Hi all,

Mr F, I must say, that is evocative. Eeeewwwww. You convinced me to eat the sandwiches immediately, customs or no.

Thanks for all the cheese recs - they will be acted upon!

Thanks mangoannie! I love cheese from all types of milk and will try as many as I can.

Mr F, great info, thanks. I can actually stumble along verbally in French, ungrammatically but enough to manage (although I often conflate my inadequate French, Spanish and Italian when I try to just speak one at a time). I understand a lot more than I speak so that works okay too. Will definitely look for tomme producer!

Hi everyone,

Just added roaming Atwater market to our Thursday agenda, with stops at Satay Brothers and the cheese purveyors as highlights... can anyone recommend some local cheeses that are really outstanding? I am a cheese expert (not hyperbole, I sold, taught and wrote about cheese for more than a decade) and will be familiar with most imports; but in most areas there's something special that doesn't get far from the source. What should it be in Montreal?

Thank you quoddus!

What's up with the fact that we were able to get a Saturday 7 pm reservation at APDC one week out? I'm getting nervous - there's only one restaurant with that name, right?

Thanks SnackHappy, leaving our plan as-is!

Yikes! Turns out he only bakery on our list that's open Monday is Kouign Amman, so I switched that and Cafe Neve to Monday and Fous Desserts to Friday. Whew.

Any other alerts?

Now don't mess me up just when I got all decisive :-D

berbatov, I added Caffe Italia for an afternoon espresso on our Jean Talon jaunt...

mangoannie, I had wavered over Brasserie T and almost had it on there for lunch on Monday.... then put Imadake on because not sure we will tolerate the wait at Kazu... would you go to Brasserie T instead?

There was an error in my schedule to go to Rhubarbe on Monday (they're closed Monday) so I switched it to Sunday and put in Fous Desserts for morning pastry on Monday. Yum.

Huge bummer on the Schwartz's sammies, porker! In the US we are allowed to take non-liquid food through security and somehow I keep forgetting the additional restrictions at customs... Maybe we can eat them on the way to the airport...

Again with the fantastic replies! CaptCrunch, you went above and beyond - twice!

A word on our Pho neglect: Pho is one of the only Asian dishes that we can get decently made here, so tho it's obvious that Montreal shines in this area I thought we'd go for the stuff we never get.

Here's the plan we ended up with, reservations and all - I hope everyone approves! Thanks to all of you, and again, we WILL report back.

Wednesday
Lunch Romados or Olive et Gourmando no res
Dinner Restaurant Park 8pm res

Thursday
Café Myriade
Pastry Olivier Potier
Lunch Kazu (or Cuisine Szechuan) no res
Dinner Trois Petits Bouchons 8:30pm res

Friday
Café Neve
Pastry Kouign Amann
Lunch Hung Phat banh mi
Market Jean Talon
Dinner Damas 8pm res

Saturday
Café in Gamba
Bread Boulangerie Guillaume
Lunch Ruby Rouge 11am res
Dinner APDC 7pm res at bar

Sunday
Café Olimpico
Bagels Fairmount/St Viateur
Indian dinner at wedding

Monday
Café Flocon
Pastry Patisserie Rhubarbe
Lunch Imadake noon res
Dinner Lallouz 8pm res

Tuesday
Café Myriade
Bagels Fairmount/St Viateur (a dozen to take home!)
Lunch Schwartz takeout sandwiches for flight home

This is why I love Chowhound! Wow, all of you! (BTW, I will be returning the favor with a detailed report.)

A few comments: Vasco da Gama made the list because it's beloved of our friends who are getting married and got a few decent reviews here... but I have no attachment to it... we are both erstwhile coffee professionals and often travel with a hand grinder and an aero press (embarrassing but true), so we will trek to good coffee. Thanks for the additional recs.

Getting banh mi and wandering through the market sounds dreamy. I'll bet I could eat banh mi AND a lobster roll while walking around!

