Griffintown Cafe, Montreal

Wow, so I haven't been excited about a place like this in a long time! I have to admit, I'm pretty uninspired with what is out there. Don't get me wrong, there is lots of good food out there, but I think that is exactly what the problem is. It is so hard to set yourself apart these days because EVERYONE does it well.

What I love about Griffintown Cafe is that this place has got soul and character! Not only is the food great, but they've really created this atmosphere that isn't easy to replicate. This place has got this old funky saloon type feel that makes it a lot of fun. They are open for lunch, weekend brunch, and dinner, and have live music three nights a week.

Fresh cold water was served in Bulleit Bourbon bottles. I loved the idea and want to do that at my house. Like I said, they make it fun!

I ordered the huevos divorciados with corn tortillas, poached eggs, cheddar cheese, black beans, avocado, Mexican crema, and salsa verde y roja. For an extra $2, you can add pulled pork which is well worth your money. I was absolutely in heaven with this dish. It was substantial, flavorful, fresh, and absolutely DELICIOUS!

Huevos Divorciados

The eggs were cooked rare, and it was a perfect dish to mix up and eat all mushed together. I was so satisfied with my dish that I didn't even look at anyone else's, which is rare for me. I always have food envy and want to try every dish on the table, but not this time. I was faithful to my dish.

Huevos Divorciados

S and P had the eggs benedict served on home baked biscuits with hollandaise, potatoes and mixed green salad. S had hers with homemade bacon.

Eggs Benedict with Homemade Bacon

 And P had her eggs benny with house cured organic salmon.

Eggs Benedict with Salmon

J opted for something sweet and had the brioche french toast with bourbon, vanilla bean, cinnamon fresh berries, sweet cream and maple syrup.

Brioche French Toast

Griffintown Cafe

1378 Notre Dame Ouest

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Telephone: 514-931-5299

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Schwartz's, Montreal

I can't believe it took me almost 10 years to try a Schwartz's smoked meat sandwich. Shame on me. My husband has been trying to get me to try Schwartz's forever and for some reason, I always rejected his suggestion. I finally tried Schwartz's when we brought a friend to Montreal for the day. I'm totally slapping myself for not having tried it earlier.

Schwartz's is FAN-TAS-TIC! Mouth watering, make-the-hair-on-your-arm-stand-up GOOD! I had no idea and had I known what I know now, I would have eaten here every weekend when I had the chance.

We drove here on a Wed afternoon, around 2pm and we were shocked to see how packed this place was. It was absolutely chaotic, and we were lucky enough to grab 3 seats at the end of a table beside a couple visiting from New York. They chose Montreal as their honeymoon destination and one thing on their must-do list was to go to Schwartz's.

Open since 1928, Schwartz's was founded by Jewish immigrant, Reuben Schwartz. Schwartz's meat is smoked in-house in the most traditional way, with no chemicals or preservatives added.

There are 3 things one must try at Schwartz's.

1. Smoked meat sandwich. You can order it fat, medium, or lean. Medium is probably as lean as you should go. CK had the lean to be healthy and he totally regretted it. Lean was too dry. I prefer the medium, which was a perfect mixture of fatty and lean.

Medium Smoked Meat Sandwich

2. Fries. I love the fries here because they remind me of chip wagon fries. Fresh, not too crispy, kinda soft, and a beautiful golden brown color.


Fries

3. Dill pickle. They are massive and perfectly crunchy.

Dill Pickle

Schwartz's

3895 Saint-Laurent Boulevard

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Telphone: 514-842-4813

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M Cafe, Montreal

A convenient place to brunch or lunch when you're downtown Montreal is M Cafe. Anytime I've been desperate for food, M Cafe always seems to be around the corner.

On my first visit, after a long night of fun, a couple of ladies and I stopped here for a much needed brunch. I ordered the bénédictine fumé, a full plate of two poached eggs with smoked salmon, Swiss cheese, onions, capers, potatoes, and fresh fruit. This normally comes with hollandaise, but as always, I ask them to leave it off. I adore eggs, and want to taste every bit of it which is why I don't like having sauce on my eggs.

