On our way to Mont Tremblant, we decided to make a breakfast stop once we cleared the early morning Montreal traffic.  Searching for local stops, Katie came across Bagel Ste-Rose in Laval, which is a large suburb of Montreal.  As we discovered, Laval appears to be a small town, but it is spread out over many square KM.  The restaurant itself is about a 10 minute drive off of Highway 15, so we were able to pass through several local neighborhoods in Laval, which was nice to see and get a feel for a city outside of Montreal.

After parking behind the building we noticed on the front a sign that said, “Cartes de credit non acceptees.  En especes seulement.”  Fortunately, Katie translated the sign that we needed cash to pay for our meal.  So, off we went in search of an ATM for some Canadian cash (we were trying to limit our cash haul in order not to bring any back over the border with us).  After that 10 minute excursion, we were finally able to find a seat and order our meal.  Below is the exterior and interior of Bagel Ste-Rose.  It’s nestled in a nice neighborhood with a few other family-owned restaurants.

The first thing I noticed upon receiving the menu, is that outside of Montreal, servers are less quick to switch to English with customers.  After seeing my struggles with the menu, the hostess was kind enough to come and offer a menu in English (I almost was able to get by with my minimal French reading translation, but it was a relief).

My meal consisted of a plain bagel, two poached eggs (it was unusual that poached was the only option), some fantastic sausage, beans, and fruit.  Katie just for a bagel and fruit.  We both had lattes with Katie making her’s a mocha.  The coffees had nice flavor and were hot.

We really enjoyed the meal. Everything was fresh and well prepared and we received excellent service.  The bagels were Montreal-style (not as sweet as those we had in Montreal -more on them later-), but interestingly, the hostess was finishing off the baking process using a conveyor-belt toaster.  While the bagels were great when prepared on a griddle with butter, the ones we took on the road were just good.  I think something is lost without the fire-roasting.

In the end, Bagel Ste-Rose is worth the stop if you are in Laval.

On se voit sur la route!

-Mike