Reader Suggestions: What’s Not To Be Missed In Montreal?

There is this Heimishe Bakery called Cheskies, it’s heaven. here’s the address: 359 Bernard West
Montreal, Quebec, try some of their cheese cake, but don’t stop with that.
as well you have the famous Montreal kosher bakery on Victoria, known for their knishes.

I was in montreal quite a while back – dont remember much about the trip other than a fantastic chinese rest. – Ernie and Ellies Place, located in a shopping mall. The food was incredible – i am a big fan of Chinese and havent had anything that good since. I just googled it – phone # 514-344-4444.

Cheskies is every reason to visit montreal!!!! A must.

Agreed. The ultimate food stop would be Cheskie’s Bakery (a sin not to get their russian babka), however for the cheesecake a must would be to go across the street to Milk n’ Honey.

Ernie’s and Eli’s is delicious (i always go for the $25 all-u-can-eat).

A trip to Mon-re’al would never be complete without a poutine (fries in cheesy gravy).

In a rush, more ltr…..

Montreal has been having one of its nicest winters in years.

You have to try cheskies from comment #1.

I would send you to old montreal – its europe in north america – but with the weather it would be hard to enjoy.

Montreal is not really known for its restaraunts, but I would suggest to go to exceptions on queen mary road. Make sure to get a piece of cheesecake for dessert!!

Have fun!

try Mortys Steak house it really good! best dairy retaraunt is Exceptions both are on Queen Mary…theres always Pizza Pita on Decarie a Kosher drive through pizza shop don’t forget to order the good old canadian favorites poutine and beaver tails! Yakimono- has fantabulous sushi!!!! as far as activities there’s lotsa skiing up north if ur not a skiier try mt avilia snow tubing…mt tramblaunt is abt an hour and 15 minutes away beautiful tourist attraction…u gon go ice skating at the bell ampitheater. go to a HABS game!!!! any other specific questions or interests ask….

u must go to SIMMONS in a mall in laval right near the airport…pretty mall too! also there’s an underground mall downtown really cool! roots outlet on decarie has pretty good buys usually…nice factories but u need to have pull to get in…oh there is a tie factory that u can get into pretty famous I’m sure s/o else might have more info….

Try this pretty decent restaurant. It was reccomended by a friend.

http://www.mortys.ca
Mortys Steakhouse
5395 Chemin Queen Mary corner
Tel. 514.481.2000

Hmmm.. to be missed in Montreal…. Montreal!
Its probably worth missing Montreal completely. Just kidding, its not that bad. At least they speak English, oh wait…..

Exceptions II Cafe is incredible. Breakfast is served until 3 and all breakfast items come with toasted baguette+spreads, fruit, potato things and coffee. also their chocolate croissants are INCREDIBLE. 5047 Queen-Mary 514-344-0508 (under the MK)

Do not leave montreal without buying one of each at Cheskie’s Bakery. Seriously.

Kosher Sushi Yakimono
4210 Boulevard Da©carie, Montreal, QC H4A, Canada
(514) 484-1515?

great sushi service is a little slow but from my experiance it was worth the wait

Dan,
Re: lodging, if you would like to be very close to the Chabad/Jewish neighborhood, the “Jewish” hotel known as Quality Hotel/Tav is the closest. Otherwise, within a 2 minute drive (on the same road – Decarie Blvd.) is Ruby Foo’s a higher star quality hotel.
My personal favorite is downtown, The Marriott Chateau Champlain. As I am sure you have a Gold membership or above, try to get a room on the 34th flr or above. Great view of city, rooms are big, well kept and luxurious. The Lounge on the 35th flr is very good too.
I did not have a good experience at the InterContinental in Montreal. Staff was rude, rooms were nothing special and was refused anything extra for being a Platinum member in Priority Club.
The Hyatt is OK, and so is the Sheraton.

Re: Dining,
For dairy, Exception Restaurant on Queen Mary Road has got good food, service leaves some to be desired. Pizza Pita is more than just a Pizza shop its a full dairy restaurant with Ice Cream, etc.
For meat, Ernie & Ellies, Chez Benny – good fast food and Chinese-next to Exception on Queen Mary, theres a Morracan restaurant downtown, Morty’s Kosher Steak house, there is a new, small, good Sushi place called Yakimono on Decarie Blvd.
Have a safe trip,

Why assume we’re only talking about food ? What are the must sees in terms of the sites ?

ernie’s and ellie’s is not that great and you will be disappointed, but there is a place called mordy’s steakhouse that is really delicious it is Manhattan quality. Cheskie’s Bakery is a must-try the cheese flowers (or florets in french), otherwise the only exciting thing to do in mtl is to go skiing on one our beautiful mountains close by. Btw bring your long johns!!

hey dan, have a great time in Montreal.

there are a few places you can go to.

