Travel

Juliette et Chocolat – A Chocolate Bar in Montreal!

wareontheglobe 4 Comments

Ah, yet another great restaurant in Montreal!  And this one is quite reasonably priced!

Juliette et Chocolat’s specialty is, what else, chocolate!  The main feature is a laundry list of chocolate from all over the world that Juliette et Chocolate makes into European sipping chocolate. The list runs the gamut from milk chocolate to super dark chocolate, and lists the country, a description and the cacao percentage.

073 037

The sipping chocolate comes in two sizes and is accompanied by a chocolate bon bon! These sipping chocolates are delicious, but very filling…

036

Continue reading →

Olive et gourmando. The Best Breakfast in Montreal.

wareontheglobe 5 Comments

Montreal is home to a lot of amazing restaurants, but Olive et Gourmando just might be my favorite…I cannot go to Montreal without stopping here!  Olive et Gourmando is a cute café located in Old Montreal, not too far from the entrance to Bota Bota (the best spa!).  It serves breakfast and lunch and is incredibly popular!  And for good reason.  I asked Dan what I would say about it and he just said: delicious.

Dan and I’s favorite thing is the Le Poached Egg On Your Face breakfast sandwich!! I cannot tell you enough good things about this sandwich. The sandwich is a pressed Panini with spicy poached eggs with herbs and mayonnaise, comté cheese, speck and slow roasted tomatoes.  It is plainly amazing. It is also big enough to split between two people.  Here are some pictures of that beautiful sandwich:

11506_10100371312608412_628044967_n  016

Continue reading →

Joe Beef, Montreal – Food Worth Putting up with the Hipsters

wareontheglobe 1 Comment

Joe Beef – the acclaimed (and distinctly hipster) restaurant in Old Burgundy, Montreal that gets rave reviews on all Montreal food shows, magazines, etc.  Is it as great as everyone makes it out to be? In my opinion, yes, and no. Yes, the food is fantastic, the menu is creative and ever changing and the chef certainly makes the most out of seasonal foods.  However, no; the restaurant is rather hipster-pretentious and makes you want to continuously ask the waitstaff – are you freaking serious?  For example, our waiter was wearing a t-shirt with a wolf (or a cat, Dan and I disagree on that one…) on the front.  Every time he tried to snub us (or anyone for that matter), I couldn’t help but think dude, you have a wolf on your shirt.

In any case, all hipsterness aside, Joe Beef is certainly worth a visit for the food!  Just be prepared to put up with the staff and some of your fellow diners.

055

Dan and I have been to Joe Beef twice.  Once in 2012 when we had the amazing foie gras double-down (maple drunk smoked cheddar and bacon with chicken-skin mayo sandwiched between two health cakes of deep fried foie gras), pictured below, which they sadly no longer serve.  They claim it was a joke.  No way. They thought they were being funny, it was really popular, probably due to Anthony Bourdain, so they took it off the menu. I’m still annoyed by this.  BRING IT BACK!

226770_10100182356018932_524050198_n

In any case, we dined at Joe Beef again during the summer of 2015.  To my disappointment, no double down.  The food was still amazingly delicous, even sans the Double Down.  Per any self-respecting hipster establishment, the menu is written on the wall, in French, as is the wine list.  If you do not speak French, one of the waiters will begrudgingly assist you.  Don’t let this dissuade you.  Half of the city doesn’t speak French.

This summer, we started with three appetizers.  To clarify, there were three of us at dinner.  The first was a salad with a homemade garlic burrata.  The burrata was so good.  It was totally fresh and made with garlic and greens from Joe Beef’s garden out back.  This dish was so, so good.  The pictures does not do it justice.  We finished it all.

025

In addition to that, we order the smoked meat croquettes.  As you may know, smoked meat is  a Montreal speciality and a big part of Québécois cuisine.  The croquettes were somewhat plain for Joe Beef, but I still loved them!  They were topped with a bit of mustard, pickle and dill!

024

To round out our starters, we took the fried soft shell crab dish.  As usual, you can’t go wrong with soft shell crab, and this was cooked wonderfully and paired with fresh vegetables, again from Joe Beef’s on-property garden.  We ended up dipping these into the burrata!

022

For my main, I ordered the Spaghetti with Lobster (aka Homard).  This dish was fantastic and contained so.much.lobster.  The size and amount of lobster made it well worth the hefty price tag (about $45). Seriously, it was great.  I would order this again in a heart beat.  Like summer in New England, lobster is in-season and ubiquitous in Montreal in the summer.  You can find it at almost every restaurant and it is truly celebrated!  Don’t visit Montreal in the summer without trying the hommard!

059

Dan went with a lamb sausage and crepe.  The plate was huge and well plated, but unfortunately it wasn’t that great.

061

Finally, Pryor ordered the trout.  It was good (much better than the lamb sausage), but my lobster spaghetti was the winner!

