Montana's restaurant, Saint John New Brunswick

Montana’s Restaurant, Saint John NB
Well, we’ve succumbed to the chain. I think this is the only chain we’ve frequented (except for Subway for the kids) but there is literally nothing else in this area but other chains, worse chains. Even though Saint John is only 50 minutes from the Fundy Trail park, it takes us two hours because we cannot find our hotel on our GPS. We end up stopping at three gas stations. This is a sample of the last one’s directions: “Go to the bottom of the hill and go right, then take a left and then take another left and the hotel will be on the right”. No street names and we are in the midst of this hugely busy suburban shopping area (that by the way seems to be discount center or maybe everything is discount center these days). Finally, we arrive at our hotel. We’d had a reservation for a downtown restaurant but by now it’s already 6pm and the kids want to swim and it just doesn’t seem worth the effort, so we cancel figuring we’ll find something we can walk to.
Montana’s is just a hop, skip and a jump away, it has ribs and you can color on the tablecloths which, I must say, is a big draw for Kesh so Montanas it is. Kesh’s ribs are actually decent, my buffalo chicken sandwich is pretty good and Asha’s pasta seems horrific to me but the kids gobble it up. Kesh is great for once (I guess because of the drawing on the table) and we are able to sit for an hour meal without anyone wanting to kill him. Asha’s pasta is this three cheese roasted pepper thing and it’s drowning in flavorless gooey cheese which is just a greasy mess, but they like it.
Kesh’s kid’s ribs include milk, a salad and a brownie for dessert (which is a disgusting brown thing that no sane person would ever call a brownie). The kids each take one little bite and are appalled. I get a glass of Merlot from a local Ontario winery which I’d have to say is the worst we’ve had on the trip. It even smells like raw alcohol or something. But, we do like two out of three of the dishes, so tomorrow when we need a place within walking distance, we find ourselves back at Montanas.
Now, why do we need a place within walking distance? Because when I take the car into the local walmart for an oil change and a wind shield wiper fix (desperately needed because we’ve had more rain in the last couple of weeks than in 10 years in CA and the forecast is for five days of rain) they tell us the tires need to be replaced. The front tires are bald, clearly. The back don’t look as bad but they don’t look good either, so after trying to decide if I should wait until the US and hope we find a place and remembering the times we were slipping on the highway on turns and Vive was hydroplaning, I decide I don’t really want to do the five hour drive tomorrow without them fixed. So, that’s going to take 2 hours and we’re starving and Montana’s happens to be a hop, skip and jump from the Walmart so back again we go.
This time, I order a greek salad which is fine. The greens are fresh, the tomatoes juicy and the black olives real Kalamata not canned, but the dressing isn’t very tasty and the salad is actually quite small. It was missing something. Asha has a bowl of Chicken noodle soup and half my salad. Kesh orders pasta from the kids menu which looks exactly like Asha’s past a from the night before but without all the cheese. He seems very happy with it and Asha helps him finish that too. This time, he orders the three baby ice cream cones which Asha and I eat because Kesh doesn’t really care for ice cream unless it’s cotton candy flavored. The ice cream is okay. Asha likes the soup and my salad is fine, so we can’t complain (but I don’t think farm to table is happening much here!). Dinner it looks like we’ll be back. It’s just easier and tomorrow we meet up with the Butlers and the real foodie eating begins!