The Sparrow – Back from the grave

The 411

If the Sparrow seems familiar to you, then you must remember our previous posting on the Sparrow back in 2009. A little background is in order here because initially, the Sparrow served brunch and it was an English pub style brunch which kind of shook up the city’s brunch scene. The kitchen staff stopped serving brunch and opened their own spot (you can read the full article with more details here). Now time has passed and just recently, the sparrow brought back brunch and this time, it’s with a twist. What makes this visit extra special is that I got to do it with my favourite French language blogger Laure who runs Une Parisienne à Montreal, a great fashion, food and brunch site. If you haven’t checked out her blog yet you should absolutely do so.

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Le Hangar – Wellington discovery

The 411

Just recently I had the good fortune of having a twitter conversation with another blogger regarding brunch and so the natural thing to do when chatting with foodie bloggers is to meet over brunch and share experiences. If you haven’t read the works of Miss Courey, she is what can best be described as a food, relationship, and Montreal blogger. Her site is now moving up on my list of local blog reads and you should check it out. The challenge with doing brunch with a foodie blogger is finding a spot that both parties will like and that no one has been to before. I have found that the more I blog, the harder that becomes and to be honest not every place I go to is amazing. I ended up picking a spot I had heard some buzz about and was a recent addition to my list of places to go see. Normally, I’m backed up with places but Le Hangar got a bump since I needed somewhere new with a good reputation.

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Le Pois Penché – 1940′s Paris in Montreal

The 411

Fancy brunch; sometimes those words can scare you or take your breath away. Fortunately, in Montreal we have lots of choice when it comes to brunch and there is almost one kind of brunch for every person whether it’s an ethnic inspired brunch, classic brunch, greasy spoon theme or a fancy brunch. Some people may find it odd to take something as straight forward as eggs and bacon and make it fancy. Don’t get me wrong, some brunch places have tried and there have been some successes and failures. So, when I hear about a fancy brunch spot I get worried because of two things: first being having to pay more for a brunch that may disappoint and the second being that the brunch may get all experimental on me. Le Pois penché has been on my list to check out for some time now. It was suggested by my friend’s brother and he knows about tons of spots so I trusted his opinion. Nevertheless, I am always worried when I eat anywhere too close to Crescent street but I was committed to giving Le Pois Penché a fair try.

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Vino – Hidden Gem of NDG

The 411

My goal to visit every brunch spot in NDG keeps getting delayed because everytime I think I’ve covered them all another place shows up on my radar. Vino is one of those places. In fact, it was submitted by one of our readers who raved about it and after seeing their menu on their site I could see why. Normally places need to get in line before I review them and I usually go to places I found out existed over a year ago. Since I tend to do brunch both Saturday and Sunday, you can imagine how backed up I get. However, just by seeing Vino’s menu for brunch, I was motivated and decided that this place needed to get reviewed sooner than later.

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L’arrivage – More than just a great view

The 411

High up on top of the Pointe à Callière Museum overlooking the port, is L’arrivage. This impressive little restaurant offers an interesting and inspiring weekend brunch. With its polished look, ample service staff and a menu with great attention to detail, one would expect to break the bank when it comes time to pay. However, the prices aren’t that crazy (a little more than normal) but you will see by what we ate that it is quite impressive. Reservations are strongly recommended since we saw a lineup outside.

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Caviste – Festival en Lumiere treat

The 411

During Festival Montréal en Lumiere we get a chance to get a rare glimpe at some of Montreals restaurants make a brunch menu. Places like Caviste are more of a dinner restaurant and do not have brunch on their menu except for really rare occasions. With this narrow window to try out brunch at Caviste we booked a table and made sure to see how Caviste would handle brunch.

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Hachoir – Funky Brunch on St Denis

No Longer Serves Brunch

The 411

Within the last couple months, Le Hachoir came to Rachel street and replaced the old Cafeo. Almost immediately, foodies started talking. I have some positive chatter on various forums and people I know have definitely had their curiosity peeked. So what better reason to make a trip over? With enough time to reach their stride in terms of service and operation, enough time had passed so a review would be fair.

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Pyrus Bistronomique – Fancy Brunch with a twist

The 411

A recent appearance on the Montreal food scene, Pyrus offers us a bistro meets varied European cuisine approach to food. I was tipped off about this by one of my friends who is an even bigger foodie than me; she’s way pickier than I am, so I was curious to see what brunch would be like. I already like the area of Laurier with it nice shops, great little restaurants and quaint little neighbourhood with a great vibe.

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Drake Hotel – Another Toronto Gem

The 411

On a recent trip to Toronto we had a whirlwind of a tour of the city with some good friends. On the last day, we managed to somehow escape the Santa Parade and made it to a brunch spot. Keep in mind that Toronto brunch spots are not yet my specialty since I do not live there but I do have a good network of friends who are in the know when it comes to where to eat. They came up with the suggestion of the Drake Hotel brunch.

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Cabotins – A truly funky spot out east

The 411

A while ago I received and email from a reader asking me if I ever checked out Cabotins. Usually, I pride myself on having a pretty good list of most places that serve brunch in the city but this one wasn’t on it and what was more impressive was that it was in the East end where I live. I did not find much online but the person who wrote the email seemed really impressed by it, so naturally, I jumped at the next chance to go.

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