Pizza Pita, owned by lubavitchers, has pretty good stuff, also an ice cream bar and yummy cheeseburgers (fish)

there is a sushi place owned by Mendy Mockin, used to be called Yakimono, the name might have changed, it is on Monkland Ave.

On Queen Mary st, there are a few places you can go milchig and fleishig all within a few blocks.

WHAT”S NOT TO BE MISSED is CHEZ BENNY! it is (or at least used to be) an amazing israeli schawarma and grill place, delicious food!

this is all near the lubavitch area.

additionaly there is a morrocan grocery/bakery/deli with Moishe Rosenblum as the head chef, great place, it’s called Cite Cachere (kosher City) and it is on Van Horne ave near victoria.

Enjoy!

p.s. if you want any more info, email me

S

1. Montreal is famous for wood-oven baked bagels. There is a kosher wood-oven bagel bakery (Mount Royal Bagel ??) located on Lucerne Road corner Jean Talon. Delicious.
2. Trendy milchig restaurants (L’exception and Espresti) on Queen Mary Road- delicious food, nice atmosphere.
3. Pizza Pita (Decarie) has excellent pizza and felafel
4. The restaurant in McGill University’s Hillel House is outstanding- serves shwarma and other grill- type food, and the food is fantastic and reasonably priced.
5. Walk around Old Montreal, even on a cold night.
6. Skate outside at the top of the mountain at Beaver Lake

I’m originally from Montreal, and everyone who goes there needs to try the smoked meat of Schwartz’s Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen. It has the reputation to be the best (and certainly is) in the World. Expect to have to wait in line at any time of the day.

3895 St Laurent
(514) 842-4813

Try Pizza Pita on Decarrie.
Beutiful state of the art Pizzeria with a many other delicous dishes. Montreal is known for something called poutine its a combination of cheese and french fries and theirs is really good ( try the spicey poutine). They also have an ice cream parlor and they make something called frozen Alaska which is really good.

I got married there and my whole family was staying in the Quality Hotel on Decarrie and they loved the pizza shop a block away.

Rodals Judaica and Gifts
4689 Van Horne
Montreal, QC H3W 1H8

Pizza Pita

snow tubing on mount royal

Dan,
I lived in MTL a little while back, here are my comments off the top of my head;
1) Definitly dont miss Cheskies Bakery, the dairy baked goods are their specialty!
2) Overall the Montreal baked goods are different than here and alot of people are crazy about the bagels and the donuts…
3) Pizza Pita- personally I am not crazy about their pizza but alot of their other stuff incl their “Poutine” is a must also I loved their veggie cheeseburgers and “Hot subs” and dont miss the “frozen Alaska” for dessert (it is a FroYo type of ice cream) this place is a must see very big an nice with a cool drive thru.
4) I usually had a very good experience at Ernie’s and Ellie’s chinese- nice atmosphere and pretty good food (most of the time)
5) Depending on the weather, Old Montreal/ the old port is a very nice place to walk around and check out the shops.
6) If you are a hockey fan check out a Habs game- very powerful fan base

to be continued….

@yaakov:

I humbly disagree.

1 – E & E is delicious grub.

2 – The russian babka takes first place. I would even freeze them to take back home.

Mt. Tremblant is a gorgeous, fun place to go for a nt or two (about an hours drive north).

Is it just me or is Pizza Pita being very under-represented here. I don’t think any Mon-re’aler would disagree with the fact that it’s the biggest hangout. Doesn’t necessarily mean the foods that good (pizza? I’d take the mineral water over it, they somehow manage to get every pie to come out different!), it’s just that it’s a fun place to meet.

And finally, Mon-re’als biggest attraction is its frum comm. Everyone is so personable, warm and friendly. B”h comm strife is virtually non-existent.

Whatever you get in Montreal will not be close to how awesome Toronto is…. But have a great trip!

Things to buy in MTL;

All dressed ruffles (if you dont have any left from your Toronto trip 🙂 )
Bicks Baby dill pickles (If you are a pickle fan)
VH pineapple sauce- Makes a very easy pineapple chicken dish that is very good and matches up to the resaurants…

The duty free at the Canadian US border into NY has pretty good priced Scotch i.e. Glenlivet 21yr is about $120 and the 18yr is about $60-$70ish i think- not sure about the duty free at the airport.

Also the Casino is pretty nice, on its own little island…

Seriously? Montreal in winter? Go if you must, but why do people live there? the climate is ridiculous!!

