Ben and Florentine - New addition to the West Island

The 411

A recent addition to the West Island, Ben and Florentine is a restaurant with three locations and a half dozen on the way. The West Island is an interesting spot for Brunch because you have a large population and a relatively small amount of breakfast places in relation to that population. So, when Ben and Florentine opened up it added some variety and choice for lots of hungry West Islanders.

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Universel - A Universe of Brunch on St Denis

The 411

For the longest time I have heard about Universel, a breakfast place on St Denis that seems to have quite a loyal following, similar to some of the popular Mount Royal or Bernard street places. I felt it was only fair to give it a try and see what keeps people coming back to it. I originally found out about this place on some food forums that I follow; it seems to be popular in certain circles but still off of other peoples radars so checking this place out and sharing it with others may be a tasty idea. You may have likely walked or driven by this place tons of times, it’s near the Square St Louis park as well as steps away from the Sherbrooke metro.

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Dupond and Dupont - At TMR Brunch experience

The 411

The town of Mount Royal is not an usually associated with brunch In fact, it’s seen as a suburb with limited shops and a mall nearby; one would assume that if you lived in TMR and wanted a decent breakfast/brunch you would have do go to the Plateau to get some food. Although just recently two of my friends told me they had lunch at this amazing place called Dupond & Dupont and they saw that there was a weekend brunch menu. So armed with the fact that lunch was a success in addition to the fact that I always wanted to find a brunch place in TMR, we planned to take a trip and check it out.

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Cafe Maurizio - West Island delight

The 411

The West Island. What can I say other than it’s far? It’s where my Saturday yoga class takes place and I have friends who live there. Living in the east end, I always like to complain about the West Island. I find it fun to bug West Islanders about how far they live, but I after all the jokes are said I do recognize that there are some good spots to eat there and I do try to check out a couple breakfast places whenever I’m on the west side. On this week I went to get together with my friend and she was in charge of suggesting a place in the west island I had not been to. Her choice was a place that I had never even heard of called Maurizio Café.

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Dejeuner Eggcetera - St Leonards’ Neighbourhood spot

The 411

For years I have passed by this local place called Dejeuner Eggcetera. For one reason or another I never ended up going in. It’s situated at a busy intersection in St Leonard and many locals have been to it at least once and some people dub it as their favourite place. I have to admit that I do have a bias when it comes to where I eat. I would rather go downtown for brunch or in an area I am unfamiliar with than to a place that is close by. Maybe it’s because I see it all the time and I know the area so well or maybe I prefer something with more adventure to it, but for whatever reason I never went there until now. Having gotten an email from a friend of mine the day before asking who was in for early morning breakfast in St Leonard I was like poker player with a good hand… all in. So early Saturday I drove around 5 minutes, cut off of some slow pokes, swore at the car in front of me and poof I entered St Leonard (as you can tell I hate driving in St Leo). So once again the breakfast bandits were reunited to wreak havoc on some poor unsuspecting breakfast place, our appetites were ready to go and we were all sort of awake.

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Benedicts - An NDG Brunch Champion

The 411

In following with an attempt to give more geographically balanced brunch reviews across Montreal, I returned to NDG with a mission, to review one of the most talked about places in the western end of the Island and seeing if this NDG sensation can compare to some of the better breakfast and brunch places Montreal has to offer. Benedict’s has some good feedback both online and from people who live in the area and a while ago when I was passing through NDG I was in this area and was curious by what I saw. A visit was definitely in order..

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Dejeuner Au P’Tit Dore - Exploring Eastern Laval

The 411

As of recently, most of my reviews have been on the island of Montreal focusing primarily on the downtown area which is where most brunch places are situated, but I do like to go off the Island sometimes and check out the 450 to see what our Laval neighbours have cooking up there. It doesn’t happen often but when it does I try to mix up the areas I go to so as to not focus too much on one area but try to get the different parts so people can see what is close by to them.. Today we headed to Duvernay, in the eastern part of Laval, to check out Au P’tit Doré.

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Crescendo - Waterfront fun in Verdun

The 411

I often get challenging requests to find particular brunch places with various menu items, budgets, times of day, all you can eat buffet, and geographic areas. Now, I must say that I’m pretty good with most of these and especially when it comes to various boroughs in Montreal EXCEPT for when it comes to Verdun. Verdun is like a black hole where maps are wrong, addresses are messed up and street signs are flat out missing. While visiting a friend in Verdun, I was able to show her a couple of brunch places and trust me, there weren’t many. I had recently came across this web site called shoestring Montreal that showcases inexpensive and tasty places to go to around Montreal (BTW - check it out). On that site we saw a posting for this place in Verdun that did brunch by the water. We were so curious and excited about this that we decided to check it out.

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Miami Deli - 24 hour breakfast here we come.

The 411

Since the closing of Picasso’s there has been a gap in the 24 hour breakfast department. Some places will offer an all-day breakfast option but few do a true 24/7 breakfast - you know the kind that is willing to serve up eggs at 3 A.M after you’ve had a long night of drinking because nothing helps sober you up like late night eggs and sausage. These places are usually inexpensive, quick, and convenient which is usually associated with being “OK” in the food department although at 3 AM you are usually not really that picky. So, when I heard that Miami Deli is one of those places that can fill that late night breakfast necessity, I felt that it needed to be checked out and see how it stacked up. This time, I was fortunate enough to go with a large group of people since we also used the location to have a meeting for a fundraiser my friend was organizing, it’s a fundraiser run to New York for Canadian Athletes in the 2010 Olympics, the event is called Running for Athletes (check it out it’s a good cause).

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Holder - Old Port Bistro meets Brunch

The 411

Now this review is actually a few months old and seems to have gotten lost in my pile of reviews so I figured I should post it now. This goes back to a special event that I had for my website’s 1 year anniversary. The idea was to find a spot that would offer a decent brunch in a nice area and that would take reservations for 20 people. It is important to note that reservations for brunch is not an easy thing to come by especially if you know that not everyone would show up on time. I know some places do smaller reservations but for 20 people that would be a stretch. So, I went over all the places that could fit a group of this size and then Holder came to mind. I had never eaten brunch here before and I had heard that they recently began serving brunch. Since I have eaten dinner there a few times and was quite satisfied with the food, I figured I would try out a new review with my anniversary gathering. They had no problems taking such a large reservation so I contacted my friends and the anniversary brunch “Bonanza” was on track.

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