Boite Gourmande – A kid friendly brunch spot

The 411

Right under the Bikram yoga studio on Laurier is this bustling little place called La Boite Gourmande. This place is similar to it’s hot yoga neighbour in that it’s always full of people, without the 45 degrees of heat. La Boite Gourmade has always perplexed me. I keep passing by it and always wanted to go and check it out. This day, it just happened as we ended up wanting do something on Laurier street and I figured I could finally check this little spot out.

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Ristorante Otto – Fancy Brunch on McGill Street

The 411

Old Montreal has its fair share of fancier brunch places; McGill street alone is home to a good concentration of them and one that I have been curious about for some time is Otto. Situated inside the W hotel this restaurant serves up a weekday early morning breakfast starting at 7 am and going until 11:30 am, as well as a longer weekend schedule of 7 am to 2pm. I have been to Otto for dinner and enjoyed it. Otto is a fancy restaurant; the décor is exquisite; the outside terrace is vey nice and covered by umbrellas. With this rather positive dinner experience I wondered how it would convert to brunch.

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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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Breakfast Club & Moulerie – My first South Shore Adventure

The 411

In my quest to expand the areas I review I have spread out from the downtown core and plateau. I have gone out east, west, north, but I never ventured on the south shore. It’s not because its too far or that I am intimidated by the coupe Longueuil, but rather that it’s a black hole for brunch. I have not clue what is out there and researching places on the web does not give many valuable results. In the end, that means I need to drag myself to the shore and physically drive around to find a spot and to be frank, it’s just too big for me to do that. So, thankfully my friend told me about this place on the south shore that was described as one of the best in the south shore. In an effort to expand my area of places reviewed and find a decent non-chain breakfast place on the south shore off we went exploring to the land of mullets and camaros.

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Déjeuner Inc – Some more West Island choice

The 411

Out in the West Island there are two breakfast spots by the name of Dejeuner inc. I have heard of them for a while but never really got a chance to go. I have heard both positive and negative comments: it seems that people either really like it or aren’t crazy about it. I was meeting my friend in the West Island for brunch and since I have tried out most places I figured I would check it out and see what people were talking about. With two locations, one on Sources and one on St Johns, I went with the one closest to my yoga class, because A) I was told it’s the better of the two and B) I’m lazy.

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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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St Viateur Bagel Cafe – A Montreal legend since 1957

The 411

After a grueling 18k morning run followed by 90 minutes of trying to survive 52 degrees of a hot yoga session, we made our way to NDG for some much needed refueling. I had not eaten a single thing since the night before and was physically exhausted which usually make for a bad combo. There are only a few places in NDG left that I have not reviewed and St Viateur Bagels & Cafe is one of them. You may know St Viateur as the same people who make Montreal’s best bagels, but did you know they opened up a two cafes? One on 127 Mont. Royal East and this one at 5629 Monkland Avenue.

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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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Lemeac – Refinement and Style all in one

The 411

Up on Laurier, Lemeac is a place that has had some solid chatter among foodies for some time. It’s a French bistro on a part of Montreal that I am in love with; the street and restaurants have an air of refinement and reputation for good food. I have seen Lemeac’s reputation for brunch on various foodie sites and have always been curious about it. How would it be, is it all hype, what will the prices be, will it be worth it? All these questions have been swimming in my head for over a year and this time I decided to take the plunge and explore it. Lemeac had something in store for me.

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Mesquite – Down South Cooking in the West End

No Longer Serves Brunch

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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