Benedictine Fume

Everyone else had the western omelette. Three eggs cooked with peppers, ham, onions and zucchini. This was served with house potatoes and fresh fruit

Western Omelette

One thing I like about this place is their selection of macarons. There is always a beautiful display of them and macarons always get me excited because they are a small reminder of Paris for me. On my first visit, I tried the blueberry, caramel fleur de sel, and hazelnut chocolate macaron. The blueberry was surprisingly good! That one wasn't my choice but I'm sure glad I tried it!

Blueberry, Caramel Fleur de Sel, and Hazelnut Chocolate Macarons

On my second visit, CK and I were starving from shopping and walking all day, and voila, M Cafe was conveniently right in front of us ready to save us from starvation. We popped in for a late lunch.

I ordered la bergère salad. It was a mixed salad with raisins, walnuts, dried cranberries, and a piece of warm, pan fried goat cheese. I would have liked the goat cheese to have been cooked a little bit longer but it was a good salad overall.

La Bergere Salad

CK will always order a burger when he can, so he chose le M burger. The burger was made of angus beef, and was served with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and fries. Wasn't a fabulous burger...it was an average burger was how he put it.

Le M Burger

Of course, I could not leave without ordering a macaron. This time, I chose the peppermint mango macaron sprinkled with black pepper on top. It tasted more like a mango macaron with black pepper on top. I couldn't taste the peppermint at all. But I didn't mind. It was a pretty cool combination regardless.

Peppermint Mango Macaron

M Cafe
1458 rue de la Montagne
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Telephone: 514-842-8825

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SwUrl Frozen Yogurt, Montreal

If you are ever in Montreal, and are in need a fro yo fix, Swurl is a great place to check out. This is an independently owned fro yo shop with a lot of creativity!

The concept is self serve. You grab a bowl, fill it up with your frozen yogurt flavors of choice, load on your favorite toppings, weigh it, and pay! You pay for what you want. That simple.

There are always 8 flavors being served. Four traditional and four flavors of the week. The traditional flavors are plain, vanilla, chocolate, and pomegranate. On the week we were there, the flavors of the week were blueberry, passion fruit, green tea, and taro.

They have served up some pretty crazy flavors in the past such as sriracha hot sauce, bacon, and lime chocolate mint, creamsicle, red velvet, lucky charms, and how very Canadian...maple syrup!

And the toppings? They have the traditional stuff such as candy, chocolate, fresh fruit, and sundae sauces, but they also have some crazy stuff like wasabi and Ruffles chips.

I was pretty tame the day I went. Didn't want to get something crazy for the sake of getting something crazy, so I had the plain and pomegranate frozen yogurt with candy sprinkles and Swedish berries. It was just perfect...tart frozen yogurt with a bit of sweetness on top.

Check this place out. It's a lot of fun!

SwUrl Frozen Yogurt
1464 rue Crescent
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Telephone: 514-439-8096

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L'Avenue, Montreal

I have a slight problem in my relationship...I LOVE brunch, but my husband does not! Whenever we plan to go for brunch, we always end up arguing because of his lack of interest for the meal. How can one not get excited about brunch??? To me, it just doesn't make any sense.

This is how our conversation went:

Me: "So, what do you feel like for brunch?"
CK: "I don't care."
Me: "You don't care? You've got to be in the mood for something!"
CK: "I hate brunch, you know that."
Me: "How can you hate brunch? Who hates brunch!?"
CK: "I don't like eggs, bacon or sausages so that doesn't leave me with much. The menu is always the same...."

I'm not sure why I can't accept the fact that he doesn't like brunch, but I can't. It's insane to me. After going back and forth for a while, we FINALLY decided on L'Avenue, a hip little joint in the Plateau area. Luckily, we love dining out together, so in the end, that's what really mattered.

When you first walk into the place, it almost has a funky club like feel. There is loud music playing in the background, and the front of the resto has a graffiti'd wall with a motorcycle hanging off the ceiling.

They have an extensive menu with both breakfast and lunch choices. Make sure you brush up on your French because they do not have English menus. The wait staff are all very nice and are willing to translate if needed.

The menus also had a funky feel to them. To me, it resembled a record album.

Menu at L'Avenue

After waiting outside in line for 30 minutes, we were finally able to order.

To start, I ordered a cafe au lait. I was pleasantly surprised at the size of my coffee. The cup was massive. What can be better than to start a Sunday morning with a caffeine overload.

