Got A Couple Hours in Montreal? Go for some poutine and smoked meat!

On a recent layover in Montreal, I had enough time to leave the airport and have some quintessential Montreal food. Although there are a lot to choose from, I really wanted poutine and smoked meat (bagels would also be a great choice if this was in the morning). One nice thing about the airport, is that it is close to the city center; only about 20 minutes.

The place I chose was called Reuben’s Deli and Steakhouse. Its located right on Saint-Catherine St. which is a main shopping street which makes it a good place to go for a walk after the meal too. Upon walking in, I immediately noticed the smoked meat proudly on display.

The place itself is nice, kind of like a cross between an old school steakhouse and an American diner. To start, we had the poutine with smoked meat. It was huge. It wasn’t the best poutine I’ve had, but it was satisfying enough. The meat was moist through I wish the fries were crispier, there was more cheese (which was really tasty by the way), and more gravy. However, when combined, like I previously mentioned, it was satisfying enough.

We also ordered fried pickles which were delicious.

For mains we had French (beef) dip with Caesar and the original Reuben. The sandwich was delicious though if I am comparing versus a NY Pastrami sandwich like Katz, I would pick Katz. The Reuben has some “secret” sauce, melted swiss, and sauerkraut. I prefer the simplicity of bread, meat mustard and a juicy pickle, but if you are in Montreal, you won’t go wrong having this. Another, and perhaps better option, is Schwartz …or Dunn’s (though I have only tried the latter in Vancouver when it was still open).

The French dip I would not recommend. The gravy needed more flavor (and I prefer jus), something to cut the richness like horseradish, and more flavorful meat or maybe throw in some onions. In any case, it wasn’t amazing. The Caesar was also just OK.

Overall, service was good and friendly, and the food was pretty good. I was happy I was able to enjoy some local food on a layover, and see some of the city after. Would I go back? If I craved this food again, only had a couple hours, and wanted to go to a central area of the city to sightsee after, I may go back. However, if I was actually visiting the city for longer than a day, and had time, I would choose another place like Schwartz or try to find a new place (and actually, now that I look at a map, there is a Dunn’s fairly close to Reubens, but the Google rating for Reuben is higher so I still would of chose Reuben’s on this occassion).