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The Main



Description
Neighbourhood : Quartier latin and the village
Type : Deli, Smoked meat
Price : $
Terrasse : NA
Delivery : No
Bring your own wine : No

Contact and location
Address : 3864 St Laurent blvd.
Metro station: St-Laurent then take the 55 bus north
Tel. : (514) 843-8126
Email :
Website :
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Your opinions
Review written by CQ
Rating : 3.0/5
In one line : great melt-in-your mouth smoked meat.
Review : There's the usual "debate" about smoked meat places (which makes real smoked meat, which is the best, which one has the worst service, etc). Schwartz's (it's located right across the street from The Main) is known to have the best smoked meat but the worst service. If Schwartz has the worst service then I don't know what they do over there because The Main's service is pretty bad too. It took a full 5 minutes (if not more) after I sat down to be noticed by the waiter and when he finally brought the menu, it took him about 10 minutes to come back to take the order... and the place was far from full (and he was borderline rude... yes I dared to ask a question).
You are probably wondering what is "smoked meat", well it's not pastrami or corned beef. It's actually beef massaged with spices, marinated for a while and then smoked (hence the name). Good smoked meat should't be stringy and the slices shouldn't be too thin and they should almost fall apart. There's three kinds of smoked meat : the industrial kind (you can find those at supermarkets in plastic pouches that you boil in water, some restaurants sells them as smoked meat but it's are easy to spot, the meat is usually the size of a small fist, stringy and the slices are very thin), the deli kind (sold in some restaurants like Ben's, Lester's, Ruben's; they all buy their smoked meat from the same supplier, there's not much difference between them; the meat is much less stringy and the slices are thicker than the industrial kind but the slices still hold together), and the "home-made" smoked meat (from what I have heard, only The Main and Schwartz's make its own smoked meat, the meat is soooo tender you can't believe it).
I ordered a simple smoked meat sandwich combo (there are double smoked meat if you are really hungry) for $6.85. You can choose a combination of two meats (roast beef, smoked veal, stuffed chicken, etc) so I chose smoked meat and stuffed chicken (it also comes with fries, coleslaw and a large pickle). I should have stuck with smoked meat alone, the chicken tasted like luncheon meat you can buy in supermarkets, but the smoked meat itself was another story. When you read that something is "melt-in-your-mouth", it's usually an exaggeration but this was literarily melting in my mouth, it was so tender you can eat it with a spoon, it kind of tasted like a very tender smoked roastbeef. As for drinks, the tourist guides I have read all say that the "locals" drink black cherry cola with their sandwich and I always wondered if it's the kind of thing the authors make up or is it real, well most people over there drank it but I'm still not sure if they really wanted some or because they just read it in a guide, but you definitely need something to wash it down other than water.
Date of review : Between 1993 and 2005

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