Canadian truckstops are different

Once you get past the whole 401-QEW corridor, truckstops up north are less 'truck-only' and generally have better food options. Many are run by the Canadian fuel giant Irving, where maybe the trucker's end of the business is only about 50% of the whole site. Each of these outposts has a fuel building (separated), cars on 1 side, trucks on the other, with usually separated parking lots, and a main building that has food and even a small motel. There is usually a fast-food option, maybe a Tim Horton's, and a sit-down restaurant which also acts as the local small-town restaurant. You will find things like this all over Canada, often in even the most remote areas.

My favorite of these used to be the La Porte De La Maurice on the Autoroute 40, exit 174, halfway between Yamachiche and Louiseville, about 25km SW of Trois-Rivières. Usually a restaurant at a 'truckstop' serves up steaks, chicken, chicken-fried steaks, etc.. This restaurant serves mostly 'French provincial' cuisine, things like poulet avec sauce bruin, bisque homard, soupe ognion gratinee, gateau foret noir, etc. Sometimes they even had a band playing! Back when I used to have a semi-regular load from a paper mill in TR, I'd make a point to stop here for a REAL meal any time I could. Twenty pounds of the weight I put on while driving probably came from just this one restaurant alone.

Of course, being in Quebec, it wasn't cheap. Prices were higher, then adding another 16% between PST and GST made it a thing you couldn't do every day (that's why they also had the fast-food options), but, MAN, outside of that steak place in Amarillo, I've never had a better meal at a place which had a truck lot. Oh, and there was also a really good Quebec style 'poulet rotie' restaurant in the median service area near Joliette (on your way to Montreal) that was also quite good, but was more affordable; and faster.