big news by this point is that Stu had succumbed to 8 weeks in Canada and started eating meat again! It was a steak I had in Ottawa that apparently broke his resolve (looked so good) and he finally crumbled over my salami in Quebec City. So after some beautiful home cooked roast beef – French Canadian style, he was well on the road to being a fully fledged meat eater again.

I have to issue a warning here, to anyone else who may be new and rookie to eating in Montreal – the price doesn’t always reflect the size of your food! Just cause it’s cheap don’t mean it is small! We made this mistake on ordering our Empanadas – we ordered 10 (actually we ordered 12 but my French wasn’t up to scratch and we got 10, phew!). Oh my word! Looking at your body weight in Empanadas is quite something. We managed 3 each (possibly I had less and Stu more as he was loving the sausage one), which I think is quite impressive. The rest went into the child seat of the bike we had borrowed, to save for tea, and providing a good excuse as to why we had bought so many (they were for the kids ) .

So what else did we try? Al-Taib – still there and still packed. We visited on a pretty terrible weather day, and it was full of people taking shelter from the nasty cold rain. We fessed up this time about not knowing anything, to avoid another Empanada embarrassment. A very nice man helped us to order and we also treated ourselves to a slice of pizza. The whole lot (2 Bagine, 2 big slices of pizza and a can of pop each) came to $10 – BARGAIN and it was spot on too.

So we missed Mondo Fritz and the famous Shwartz but we did make it to Patati Patata which became my number one restaurant on our WHOLE trip. I think it was a combination of the nice guy working there (who told us not to have a poutine each but to share as it is quite rich – I really respect places where they tell you the truth even if it means they make less money), the amazing poutine (our first and only but boy it was good), the beer (Boreal Rousse – I like it a lot), the Reine Elizabeth cake I had (I’m allergic to chocolate so I LOVE great cake, and this was fabulous) and the CHEAP price – all that for less than $20. It really summed up Montreal for me, welcoming, homely, quirky and different. Can you tell I like the city?

So we have to go back again to try the others, which we really want to do, so that shouldn’t be too much of a pain. We had cause to go to other places (being in other bits of town, or a total rush, or lost) – and really we got good food for cheap everywhere. It was harder to find a good bar though, they seem to be pretty elusive, which is a shame as it was the only real downside to our time there. Even the day we had nasty weather didn’t stop me really loving the place.

To balance out the Montreal bias – and because we spent 6 weeks in the west of Canada too – here are our top spots from the west:

Vancouver:
Falafel : Falafel Maison, 516 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 2B7 (604) 647-6450 – amazing tiny place we found whilst insanely jet lagged (no sleep for 24 hours at this point) and it was wonderful.

Nelson:
Venison Burger – Full Circle Cafe 402 Baker Street
Nelson, BC V1L 4H8 (250) 354-4458 – really nice basic corner cafe with great vegetarian, vegan and meat options. This burger was melt in the mouth delicious. Nelson is ace wee town that is well worth a visit if you are traveling between Vancouver and Calgary – I would even say to make a special trip! Make sure you stay at the Dancing Bear Inn – the loveliest,friendliest, cleanest hostel EVER!

Jasper:
Pizza Pretzel – Bears Paw Bakery,4 Cedar Avenue
(near Connaught Drive), PO Box 2188 Jasper, Alberta T0E 1E0 – http://www.bearspawbakery.com/ wonderful snack food that went so well with the -3 degrees and snow in the Rockies. Yum.