Montreal – Michael Eats

Biscoff McFlurry at McDonald’s (The International Menu Heist)

Published on June 29, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, Montreal
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

The International Menu Heist continues! Seriously: I love this. Can we just make this a permanent thing? One new menu item a month from an international McDonald’s location? Forever? Yeah, let’s go ahead and do that, McDonald’s. Thanks.

I recently tried the McPizza Bites from Italy, which I thought were pretty decent. Up next: the Biscoff McFlurry from Belgium (“Think creamy vanilla soft serve swirled together with Biscoff cookie crumbs. Now you can picture yourself wandering cobbled streets of Bruges while tucking in to this deliciously sweet treat”).

Do I need to describe this? If you’ve had Biscoff cookies and you’ve had vanilla soft serve, then there are no surprises for you here. It’s crushed up Biscoff cookies in soft serve. It tastes exactly what you think that’s going to taste like, which is to say: quite delicious! I’m a big fan of Biscoff’s distinct spiced caramel flavour, so yeah, I enjoyed this.

Also: I had this on a layover in the Montreal airport, and I don’t know if the soft serve at McDonald’s is tastier in Quebec or if it’s just better than I remembered, but it was creamy and satisfying. It was a great McFlurry.

McPizza Bites at McDonald’s (The International Menu Heist)

Published on June 28, 2025November 19, 2025 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, Montreal
Website: https://www.mcdonalds.com/ca/en-ca.html

McDonald’s is currently running a promotion called “The International Menu Heist,” and I feel like it was pretty much made for me personally? Aside from the fact that I get oddly excited whenever McDonald’s does stuff like this, I also make it a point to visit a McDonald’s and try at least one or two of the unusual local items when I’m travelling.

(For those who are unaware, McDonald’s always has a few menu items in each country that are supposedly tuned to the local palate.)

Perhaps the oddest item in this particular promo: the McPizza Bites, an import from Italy. Here’s how McDonald’s describes these things: “The taste of Italy is here with McPizza Bites, the antipasto you’ve been waiting for. Made with melt-in-your-mouth mozzarella cheese and rich tomato sauce, all wrapped in a delicious, toasted pizza dough – good enough to make you say bravissimo! It’s time for a pizza party, and you’re all invited.”

I should note that if a pizza exists that’s good enough to make me say “bravissimo!” it certainly isn’t at McDonald’s.

The last time I had a pizza-pocket-esque concoction at McDonald’s, it was the horrifically bad Veg Pizza McPuff in India, so my expectations: not high!

This was totally fine, however. I don’t think it’s particularly different from something you can get at the freezer section of the supermarket, but for what it is, it’s tasty enough. It’s probably like 90 percent sauce and 10 percent cheese, but the sauce is pleasant and the cheese has some nice gooiness.

The crust has some extremely mild crunchiness, but is mostly just there as a vehicle for the sauce and cheese. Like everything else about this, it’s perfectly acceptable.

The menu suggests that this and the Garlic Mayo-Style Sauce from the UK are “great together,” and yeah, the menu is not wrong. It’s a very good dip; it’s creamy, it’s got a nice zestiness, and it’s garlicky without being overwhelming. It completely overpowers the flavour of the McPizza Bites, but it’s tasty enough that I’m not complaining.

An All-Time Great Sandwich from Schwartz’s Deli

Published on November 3, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 3895 Saint Laurent Boulevard, Montreal, Quebec
Website: https://schwartzsdeli.com/

It’s been over a decade since I’ve been to Schwartz’s, Montreal’s legendary purveyor of smoked meat, and I wondered: is it as amazing as I remembered? Sometimes nostalgia can turn rosy memories into an unobtainable ideal, and of course, legendary restaurants like Schwartz’s run the risk of being overhyped.

Well, it turns out that Schwartz’s isn’t quite as amazing as I remembered — it’s even better, somehow?? Their smoked meat sandwich might literally be one of the best things I’ve ever eaten.

