You may have heard about Hof Kelsten. In a short time, the legend has grown about the bread guy, Jeffrey Finkelstein. He is Montreal’s prodigal son, who has worked at some of the top restaurants around world. His list includes Toque, French Laundry, Per Se, and even El Bulli. Now back in Montreal he has been making bread over at Hof Kelsten and also has some other items that are a little more than just bread. Simply put Hof Kelsten does brunch. So one Saturday morning, the Montreal Food Divas were miraculously awake and not hungover so it seemed logical to do brunch. Now finding a spot that will impress the Divas is not always an easy task but we knew that Hof Kelsten would not disappoint.

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Manitoba (the restaurant, not the province), located somewhere between Little Italy and Park Extension, which some people have begun referring to as Mile Ex, has been on people’s lips for a little over a year. Now we had been to restaurant Manitoba before for their dinner service and we left very impressed after an incredible meal and really good service which left us curious about their brunch. I had high hopes for their dishes ,which if their dinner service was an indication, I was in for a treat with tasty and well-priced options.

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A few months after its opening, we fell upon Sel Gras. Having read about it and its rather impressive crew working the kitchen, we have had this on our short list for some time. So with a friend coming in from out of town and a need to try something totally different it felt like the logical choice to give Sel Gras over in the Mile End a shot.

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Bernard street has had a love-hate relationship with me. When I first started this site, Bernard was the street where you had to have brunch. With lots of choice and good ones at that, it was my favourite place to be especially in the summer with all those terraces. However, as time went on, I discovered new places, better brunches, and the spots on Bernard either closed down or didn’t evolve, that is, until recently when Brasserie Bernard brought a beacon of light on Bernard street and made having brunch in Outremont a more enjoyable event. (more…)

Cardinal tea room is a newcomer to the scene. Connected to Sparrow, which has been serving brunch for a few years now, this 2 floor old-style gem has that laid back feel with ample natural lighting and a more relaxed ambiance for brunching. Cardinal tea room has that British imperial style to it and, nothing says England like tea and cookies. The interior has two lovely floors flooded with natural light, bookshelves, a piano, a chalkboard, a steamer trunk and all those old style items that really make for quite the experience.

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Over the last year, I have befriended and helped out the Montreal Food Divas, 2 Montreal bloggers who make my life incredibly difficult and are responsible for some newly found grey hair. Just before the Christmas holidays, they wanted to meet for brunch. Diva #1 wanted eggs Benedict, I wanted somewhere new – so I picked somewhere new. We chose Café Barcola because it is very new and I wanted to go in blind since almost no one had started writing about it at the time. (more…)

The 411 Café Sardine is a place I have been to for dinner on a few occasions. I always enjoyed their menu and especially the décor. It has a tapas style dinner menu and some interesting combinations. It was one of those places that I always wondered what brunch would be like there.

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The 411 Over on Fairmount, you will find Arts Café. It’s been there for years. I’ve passed by it many times without ever having the time to try it out. One evening, I was cornered by 2 friends saying that I never went to brunch with them. I felt guilty and scared for my life a little so we decided to do brunch and one of them had heard about Art Café so I figured it was finally time to give it a try.

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The 411 Over the years there have been more and more vegetarian and, in particular, vegan restaurants opening up in Montreal. This was not the case when we started. Finding a vegan spot in general was tricky and even more so a place that did brunch AND was vegan. You could always manage to get a vegetarian option on the menu since not every dish had meat in it so you were ok on that front. Nowadays some minor changes to a menu can allow a restaurant to offer a Gluten free option. Having Buckwheat crepes is one easy way of doing this but there are still many items on the menu that require a little more creativity to make them truly gluten free. So, when we passed by Resonance on Avenue du Parc, we were enticed to see that it was offering both a vegan & gluten free brunch.

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The 411 Since I started doing this site, I have fallen in and out of love with Bernard street. When I first started, I felt Bernard was the place to go for brunch then as time passed I discovered new gems hidden in various neighbourhoods. Now, Bernard street was staring to get stale and some of my favourite spots were falling out of favour but some new spots opened up and started doing some interesting things and then, Bernard street started getting interesting again.

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