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.

At 1st glance

Cho Cola is a chocolate/specialty cupcake store and on that specific Saturday they began offering brunch. So, having the combination of a chocolate/cupcake shop and a brunch menu, my will power was not able to say no. The inside is very cute and has some seating area although the terrace has much more seating capacity and has a nice view of the street and is good for people watching. The counter has some choices of chocolates, cupcakes and other pastries that can help fix that sweet tooth early in the morning.

Food

The menu had only handful of brunch items and when I asked them if it would change they said it was too soon to know if it would or would not, so although I may review an item here it does not guarantee that it will be there when you go. They had a menu board outside with 4 items on it: Omelette, pancakes with scrambled eggs, pancakes with blueberries & choice of mango/maple butter or orange, honey butter; and lastly, cinnamon sweet cornmeal porridge and hot bread. We started off with some much needed hydration with coffee ($1.75) and a smoothie ($5.95). The coffee was mediocre but the smoothie was quite interesting (and interesting in a good way). It was a berry flavoured one and the taste was very “yogourt like” – much more so than a normal smoothie. This is a very different taste and if you are looking for a classic smoothie then you may not like it, although if you are looking for something thicker and closer to a yogourt in consistency then this may be the drink for you.

My friend ordered the omelette ($9.95) and it came with sautéed mushrooms, tomatoes, cheese and was served with a bagel and fruit. The omelette was delicious and not too heavy, the mushrooms really worked well, the fruit that accompanied it was was fresh. The orange slice was thin but the cantaloupe slice made up for it. The bagel was also a much-appreciated addition and was much better than a normal piece of toast. All this is well priced at $9.95 which is always appreciated although I would have liked it a lot more if it came with complimentary coffee.

I ordered the pancake plate ($10.95), which came with scrambled eggs and a choice of mango butter or orange honey butter. I ended up ordering the mango butter which had chunks of mango in the actual butter and added an exotic and delicious flavour to the pancakes. The scrambled eggs were very well prepared, light and yet filling. The pancakes also were very filling and nice and golden and there were three of them. So, for under ten dollars ($10) you get pancakes with a side of scrambled eggs, some fruit and a fancy little extra, which, when you look at it is a fair deal.

Service

The service was a little off. They forget our milk for coffee and when we got it, there was no spoon for the coffee and some other small things that you could tell they hadn’t served before. Although it was their first weekend serving a sit-down menu, so I will give them a break since they need to get into their stride and get used to all the new changes.

Vegetarian

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that all the menu items did not have meat in them. This is quite vegetarian friendly although not really vegan friendly which is almost impossible to do. I do like how their plates are still filling enough without having to offer meat and still keeping the price lower.

Wrap up

Overall I was pleased with our excursion, the terrace is a big pus. It’s an amazing place to go and relax, you can take a newspaper and chill on the terrace for a while, with no pressure. Some criticisms are that the coffee is not that amazing, and the menu is very limited. I do hope they can expand on it since the price and offering is quite good and I think that if you are in NDG you should check it out.

View Chocola in a larger map

Price	$$	$10
Overall		3/5
Wheelchair Access	NO	0/3
Parking	Street	Fair
BUS	103, 162, 17, 63, 371	Get Directions
Metro	Villa Maria	7 minutes

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