Chain restaurants
Tasty in a series
One of the greatest things about our travels is exploring the culinary offerings at our vacation destination.
On this page we would like to share our experiences with family dining restaurants in Canada. These serve the segment between fast food and fine dining. We have limited ourselves to restaurants that we visited in the fall of 2021 and 2025 during our tours across Ontario and Québec.
Warning:!!! If you're hungry right now, you should only continue reading here after you've eaten.
Bâton Rouge
Description: The first restaurant opened in Laval, Quebec, in 1992. There are 29 restaurants in the chain, mainly located in large cities in eastern Canada. The menu offers everything from salads to burgers to steaks. The atmosphere is similar to that of an upscale family diner. Guests can expect to be well taken care of.
Our rating: Bâton Rouge was the only restaurant chain we visited twice during our 2021 tour. From this you can already see that we liked it. The price-performance ratio was definitely good. We can recommend a visit.
La cage
Description: The first restaurant opened in Old Montreal, Quebec, in 1985. There are now more than 50 restaurants in the chain. They can be found all over Quebec. The menu offers everything from salads to burgers to steaks. The atmosphere is similar to that of a modern sports bar.
Our rating: We liked La Cage very much. As a welcome you get salted popcorn which is very nice and shortens the waiting time for the food. From the very friendly service to the delicious food, everything was great during our visit here. We would very much like to visit La Cage again.
Kelseys Roadhouse
Description: Once a chain of over 140 restaurants found throughout Canada, today there are only about 88 restaurants, mainly located in Ontario. The menu offers everything you would expect from a family diner, from salads to burgers. The atmosphere is rustic but modern. It is perhaps most comparable to Applebee's restaurants.
Our rating: We also liked Kelseys Roadhouse quite a lot. The food was as you would expect and did not disappoint. All in all, we would eat here again.
St. Hubert
Description: The chain's first restaurant, which still exists today, opened in 1951 on Saint Hubert Street in Montreal. The chain is best known for its fried chicken. The menu mainly offers chicken dishes in all variations. It is mainly found in the French-speaking parts of Quebec, eastern Ontario, and New Brunswick.
Our rating: We liked it very much at St. Hubert. Mainly the very nice service made the stay very pleasant. The food was also quite delicious.
Boston Pizza
Description: The chain's first restaurant opened in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1964. Today, the restaurants can be found not only in Canada but also in the USA and Mexico. Although the name might suggest otherwise, the chain has nothing to do with Boston. The founder named his restaurant after the American city because he thought that Boston's sports teams were very popular in Canada. Although the chain is better known for its pizzas, the menu also includes burgers and pasta, among other things.
Our rating: We liked it very much at Boston Pizza. The restaurants are modern family diners and in our opinion it''s a good place to eat. We can definitely recommend a visit.
Normandin
Description: The chain's first restaurant opened in Québec City in 1969. Today, there are 40 restaurants throughout Québec. The chain's restaurants are classic diners. Perhaps they can best be compared to Denny's. Their decor is rather simple and classic, and they offer everything from pizza to burgers.
Our rating: We found Normandin ok but no more. The food was rather simple but tasty.
East Side Marios
Description: East Side Mario's was created through the merger of several restaurant chains. The first opened in February 1980 in Sudbury, Ontario. The restaurants are known for their Italian-American cuisine.
Our rating: Maybe it was the special restaurant of the chain we visited or the restrictions due to the Corona pandemic, but we were not exactly thrilled with the visit at Marios. The ambiance has nothing to do with Italy at all, you're more likely to find a simple sports bar. The interior was old and uninviting, and the food wasn't particularly tasty either. Just like Olive Garden, where salad and bread are served with every main course, Marios cannot compete with the American chain in any way.
Montana´s BBQ & Bar
Description: Montana's BBQ & Bar is a popular Canadian restaurant chain specializing in BBQ, ribs, burgers, and steaks. The first location opened in 1995. The chain's headquarters are located in Vaughan, Ontario. There are now 90 locations across Canada.
Our rating: We really liked Montana's BBQ & Bar. The restaurant was inviting and cozy, the service was super friendly, and most importantly, the food was delicious. It's a chain we will definitely visit again.
Chuck´s Roadhouse
Description: Chuck's Roadhouse is a popular Canadian restaurant chain. It was founded in 2015 and is known for its affordable steaks and burgers. There are over 100 branches of the chain across Canada.
Our rating: It's always difficult to judge an entire chain after visiting a single location. If we did that, it would probably be our only visit. The restaurant was not very inviting. The chicken sandwich I ordered was changed twice because some ingredients were no longer available. The sandwich I finally got was okay, but definitely not something worth coming back for. The same was true for the ribs. We may give the chain another chance if it happens to be on our route again.
