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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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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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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Montée de Lait – Refined brunch experience

The 411

Once upon a time I promised one of my good friends that when she came back from her 5 month European excursion we would go to this place called Bouchonné. Well, 5 months turned to 6 then to 8 then to 10 and we finally got a chance to go for brunch only to find that it had closed down. We decided to check out Montée de Lait instead sinceI had heard good stuff about their lunch and dinner service. You may be confused when looking at the map since Bouchonné used to be on 5171 boul Saint-Laurent and Montée de Lait was on 1424 Bishop but Montée de Lait moved a few months ago, and all the Google maps and various site listings are presently messed up. So, now that we have this mini mystery straightened out we can focus on solving the mystery of how the food will stack up and see if this place is worthy of all the foodie praise it has been getting as of recently.

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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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