A visit to Montreal without a stop at Schwartz's is probably unthinkable, especially if you are a fan of Jewish delicatessen food. So I dutifully queued up on a holiday afternoon and waited patiently for my turn to take a seat and tuck in. The thing to order is of course the smoked meat sandwich, but there is a choice to be made--are you pretending that this dish can be made healthy and get it "lean" or do you through caution to the wind and get the "fatty"? Well, you can have the best of both worlds and get it "medium fatty", which is what I did (my table mates got it lean, and I felt very sorry for them, since it looked quite dry and unappetising). Since I was saving fat on the sandwich, I decided to go whole hog (is that OK to say at a Jewish restaurant?) and got French fries on the side.
The sandwich was very good. Not excellent, but very good. The reason for the reduction in grade was the bread, which was completely uninteresting. If they had something more like a New York rye, with a bit of body to it, it would have been great, but alas, the bread was rather limp and uninspiring. Also, please note that the sandwich is not a NY-style monstrosity that you cannot imagine a person actually eating. The size is quite manageable, so you'll have room for those sides. Unfortunately the fries were a bit lacklustre, but that made me feel less wasteful for not finishing them. The pickle, however, was great, and the Cott's black cherry soda (*the* accompaniment of choice) was perfect. Go! Enjoy! You'll thank me for it!