Last Updated on March 6, 2020 by Jane
Back at the end of the summer we took an epic road trip from Southwestern Ontario through Quebec to the East Coast of Canada down to Boston and back up to Ontario. We were gone 8 days and it was loads of fun to see parts of this grand country I have never seen before. One thing you should know about our road trip is that we drove our Tesla Model 3. Which means we had to stop longer than it takes to fill your gas tank to charge. It wasn’t THAT much longer but it was perfect to schedule lunch breaks and dinner breaks around charging times. Unfortunately that meant we did eat a bunch of fast food since that was what was close to charging. I am not going to share our stops at McDonalds, Denny’s, or Panera Bread. But we did get to eat at some pretty fantastic restaurants along this road trip and I thought I would share our East Coast Canada road trip food experiences.
Everywhere we ate on our East Coast Canada Road Trip
Our first night we stayed just outside Montreal and of course we stopped at St. Hubert which is the Quebec equivalent of Swiss Chalet. Both are known for rotisserie chicken. I should stop here and mention our kids were along on this trip so everywhere we stopped was also kid friendly. The kids were asking for St. Hubert because we also stopped there when we did our Quebec City road trip a few years earlier.
Our second day was spent at Riviere du Loup. We went whale watching which was fantastic. Afterwards we went to a local pizza shop which we thought was an independant shop but it is actual a Quebec chain of pizzerias. Mike’s makes excellent pizza. Cheezy, deep dish, yummy pizza. Our daughter had a pasta dish that was great too!
We didn’t actually eat anywhere interesting in New Brunswick. We had left overs from Mikes for lunch. Since we stayed outside of Moncton we ate near our hotel at at St. Louis.
Read More: A Day at Hopewell Rocks
When we got to Halifax on the other hand we got our fill of seafood!
We ate at the Waterfront Warehouse. Truthfully it was the first place we saw after we parked and booked out Harbour Hopper tour. But it was thankfully a good choice. Lobster rolls, fish and chips and even the kids chicken fingers were really good. The large booths were great for family seating. The day we were there it was too cool for the patio but the wall opens to outside so even though we were sitting inside you still felt patio like.
After lunch we had to stop at Cows Ice cream. Rated one of the best Ice Creams in the world we had two waffle cones to share and try a bunch of flavours. I can confirm it was fantastic. We spent the rest of the day on our Harbour tour and walking the Halifax waterfront.
Halifax was one of the places I felt like we could have spent a few days exploring. The surrounding towns would have been worth seeing. But also there were so many great restaurants that I would have loved to try. Even just the different food shacks had so many options.
Our next day was spent in Charlottetown PEI. It feels like Stratford Ontario and cottage country combined. It is a pretty small city, so easy to wander through and see things. We ate lunch at Row House Lobster Co. which is on the super cute Victoria Row. I had fish tacos which were so good. Lobster rolls have nothing on fish tacos in my opinion because there is just so much more flavour. And the fries! Definitely rivaled the ones we had in Paris. Our kids had the burgers and my husband had the steak. Everyone enjoyed their meals. We sat on the outdoor patio which was just a great perk.
After lunch we walked the harbourfront. It is smaller than the waterfront in Halifax but they have one thing in common. They both have Cows Ice Cream. We got a smaller portion but of course we had to have some more and even picked up some Cows merch.
The next day was a driving day. Fast food and convenience store snacks ruled the day. We crossed the border into the USA and made our way down to Boston.
First let me say driving in Boston was bonkers. It was a huge adjustment after driving through eastern Canada and Maine which was fairly rural and the cities were small. Boston on the other hand was huge and on top of that had loads of one way roads. But the food was fantastic.
We stayed in Boston’s historic north end. After we checked into our hotel we went for lunch. I did the usual. Check for places close by with good reviews. Little did I know when I took us to Regina’s Pizzeria that we were walking into a landmark. We somehow lucked out to get in before the line up started but the place was already packed before noon. It felt like we had walked onto a movie set. Like this was the typical Italian pizza place that might have a gangster or two sitting in the back booth. You should check out this place just for the atmosphere alone.
The Pizza might be one of the best I have ever had. And remember we had already had a really good pizza back in Quebec, but Regina’s was on another level. Definitely plan to go if you are visiting Boston. And make sure to go to the original North End location.
We spent the rest of the day sight seeing. We definitely didn’t have enough time in Boston. I would say you need at least two days if not three to really experience it properly. We ate Italian again for dinner since that is what the North End is known for; Italian restuarants.
We ate at Fillipo Restaurante for dinner. It was fancier than the pizza joint without being stuffy fancy. The kids were definintely at ease there although I don’t remember there being a real kids menu. It didn’t really matter though since they just got penne and a meatball each. I had the pesto gnocci and my husband had chicken parm. It was so good but the portions were huge. Even though we did loads of walking none of us finished. I would say this food was something you would see in Italy and not just an Italian American style place.
The remainder of our road trip was driving through New York State to get back to Ontario. We stopped at chains like Ruby Tuesdays and KFC. Nothing to share really in terms of a great restaurant to watch out for which is a draw back of not venturing far from the highway. Ever restaurant I listed above is one I would return to and eat at again. All of the East Coast Canada Road Trip food was fantastic even if we mixed in fast food stops along the way.
What kind of East Coast Canada road trip food are you most looking forward to trying? Lobster rolls in Halifax? PEI Ice cream? Or the surprisingly great Italian food we found along the way?