Over on Fleury street is La Bête à Pain – a bakery with a twist and making a name for itself among foodies as having an impressive brunch. This came on my radar a while ago but since it’s in an area I don’t end up in often, it took a while before I made it up here. There aren’t too many brunch spots up on Fleury, let alone many fancy ones, but the area is changing and in a few years you may not even recognize it from how it is now. Already, signs of gentrification are beginning, so let’s see how this shapes up.

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The 411 The growth we saw in the Atwater market a few years back has stretched west into Saint Henri. With this growth and expansion, you start seeing new restaurants opening up and serving brunch. Evoo is a rather recent addition to the scene and one weekend I was looking for something brand new, something I hadn’t seen at all and something that can surprise me so Evoo seemed to be like a good option.

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The 411I have recently tried to make more of push to showcase some of the more Foodie brunch spots. In our search for the best brunches of Montreal, we have eaten our way though almost 200 brunches. We have seen many ranging from your classic eggs and bacon greasy spoon to those fancy ones that are a little more lunch than brunch. Pastaga come on our radar because of a blogger I follow who has written a few posts on it. If you haven’t had a chance to check out willtravelforfood.com then please do so and you will find some really interesting write ups on stuff that makes foodies drool. With that said, Pastaga is a foodie spot, no doubt about it. I have my preconceived notions on these in that I know I can expect something different; usually, a menu that will never really be the same, interesting ingredients and something creative. So with that in mind, I called one of my most adventurous foodie friends and we went to put our two cents on it.

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The 411 Ham, as a single word can evoke so much passion among food lovers. Growing up I fell in love with prosciutto – its complex flavour, salty nature and ecstasy-invoking abilities. Nothing made me happier than being somewhere where I can indulge and go hog wild on it. Over the years, my preferences have changed, evolved even, but deep down inside I still yearn for taking a perfectly sliced piece and wrapping it around my finger and popping it in my mouth. When I passed by Hambar and saw cured meat hanging in the entrance, I felt like I was in heaven. Then when I found out they offered brunch, curiosity and excitement inspired me to see what was going on.

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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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