I appreciate the dim sum feedback. We would always rather eat at a low-key place than a swish place - my choice was based on what I read about food quality. We are starved for good Chinese food (even tho we have been spoiled in San Francisco and New York, the "pretty good" in most cities is vastly better than the abysmal stuff available here), so I'd like to have at least one dinner and one lunch - or one dinner and two lunches! I confess that I'm with porker on the alcohol license - but if the food quality difference is vast, I'd drink elsewhere before or after. Anybody else wanna vote on dim sum or dinner at Kanbai vs Szechuan, or Ruby Rouge vs Cristal Chinois? Thoughts on Mai Xiang Yuan?

Re Schwartz/smoked meat, it was on my original, longer (!) list, with many other things. I figured that with Comptoir, APDC and others on there, it might be overkill. Is that wrong-headed? I would eat cured meats and cheese rather than dessert any day...

Mr F, thanks for the thoughtful details. A few notes:

If the banh mi are top notch, it's a treat we can't often get - hole-in-the-wall not a problem if the food's terrific.

Bagels - we never eat anything but plain, poppy or sesame :-)

Ste Elizabeth was mentioned in a couple of threads as a nice place for drinks - but I take it we should strike it from our list.

Thanks Maximilien and ios92!

Yes, the list is all over the place (because we like everything!). What we were hoping was to choose the best examples of a few things - for dinner, a couple of French with different styles, something Asian, other ethnic foods that we can't get at home, and hopefully some fresh well-prepared seafood mixed in there.

For lunch we wanted to choose a highly recommended place for banh mi, get good dim sum, dumplings and/or noodles if available, and again try some ethnic foods we don't have access to. I love lobster rolls and haven't had one since I lived in Maine many years ago, but it's not a make or break issue.

We also have to find good choices for Sunday and Monday, when a lot of things are closed, and I haven't made reservations yet so am not sure if I have things listed that are out of the question this close to the trip.

I should have clarified that coffee and pastry are generally a morning thing for us. My husband will be all over the ice cream; but I'd always skip dessert and fill up on savory food!

PS We're not averse to eating at odd hours to avoid lines, if that helps...

Hi there Montreal hounds,

We've read some threads and there are way too many places we'd like to try (see below - blush). We like every kind of food, from ethnic hole-in-the-wall to cutting edge cuisine. We tend to crave Chinese food because it's terrible where we live (Colorado); seafood ditto. We are good cooks and like to go out for things we can't or wouldn't easily make better at home. Our budget allows for a couple of splurges, within reason.

Be brutal - we have to get this narrowed down to 5 dinners and 5 lunches! (Some of these could switch from dinner list to lunch list or vice versa; by all means weigh in on that as well.)

We have from midday on July 11th, through breakfast on Tuesday July 17th - Saturday dinner is out, we'll be at an Indian wedding (thus no Indian places on our list).

Thanks all!

Dinners:
Restaurant Park
Milos
Julieta
400 Coups
Pintxo
Trois Petits Bouchons
Comptoir Charcuterie et Vins
Lawrence
Cuisine Szechuan
Kan Bai
Kazu
Au Pied de Cochon
Damas
Club Chasse et Peche
Le Chien Fumant
La Porte

Lunches:
Le Cristal Chinois (for dim sum)
Mai Xiang Yuan
Olive et Gourmando
Lallouz
Hung Phat
Ba Le
Cafe Saigon
Romados
Petit Alep

Drinks:
Dieu du Ciel
Bar L'Amere a Boire
St Elizabeth Pub
Vices et Versa
Bar Bily Kuhn

Pastries and breads:
Kouign Amann
Olivier Potier
Fairmount
Patisserie Rhubarb
Boulangerie Guillaume
Cerise sur le Gateau

Cafés:
Vasco da Gama
Myriade
Caffe Gamba

Markets:
Jean Talon (good lobster roll place here?)
Atwater

Hi jcattles, what a nice note, thank you for all the info. I have put your recs on my list.
You will love Franklin BBQ; the second time I had their beans they were better, but their sides are not the best ever. They're all about the brisket and the ribs. Absolutely the best. All their meats are good, but the brisket is the star of the show. Make sure you get moist, with end cuts.
Personally, I would totally drive to New Braunfels, but I am also very picky about beans, being a southern girl - we take our beans seriously!
Snow's is top of my list for my next trip to Austin.
My husband also brought back solid take-out from John Mueller's on another trip; the food was good and the service was outstanding - he obviously really cares about his customers' experience. It's not really fair for me to comment extensively on the food because it took a plane ride before I ate it; but if it was that good reheated hours later, it's worth a try on-site for a real evaluation.
If you get down New Mexico way, stop at El Paragua in Espanola. Their pintos with chicos are wonderful, as is the rest of their food - outstanding carne adovada and carnitas, chiles rellenos, posole... everything I've had there is excellent.
Austin is a wonderful food town, have a great trip - and report back!

