Back in October a new spot sprung up on Mentana. This small 26 seater has slowly been making a name for itself and gaining fans by offering some interesting dishes in a lovely environment. Now you may ask who is Lili? Well, we did and it turns out it’s the name of the little girl of the owner born at around the same time that they opened, and although I personally have no children (that I know of) I do tip my hat to anyone who opens a restaurant and has a kid at the same time. Because, each on their own is an incredible amount of work.

When you walk in to Lili & Co you notice how it’s delightful, small, quaint and a kind of romantic feeling. Reservations are not possible for the weekend brunch so get there early or be ready to wait since it doesn’t take much for it to fill up.

The menu is a one pager which includes appetizers, drinks and 8 mains. Prices range between $17-$19 for a main and coffee is $4 for a latte. There is no drip and no refills. The menu looks a little something like this:

We started with some cocktails and had the early gin drink ($8) which is a gin and tea cocktail. This may sound odd but it actually pairs nicely and is a good way to start off your morning. My friend had the Pims lemonade ($8) which is a traditional British drink that you will often see on a summer menu. I like anything with pims in it so I am biased on this matter.

Food We had some scones ($4) as well. Scones is something I find incredibly hard to pull off. I like them warm, buttery and not dry. The scones at Lili & Co were small, topped with a light cream, a berry and had some raisins inside. The scone itself was a touch dry for my taste, and small. Although, the raisins inside helped save it and the cream and berry was a nice touch. I would have liked it to be larger since it was quite tiny and gone in one bite.

For our mains we had some impressive choices and started with the Vietnamese crepe ($17). This unique choice for a brunch dish has shrimps, tofu, shitake mushrooms, peanuts, fresh herbs, peppers and a sauce. This dish has a unique taste and that taste is success. This dish is a winner; it is filling, tasty and unique. Few places take the risk of trying an ethnic dish and make it work but Lili & Co does with this dish.

I had the banana pancakes ($17) which had a stack of pancakes where you could see the banana slices in them. The banana taste was well distributed and the nuts and maple syrup add value and taste to the dish. Let’s not forget a nice large slice of bacon on top which fills everyone’s bacon fix.

The 2 egg dish ($18) is loaded with generous amounts of meat. You get maple sausage, smoked bacon, cretons (pork spread), potatoes and bread. The variety of meat is welcomed by any carnivore, the potatoes were done in a nice rectangle that looked good and tasted even better.

Service

The service here is so personalized and nice. Our waitress was great, so patient and helpful with dishes and was laid back and fun.

Vegetarian

Almost every dish on the menu has meat in it. Although, you can easily remove an item from the dish like the pancakes and it becomes vegetarian. You should ask before, though, to see if they can accommodate you

Wrap up

I really enjoyed Lili & Co. The menu was creative, the dishes themselves were creative and the portions were large. I did find that my bill climbed up well past the $20 mark when you add coffee but the dishes were worth that little bit extra.

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Price	$$$$	$20
Overall		4.5/5
Wheelchair Access	NO	0/3
Parking	Parking Meter & Street	Difficult
BUS	11, 97, 368, 14, 27	Get Directions
Metro	laurier	5 minutes