Kid-friendly attractions in Ottawa, Montreal, & Quebec City?

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01-19-2009
MamaBear

Quote:

Originally Posted by SASM

This is OTTAWA, right? Not Montreal? :) How old was your DS when you went to the war museum./ We actually went to the Canadian Museum of Civilisation over the weekend (plan on going back to Ottawa in a few weeks for Winterlude) and my kids really liked the Children's Museum. We wandered around a small section of the "native" section, where there are totum poles and floor to ceiling glass overlooking the city scape. Anyway...my kids were interested in that section but obviously I wanted to read and they wanted to wander and just look. So...there is HOPE for my seeing actual museums!! I know that I will want to immerse myself in the W ar Museum and I am not sure how my kids will respond at almost 4 and almost 6. :)

Thank you! I will definitely check out that site.

Shopping & dining reccs in Toronto are VERY welcome! We used to go there A LOT pre-kids and LOVED that city! We are still planning on visiting Toronto but have a better grasp on that city, although it is always changing...so again reccs are very welcome! For example, we really liked the concept of Marche restaurant (& Movenpick) in Eaton Centre. I was looking online to see if there were any others around and discovered that they changed their name. I was worried that the restaurant closed. So...love reccs!

Ooops, yes, that's Ottawa! My son was 17-ish months when we went to Ottawa last year. Definitely go to the kids' museum at the museum of civilisation!

Yeah, Movenpick restaurants have a new name in Toronto. Something-tree, I can't remember exactly. There's a Marche (under the name) at the Eaton Centre, and another at Square One in Mississauga (suburbs).

I love Toronto, too. We had the luxury of living there for 6 months last year, and I cried and cried when it was time to leave.
01-21-2009
mom2binsd

I was raised in Ottawa and family are still there, by far the best museum for the kids is the Science and Tech Museum over on St. Laurent BLVD ? It's not downtown but a little east of the city, there are trains as well as so many hands on activities and the best thing ever the CROOKED KITCHEN!

The Museum of Man downtown has some great dinosaurs (my brother and his boys have had sleepovers there with their cub pack).

If you go to the canal during winter you must try a BEAVER TAIL, an Ottawa delicacy (it's a fried dough in the shape of a beaver tail with cinnamon or other toppings-YUMMY!)

Another of my favs (but not everyone will agree) is Poutine - thick french fries topped with cheese curds smothered in beef gravy!
01-23-2009
SASM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mom2binsd

I was raised in Ottawa and family are still there, by far the best museum for the kids is the Science and Tech Museum over on St. Laurent BLVD ? It's not downtown but a little east of the city, there are trains as well as so many hands on activities and the best thing ever the CROOKED KITCHEN!

The Museum of Man downtown has some great dinosaurs (my brother and his boys have had sleepovers there with their cub pack).

If you go to the canal during winter you must try a BEAVER TAIL, an Ottawa delicacy (it's a fried dough in the shape of a beaver tail with cinnamon or other toppings-YUMMY!)

Another of my favs (but not everyone will agree) is Poutine - thick french fries topped with cheese curds smothered in beef gravy!

Thank you! Will definitely check out those museums. How neat that they had sleepovers at a museum!! :) I will definitely put "Beaver Tail" on my list of things to sample at Winterlude!! Sounds yummy! In all of the years that we visited Niagara Falls to Toronto I never knew about Poutine. My cousin, who lives in Buffalo, told me that I HAD to get poutine the next time that we were in Canada. We tried it at the M. of Civilisation...probably not the "best" place to try it but HAD to try it! :)

Do you recommend any kid-friendly restaurants in Byward Market? We were totally overwhelmed with the choices, plus it didn't look like there were many that would appreciate child diners in their restaurant. :( AHHHH!!!
01-23-2009
MontrealMum

Quote:

Originally Posted by SASM

In all of the years that we visited Niagara Falls to Toronto I never knew about Poutine. My cousin, who lives in Buffalo, told me that I HAD to get poutine the next time that we were in Canada. We tried it at the M. of Civilisation...probably not the "best" place to try it but HAD to try it! :)

Sharyn, you CAN'T get poutine in Ontario. It's just not right. Now, I am not a lover of the dish myself (OK, I truly hate it), but if you really want to try it, you've got to get in Quebec. It is a Quebecois dish, it would just be wrong to get it in Ontario. Goodness, at least drive across the bridge to Hull and visit La Belle Province or Nickel's or something ;) BTW, Nickel's is co-owned by Celine Dion and is purported to be family friendly - not that I've been, but it's in my Mtl. w/ children guide.
01-24-2009
SASM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MontrealMum

Sharyn, you CAN'T get poutine in Ontario. It's just not right. Now, I am not a lover of the dish myself (OK, I truly hate it), but if you really want to try it, you've got to get in Quebec. It is a Quebecois dish, it would just be wrong to get it in Ontario. Goodness, at least drive across the bridge to Hull and visit La Belle Province or Nickel's or something ;) BTW, Nickel's is co-owned by Celine Dion and is purported to be family friendly - not that I've been, but it's in my Mtl. w/ children guide.

