David Trinh

I just got back from a quick two day vacation to Montreal.  A few thoughts:

1. The food was good.  The service was excellent.  Surprisingly enough I was more impressed by the service in Montreal than the food.  Don’t get me wrong, the restaurants were all quite good (Au Pied de Cochon, in particular was a real treat) but there are certainly places in Minneapolis that more than surpass what Montreal has to offer.  While the food wasn’t mind-blowing though, the level of service was incredible.  No snootiness, no French attitude (something I was prepared for after hosting two French cousins this past summer), and no sass.  I was impressed.
2. Businesses in Montreal have a strange aversion to accepting credit cards—only about one in three shops that I visited accepted plastic.
3. The subway in Montreal is one of the better mass transit systems that I’ve seen.  By American standards it was incredibly clean and I never waited more than five minutes for a train.  Evidentially nationalized transportation works in Canada.
4. Hotwire saved the day again by furnishing an incredibly nice room for a stunningly low price.  I highly recommend it.  Use betterbidding.com if you want a better idea of which hotel you’ll be landing before you commit.
5. Tim Horton’s is nothing special.