First off, I'm New Yorker who takes her bagels seriously. So when people told me I HAD to try bagels in Montreal, I was a bit skeptical. Could they really be anywhere near as good as in NY?
Well, we stopped in here around 9:30 PM on a Friday night and got fresh hot sesame bagels, right out of the wood fired oven. They were delicious! Of course, how can you go wrong when they are fresh out of the oven?!
Overall, the bagels are much lighter than NY bagels - there is no chewy denseness that typifies the NY style. The shape was also a bit different -- narrower with a much bigger hole in the middle. So generally, they seemed a bit smaller than what you would get in NY. The "savory" bagels we bought were slightly sweet - apparently they boil them in sweetened water which is part of what distinguishes them.
I would definitely recommend getting some of these -- especially if you can get them fresh out of the oven!