Chez Nick - Over 90 years and counting

The 411

Few places in the city have a history to go along with their food but having been around since 1920, Chez Nick has both. This 90 year old institution is the child of a Greek immigrant, Nick Alevisatos, who founded Chez Nicks and over the many years his family has run this institution. Chez Nick is in a spot you would not normally associate with brunch. It is located in Westmount, a mainly residential part of Montreal. I have heard of Chez Nick from various friends and decided that one day after my morning run myself and two friends would check it out and see what this place is all about.

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Mesquite - Down South Cooking in the West End

The 411

On the outskirts of NDG bordering Westmount, you will find Mesquite which it can be best described as Southern BBQ with a jazz motif. I am sure you are asking yourself how does one combine down south BBQ and brunch? While both seem to have quite different flavours yet quite tasty in their own way, the idea of them sharing a plate is quite odd. As a result, with this culinary question in my mind, it felt like a good idea to check it out.

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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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100 Secrets - A secret no more

The 411

In a continued attempt to expand the geographical area of brunch reviews, I headed to the gay village in hopes of showcasing some good brunch places that people may not know about. There are some nice little restaurants in the gay village many of which are tucked away on side streets that don’t get as much attention as those in the plateau. 100 secrets is an original selection from a friend of mine who had done some serious brunch research and provided some much welcomed new locations for future reviews.(You can check out my brunch map for all locations)

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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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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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Rumi - An out of this world experience

The 411

Brunch comes in all shapes and sizes, or tastes and flavours in this case. Anywhere you go in Montreal you can get a brunch ranging from a classic eggs and bacon place, to a bar that does bistro style brunches or even restaurants that make their brunch with an ethnic inspiration. Rumi is the latter in this category. Rumi is already a popular restaurant on Hutchison that you should go check out for dinner if you ever get a chance as it is one of my personal favorites. To describe the cuisine is not easy, its a mix of North African, Persian and Turkish and its 100% yummy.

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La Cantine - Not your ordinary brunch spot

The 411

Once an a while I will do a brunch double header which is an early morning breakfast/brunch and a later brunch that same day. This is usually on account of my schedule being out of hand and a deep love for all forms of breakfast and brunch related foods. So this Saturday was one of those days where I went early in the morning with a group of friends then later on went to catch up with a friend of mine over brunch. So, we were in the mood for something not too traditional, maybe a little light or even out of the ordinary, so a heaping plates of eggs and bacon was not on my mind since I already had some in my stomach. Now after going through a couple options, Cantine seemed interesting - it’s menu looked non traditional, the décor was nice and it was close by. Oh yeah, also, I found parking in walking distance so that made the decision that much easier.

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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.

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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.

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