Chateau Vaudreil - All you can eat brunch by the water

The 411

In life there a few things that really rock my boat; one of them is brunch and the second is weddings and in particular, the food at weddings. Now, when I found out that one of my friends was getting married I was really happy and then when I found out he was doing a wedding brunch at Chateau Vaudreuil, I was ecstatic. I have heard very good things about brunch here, a few of my friends went and were very impressed. I had been here only once before but not for the brunch and remembered that it was an impressive location bordering the water and with really nice views and good service.

(more…)

Café les Entretiens - and all that jazz

The 411

Laurier street is an amazing street, with small shops, local bakeries, and great little restaurants. I often find myself going here and a few weeks ago was no exception when I was having brunch at Byblos with some friends. After which I went around walking on Laurier and saw some interesting brunch places that looked quite tasty. One spot in particular caught my eye and ear; and that was Café les Entretiens it had an amazing interior with tall ceilings and had a piano inside and jazz music pouring out.

(more…)

New Look Same site

So after a little more than 1 year of reviewing I felt it was time to change things up and upgrade the site. Over the last few weeks you may have noticed new functionality such as categories listed by rating as well as by location and price. I also included two maps of brunch places sorted by area (one of greater Montreal, the other for the Plateau and Mile end)

As of Sunday evening May 10 2009 I pushed the button and version 2 went online. There are some improvements that will help you navigate the site with more ease and find what you need. I listed the most popular links under the header, added a contact sheet so that people who are not on Twitter or in the Facebook group and  don’t find their question relevant to the site posts can email me their questions. You will also note a coffee cup rating section above the “post a comment” section which allows you to chime in and give your own rating as well as comment (this section will get expanded with time).

Aesthetic changes were something else I wanted to improve on. I tried to keep the nice yellow & orange “brunchy” theme from the old page yet I wanted something that looked nicer and displayed more info so people could find it more easily. New additions to this included the “quick summary overview” where you can see the last few posts. They are displayed by showing a quick snap shot of the text and image so you can click to see the (more…)

Vallier - A New look in the Old Port

The 411

A few days ago a friend of mine fowareded me some info about an Old Port resto that began offering brunch. Now, as some of you may know, I have a weak spot for restaurants in the Old Port. I think the neighbourhood is nice and I feel that they take a bistro approach to brunch which is often quite tasty and almost always a feast for the eyes. For some reason I have a craving for presentation as well as food. Also, I wanted to be one of the first to review a new place. So, it was settled and one Sunday afternoon we made a trip to Old Montreal and checked out a new place - Will it rock out or will it be a dud, who knows? Well, technically you will if you read a little lower but work with me on this one.

(more…)

Le Petit Italien

The 411

A while ago I made a claim that I had pretty much finished off all of the brunch places on Bernard street then “Le Petit Italien” decided to do brunch. Now, if you have never been to Le Petit Italien it serves a really good dinner of classic Italian food with a nice decor and big portions. As a result, this brings two questions that need to be answered: Does this winning formula translate to brunch and is there such a thing as an Italian Brunch?

(more…)

Quoi De N’oeuf - another jewel in the Atwater crown

The 411

As some of you may or may or may not know I have become fond of the Atwater market area - it’s a place filled with great little shops, green spaces and great food. There have been a couple places that have been serving up some awesome dishes here and brunch is no exception. So when when my friend told me about one of his favourite places in the area I could not resist the chance to check out another place in the Atwater market area and chow down on some good eats.

(more…)

Burgers & Benedicts - Much more than just burgers

The 411

For almost one year I have had my co-worker ask me to review Burgers & Benedicts. Being one of her favourite places, I got to hear one of the best pitches for how good it was. Now, there’s two things in this world I can’t say no to; one is food; and the other is a new place to have brunch (technically they can be considered the same thing but who cares). So one day we got some co-workers together and went out check it out.

(more…)

Le Coin G - The right spot

The 411

When I first told my friend we were going to Le coin G her mind went right into the gutter and was taken aback. Now not to be confused with that other magical spot named after Dr. Ernest Gräfenberg (see you just learned something there), Le coin G is a little resto in the Villeray district that mainly people who live in the area know about. Although I don’t live there I have heard some good stuff about it and was really curious to check it out. So after some good laughs and some interesting web research on this rather unfortunate (yet interesting) name we headed out one sunny day to Guizot street (that’s whats its really named after)

(more…)

Petite Ardoise - Small name with big taste

The 411

For the longest time I have passed by La Petite Ardoise and have always been curious for how brunch would be there. I would see people going in and eating but for one reason or another I never got a chance to try it out. It just so happened that a few weeks ago a friend of mine tells me of an amazing place on Laurier street that they love, and it turned out to be La Petite Ardoise. So one Saturday afternoon off we went to check it out and see what this mysterious little place is all about and what we found surprised me and helped complete my list of places to eat on Laurier street.

(more…)

Le Cagibi - A Vegan adventure

The 411

One of the greatest challenges I come across while reviewing places is offering reviews on the vegetarian options, and in particular, the vegan options. Although personally I’m neither a vegetarian or vegan, I can see how difficult it can be to go out and find someplace to eat that offers something vegetarian/vegan on the menu. Things have come a long way in the last 30 plus years when you would have a hard time finding a menu item without meat in it. Many of the places I’ve gone too have some vegetarian menu items and they taste amazing. This is an easy thing to do when you deal with eggs, waffles, pancakes. Now vegan is another issue; it’s hard to find vegan items on a menu and often an item will be almost vegan if it was not for one small thing in it. I usually end up looking for fruit cups on the menu, which although are great and tasty, they aren’t really impressive. So all this to say, when we decided to go to Cagibi I was excited to find and review another place with not only vegetarian options but with vegan options as well (other than a fruit cup). So now that the stage is set lets take a closer look and see what we have on our plate.

(more…)