This was the first vegetarian-friendly restaurant I ever ate at. The idea of eating differently from how I was raised simply never really occurred to me until I got to university. Everyone and their dog was a vegetarian or had gone iron-deficient by dabbling in it at one point in their life. It all started to make a bit more sense to me after I dined at Cafe Santropol. I will never forget their decadent and thick homemade rye bread and their triple-decker sandwiches with layers of nut-and-seed filled cream cheeses. Exotic fruits decorated the plates, and there was always more than I could eat. I tried a few things, but my favourite was the tuna, tomato and cream cheese sandwich. The combo was mouth-watering, and for years afterwards I'd try to recreate it at home. On every trip back to Montreal I've stopped in here to introduce their culinary creations to a friend and get another taste. They have a gorgeous, lush patio out back, fenced in and private. The dimly-lit restaurant is an old house where you can sip fruit teas for hours and study or laze away a summer afternoon.