Visit Restaurant Madrid

I've been travelling Autoroute 20, the highway that connects Montreal to Quebec City for the last 30 years. The road is pretty boring with just about the only feature of interest being the flamboyant Restaurant Madrid, perched over the highway on a little bluff with it's eye catching assortment of dinosaur replicas and monster trucks displayed in it's parking lot.

This week I finally decided to stop and was impressed by the lengths that the owners have gone to make their rather ordinary highway restaurant interesting and fun.

The restaurant has an interesting history which you can read on the bilingual web site. I like the respect that the owners have for tourists, being one of the only restaurants along the road offering full service in English.

You've got to admire the spunk, they even have a webcam that shows the inside of the diner. Innovative but not that interesting a sight!

The food was okay, but what caught my eye was a real ZOLTAR machine tucked up against the wall near the entrance.
You might remember ZOLTAR from the Tom Hanks movie "BIG"

This ZOLTAR offered up advice in French with a decidedly Italian accent. He also sported a modern operator's headset!

If you have the time, make the stop.

The restaurant is located just about half way between Quebec city and Montreal