Best Brunch Terraces 2011

With summer in full swing, winter is but a distant memory. In Montreal, when the sun comes out so do the people and they head to terraces where they can have a tasty brunch and a great view to enjoy the weather. Fortunately, Montreal offers us loads of brunch spots with terraces. We have scoured the city in search of the perfect brunch terraces and have found some you may like. The list is not exhaustive and is intended to give you a spot or two to go to in each of the respective areas. We took a look at Outremont, the Plateau, Old Montreal and NDG.

Outremont has, arguably, the most options for brunch terraces in the city. All one needs to do is walk down Bernard street and see an ocean of people all seated in a variety of terraces. The list includes spots like Café Souvenirs, Senzala and Les Enfants terribles, La Moulerie, and Bistro Le Republique. There used to be le Petit Italien but they recently stopped serving brunch. Les Enfants terribles has one of the largest terraces, while Café Souvenirs is one of my favourite on the street. The menu offering at the majority of these spots is similar with the exception of Senzala, which has a Brazilian theme and is located west of du Parc. Though they may offer similar brunch options, the taste and overall satisfaction varies from person to person. If you wish to know more, just click on each link above and read the reviews (because right now we’re only talking about the ones that look pretty). (more…)

Oxford Cafe – an NDG institution

The 411

Out in NDG is an institution called the Oxford Café. I say institution because it has been around for ages. Lots of people in the area know it well and it had a reputation for a good breakfast years ago. It’s a no-frills diner style spot that does not look like it’s changed since it opened. You come in to get some classic breakfast dishes, have some drip coffee and kick it old school maybe with a newspaper and let your day sink in. So, with this institution around and almost having done every spot in NDG I felt I needed to check it out.

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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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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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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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B&M – NDG Brunch here we come

restaurant

The 411

B&M is well known in NDG as a good place to get some morning food. It has a reputation of having good price and taste, and to be honest NDG does have some decent breakfast/brunch places but it could always use a few more. In my mission to check out all brunch places in each part of the city, B&M seemed like a logical choice. Take caution because there are two B&M locations: one at 5800 Sherbrooke original one at take out/delivery (with seating) and the restaurant 6200 Somerled. We initially went to the Sherbrooke location then 2 weeks later went to the Somerled location. Interestingly, the experience at both places was night and day so this will be an odd review for me. With that said, bear with me as I go over the good and not so good. Needless to say one location is better than the other but which one is it? Only one way to find out: keep reading.

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Ye Old Orchard – More than just a morning pint

The 411

Once upon a time on drunken St Patrick’s Day a bunch of my friends and I got up bright and early and had an Irish breakfast, at Ye Olde Orchard Pub. I had never eaten Irish breakfast before and was very curious about it. We all ordered different dishes but none of us were brave enough for the green eggs and ham. Since then I have a feeling that I failed at something and I needed to step back onstage and show that I could eat it no matter how weird and Dr Seuss-esque it sounds like. So on one of my previous forays into NDG, I saw that the Ye Old Orchard pub served breakfast on the weekends, and since I was meeting up with one of my friends from NDG and we both wanted something new for brunch , the choice seemed obvious.

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Benedicts – An NDG Brunch Champion

The 411

In following with an attempt to give more geographically balanced brunch reviews across Montreal, I returned to NDG with a mission, to review one of the most talked about places in the western end of the Island and seeing if this NDG sensation can compare to some of the better breakfast and brunch places Montreal has to offer. Benedict’s has some good feedback both online and from people who live in the area and a while ago when I was passing through NDG I was in this area and was curious by what I saw. A visit was definitely in order..

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Chocola – More than just cupcakes

*UPDATE – NO LONGER SERVES BRUNCH*

The 411

With my friend having recently moved to NDG I realized that I had neglected the west end of the city in regards to the various places I have reviewed, so we decided to take a nice sunny Saturday and walk around Monkland village in NDG. The advantage of getting out of you car and exploring is that you can find those little gems you would not find driving around and focusing mainly on finding a parking spot. So with our minds set on a brunch adventure, we walked around looking for something well priced, tasty, different and preferably with a terrace. Then that’s where we found it – kind of like the last cookie in the cookie box when you are really hungry – Cho Cola called out to us.

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New Look Same site

So after a little more than 1 year of reviewing I felt it was time to change things up and upgrade the site. Over the last few weeks you may have noticed new functionality such as categories listed by rating as well as by location and price. I also included two maps of brunch places sorted by area (one of greater Montreal, the other for the Plateau and Mile end)

As of Sunday evening May 10 2009 I pushed the button and version 2 went online. There are some improvements that will help you navigate the site with more ease and find what you need. I listed the most popular links under the header, added a contact sheet so that people who are not on Twitter or in the Facebook group and  don’t find their question relevant to the site posts can email me their questions. You will also note a coffee cup rating section above the “post a comment” section which allows you to chime in and give your own rating as well as comment (this section will get expanded with time).

Aesthetic changes were something else I wanted to improve on. I tried to keep the nice yellow & orange “brunchy” theme from the old page yet I wanted something that looked nicer and displayed more info so people could find it more easily. New additions to this included the “quick summary overview” where you can see the last few posts. They are displayed by showing a quick snap shot of the text and image so you can click to see the (more…)