DH and I just booked a trip to Montreal this weekend, arriving Saturday and leaving Monday. We already have the Hyatt booked. I'm looking for ideas as to what to do, what not to miss, and where to eat, etc.
I am researching this board as well, but would appreciate any ideas in this posting. Many thanks to all who respond.

I think every trip to Montreal requires a smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz' on St. Laurent.

And the purchase of bagels to being home. Perhaps the easiest good bagel bakery to get to is in the multi-store development at Guy and St. Catherine.

After that, there are lots of options, and I'd start by finding out is there was a particularly interesting exhibit at the main art gallery, on Sherbrooke.

We just got back from Montreal on Sunday evening. I go there often for business, but rarely for pleasure and we really enjoyed ourselves. Weather didn't cooperate on Saturday (rain), but it was great on Friday and Sunday.

We had dinner reservations at 2 restaurants. Au Pied de Cochon for 9 PM on Friday and Lemeac for 10 PM on Saturday. Both were terrific. I've eaten at Lemeac before, but they have a great deal after 10 PM - 2 course fixed price menu for $22. I had a goat cheese salad to start and salmon tartare for my main. (I had been thinking of that salmon tartare since I ate there last time - my friend had ordered it and I had a taste of it.) My husband had grilled calimari and zucchini to start, with duck confit for his main. Both meals were very good. We shared a dessert (pain perdu) which was excellent as well. APDC is also excellent. It's updated Quebecois food and they are big on fois gras. That's not my favourite, but my husband did order the fois gras poutine, which was incredibly rich. We also had a huge salad with blue cheese, fennel, apples and walnuts, an order of cod fritters (really tasty) and lamb confit (fabulous). We split an order of churros for dessert. More food than we needed, but it was a belated birthday celebration for my husband. Probably more difficult to get in there, it's really busy. I also couldn't find it in the phone book and there's no sign outside that we could see. Luckily I had access to the web and could look up the address and our cab driver also knew where it was.

Both restaurants have websites, if you want to look them up and check out the menus.

APDC is on Duluth, where there are a lot of BYO restaurants. (But it's not BYO.)

For lunch on Saturday, because of the rain, we took a cab to Olive and Gourmando in Old Montreal. Very good sandwiches and the chocolate and banana brioche I had for dessert was amazing.

Sunday we were able to walk outside and we actually ended up on St. Laurent. Not planned, but we stopped for a smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz'. Good, inexpensive lunch. It's been there forever, but I don't think I had been there since for a couple of decades, so it was fun.

Obviously you can see that our trip involved a lot of eating!

Enjoy!

Hey LoriNY1,

There's so many fun things in Mtl, the others have made great suggestions.

I wouldn't miss shopping on St Catherine Street, checking out the Plateau area, walking around the old port/old montreal area. If you feel like taking a metro ride slightly outside downtown you can head to Little Italy, you can get off at the De Castelnau or Jean-Talon stops on the blue line. In that area there is also the Jean Talon Market which is fun to look around in.


If you need any help with specific directions, restaurants etc lemme know [email protected] I can try my best to help you out, I live here so I'm familiar with the city

Layla

What time were you at Schwartz's.
I was there at 12 ish!

Susan, "pain perdu" at Lemeac, that's my main motivator for eating there anytime..........

I'm glad you tried Olive Gourmando, it's worth it !!