Added to the list! Thanks!

Hi folks, here is the (long!) report.

After all that planning, my husband's work schedule, which dictated everything else, resulted in our only trying two BBQ places. I hope we'll remedy that soon!

So, straight from the airport we went to Jalopy. We got the Folleto (sp?) and the BBQ sandwiches (wanted to order the original instead of BBQ, but they were out of the onion marmalade). Two super-nice guys made the sammies for us on the new house-made flatbread, and gave us a free cookie from the bakery of one of their friends. The Folleto was our favorite, great savory/acid/spice balance, but both sandwiches were fresh and delicious and we enjoyed every bite.

Later, to Contigo for drinks; good margaritas and draft beer, crispy house pickles (okra, shishito peppers and green beans), and we loved the laid-back setting. (We ended up going back again for drinks because we enjoyed it so much, and wishing we had a chance to try more of the food, which looked really good. Next time...)

Tacos El Rico - it was kinda late and we were the only customers. Yolanda was warm and patient with our halting Spanish. We got enchiladas con guilota, a sope with beef, and four kinds of tacos. The enchiladas were a knockout - we practically came to blows over the last bite of quail. Wonderful, fresh, flavorful corn tortillas, bright, balanced chile, lovely toppings. Yummy sope too. Risking the wrath of scrumptiouschef - we found the taco meats and salsas very good but not mind-blowing. Maybe it is because I am used to New Mexican tacos... El Taco de Mexico in Denver is our go-to local place for super-moist and tender tacos (carnitas, pastor, etc) and house-made salsa that makes your scalp tingle. The meats at El Rico were tasty but comparatively a bit dry, and the salsas were on the mild side. But these are quibbles.... overall the food was terrific and we wished we had room to try more. We'll go back for sure.

Next day we had outstanding coffee at Medici, and were in line at Franklin by 10:45. I can't even come up with adjectives for the brisket. I am practically tearing up just thinking about it. It was mind-blowing. We got a pound of moist end-cut, plus a pound of pork ribs and a bit of pulled pork to try. The pork ribs were as good as any we've had. The pulled pork was good, but speaking as an NC native it was not life-changing. We loved the espresso sauce, and the vinegary sauce was great with the pulled pork; the third sauce was not exciting to us. The slaw was fresh and tasty, but the beans were oddly musty-tasting, and, to a southern girl, a little on the firm/dry side. Bottom line: best brisket I have ever tasted, by a country mile, and among the best pork ribs ever.

Uchiko for dinner, the sake social. Great, friendly service. Fabulous unfiltered sake. Raw scallops, salmon handroll, japanese eggplant, crispy brussels spouts and sweet potato fritters with sweet chile sauce - all insanely good. On the desserts, I thought they over-reached, but I'm not as much of a sweets as a savories person, so I am awfully picky about dessert. We had the fried milk, and the riffs-on-corn thingy. Compared to the seemingly effortless success of the other dishes, they seemed strained. Overall though, we loved Uchiko and wish we had a place of comparable sophistication at home.

Next morning we had very good coffee at Frank. The bacon-topped cinnamon roll was fine after we scraped off the 3/4" of superfluous frosting - crispy bacon, fresh yeasty roll. (I confess that we went back to Medici for coffee the next two days, because it could not be beat. We never even got to Houndstooth, and although I stopped at Once Over for a Dublin Dr Pepper one afternoon and loved the vibe, we just couldn't tear ourselves away from Medici's coffee.)

I picked up Black's BBQ for my husband's work event. The customer service at Black's was great. Re the food, I really wanted to love Black's but was already spoiled by Franklin - should have had them in the opposite order. However, the Black's beef ribs were terrific, and the sides were excellent - really good beans and slaw. The brisket and sausage were good but not awe-inspiring. The banana pudding and peach cobbler were marginal at best, over-sweetened and gooey, but cobbler is one dessert that I can make better than anything in a restaurant, and my mom made the best banana pudding ever, so I am not a fair judge!