Schwartz’s Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen

I don’t think that’s kosher.

You weren’t in montreal unless you had a bagel from the mount royal bagel factory. Jean talon corner lucerne.

If you buy this prepaid phone you can make free calls in montreal the whole montreal is doing it you can even make free calls to aus. but incoming cost money dont ask me how it works
do some research and maybe make a post about it 🙂

Samsung U350

NOT KOSHER

best kosher sushi in the world worth the wait-yakimono sushi bar 4210 Boulevard Da©carie, Montreal, QC H4A, Canada
(514) 484-1515?
well worth the wait and pizza pita is good

but sushi the best and excelent dessert

Wow guys, I knew you wouldn’t let me down…lot’s of great suggestions!

Seems like Cheskies is a must, what are the best few things they make?

Snow tubing on Mont Royal looks like fun! What other local activities do you recommend?

Good luck getting to Montreal!

The weather in NY is terrible now. Now Im for sure not coming! Of course, had it been in Kauai….. 🙂

@zalman Notik:
So outgoing calls won’t cost anything but if I buy 2 phones to call each other I’ll have to pay for the incoming call?

@Dan/Ctownbochur:
Right around the corner from Chesky’s is a really great restaurant Milk & Honey, calm nice atmosphere. – i think every other food place was mentioned 🙂

Snow tubing on mont royal is nice, but nothing special, if you want the real thing, montreal boasts the LARGEST snow tubing place in the world, it is about half hour away north, but very worth it, here is the link http://www.cesttrippant.com/accueil_en_2.html

They have in downtown a really modern bowling experience, forgot what it is called starts with an R, not stam bowling, it is glow in the dark, fancy lanes, with bar etc.

And then there are many many museums to visit, if that is your piece of cake, you can buy the museum pass for like $50, and it works for like 3 days including metro transportation, but you might want to check if it would be worth it, as there are certain museums that give some days free etc.

Hope this helped, i have siblings that live in montreal (brrrrr…) and i go there quite often.

Nice to see that your aircraft RJ145 #161 isnt sitting in Newark covered in snow. I would rather be where it is now: VPS

does it make sense to rent a car, or rely on cabs if i am going up myself?

Dan – count me in for snow tubing if its while im there! and if you guys are up for a tagalong, id come along to try any of the places you are hitting. i definately want to head to a good bakery friday to get some mezonos for shabbos morning.

hm, probably not good that i left my winter coat in NJ…..10 years in LA and I’m not well prepared for a Feb trip to mtl.

got to go to boisbriand and c the Tosher Rebbe Shlit’a if he is in town

@b: you should rent a car… there is a good public transport option between the chabad community to downtown but not anywhere else…

Down the block from Yakimono Sushi Bar there is a fantastic new vegetarian place. The food there is incredible. It is right in the middle of a quaint yuppie neighborhood. We were just in montreal and we ate there every day. Its all organic, kosher and really tasty.

Harvard Cafe
5688 Monkland Ave.
Montreal, QC h4a 1e4
(514) 483-9494

Montreal is known for their clothing factories also you can get really good prices on custom made suits & pants also hit the casino only ten minutes from jewish/lubavitch community. In the food department cheskies kicks & pizza pita has awesome chesses & chicken burgers ,Dan let us know wheres the wedding , enjoy !

@Dan/Ctownbochur:
Dan, the Flaky dough cheese strips with confection sugar is my favorite! All the dairy stuff are great and even the reg choc danishes and the babka as mentioned above are heaven. Plan on buying extra to freeze and take home.

Just his week a new, great Milchig Restaurant opened. Haven’ been, but I hear it’s awesome!
Il Conte
5557 Monkland
514-439-4333

Sushi place – Yakimono’s really delicious too!

Things to do:

1) Mount Royal View, you can see the whole city from there.
2) Outdoor Skating at all big parks – if you don’t have skates, Beaver Lake on Mount Royal is best outdoor place
3) Great Skiing around Montreal (if you have a car),Mount Bruno is about 1/2 hour from the city. If you want the best – Mont Tremblant is gorgous and lots of activities there – it’s 1 1/2 hours north of montreal.
4) Montreal has underground mall under a big part of Downtown Mtl. Start from Place Villa Marie – go to bottom floor and walk under the many buildings
5) Recreoteque in Laval (10-15 minutes from Mtl.) has archades, roller blading, bowling, laser tag and more…

1) how can you possibly ever miss out the #1 Ice Hotel? http://www.icehotel-canada.com/
2) Learn some french

Pizza Pita – Must get Puteen, It’s fries with cheese and veg. Gravy. I think its the national food of Montreal. It’s so good. Enjoy

@Dan/Ctownbochur: yes

Well, lets start with food…

Breakfast/Lunch (Dairy)
It’s all done right at EXCEPTION (on Queen Mary Road btwn. Decarie Blvd. and Victoria Ave.

