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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Chien Fumant – Great food, great decor, great time.

The 411

Hidden in the plateau is an absolute gem of a spot that has only been open since December of 2009. I heard of it recently from a friend who told me that this place has been turning heads with its great décor, unbelievable food, and friendly service. Brunches are served on Sundays and it’s not an ordinary brunch. In fact, they tend to change up the menu so that each time you go it is a different culinary experience. I ended up going on two separate occasions to get a fair sample of their offering. Their brunches get various inspirations such as Brazilian themes, dim sum, Spanish themes and classic to name a few. You can find out what theme it will be by going on their Facebook page, (a website is up but it is still in development).

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Café Campagne – Well worth the trip to the wild wild west

The 411

A friend of mine recently moved way out west to Rigaud and I said I would try to find a good brunch place in that area. My specialty is Montreal and this city is full of amazing places for brunch with tons of new places opening up regularly. There are more than enough to keep me busy reviewing for quite some time. However, once in a while I get some info on an amazing place out of town that is worth the drive. Café Campagne, in Vaudreuil D’orion, is one of those places. I managed to check it out a while ago on a test run with one of my brunch buddies and just recently went back with my Rigaud friend and a couple others so as to share the magic that is Café Campagne.

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Restaurant Madre – Latin fusion at it’s finest

The 411

Fusion cuisine and brunch are two things that, when combined, can elevate a dish to new levels or crash and burn. Most people are quite comfortable with their eggs and bacon and making fancy brunch dishes inspired by different cooking styles does not always get the warmest reception. I’ve written before about “nouveau” brunch and in fact, I was inspired to check out some of these places by a Sarah Musgrave article that covered a couple places in the city; Madre was one of them. Now, my greatest concern with nouveau brunch is that meals tend to deviate from classic breakfast items and end up being more of a lunch dish. Don’t get me wrong! I don’t mind breaking the mold and trying something different; I may have my old school roots but I do like being surprised and seeing someone take a novel approach to brunch. With that said, Madre proved an interesting challenge: a nouveau brunch style place that combines various South American cooking styles (Nuevo Latin). This is not an easy challenge by any means, although I have had Latin themed brunches before and the options on the menu are limited. If we consider that we are looking at fusing different styles from South America we could end up with something more lunch than brunch. In the end, I called up my oldest brunch buddy who happens to be a foodie and we went on our fancy brunch adventure.

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