026

After all that, we decided that we would split only two desserts.  However, our waiter brought us the wrong one so we ended up with three desserts (two for free)!  The pictures did not come out great (it was really dark by this time) but here are two of them.  They were all great!

064 063

And just for fun, here is a picture of my amazing ice cream, cheddar cheese sundae from 2012.  I still dream about it.  If you are lucky enough to find this on the menu, order it.

227609_10100182356203562_190056382_n

Steal Our Dinner

Joe Beef – 2491 Rue Notre-Dame Ouest, Montréal, QC H3J 1N6, Canada.  T: +1 514-935-6504. Reservations are essential and can be made online, but always seem to be “full.”  I think that is a bit of a ploy.  I recommend calling the restaurant directly.  We did that on both visits and got a reservations about three weeks in advance without issue.  A month would be better.

If you cannot get a reservation, Joe Beef’s sister restaurant, the Liverpool House, uses the same kitchen and seems to be easier to get a reservation.

On a Budget

There’s really nothing to do on this one.

Bota Bota – the Most Fabulous Spa in Montreal

wareontheglobe 4 Comments

If you have ever heard me or Dan talk about Montreal, chances are that you have heard us talk about Bota Bota!  It is our favorite place in all of Montreal, and probably Canada!

Bota Bota, formally Bota Bota, spa sur l’eau, is a spa in a renovated tug boat on the St. Lawrence River in Old Montreal, at the intersection of McGill and the St. Lawrence River.  Bota Bota offers all of the standard spa treatments, from nails to massages to facials, but the best thing about this spa is the Scandinavian water circuit!  This is what we always do, and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting.

169

Continue reading →

Lounge Review: American Express Centurion Buenos Aires

wareontheglobe 3 Comments

In follow-up to my last post, I decided to review one of my favorite airport lounges – the American Express Centurion Lounge in Ezezia International Airport in Buenos Aires!

858 Favorite part: unlimited Chandon.

 I visited this lounge in December during a layover in Ezezia Airport.  The lounge is located on the second level in Terminal C.  There are no big signs or flashy entrances, so you will have to look for it.

Once we checked in (need your card, ID and boarding pass), the lounge opens up into a very modern living room!  There are plenty of seats, outlets, great wifi, international papers, TVs, etc. in the main room.  In addition, there are some small areas separated from the rest of the room – see below.  Good for groups.

861 870

Complimentary, self-serve food was set up buffet style in the main sitting room. There was no hot food when I was there, but there was a good selection of cold options, from small sandwichs, breads, meats, cheese, fruit, yogurt, cereal, jams, jellies, wraps, Havanna cookies (which are so expensive in Argentina; these are not wrapped so you cannot take them with you), etc.  While I found the food to be more breakfast-snacky than dinner, our flight left pretty late so we may have missed a more substantial dinner spread.  Plus, the sandwiches were delicious!  I could have easily made a complete meal of the offerings, and everything was regularly replenished.  Here’s the food:

 862 869 868

In terms of drink, all types of beverages were also complimentary and self-serve in the buffet area. Our favorite was the endless Chandon! Yum!! Aside from Chandon, various types of liquors, beer and red and wine Argentinian wines were available. We tried the Argentinian red wine and it was delightful. In addition to alcohol, a variety of name brand sodas – including the at-the-time-not-in-the-US Coke Light – were available, as well as bottled water, all sorts of juices, mixers and  two expresso machines! Again, everything was complimentary and you can take as much as you want (Note – the alcohol and coffee are not in to-go bottles)!  Dan and I really loaded up on bottled water, soda and snacks for the flight; however, US travelers beware, while the Argentinian airport security is rather non-existent, US flights almost always make fliers go through a second round of  security at the gate, where the 3-1-1 rule applies and no bottled water is allowed, even if its from the airport! Also show up a little early for this task…

 867 864 863

In other categories, the lounge has nice, large, clean private bathrooms with private sinks . This makes for a great place to change clothing, etc. before a long flight. Note – there are no showers in this lounge.

Finally, the Lounge had a pretty big child play area separate from the rest of the lounge with tons of toys, etc. This seemed like a great place to keep children occupied – plus it kept them out of the lounge!

 871

Overall, one of my favorite lounge experiences! Definitely worth a visit if you are in Ezezia International!

STEAL OUR TRIP

American Express Centurion Lounge Buenos Aires – Terminal C, Level 2, access near Gate 15

Access to The Centurion Lounge is complimentary for global Platinum Card and Centurion Members. All other Card Members with a valid American Express Credit or Charge Card can purchase a day pass for $50 per day (includes children under 18).

Once you’re in, everything in the Lounge is complimentary.

Note – While part of the American Express Centurion Group, apparently the international locations are run separately from the U.S. lounges.  As such, depending where you are, you may not get the same accommodation you are used to in the U.S. lounges.