(lunch/dinner – Meat)
Also located next door is a proper Israeli style fast/sit food. You gotta try their Lafa’s and they make great Chinese! as well.

Then there’s a great Sushi place (a lot better than most of the average Sushi places I’ve been to) its called “Yakimono” 4210 Decarie Boul. Montreal, Quebec H4A 3K3 514.484.1515.

Pizza Pita: This place is THE pizza place in Montreal, thats where you meet everyone 🙂
the pizza is alright… but overall its a great pizza shop. Been around the world and have not seen a place that is so clean, and has lots of great options… you name it they got it! and remember to get some kosher puteen!

Then theres morty’s steak house (1st class)
Ernie & Ellis (american/Chinese)
El Marco (down town)

Kosher Quality Bakery
Cheskies Bakery
And you must get some bagels from The Mount Royal Bagel Factory! (on Lucern & Jean Talon)

Overall Montreal does not have lots of restaurants but what ever they do have (for the most part) is done Right!

Check out Old Montreal – The Biodome – Olympic Stadium – Westmount – Hampstead (90% Jewish)

Mount Royal…

and if you can go up north to Mont Tremblet (1.5 hours) or skiing as close as 30 min.

And of course… Have a blast! and tell US how it went A?

And of course one more thing!

Check out Molson Beer!
MONTREAL BREWERY
1500 Notre-Dame Est
Montreal, Quebec H2L 2R5
Tel: 514- 521- 1786

http://www.molsoncoorscanada.com/~/media/Images/2.2_CompanyInfo/2.2.5_OurBreweries/vancouver_brewery.png?la=en

@Yosef:
I was gonna say the ice hotel, but that is near quebec city, which is a few hour drive from montreal!!!

Montral’s got a great subway system which also connects to the largest underground mall in the world Alexis Neon Plaza!

Wow! People have given a lot of great ideas (see how food obsessed we are)

So here are some french tips:
1) If there’s a vowel at the front of a word, add an H: Instead of oops, say hoops or instead of eat, say heat
2) If there’s an H at the front of the word, remove it: Instead of Home, say Ome or instead of heat, say eat
3) If there’s an R in the middle of a word, pronounce it like our hebrew letter: Ches

You should definitely try snowboarding or skiing. Most mountains offer a program called iniski or inisurf, where they give you a lesson, a lift ticket and rental all included for a pretty cheap price. You can check out mountains like: Mont Habitant, Mont St. Sauveur, Mont Gabriel, Vallee Bleu, Belle Neige, Mont Bromont, Mont Avila and lots more..

You should also visit old port.. very touristy. You can take a horse and carriage ride (they give you a warm blanket/animal skin to keep you warm) There’s also an ice skating rink there on the water (with music and lights) and an imax. If you’re there on a Sunday, there will probably be street shows..

If you’re feeling really adventurous, you can always shovel someone’s driveway or shovel out a car. It’s a great way to feel like a local and make someone’s day 😉

Welcome to our “land” and enjoy!!
Mazel Tov Rochel & Dovid!!

I completely forgot about Montreal cheese bagels!!!!
They’re from the main bakery on a little ghetto street off of Victoria- but it’s a huge place that pretty much sends out to all the bakeries in Montreal.

The best bagels you’ll buy are in Mount Royal Bagels on Lucerne (close to the main bakery). They make them in front of you in a brick oven and they’re really fresh!

I can’t believe that no one mentioned the CANOLI’S at Cheskies. If there is only one thing to be had at Cheskie’s (impossible) it would be the friggin canoli’s. If you find a deal on overnight shipping i’ll have three please, despite the diet.

Local here.

1 – Schwartzes, while world famous, isn’t kosher.

2 – The specialties: Pizza pita: get poutine, a sub melt, frozen alaska and a pizza wrap (it’s not what you think). These are uniquely pizza pita.

3 – Main bakery is right near Victoria and Jean-Talon. Have a local take you there or give you directions. Mapquest it probably is called Montreal Kosher. Unique there are the cheese bagels (with or without sugar, both are good), bagels and chocolate donuts.

4 – Cheskies bakery is the best in town. Very small but unreal food. Their cheesy stuff is out of the world.

5 – If you like chips, you can buy Ruffles all dressed flavor and Lays Barbeque flavor which are unique to Canada and delicious. Getthem in any store.