As planned, we went to Parkside for a happy hour dinner. To me, this was the biggest disappointment in the line-up. It was a great deal on oysters, so we got 3 dozen. The assortment was nice, but most of the oysters were very under-developed, big shells with hardly any meat in them. (Still better than no oysters at all!) When asked, the server could not tell us anything about the food or the house cocktails; and neither she nor the bartender understood when my husband asked for a margarita up. Tho we explained, it arrived on the rocks and was pretty light on the tequila. The fried okra was tasty but came with a totally bland dipping sauce; the Caesar salad, described on the menu as "classic", was limp and overdressed, topped with one small anchovy, a paper-thin shard of toast and a grating of bland cheese. Sigh.

Because the work demands changed we never went to San Antonio and so didn't get to Luling or Cooper's; and it just about broke my heart that our schedule also prevented us from going to Snow's on Saturday.

We did get to Tam Deli before we flew out. Really nice people. On the strength of lots of written praise we ordered the yam and shrimp fritters, the garlic butter shrimp banh mi and the char-grilled pork banh mi. The shrimp banh mi was delicious. The fritters had great flavor but were saturated with grease through and through, as though the oil had not been quite hot enough. The pork banh mi was just okay. (For those who can get to Chapel Hill, NC, may I recommend the slow-cooked pork banh mi at SandwHich? It will rock your world.) The cream puffs lived up to their good rep, and we tried a palmier too, which was pretty decent. On the way out we saw a plate of the wide rice noodles, which we should have ordered - they looked amazing. Next time I would also try the Vietnamese pancake.

So altogether, some super highlights, some solid pleasures, a couple of let-downs and a long list of things to get to on our next visit, which I hope will be soon.

Thanks to all of you for the great info! Holler if you are coming to Boulder/Denver area.

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Tam Deli & Cafe
8222 N Lamar Blvd Ste D33, Austin, TX 78753

Uchiko
4200 North Lamar, Austin, TX 78756

Alan and Tom, Contigo looks perfect - sit outside, good stuff to drink... my guess is we will go straight there after my husband's work day, have a drink or two, try not to eat to much of the yummy-looking food, then go to Tacos El Rico and try one of everything! Thanks for the detailed info. This is now added to the Tuesday agenda.

Thanks for the suggestion, rudeboy. Am taking under consideration! Big pile o' veggies would be great; sandwiches or small dishes may be practical right before heading to the airport. I'm going to keep researching and monitoring responses, if they keep coming. Vietnamese and Thai food are often too sweet for me, which is why I like banh mi. I am also looking at some of the food trailers, like Eastside Kings and Chi-Lantro. Odd Duck is not open early enough or I'd plan for that.

Alan Sudo, thanks for the recs - are they near Tacos El Rico?

brentwood, stolen meat??? Seriously?

-----
Odd Duck
1219 S Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78704

Thanks MattC02, that's just what I was hoping.

Y'all, for our Saturday lunch, I'm considering bagging dim sum for Tam Deli. Thoughts?

-----
Tam Deli & Cafe
8222 N Lamar Blvd Ste D33, Austin, TX 78753

...and as long as I'm blathering on here, what about the question of drinks on Tuesday evening - if we eat at Tacos El Rico, where should we go before or after (or both ;-)) for beers and/or margaritas? We like the style of marg with just tequila, fresh lime and a little cointreau...

Thanks BT, yeah, I looked at Sam's but just had to somehow narrow things down... re alt meats, one of the reasons I was interested in Cooper's was the cabrito, which no one has commented on...

Dave, the H-bomb is on my list for next trip (hope it's not another decade).

gilintx, I will report, but fair warning, this geek was raised on NC pulled pork! (Eastern NC type sauce.) Having said that, I have never met a regional style of BBQ that, when properly executed, I don't love.... including my previous experiences with Texas brisket and sausage. I do prefer a rather dry sausage (a point I read lots of opinions about here), but honestly, if it's well made, I like it all.

Re sausage, I noticed in another thread that supposedly if you ask for the "worry link" at Black's you get the spicy jalapeño sausage - without cheese - that another poster raved about, so I was going to try for that...

