We’ve driven by this place a ton since it is in my parents’ neighbourhood and have been meaning to try it forever… or since it opened maybe just over a year ago.
After a pretty exhausting and appetite inducing trip to Ripley’s Aquarium with my husband, the kid, my mom, my siblings and the kid’s two cousins we were all hungry. My husband had a craving for poutine and suggested we finally try this place out.
I was hungry to the point of wanting to eat his arm off and after dropping the sleeping kid off at grandma’s to nap, we sped over.
The wait was mercifully short and the owner was really friendly and chatted with us and answered my many questions. Also, he worked at THE Schwartz’s deli in Montreal for 16 years. These are serious meat credentials. So not everything in this place is halal, but thankfully the poutine is (otherwise my husband might have crashed right there). The smoked meat, the steak and the chicken are all halal.
The place looks exactly what you would expect of a trendy sandwich and smoked meat/deli place. I had a few moments to look at the pictures and articles on the wall which made me aware of how awesome the food scene in the GTA is. One article from The Star highlighted that “It’s a Sri Lankan guy doing Jewish food for Chinese customers”. I’d have to add that it’s with halal meat that caters to the Muslim population. So… a Sri Lankan man, using halal meat to make Jewish food for Chinese customers. and lo and behold. The only other people in there other than my starving husband and I were young Chinese customers eating sandwiches.
We ordered the Large Meat Plate, the Smoked Meat Sandwich Combo and of course the Smoked Meat Poutine. The Meat Plate is literally a giant plate of cut smoked flavourful meat that comes with some rye bread and mustard packages. The Sandwich is exactly that same meat assembled into a sandwich with mustard and rye but the combo also comes with a pickle, a tiny helping of coleslaw and some fries. The Poutine at first glance didn’t look like it even had fries in it because it was so covered with gravy, meat and cheese. Other Poutine places, take notes.
Both my siblings, Montreal natives, have eaten at Schwartz’s and were eager to try the meaty mountains in front of us and might have fed me to the toddlers if I had taken more pictures of the food. Who are we kidding. Toddlers don’t eat.
The meat is flavourful and soft. It is everything smoked beef should be. It was great on its own and it was even better for me when I made sandwiches with the meat from the meat plate, the mustard packages, the bread and the pickle. It was simple but really a winning combo. The sandwich is basically the same as the large meat plate, but it comes pre-assembled. I personally find that less fun.
I was a little wary of the super non-interesting looking mustard packets, but honestly it really works with the rye and the beef. My sister busted out the wasabi mustard and it was equally as amazing, with a bit more of that punch you might expect of wasabi. I might try my self-assembled sandwich again with my personal favourite, raspberry honey mustard. It might even make me bust open that jar of Maple mustard from the Maple Syrup Festival that I’ve been saving for a special occasion. If good meat isn’t a special occasion, I don’t know what is.
Now let me tell you about this poutine. I am on the fence about poutine in general, but holy cheese curds this is good stuff. The gravy is flavourful and not offensively salty like most poutines I’ve had. The meat has little crispy bits that are so perfect with the soft cheese and the fries didn’t turn to a pile of complete mush. This is poutine I would actually order and recommend to people and to date, I don’t recommend poutine or order it on my own…I just steal a sample from of my husband’s to try.
Anyone who tells you that any old grocery store sandwich pickle is good enough needs to try this pickle to understand how wrong they are and reassess their life pickle choices. It isn’t sweet or too sour and totally crunchy. I would never order from here again without that pickle. The coleslaw isn’t too sharp and I didn’t now coleslaw could exist without mayonnaise. I didn’t appreciate coleslaw until I just had it done right at this place.
Everyone enjoyed it and we would definitely order from this gem again. I might not even bother trying other menu items I was just so happy with what I already tried. This is the kind of sandwich that would keep me coming back and since it is dangerously close to my parent’s house, I don’t imagine I’m going to resist too hard next time I have happy sandwich day dreams.
Foodie Muslim 