Dan and I, along with another couple, visited Montreal in May 2024 to celebrate a milestone birthday! We love a food tour, and have only ever taken one in Canada, so we booked a good tour in Montreal’s cool Mile End neighborhood. The tour had us tasting delicious food, as well as learning a lot about Montreal’s diverse history. We really enjoyed it! This article reviews the tour and also provides suggestions for where to eat in Mile End Montreal.

The group on tour!

STOP 1: A DELICIOUS BREAKFAST PASTRY

The first stop on our tour, and where our tour began, was at a Mile End bakery named Guillaume. Guillaume’s bakery (and website) enjoys a yellow theme and turns out fresh pastries all day, every day. It smelled delightful. For our first taste of food, we tried a bread product that looked a bit like a mushroom made of bread. It was, indeed, not a mushroom. Instead, it was freshly baked brioche flavored with white chocolate and vanilla. This pastry was incredibly tasty. SO SO GOOD. I will absolutely have another when we are back in Montreal.

Guillaume bakery.

White chocolate and vanilla brioche. Amazing.

STOP 2: “STREET GNOCCHI” THAT BOURDAIN LOVED!

Drogheria Fine, our next stop, is a family owned “street gnocchi” restaurant located right on the foodie famous Fairmount Avenue. Made famous by its delicious gnocchi and Anthony Bourdain (he loved this place), Drogheria Fine makes exactly one thing – pillowy gnocchi served in a take out container with chopsticks. The gnocchi is served in a mild red sauce that is apparently started every morning at 6 AM. The gnocchi is the only item on the menu and it only costs $5. You can add red pepper flakes and Parmesan cheese if you like. This gnocchi was very, very good; probably my favorite thing on this food tour. I would recommend a stop here for all foodies, but be prepared to wait in a line. I would also note that Drogheria Fine does sell out on busy days, so I would not wait until closing for your gnocchi.

Drogheria Fine – look at that line!

The famous gnocchi.

Another view of the delicious gnocchi.

STOP 3: CHILEAN EMPANADAS

Next up was just a few doors down at De Aragon – Chilean Foods & Desserts. De Aragon is a super casual Chilean restaurant serving all sorts of Chilean food, including chili, pies and, my favorite, empanadas! Unknown to me before this trip, despite visiting Montreal many times previously, many Chilean immigrants came to Montreal and this store was started by just those immigrants. Our group tried our choice of De Aragon’s famous empanada – chicken, cheese, spinach and cheese or beef (which came with olives in the beef). Dan and I both went with cheese, and added some of Aragon’s special spicy sauce! This was good, but I’ve honestly had better empanadas before….

The Chilean cafe.

The empanada.

Cheese empanada with a little of the spicy sauce. The spicy sauce was excellent. 

STOP 4: MONTREAL BAGELS

Our fourth stop was for one of Montreal’s most famous foods, bagels! Yes, like New York bagels but totally different, ha. Montreal bagels have quite the following, and there is a dispute as to whether New York or Montreal bagels are better. In general, Montreal bagels are small, thinner and sweeter than its New York counterpart, and always baked in a wood-fired oven. Montreal has a couple famous bagel producers and we visited one of the most famous, Boulangerie St. Viateur Bagel Shop.

St. Viateur is super well known and popular, and produces many, many fresh Montreal bagels of varying flavors everyday. Our group viewed the baking process and each took a standard bagel with sesame seeds. The bagels were still hot when we we received them. I had one bite and saved the rest for later. While I am not a huge bagel (Montreal, NYC or otherwise) fan, these are definitely worth a try when in Montreal.

The famous sign.

The shop!

St. Viateur’s menu. I would love to return and try the blueberry or rosemary and sea salt.

The wood fired oven. It was going strong, even on a warm Sunday afternoon.

My bagel!

STOP 5: MONTREAL STYLE POUTINE

Our next stop was for one of Montreal’s most famous dishes, poutine! Poutine is a famous Quebec dish made with, at its most basic level, french fries, cheese curds, and brown gravy. Numerous restaurants around Montreal (and all of Quebec) prepare Montreal in many ways, including with wild toppings. Poutineville is one of those restaurants – a chain in fact with restaurants in Montreal, Quebec City and Ottawa. We visited the Poutineville in Mile End. Each diner selected a “normal” poutine (i.e. french fries, cheese curds and gravy) or the normal poutine plus Montreal smoked meat (similar to pastrami). We both selected the meat version and the poutine was excellent, although I prefer the standard version without meat. We also purchased an adult beverage with our poutine. Dan opted for a Quebec beer and I ordered a Quebec cider.

Montreal style poutine – with french fries, cheese curds, gravy and smoked meat.

Draft beer selection.

Sparkling cider.

STOP 6: ITALIAN ICED COFFEE & CANNOLI

The final stop on our food tour was at Caffé Grazie-Mille for a black iced coffee and a cannoli. Caffé Grazie-Mille is a reasonably priced Italian cafe serving casual meals and well known for its desserts and coffee, especially the cannoli and iced coffee. And that was exactly what we tried. Dan and I both ordered the iced coffee, which I though just tasted like iced coffee. The cannoli, however, were excellent! I opted for the original and Dan went pistachio. Both were really great with hard shells and a slightly sweet cream filling!

Caffé Grazie Mille.

Iced coffee from Caffé Grazie Mille.

Plain canoli.

Pistacchio cannoli.

STEAL OUR TOUR

Secret Food Tours Montreal: We took the only Montreal tour offered when we visited. The cost was $89 CAN per person and included everything on the tour except alcohol (bring extra money if you want to add any alcoholic beverages).