Voro – Fairmount sprouts a brunch option

The 411

Nestled on Fairmount street, you will find a lovely spot called Voro: a café where locals like to come have a coffee, soak up some sun and grab some brunch. Situated on Fairmount (corner Jeanne Mance), Voro is ideally situated for locals who want to duck in and grab a bite. You will find there is a mix of people; families with small children, older people, and people in the 20’s. In fact, the day we were there, there some strollers parked outside. Why they were outside I don’t know, since people had some inside with them – maybe to save space?

At 1st glance

When you walk in, the décor hits you head on. Built with an open concept, Voro takes full advantage of it high ceilings that help to shower you with light. There are displays going up the height of the west wall with products inside them. There is also a bar on the north side near the washrooms where you go to pay your bill. They even have coat hangers near the door so you don’t have to leave it on the back of your chair.

Food

Meals come without coffee and a latté will run you $3.10. There is no drip coffee so there are no refills. The menu is a short half-page deal which is broken down into two sections; light breakfast and Brunch. The light breakfast has 3 items in the $2.50 to $7.00 price range while the brunch section comes with potato hash and a tomato basil salad. The menu is as follows:

Light Breakfast

Brunch

I started off with the French toast and roasted chicken which although is odd to read on paper, it’s quite tasty when it hits your mouth. The French toast had a wonderful sweetness that seemed like it emanated from the bread itself, and not a sugary sweet but a natural sweetness. The chicken was quite generous and covered with a gorgonzola sauce which paired perfectly and did not overpower the dish. I thoroughly enjoyed this dish and was surprised by the fact that chicken and French toast can co-exist on a plate.

My friend had the vegetarian frittata ($10) that came with a tomato and basil salad as well as potato hash. The frittata was more of an omeltte since it was somewhat thin. In fact, it seemed as if they put more milk than egg since the taste of egg was not as pronounced as it normally is on a frittata. I tasted the onions a little too much and didn’t really notice anything else in it. Sadly, this dish ended up going to my friend who is a bigger foodie than I am and she was not impressed at all. The side of potatoes were not impressive and so this dish did not score so well.

The tomato and basil salad was confusing since it was basically only tomatoes and almost no basil. I was expecting basil leafs and tomatoes but did not get that. The tomatoes were good but the description is misleading. The potato hash is also a candidate for a deceiving title since a hash is technically supposed to be a mix of various foods with potatoes and made into a chunky consistency whereas this was basically potatoes that were chunky with a lack of other ingredients to safely call it a hash. This is up for debate since there are various ways people describe a hash but to me, it generally implies mixing it with other stuff.

Service

Our service was excellent and our waiter did an expert job in describing the dishes considering it was his first day. He had an amazing attitude and was funny. He also is the one who suggested the French toast which I am a fan of.

Vegetarian

The menu has some vegetarian options but since it’s a short menu, you don’t have a ton of other choices.

Wrap up

If it wasn’t for the French toast being so good and our waiter doing an excellent job, this place would be in the really bad rating zone. I felt that the price of the dishes is a touch high and the fact that coffee is not included, nor do you get free refills, makes it even more pricey. For two people, our bill came out to $34 including coffee before tip. I felt we paid too much especially when you factor in the disappointing frittata and somewhat misleading menu description. The place still looks nice but the menu needs to be improved if they want to charge those prices. .

View Voro in a larger map

Price	$$$	$12-$15
Overall		3.5/5
Wheelchair Access	NO	0/3
Parking	Parking Meter & Street	Moderate
BUS	46,80,365,368,535,363	Get Directions
Metro	Outremont	13 minutes

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