6 – Two blocks from the main bakery at Lucerne and Jean-Talon is another AWESOME bagel factory (Mount Royal bagels). Everything is good, everything is Hamotzi.

7 – This has been understated. Get tickets to watch the habs play live in the Bell Centre (Habs = Montreal Canadiens). The atmosphere is unforgettable.

8 – Go skiing.

@zalman Notik:
It doesn’t say anything about calls in Montreal (let alone free calls).

Please explain.

You guys are incredible! Keep it up!

Looks like there’s a Canadiens game in town this saturday night vs. the flyers but tickets are a fortune.

Any suggestions? Is scalping legal in Quebec?

hey if you go to mount tremblant make sure to enjoy some outdoor jaccuzzi while sipping a beer if you like well worth the overnight stay in some fabulous cottages (1 bedroom & up)even though it’s probably not one of those starpoints places, i can’t believe no one mentioned it, also ice skating on saturday night @ the bell amphiteater, car rentals have pretty reasonable rates to begin with add all kinds of fun stuff that dan uses to bring down the rates & it’ll be practically free

There is an amazing architecture museum don’t ride the subway around instead of driving if possible.

@Yisroel:
I gotta agree with yisroel about the snow tubing, and rafting place, they are really huge and great, no winter trip to montreal would be complete without hitting that spot!!!

Next to the quality hotel is a pizza store that sells a really wicked razzle type of ice cream

@Anon:
that is “Pizza Pita” that everone is talking about above 🙂

@Dan/Ctownbochur: stand outside u can scalp for 80 bucks the cheapest its well worth it the fans r krazy

@Anon: thats pizza pita

car rentals are really cheap in montreal (airport not so much) and by most rentals u get free ski passes, so that basically makes ur rental free

The phone thing is a scam, so u gottta ask someone who knows the tricks. my sis just got one, she got a pre-paid from verizon and put 10$ on it, in montreal it lets u call any number and it doesnt take off any money, so she calls me with a ny number free.

as for montreal, skip the food, u can get it anywhere, go to bp or willamsburg or flatbush… but i do reccomend you try the poutine cuse u cant get it anywhere, and def check out the mall @ mcgill train stop. U dont need to step out to the cold at all, and the place connects u to tons of things all through underground.
also the jewish clothing factorys is a must, great deals if u know what ur doing!

Best Sushi in Montreal (and maybe anywhere!): Yakimono. you MUST check it out!
http://www.yakimono.ca/

@Mikeoracle:
It could also be Pizza King, which is in quality hotel, dan don’t waste your money there, groooosssssss!

also forgot to mention if you end up going up north mont tremblant you can try lots of interesting stuff

if it’s a nice day out flying over the area really reasonable rates
or else horse drawn sleds through the forest (night or day)
ice fishing for the really outdoorsy types
for the more risk taking type snowmobiling those things are really powerful
and one of the really out there things to do try dogsleding
it’s suposed to be lots of fun

You can scalp tickets, but expect to overpay. Bring 80 bucks. Unless you wanna wait until 10 minutes into the first period and guy them cheap, but you’ll be hard pressed to find tickets by then. The arena is always sold out. It would be a good game to go to, the atmosphere should be electric because:

1 – Last game before the Olympic break
2 – Friday night they’ll have played the same team in the other arena, which could make for some bad blood.
3 – Philly is 1 point behind us in the standings with 3 games at hand, so the hockey will be desperation.
4 – We just had the best game in the last 5 years in a 6-5 overtime win over Washington, ending their 14 game winning streak (3rd in NHL history), so emotions will run high.

@Zvi Hershky:
I’m sure it would be fun…but not enough for $80×2 for non-hockey fans.
Maybe if Cleveland still had a NHL team I’d be more of a fan.

Go Skiing…

Enough French partying. This site is BORING when you’re gone!!!!!!

WE’RE WAITING FOR YOUR REPORT!!

@zalman Notik:

Does this work for Ontario (Toronto) or other parts of Canada

@zalman Notik:

Dan / Zalman

Is it only this model phone ?
is it all calls placed while you are in Montreal (calling to the states and within Montreal)are free ?

please reply to my email
berelew@gmail.com

@zalman Notik:

Can you please tell me how this works, what I need to do? I’m going to Montreal next week and received the phone from Walmart today. Do I have to select a certain plan? The booklets that come with it make it seem like there is a per minute charge to use it.

You need to try Mortys Steakhouse. Absolutely incredible steaks, nice ambience, good service. Truly a gem of a restaurant. http://www.mortys.ca They are on Queen Mary