Mtl/TDot Food Fight

[scarberiankhatru]

So now we're discussing which city has the least awful junk food?

I know! How dare we compare anything other than $80 per plate meals, or anything without reduction or coulis in the description.

 

[ganjavih]

Forget St. Hubert... try Chalet BBQ or Laurier BBQ... mmm, mmm. Coco Rico is pretty good too. In Toronto, my favourite chicken place is Sardinha O Rei Dos Frangos, a great little Portuguese place at Bloor and Ossington. Don't skimp on the hot sauce.

 

[interchange42]

You guys can go on and on about how much better St-Hubert is than Swiss Chalet, but St-Hubert utterly failed in Toronto, and Swiss failed in Montreal. So the national jury is not so convinced by your argument - it would seem to be more of a toss-up.

To my taste Swiss' tangy sauce is far better than St-Hubert's overly sweet one, and I don't suffer any health issues from eating a Swiss Chalet dinner. I don't deny you the right to dislike Swiss Chalet, but if the comically over-the-top denunciations of Swissy Chicky here represented the way the majority of people in this country felt about their food, there wouldn't be 190 Swiss Chalet restaurants, there'd be none.

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[RJR123]

Forget St. Hubert... try Chalet BBQ or Laurier BBQ... mmm, mmm. Coco Rico is pretty good too. In Toronto, my favourite chicken place is Sardinha O Rei Dos Frangos, a great little Portuguese place at Bloor and Ossington. Don't skimp on the hot sauce.

Are Chalet or Laurier one-off places or mini-chains? Where are they located? I would love to try them!

 

[syn]

You guys can go on and on about how much better St-Hubert is than Swiss Chalet, but St-Hubert utterly failed in Toronto, and Swiss failed in Montreal. So the national jury is not so convinced by your argument - it would seem to be more of a toss-up.

To my taste Swiss' tangy sauce is far better than St-Hubert's overly sweet one, and I don't suffer any health issues from eating a Swiss Chalet dinner. I don't deny you the right to dislike Swiss Chalet, but if the commically over-the-top denunciations of Swissy Chicky here represented the way the majority of people in this country felt about their food, there wouldn't be 190 Swiss Chalet restaurants, there'd be none.

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I'd have to agree...I prefer Swiss Chalet over St. Hubert's.

 

[ganjavih]

One off as far as I know. I would also agree that St. Hubert is only marginally better than Swiss Pigeon... but it is better.

http://www.chaletbbq.com/eng.htm

http://www.restomontreal.ca/restaurants/index.php?section=viewresto&resto_id=1234&lang=en

http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/current/goods_foodfeature2.php

 

[adma]

 

[urbandreamer]

i'm craving:

coco rico's potatoes n chicken combo right now. guess where i'll be heading to tonite?

I would say toronto definitely has more variety of ethnic foods and perhaps more creative fusions of ethnic foods; but the style, the presentation and the sheer joy montrealers take in eating out simply can't be beat. It's sort of like this: toronto cuisine is the new highrise condo competing with an old but gorgeous brownstone. Toronto likes to show off its sophisticated designer restos; mtlers are too busy drinking and kissing to care.

Love them both; but like quebec is a distinct culture, montreal has a distinct style of eating.

6 hour drive to eat some decent chicken? (btw terry's garden--the place on queen w that closed last year: that was good chicken!)

 

[CDL.TO]

btw terry's garden--the place on queen w that closed last year: that was good chicken!

Heeey! I'm not the only person who was saddened by the closure of this place! The chicken was pretty good and the price was excellent. I liked the leek salad... yum! Too bad the place was so easy to miss... the address of 666 Queen W probably scared some folks away too.

 

[Torontovibe]

Schwartz's smoked meat

The only food I loved in Montreal, that could not be found in Toronto, was smoked meat and fries at Schwartz's Delicatessen. (and ONLY Schwartz's) No place makes smoked meat like that, and no other deli meat even comes close to Schwartz's smoked meat. I still ask friends to pick up a few pounds for me whenever anyone goes to Montreal. Everything else I found was comparable in Toronto.

 

[ganjavih]

Just today, my brother was telling me about this elderly Jewish man he met who was visiting from NYC. He was enjoying a Schwartz sandwich and exclaimed to his family with astonishment, "why can't we have stuff like this in New York?". It's true. I've tried the so-called best in NYC (Katz, Carnegie, etc.)... they got nothin' on Montreal's delis.

 

[Pep'rJack]

^ Not a TO/Mtl thang, so it's 'safe', I suppose...

There was one place in NY that was at least as good as Schwartz's: Second Avenue Deli.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Avenue_Deli

The pastrami there was indescribably fabulous, the best thing of its kind I've ever eaten - one o' those, 'I never even imagined it could be this good', kinda things. It made my ex weep - literally. But that was pastrami, not 'smoked meat', and very sadly, the place recently closed. The whole deli scene in NY is more or less dead - there are fewer than ten genuine 'delis', in the traditional sense, left in the entire city, and none of them are up to previous standards. It's sad, but true.

Schwartz's remains, to this day, the best smoked meat I've ever had anywhere in the world, period.

PS - How come no one's mentioned Churrasco of St.Clair amongst all the chicken talk?

 

[syn]

I remember reading a positive review of Toronto by a long time New Yorker who really enjoyed the city, claiming it offered everything NYC did (and perhaps more) for far less. This included a comment praising Druxy's 'as good as any deli you'd find in NYC'.

Sometimes you have to wonder what reviewers are thinking (not that Schwartz's doesn't deserve the high praise).

 

[interchange42]

Toronto likes to show off its sophisticated designer restos; mtlers are too busy drinking and kissing to care.

No! Montreal has lots of fabulously beautiful designer restos too! The city runs an annual competition to pick the best new designs in fact.

True, Montealers do kiss more, but I contend they do care where they kiss too.

The only food I loved in Montreal, that could not be found in Toronto, was smoked meat and fries at Schwartz's Delicatessen. (and ONLY Schwartz's) <snip> Everything else I found was comparable in Toronto.

No! No-one in Toronto can match the bagels at Fairmount! Especially at 3 AM!

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[ShonTron]

No! No-one in Toronto can match the bagels at Fairmount! Especially at 3 AM!
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At 3AM yes, but Montreal Bagel House comes close enough for me during more usual business hours. And I've been to Fairmount.