I should note that I ordered the sandwich fatty, which is clearly the way to go: the fat here is creamy and luxurious, basically melting in your mouth like unctuous meat butter. It’s so good.

The ultra-tender meat is crazy delicious; I don’t know what’s in the spicing, but it’s absolutely perfect. But then everything here is absolutely perfect: the meat is super tender, incredibly flavourful, and just the best thing ever. The absolute best. The sandwich has the perfect amount of meat, too — it’s generous, but not a comically tall pile that’s impossible to eat.

I got a side order of coleslaw, which was crunchy and zingy — the perfect counterpoint to the indulgent sandwich.

Hot tip: if you’re planning on coming here (and yes, it’s worth the drive to Montreal for this place alone), arrive early. I showed up at about 10:30 in the morning; the place was already quite busy, but I was able to get a counter seat immediately. By the time I left, the place was packed and there was a line out the door.

A Mind-blowing Chocolate Babka from Boulangerie Cheskie

Published on November 1, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 359 Rue Bernard Ouest, Montreal, Quebec
Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cheskies/133884676726138

Every time I’ve had a babka or a babka-like dessert, it’s been okay at best (or much, much worse — the chocolate buffalo from Bagel Nash comes to mind). So I didn’t have particularly high hopes for the chocolate babka at Boulangerie Cheskie, but after seeing it on a few lists of the best bakeries in Montreal, I figured I’d give it a shot.

I guess I’m going to have to start figuring out where the best babka in Toronto can be procured, because who knew a babka could be this good??

It’s outstanding. I wish I had taken a picture of its glorious, glorious innards, because you really don’t get a sense of how incredible this thing is just by looking at the outside. It’s chewy, fresh, and amazingly fudgy– Eater referred to it as “the love child of a brownie and brioche roll,” and yeah, that’s about right. It’s gooey and chocolatey and addictive.

I guess I’m glad that this bakery is several hundred kilometres away, because I could eat about a million of these. As soon as I finished it I was extremely tempted to head back inside and buy another one, but there was other food to eat, so I restrained myself.

A Decadent Meal at Joe Beef

Published on October 30, 2022 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 2491 Notre-Dame Street West, Montreal, Quebec
Website: https://joebeef.com/

Joe Beef is frequently called one of the best restaurants in Canada, so if you find yourself in Montreal and you don’t mind splurging a bit (okay, a lot — it’s pricey), it’s a must.

I tried a few things. The first was… some kind of tart? This wasn’t on the regular menu and I forgot to take a picture of the blackboard where they wrote down the specials (I also forgot to take a picture of the inside of the restaurant — I’m really good at blogging, as you can tell).

I’m not even sure how to describe this thing. It was somewhat souffle-esque, and it was absolutely drenched in an ultra-rich, buttery sauce. It was outstanding. It’s exactly the type of dish you’re hoping to eat at a really nice restaurant; it’s a delightful alchemy of luxe ingredients and high-end techniques that you could never possibly replicate at home, or even in a normal restaurant kitchen. Every bite was pure magic.

Next up was the “côte de veau sauce ‘vieux téléviseur'”, which was a veal chop covered in an ultra-rich, buttery sauce (ultra-rich and buttery is definitely a theme at Joe Beef). This was just as good as the tart, with the tender beef being absolutely jammed with flavour, and with the rich sauce complimenting it perfectly. It seems relatively simple, but holy moly, the extent to which this was better than pretty much any other steak I’ve ever had was insane.

The side was some kind of braised greens (this also wasn’t on the menu, so I’m not sure exactly what it was). This was a pretty standard version of this dish — tasty, but not mind-blowing. My photo of this turned out pretty blurry, so you’ll have to use your imagination. It was just a pile of greens on an oblong plate, so not much imagination is required.

The only big let-down of the night was, oddly, one of Joe Beef’s signature dishes, the lobster spaghetti. This was perfectly delicious, but the heavy cream sauce was one-note rich, and the chunks of lobster were overcooked. It certainly wasn’t unpleasant to eat, but coming from a restaurant of this caliber, it’s a disappointment.