There's a longstanding debate about whose bagels are better: Montreal or NYC. Both claim the local water and home-made variations like the addition of a touch of honey in Montreal make their bagels both unique and the best.
Being from the West Coast, I'm a poor choice to wax poetic about bagels but I've had enough to know what I enjoy. We stopped by St-Viateur and it's considered one of Montreal's best with several locations throughout the city. Sure enough, with a late brunch arrival, the place was packed with a line out the door.
If you simply want to order bagels only, a short line awaits with a cashier nearby the impressive oven with lines of freshly bagels being made. For take-out, you can bypass the line by the door but go to the same cashier that processes all dine-in customers. For tourists, only Canadian debit is accepted so this is largely a cash only establishment.
The interior space is compact and busy with servers expertly navigating the tight spaces, coordinating seating, and bringing all the combination bagel orders. For larger groups (ie: 4 or more), expect longer waits as there are more tables for 2 or 3 tops. We waited about 45 minutes but the wait for a 2 person table was as short as 15 minutes.
The menu consists largely of bagel choices (plain, sesame, everything, rosemary and salt, raisins, etc.) with your choice of meats (ie: Traditional lox, Italian, Montreal with smoked meats) and finally a choice of multiple salads (crab, macaroni, green) or soup (chicken macaroni elbow soup). Our order:
Traditional -$12.50. Plain toasted bagel with smoked salmon, plentiful cream cheese, capers, onions and tomatoes. Very classic. Loved the smoked salmon and cream cheese. The bagel was chewier and harder than I expected without much unique flavor profile likely because it was a plain bagel. I'm a huge fan of NYC salt bagels so this was much more muted. The chicken soup was tasty but the white chicken meat was quite dry and overcooked.
A La Coque Deluxe - $10.50. Rosemary salt bagel toasted with omelette egg, grilled ham, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. This bagel was tastier but also quite chewier and hard from being toasted. The crab salad on the side was imitation crab and while fine wasn't noteworthy.
Overall, we were happy to stop by and try St. Viateur but thought the waits were a touch long for a rather standard bagel experience. Might have been a better choice to order half a dozen bagels to go, dress ourselves with salmon and ham and egg, and enjoy at home. This stop is quite popular with the tourists and the staff does a great job with the crowds.
St. Viateur accepts Canadian debit or cash only.