Even though our last visit to Montreal was 4 days long, we never made it out to the iconic St-Viateur Bagel. Well, this time around, we would ensure to do that obligatory visit. Although there are several locations, we only had the original one on Rue Saint Viateur on our minds. Sure, there was the usual lineup and hey, it could all be the touristy thing to do, but we were hoping for some good bagels! We ended up with a half-dozen where we brought most of it home with us on the plane.
We really didn't want to get the plain bagel since it was well... too plain. Rather, for our baseline, we had the Rosemary and Sea Salt. So without the benefit of a toaster, trying to eat this bagel cold wasn't our preference. I'm sure so purists will say that it is good eaten that way and yada yada yada. Well, it was pretty dense, chewy and cold. In terms of flavour, loved the earthy woodiness of the rosemary and also the bursts of saltiness.
Thankfully, this was the only bagel we ate without toasting it. We ended up bringing the other 5 home to Vancouver. By then, they were 3-day-old bagels and you know what? By toasting them, they turned out fantastic! They crisped up well and had a solid, yet not too firm crunch. This gave way to a warm and appealingly chewy inside. These bagels tasted great even without cream cheese. But we did use cream cheese! This All-Dressed bagel was a favourite since they didn't skimp on the ingredients.
The same could be said about the Onion bagel because there was no shortage of caramelized onion on the outside. Hence, the flavour of onion was strong with this one. It was aromatic and sweet with some sharpness at the tail end of the flavour profile. Also, there was the unmistakable onion texture with every bite. Once again, this toasted up really well and the heat helped activate the onion as a result.
Onto the fruitier bagels, we tried the classic Cinnamon & Raisin. There was definitely a noticeable sweet cinnamon kick while only certain parts of the bagel had raisins. I guess it just was the luck of the draw. However, when we did get raisins, the sweetness was nice and of course was a perfect compliment to the cinnamon. Cream cheese naturally went well with this bagel.
Something I really wanted to try was the Apple Maple even though Viv was a bit skeptical. She often associates anything maple with being too sweet. Well, this is a bagel and I knew they wouldn't make it taste like dessert. That they didn't where the sweetness was restrained. There was still the maple essence without the sugariness. Little nuggets of apple were strewn throughout and provided pops of tangy sweetness.
Lastly, we had the Blueberry, which was predictably one of the most mild-tasting bagels. Blueberry is not a very strong flavour, even though it is easily identifiable. This was no exception where the blueberry was definitely there, but it didn't exactly make the bagel that sweet. So overall, we enjoyed our toasted bagels from St-Viateur and am considering ordering some to be sent to us.The Good:
- Dense like it should be and toasted up great
- Lots of flavours and we enjoyed all of them
- Considering how expensive things are these days, the bagels were reasonably-priced
The Bad:
- Well of course the lineup, but it is part of the fun right?
- A little chaotic at the counter
- You get them cold at this location, so strictly to go and toast them later
Sometimes, when we are busy trying to look for the next greatest thing, we tend to ignore the classics. In this case, I was attempting to find something for late night eats after hockey. Yes, there are still some places like Cuchillo that I haven't officially blogged about yet, but we wanted something more low-key. Bam! Why not the ol' Siegel's Bagels out in Kits? For those who are unaware, this Vancouver institution has been serving up bagels for over a quarter of a century. They also are open late which was perfect for our purposes.
Nothing particularly complicated about the place. It serves bagels and bagel sammies with a side of fries if you like. Yes, there is also cream cheese spreads as well. We didn't stray far from the regular menu though as Lionel Hutz had the Montreal Smoked Meat on a plain bagel with the aforementioned fries. So compared to a slice of rye bread, the bagel ate more dense and heavy (similarly to the ones at Rosemary Rocksalt - and yes, they are related to Siegel's). Still good though with a proper amount of meat to balance things out. Milhouse went for the Reuben on a poppy seed bagel. With the addition of cheese and sauerkraut, the whole thing ate more moist and was multi-layered in flavour. This was the better of the 2 in my opinion, especially with the poppy seed bagel.
For myself, I had the Club on a caraway seed bagel and by virtue of all the ingredients (Montreal smoked meat, turkey breast, lettuce, tomato, cheddar, mayo and mustard), this ate like an actual sandwich even though it was in a bagel. As for the fries, they were hot and crispy. Quite good for a bagel spot. This was the perfect late night snack and really it would be great for anyone in need of a bite or have the munchies after leaving the bars and/or clubs in Downtown.
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