In Montreal, some of the places where you’ll find the most delicious food also happen to be the quickest. From chopped salads downtown at Foodchain to Thai comfort food at Little Italy’s Epicerie Pumpui, these restaurants prove that fast food doesn’t have to mean junk food.
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The Finest Fast Food in Montreal
Skip the multinational chains and get burgers, sandwiches, salads, and more from these local favourites.
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Épicerie Pumpui
You’ll find some of the city’s best Thai food at this Little Italy counter or “curry shop”. Order a pad kaprao (pork and Thai basil stir fry), fried chicken with sweet chili sauce, or any curry on offer, plus some mango sticky rice to soothe your tongue with something sweet after all that spice.
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Falafel Yoni
A welcome addition to Mile End’s food scene, Falafel Yoni does its namesake dish justice. Order it in sandwich form, wrapped in a pita with a mountain of red cabbage and tahini, on a platter or atop a salad: there is no wrong way to eat these crispy fried chickpea balls. The sabich — a fried eggplant sandwich — is equally worth a try.
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Wilensky's Light Lunch
Pull up a bar stool and within minutes, you’ll be enjoying Wilensky’s Special, one of Montreal’s most iconic sandwiches. Your Kaiser bun will come topped with bologna and salami, fried on a flat top, with or without mustard. Just don’t dare ask them to cut it in half.
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Rotisserie Romados
Some Montrealers may swear by ultra-popular Ma Poule Mouillée down the street, but the lines there mean it’s not always guaranteed to be a very fast meal — old favourite Romados is often faster, with fantastically juicy rotisserie chicken smothered in spicy sauce and served with a mountain of fries. Call ahead to skip any potential line. —Tim Forster
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Uniburger (multiple locations)
Why have any other fast food burger when you can have a Uniburger? Now with locations on Saint Denis, and in St-Henri and Côte-des-Neiges, a perfect 100% Canadian beef burger — served on a Martin’s potato roll with tomatoes, lettuce, cheese and special sauce — is never too far away.
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Hoang Oanh Sandwich
This Chinatown sandwich counter serves a near-perfect banh mi, assembled on the spot for $4, plus other Vietnamese staples like fresh spring rolls or banh cuon (rice paper sheets filled with ground pork).
Foodchain
Satisfying the downtown crowd’s need for fresh salads done fast, Foodchain is just about the healthiest fast food you can possibly find, with all-vegetarian combinations blitzed up in food processors — like kohlrabi, celery, fennel, basil, onion, turnip, parsley and hummus sauce. Grab a cheesy pain magique if you can, too.
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Gibeau Orange Julep
There’s nowhere else on earth quite like Orange Julep, and that’s what makes it perfect. Order up a couple steamés, some poutine and the namesake drink — a milky, frothy orange beverage — and marvel at the weird wonderfulness of this highway-adjacent orange dome from your picnic table perch.
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Antep Kebap
If you weren’t hungry before, you will be once you walk into this casual Turkish restaurant just around the corner from Concordia. Order the chicken sandwich, served in their fresh-made sesame seed-covered flatbreads with yogurt and their homemade hot sauce. Perfection in a sandwich.
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Club Social P.S.
Just around back from Saint-Henri’s Elena, you’ll find a cozy little place to grab a coffee or pastry in the morning, or a glass of natural wine and some of the city’s best pizza al taglio later in the day. It’s made fresh every morning. (The P.S. in the name stands for “Pizza Slice”, naturally.)
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