Vic Market- A great post workout brunch

The 411

Every once and a while we hear of a spot in Westmount that offers brunch. This is a treat because Westmount is so small and has limited areas where there are restaurants, since the rest is primarily residential. In this case, it helps that our editor extraordinaire Kara takes works at the gym in Victoria Park and told me that they opened a café downstairs that does brunch. I had stopped in for a snack at the café before and liked its décor as well as the food so I was curious to see how a café tied to a gym would handle brunch since it’s generally not the healthiest meal of the day.

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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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Birks Café By Europea – A truly refined dining experience

The 411

Fancy, that’s what comes to mind when you think of Birks; that and Bling of course! Now, why would Montreal’s fanciest jeweler show up on a brunch blog? Is it because they gave me loads of free bling? Unfortunately, no. (although if they want to message me, we can talk) Is it because they ditched the whole high end jewelry business model and switched to bacon and eggs? Not that either. It’s because they started offering a weekend brunch in their store. Yes, you heard it correctly, there is a weekend brunch offered inside of Birks on the second floor and not any ordinary brunch; it’s quite the experience. So ladies and gents, make space on your credit card, we’re off to see what Birks brunch has to offer.

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Nüvü – Two umlauts in the same name, how awesome is that

The 411

The story behind this review is a little bit different from the others. This trip to Nüvü started with an email to another blogger which I follow: uneparisienneamontreal.com This is a cool French language blog that is part fashion, part brunch and is the creation of the very talented Laure. Basically, she is me but in French and with a focus on fashion as well. It’s cool how we tend to check out some of the same places and can be on the same page for good places and those places that disappoint as well. Long story short, we got to chatting and decided to do a meet up, and what better way to meet up than over brunch. We decided to try out Nüvü which is a pretty recent spot with an interesting menu and nice décor. How would the brunch go? Would Nuvu deliver? Who would show up late? All this and more in the paragraphs below.

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Cafeteria – Morning after remedy

The 411

In Montreal there are some staple places that, as a student, you go to after a night of hard partying and drinking. Sometimes you don’t have much time to make it to bed so you skip that and get some food. Now, if this has happened to you once, twice or maybe a few more times, then you know one of the spots you go to for this. That’s right: Cafeteria, St Laurent’s own little spot if you are done partying but don’t feel like straying from the street too much.

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Saloon – So where do I park my horse?

The 411

Saloon was a name I had heard of on two occasions which made me somewhat curious. So when my friend mentioned it again to me recently I figured maybe we could all go out and check it out. The village is not an area I go too often; it’s kind of in between the east end spots I go to and the west end ones. Any chance I get to do a review a brunch spot here is always welcoming since I know there is a good amount of restaurants and each time I have gone, I have always had a good meal. During the summer they close off Ste. Catherine street to cars in the village. Normally, I would complain whenever they close streets in the summer; I mean, half the streets are under construction and now, those I can use are now closed. However, I must admit, closing this part of Saint Catherine is a good idea since there is still ample parking in surrounding areas and some of it is still free. Also, walking down Ste.Catherine on a sunny day is such a nice experience which makes easing into one’s morning brunch that much better.

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Cafe Melies – An unexpected treat on St-Laurent

The 411

On one of the first nice warm days of the spring we were lucky enough to be out for brunch. We needed somewhere new, somewhere decent somewhere that wasn’t our run-of-the-mill spot. As of recently I have been going to many new and unique places but there are lots of spots out there that have similar menus which sometimes puts me in a brunch rut and in need of inspiration. I went to my brunch map which has all the brunch places in Montreal including those that I have review and those that I need to review. As I analyzed it I saw Café Melies, a place that I read about on forums that got decent reviews. Café Melies is a restaurant next to the eXcentris theatre. You have likely passed by it dozens of times without ever going in. It’s situated north of Sherbrooke and south of Prince Arthur right before you get to all the clubs and bars but after all the supper clubs.

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Le Montrealais – A classy all you can eat buffet

The 411

All you can eat brunch buffets, often those few words can increase my anxiety more than hearing “we need to talk”. You may ask why would such a few tasty words cause so much grief? I will answer that with two words quality and quantity. Most buffets offer the latter quantity but when it comes to quality they are lacking. I have found that most all you can eat buffets have food that is too mass prepared and is not fresh enough let alone warm enough. Now le Montrealais has a reputation of excellence when it comes to brunch buffets I mean it is situated in the Queen Elizabeth hotel, which is a five star hotel so you can imagine what kind of food one would expect. So with the bar set nice and high lets see if we can take the edge off those six words.

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Wienstein & Gavinos – A Crescent street legend tries out Brunch

The 411

I find often that many places flirt with the idea of adding brunch to the menu. As you know, I am a huge fan of this since I like the fact that the more places that are offering brunch the more choice we get. It is better for everyone with a morning hankering. Now, my friend let me know that Wienstein & Gavino’s had begun offering a brunch of sorts – well – it’s actually a Frittata menu. Normally I am not a huge omelette fan but, I did want to check this and see how Wienstein and Gavino’s would pull of brunch.

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