how can you come to montreal and not be greeted with the love for smoked meat? smoked meat on poutine, smoked meat sandwiches...all for good reason!
after many people recommended schwartz's, i did a little happy dance when i found out our hotel (hotel 10) was only a 10 minute walk away! gathered my friends and onwards we made the walk to schwartz's.
we were expecting to split a sandwich between 4 of us because we were thinking it would be the size of american sandwiches however, the portion sizes are perfect for 1 individual. we were a bit deterred after seeing the long line of people waiting to be seated but while walking with our heads hung low, we saw a little door for "take out" service. i did another happy dance when i saw there was a small seating section in the back! whoo hoo!
we were at schwartz's around 7pm and line was long but we must have hit the take out counter before it got super busy! we split 2 smoked meat sandwiches and got 2 pickles. they do take card so don't worry if you don't have cash on hand.
a lot of people compare this to pastrami (and katz and carnegie deli in nyc) BUT i don't think you could really compare as the smoked meat was a much more tame taste. not too salty and not slathered with mustard. the sandwich was actually quite the perfect size and pickles were just the amount of crunch and sourness.
if you have time to wait, for it; for us, we dislike waiting so the take out option was great for us!