Fabergé – New kid on the block

The 411

Faberge is a recent arrival on the brunch scene in Montreal. Situated on Fairmount street, it adds a solid brunch option to that part of the city. The surrounding areas of Fairmount offer a few brunch spots but the coverage in the area is rather spotty. People have begun talking about Faberge; there’s online chatter as well as word of mouth which is starting to spread. Considering it opened this summer, it’s nice to see some good buzz right off the bat. I usually wait a couple of weeks once a new place opens just so they can get their footing right and make all their little mistakes early on before they get into their groove.

At 1st glance

This place needs a sign. I mean, there is one, but it’s on the door. You can technically find this place from the address and the fact that there are large windows which open in the summer. A large sign that you can see from the other side of the street would be amazing. Once you find this place, you see this nice open concept with lots of room to breathe and believe it or not, the seating capacity is about 80 people. When we went it was not too full but I know some friends who live in the area and they said that they saw it full, so I would not expect to go during peak hours and find a table for 10 waiting for you.

Food

The menu is a two page delight that covers most of your morning cravings. They have some specialty dishes as well as some hard to find items like an Egg in a Nest/Egg in Window ($10). With the exception of four dishes, most prices are under $10 which is nice to see. They also have a kids menu which is great for those with families. The menu is broken down as follows:

Each of the meals we chose came with coffee and free refills giving you that extra bang for your buck. The tables are set without any brown sugar but if you ask them for it, they will bring some in a bowl. It’s the real kind of brown sugar since the feel and consistency is familiar to some that I have from Jamaica. I should note that when another table ordered some brown sugar they had to take our bowl and share it with them. I figured they just ran out and had to use a bowl. I also was able to get a smoothie ($4.00) which was not on the menu. The smoothie changes based on what fruit they have in the kitchen. The price was pretty good for a smoothie and the size was generous; although, the taste was more of a mix of fruit juices than that classic thick smoothie taste and consistency (yes, thickness can have a taste). I think all it needed was more yogourt in the mix.

As for the food, I started off with the Faberge delight ($10.00) which is two cinnamon danishes in a French toast batter topped with loads of fruit. This is a nice creation as the danish style French toast is a fun dish to order. The danish was filling and the French toast batter was not that pronounced and the danish worked perfectly on its own, so why mess with a good thing. The fruit topping was also a nice idea since you can’t go wrong with fresh fruit. I can see how this is one of their featured dishes as it is fun, tasty, well priced, and filling.

The Apple crepe ($10.00) is an enormous crepe jammed with apples and topped with powdered sugar. The dish is larger than it looks and jammed packed with apples, it’s a great deal at $10. The taste is good; although, if they would try to add some caramelized apples in a liquid filling or topping, it would give it that little extra kick.

The omelette ($9.00) comes with 3 choices of spinach, caramelized onions, peppers, bacon, sausage, ham, cheddar, cream cheese, feta, mushrooms, tomatoes or salsa. You can pay $2.00 extra for eggs whites and every extra ingredient above the defaulted 3 will cost you $1 each. My friend had the spinach, mushroom and cheddar cheese. The size was quite good and it came with a side of potatoes which were very tasty. One issue was that although the cheese was well infused into the omelette,I could still see the slice definition. I prefer have it be hidden in the omelette and melted in. This is also just me being picky and it did not take anything away from the dish which was very tasty.

Lastly, the Mediterranean eggs benedict ($9.00)is a very unique dish that I have not seen before. It’s two poached eggs on a bed of spinach and feta topped with hollandaise sauce on top of phyllo pastry. The dish came with a fruit bowl which was fresh and tasty potatoes. This dish was the superstar of the table. Whoever came up with this dish has done something very good for the world. I would have never thought of a phyllo dough base for an eggs Benedict but it is an amazing concept and helps combine two things I love: Greek food and brunch. The spinach was fresh and tasty, the eggs were perfectly poached and the hollandaise sauce was just right in both taste and thickness. I did not really notice the feta but maybe it’s better that it was not pronounced since it is quite a strong flavour and would have likely overpowered the dish.

Service

Our waiter was amazing! He was cheery, polite and checked up on us often. He even left a coffee carafe on our table which made me very happy. At one point one of us wanted some brown sugar and he brought us a bowl of real brown sugar. He advised us of off-menu items like the smoothie and did all of this with a smile. This has been some of the best service I have had in a very long time.

Vegetarian

More than half of the menu is vegetarian friendly and they also have healthy fruit section with three options. The vegetarian options are varied so you have choice but vegan options are limited to the fruit cup.

Wrap up

I was very impressed by Faberge. The price, taste, service and selection made for a wonderful brunch. I like the fact that you can get a well priced brunch spot in this area which has all your morning classics. Considering that this area has some fancier and pricier places, it’s nice to have an affordable classic spot with some creative items on the menu. I cannot stress enough on how great our waiter was and he made our brunch experience that much better.

View Fabergé in a larger map

Price	$$	$10-$12
Overall		4/5
Wheelchair Access	NO	0/3
Parking	Parking Meter & Street	Medium
BUS	55,363,46,51	Get Directions
Metro	Laurier	3 minutes

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