This past weekend my boyfriend, Alex, and I traveled to Stratford, Ontario for Labor Day weekend. We went to see the stage production of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" which was super cool and we ate a lot of food. Allow me to take you through the culinary adventure, which was my weekend. We ate at a few fancy places and a few average places and like a stereotypical millennial, I pulled out my iPhone and took a picture of most of what we ate.

We arrived Saturday afternoon and checked into our hotel, the Mercer Hall Inn. Mercer Hall is a restaurant/beer hall on the main floor, with hotel rooms on their second and third floors. After seeing the play, we decided to eat there for dinner. We didn't have a reservation, but there was space at the bar for us to sit and eat. I'm trying to cut back on eating meat, except for fish, so my menu choices reflect that. For starters, I ordered the Grilled Mushroom Steamed Bun, which was really tasty. Along with the mushrooms, there was pickled onion, carrots, cilantro and a spicy aioli in the bun.

For my main meal, I had the House Smoked Salmon Board. It's meant to be a starter to share with people, but I ate it as an entree. The presentation was beautiful, underneath the rye crackers and salmon was herbed chevre (goats cheese), surrounded by more pickled onions (my breath was awful after this meal) and fried capers.

I had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc with my meal, while Alex tried out their beers: he was impressed with the Rhubarb beer they had on tap that weekend. The following night we ate elsewhere, but we did sit at the bar after to have a few drinks. Their mixed drinks menu featured cocktails and beer-tails! I had the Eye of the Storm (Apple Liqueur, Kraken, Ginger Beer, and Lime) and Alex tried the Bloody Lager (Dill Vodka, Clamato, Lager, and Absinthe). I thought his drink tasted nasty, but he liked it, while my drink tasted like licorice.

The next morning we stopped at Revel Coffee, to grab a quick coffee before lunch. This was an impressive little cafe, which was packed with people. I tried their Coconut Latte and Alex had their Cafe Americano. They showcased a beautiful selection of pastries, which had all been made by locally sourced products. On the wall, they had a chalkboard listing all of the local businesses they work with. I'm always impressed when businesses make an effort to buy locally.

Lunch was my favorite: We stopped at Monforte on Wellington, a restaurant sourced by the Monforte Dairy, serving meals made with their own cheese. We had the Cheese and Wine Board along with Macaroni and Cheese and a Caprese Salad.

I didn't get a picture of the cheese board, but I did take a picture of the menu! It was hard for us to pick only a few things to share.

After all this food we walked around town for a bit, until Alex got hungry. We had a dinner reservation later in the evening, but for a quick treat we stopped at Jenn and Larry's Brittle & Shakes. Alex got a chocolate milkshake and I had a "99" cone, which is a soft serve vanilla cone with a chocolate Flake inside. It was AWESOME.

For dinner we went to Raja Fine Indian Cuisine. Alex and I both had the Korma curry; his with chicken and mine with veggies. They were very mild and almost sweet and my veggies seemed to have been cooked from frozen. It was an underwhelming meal.

We left the next morning, but we stopped at Coffee Culture Cafe & Bakery for a quick bite, before hitting the road. It's a chain, which reminded me of Panera. I had a breakfast bagel and a hot chocolate. Nothing special, but it was alright.

Overall we had a wonderful trip. If you're ever in Stratford you have to stop at Monforte and Mercer Hall for a meal. Out of all the places we ate, they were my favorite. Farewell until next year, Stratford!