Too funny! Hey...I thought that the Mus. of Civilisation WAS in Hull/Gatineau, Quebec??? :) It WAS in a museum cafeteria...so it still wasn't the greatest place for food...well...that is, other than yummy Canadian candy! :) I bought a box of Smarties and my kids were in shock as I NEVER buy candy! When in Canada, buy candy...anywhere you can!!
01-24-2009
MontrealMum

Yes, *technically* it is, but you really need to go to a greasy spoon-type place to get the full (horrific) experience of poutine. (as you can see, I don't like it all that much!) Good for you for buying Smarties - you can't get them in the US. Very Canadian of you :) I guess other Canadian candy is Coffee Crisp and Aero bars. I am not a candy eater, but more of a french fry or potato chips fan - which is why I don't like my fries smothered in gravy!
01-25-2009
SASM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MontrealMum

I am not aware of any special McD's in Montreal, but that doesn't mean there isn't one. I would imagine maybe that it's in QC in a historic building or something? Their Old Town is much more extensive. On the route up north there is a McD's at a service centre that's built in the style of old Quebec stone houses - but it's not historical or anything (because there was no white settlement up there in that era) so I can't imagine that that's the "special" one you're thinking of.

I was just looking through the posts again and saw this. :) Here is an overview of the Travel Channel show that I mentioned: http://mcchronicles.blogspot.com/200...-in-world.html :)

This is supposedly the location, per YahooAdvice. :) 1500 AVENUE ATWATER, MONTRÉAL, QC H3Z 1X5, Canada - (514) 935-8569 I am NOT a McD's person but I must say that I was quite curious after watching the show! :)
01-25-2009
SASM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MontrealMum

Yes, *technically* it is, but you really need to go to a greasy spoon-type place to get the full (horrific) experience of poutine. (as you can see, I don't like it all that much!) Good for you for buying Smarties - you can't get them in the US. Very Canadian of you :) I guess other Canadian candy is Coffee Crisp and Aero bars. I am not a candy eater, but more of a french fry or potato chips fan - which is why I don't like my fries smothered in gravy!

HA! ITA! Had to try poutine since cousin insisted. I love a good fry done correctly!! Are ther any other truly Canadian foods?? Please tell me there are others other than poutine and Canadian bacon. :) LOVE Aero's, Crunchie's, & Cadbury bars, too. Chocolate is my downfall...makes South Beach Diet really difficult. :(
01-25-2009
EllasMum

Another truly Canadian food is ginger beef. Actually, I am told that the ONLY place you can get it done properly is Calgary (where I am). It is a Chinese food dish, which is thin strips of beef battered and deep fried, and then covered in a sauce made of (roughly speaking) soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, and pepper flakes. It is soooo incredibly delicious. It's totally one of my "If I was stuck on a desert island with only one food" foods. ;) I have tried to get ginger beef in parts of BC and had no luck at all. Calgarians who are Chinese food fans always miss it a great deal when they move to other parts of the country! I believe maybe it has migrated as far as Saskatchewan... but I'm not sure about Ontario and Quebec. You might have to make a special trip west to get it. ;)
01-25-2009
MontrealMum

Quote:

Originally Posted by SASM

This is supposedly the location, per YahooAdvice. :) 1500 AVENUE ATWATER, MONTRÉAL, QC H3Z 1X5, Canada - (514) 935-8569 I am NOT a McD's person but I must say that I was quite curious after watching the show! :)

I have not seen the show, but I'll check it out. IIRC there was a McD's (nothing special about it) at the corner of Atwater and Ste-Catherine which closed at least 5 years ago and is now a sushi restaurant.

Even though I go past there all the time that area is pretty dense, so I MapQuested the address and it actually show up as maybe being within Alexis-Nihon which is a shopping center just north of the above intersection...so it's in a Food Court I'd assume? I'll have to ask MIL - she shops there a lot. It could also be in what is now called the "Pepsi Forum" (directly across the street) which is where the Canadiens used to play before they built the new hockey arena further downtown. Maybe it has something to do with that - they've preserved "center ice" and some other things in the lobby part of the building. It's supposed to be full of restaurants and stores, but as far as getting storefronts to move in there, though, besides a cinema, it's a failed economic venture. I will ask around---you learn something every day :)

As far as uniquely Canadian food...it's very regional. In Nfld. there are some very unique Newfie dishes, for example, that you wouldn't be able to get anywhere else...here in Quebec a lot of them are based around sugaring-off or replicating what the voyageurs or loggers used to eat. So, beef jerkey, pemmican, bannock (not that that's "unique" to Canada) or pea soup, tarte a sucre, beans...lots of ham...one thing that DH really likes are Nanaimo bars - which you can get here, but come from BC. I've never had ginger beef so I think Ellasmum is right about it not coming too far east - sounds good though! I also had the wonderful (not) experience of vinagar pie in Tadoussac. Yes, that would be pie made out of vineagar - looks deceptively like lemon pie.

If you have a sweet tooth I'd try tarte a sucre (sugar pie). You should be able to get that easily in the Ottawa area. Alot of other things that were "new" foods to me upon moving here are actually British foods: Shepherd's pie, Bangers and Mash, and there was a dessert which I can't remember the name of now. In the big cities there are lots of wonderful ethnic foods---of course, in the US there are too, but I come from a small town. So, here in Mtl. we have a Chinatown, lots of Japanese food, amazing Indian places, Little Italy up in the north part of the island, several wonderful Ethiopian places, several Polish/Dutch/German delis and pastry shops...those are just the ones I can think of...Mtl. is heaven for a foodie!

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