Dinner: Reubens Deli
Reubens Delicatessen, 888 Ste-Catherine West (514) 861-1255

See...I'm the first person to extoll the virtues of Montreal's culinary delights, but the truth is that downtown - centre-ville, McGill/Ste-Catherine - right in the heart of Montreal, sometimes there's nothing. That little core is filled with malls connecting to the underground city which is cool when you're both cold and hungry, but when you want to sit down to a nice meal a shawarma at Basha in the food court just doesn't cut it.

Cut to myself and Depeche Mode (my friend, not the band): we had just finished a bout of coffee n' conversation and we were feeling a little peckish. It's always difficult when you're right downtown and you're looking for a good meal. I mean, there are a couple of good places but they're super posh. We wanted a down-to-earth experience, only with good food. Alas, we had pretty much decided that we wouldn't find a great meal and so we just settled for the "sit down" part. We settled on Reubens Deli, because at least we knew we could get a decent smoked meat.

Reubens used to look like more of a deli back in the day, but they renovated it and now it kind of looks like a quasi-posh deli steakhouse. We entered the restaurant only to be greeted by a succinctly dressed young man you guided us to a table in the smoking section. After we finished being horrified, we were reseated in the non-smoking section and we began to peruse the menu.

Okay, the menu looked really good. It was filled with appetizers whose descriptions evoked mouthwatering images. The descriptions also sounded like the portions were really big. Now, I can eat but I am not a glutton and neither is Depeche Mode. After some deliberation, including whether or not we should split an appetizer, we decided only to select a main dish each. The menu featured all sorts of smoked meat sandwiches, traditional deli sandwiches, various cuts of steak and burgers with fries. I chose the Rocky Top Chicken. This is what they brought me.

Rocky Top Chicken is chicken in Jack Daniels barbecue sauce on a bed of mashed potatoes and sprinkled quite heavily with corn, cheese, sprigs of something green and actual strips of bacon. I hate it when this happens because I really should destroy more restaurants with my scathing words, but I really loved this dish. The mashed potatoes were so creamy and nice. The bacon was crisp and not greasy. I love bacon, but I NEVER make it at home. And, while I hate Jack Daniels the whisky, I love Jack Daniels the sauce. The chicken was juicy in a way that didn't make me think that it was raw, so that was a nice surprise. I have to admit that between going the first time and writing this review I've already gone back and had the dish a second time. So really, this review is an amalgamation of both those nights. Both those nights also included Depeche Mode (my friend, not the band...geez...)

Well, after having cleaned my plate, I wanted dessert but I really didn't have much room for it. I asked the waiter about the portion sizes and he assured me that the carrot cake was a modestly sized dessert. Yeah, right. Here it is.

You call this modest? I had one quarter of the cake in the restaurant and the rest the next night at home. What do these people think is large? The crusty top is composed of sugury pecans. I really need to learn how to make a good carrot cake. I make an excellent cheesecake. In fact, I just made one tonight with a cranberry topping in celebration of American Thanksgiving. Depeche Mode's husband is American and his son is coming up for the holiday. I've been invited to partake in the festivities. But I digress...

If you're stuck downtown and you want a decent meal, I suppose Reuben's isn't so bad. Look at how happy I look! Obviously, I ate well:

I even made it my new profile pic! I give Reuben's a modestly-sized three stars.







Kisses,
Laurelle