Great info, thanks you guys. I am going to see if I can check out Woody's on line. I know we are going to have a blast everywhere - I admit I am most excited about Franklin's, Snow's and City Market!

-----
City Market
633 E Davis St, Luling, TX 78648

PS, lixlix, this is a whole other discussion, but I am a bit nervous about the Chinese food in Austin thing - here at home we have almost no edible Chinese food, so I am always looking when I travel.... but having lived next door to Chinatown in both SF and NYC, I am looking for something reasonably authentic and well-prepared. I was also thinking small dishes after all the meatfests, ergo dim sum.

Thanks for all the replies, folks. I had a feeling this would be confusing, but since my last trip to Austin was a decade ago and we are BBQ geeks I want to make the most of this visit!

The challenge with Thursday is that the only way we can try any of the places at lunchtime is to pick one and get take-out for my husband's work event, so we can't crawl around Lockhart, which would have been my preference. Can anyone tell me what is best at Smitty's, since they have no menu on line? I would have to know exactly what to get for the work lunch. I kinda ruled out Kreuz's because in all the threads I read about Lockhart, it had by far the most negative comments... I was torn about Louis Muellers because it seems like a real love/hate thing in the threads.

Coopers remarks duly noted; thanks for the specifics, Chefdavis, it's extra nice to know about the sides cause unlike a lot of BBQ folks I actually care about them (southern thing as opposed to Texas thing maybe?). One of the reasons I chose Blacks was because I read good things about some of the sides. You gotta balance out all that meat!

Dave Westerberg, props for the positive attitude. I love that. Anything we get will be vastly better than what we have here (Boulder CO), but like I said, we are geeks.... so I'm willing to fuss over the choices some.

lixlix, I will check out those two places. Pao's does have dim sum, I called to check; and apparently they also have a Chinese menu that you can request.

Other thoughts welcome, I love reading everyone's comments.

Austin hounds, will you weigh in on my mostly-BBQ plan for our upcoming 4 days in the area, and my choices for the other meals? Do you think we have chosen the right highlights at each BBQ place? I realize this is not a true crawl, but we have to work it around my husband's business trip, and are trying to fit in a few other things where 'cue is not an option. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Tuesday 9/6 - arrive Austin mid afternoon, dinner at Tacos El Rico. Where to go for a good margarita or cold beer?

Wednesday 9/7 - Once Over Coffee; in line at Franklin's by 10:30 am, brisket, ribs, pulled pork. Wednesday dinner sake social at Uchiko for just light nibbles.

Thursday 9/8 - Frank's coffee; 11 am, pick up take-out at Black's for 15-person work event: brisket, sausage, beef ribs, beans, potato salad, coleslaw, pickled onions; banana pudding or peach cobbler? Anybody wanna argue for choosing Smitty's (no online menu so couldn't see options) or Louis Mueller's instead? Dinner, Parkside happy hour.

Friday 9/9 - Medici coffee, then drive to Luling by 10 am for brunch at City Market: brisket, pork ribs or pork shoulder, sausage. On to San Antonio for husband's work day, then return via New Braunfels for dinner at Coopers at 6 or 6:30; is the cabrito worth the expense? I hear the chicken is really good at Cooper's. Thoughts?

Saturday 9/10 - Houndstooth Coffee; Snow's by 8 or 8:30 am, brisket, pork shoulder, anything else? 1:30 or 2 pm, late lunch before airport; should we go to Chen's Noodle House, dim sum at Pao's or somewhere else? Fly home at 5:30 and eat steamed broccoli for weeks!

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City Market
633 E Davis St, Luling, TX 78648

Chen's Noodle House
8650 Spicewood Springs Rd, Austin, TX 78759

Uchiko
4200 North Lamar, Austin, TX 78756

kathryn, appreciate your thoughts. Am also checking out Aquagrill.

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Aquagrill
210 Spring St, New York, NY 10012

Are you thinking because of the labor dispute, because of the food or both?

Flying Delta, no idea what terminal. Will find out. Will also post for Queens.
And whoops, I was meaning Bar Boulud (too many Bouluds to keep track!). What do you think?

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Bar Boulud
1900 Broadway, New York, NY 10023