Went over the Christmas/New Years break. Tried the smoked meat at Schwartz's.... it was wonderful, enough has been said about it here. Its somewhere in between corned beef and pastrami I would say. Yum. The bagels at St-Viateur are really good, but different from New York. They are sweeter, and due to the wood oven baking have a toasted taste.. at least the sesame ones I had did.
One restaurant in particular I got from chowhound that was AWESOME is le club chasse et peche. One of the best meals I have had. In particular the seared scallops, the piglet risotto with shaved foie gras, was just wow. I really loved my braised pork short rib entree as well.
The other restaurant Europea, was also very very good. This we just kind of stumbled upon as Sundays and Mondays a lot of restaurants are closed. Also a tip, many businesses/restaurants seemed to be closed for the holiday. I think a lot of folks decide to go someplace warm for the holidays. But anyway, we tried the 5 course tasting menu which ended up being 9 courses. The chef kept sending out "gifts" which of course I promptly ate. By the end I think I over did it, but it was a very good deal, and quite delicious.
We had to cut out trip short so we never got to try Au Pied or poutine..... next trip.