Cafe au Lait

I debated between a few options, and ended up with the chorizo II eggs benedict. This was served with hollondaise sauce and pieces of sauteed chorizo, onions, red peppers, and potatoes. On the side were garlic & herb potatoes and a fruit kebab. What I loved was that the eggs were poached perfectly! Soft and super runny...just the way I like it. I highly recommend this dish. A perfect salty/spicy combination.

Chorizo II

The fruit kebab came with cantoloupe, honey dew, grapefruit, banana, pineapple, and watermelon.

Fruit Kebab

CK ordered the french toast with strawberries, bananas, and blueberries. It was fresh, light, and delicious! This dish was massive. CK got a little embarrassed when it arrived because everyone was staring at how huge it was.

French Toast with Strawberries, Bananas, and Blueberries

We were both insanely stuffed - and satisfied - by the end of our meal.

L'Avenue
922 Avenue du Mont-Royal Est
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Telephone: 514-523-8780

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Olive et Gourmando, Montreal

One of my favorite places in Montreal is Olive et Gourmando. Situated in Old Montreal, this is a charming place to get fresh food! I love introducing this place to people, and will take a special trip to Montreal just to do so!

This place is always buzzing with people - regardless of the time. On my last visit, P and I got a seat right beside the kitchen, where we had a great view of the chefs in action.

View from our Seat

We both ordered a home made strawberry vanilla lemonade to start, and me needing a caffeine fix, I ordered a latte as well. The home made lemonade was refreshing, and the coffee was awesome.

Strawberry Vanilla Lemonade and Latte

To start, P and I split the fresh fruit bowl, a medley of fruits including pears, currants, melons, grapes, and figs! Need to get my fibre.

Fresh Fruit Bowl

My favorite dish is the house made Ricotta. You can order this salty or sweet...for me, it was a no brainer: SALTY all the way. The ricotta was drizzled with olive oil, and topped with rosemary, parsley and chives, sea salt, and pepper. Served with the ricotta are roasted tomatoes and toast. This dish is just mind blowing...so simple yet a subtle burst of flavors.

House Made Ricotta and Roasted Tomatoes

P ordered the cubain: a hot panini with ham, braised pork, Gruyere cheese, and homemade mayonnaise. The mayonnaise made of chipotle peppers, pickles, lime, and coriander made this dish!

Cubain Panini

For dessert, I chose a flaky cheese croissant....yes, you heard right, a cheese croissant! The waitress was sweet enough to cut it into two pieces for P and I to share.

Cheese Croissant

P's choice was the house made turtle bar: fresh shortbread, caramel, chocolate, and fleur de sel. Everything is house made!

House Made Turtle Bar

Olive et Gourmando
351 Saint-Paul West
Old Montreal, Quebec
Telephone: 514-350-1083

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Tête Fromagée Anyone?

My co-worker showed me this picture, and I just had to post it.

My co-worker's son, who is a chef, bought this pig head to make tête fromagée, aka head cheese. He ended up scaring the crap out of his girlfriend when she opened the fridge and unexpectedly discovered his recent purchase. Of course, he found it somewhat amusing, and sent this picture to his dad.

If you are unfamiliar with the term tête fromagée (like I was), I'd first like to clarify that it is not a cheese of any sort! It is actually a meat jelly made of pig head pieces, gelatinous meat broth, and spices. The meat jelly is traditionally molded into a loaf, and served thinly sliced.

When I saw this picture, I thought it was a joke. It didn't look real to me. I even thought it was a cake shaped into a pig's head. I had no clue pig ears were so big.

If you were curious, the pig head was purchased from Marché Jean-Talon (Jean-Talon market) in Montreal.

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MBCO (Montreal Bread Company), Montreal

Another place I visited in Montreal was MBCO (Montreal Bread Company). I have to admit, I had gone to Olive and Gourmando first, but I learned that they close on Sundays and Mondays :-(
MBCO is a little European-style cafe serving morning and afternoon eats such as croissants, brioches, hand carved sandwiches, and thin crust pizza. They always have funky world music or jazz playing, and I love the warehouse feel of this establishment.

CK and I used to visit this place regularly, and I used to order their sandwiches everytime I went.

On this visit, I decided on the pepper crusted tuna nicoise salad instead of a sandwich. This was a green salad with tomatoes, creamy potatoes, fresh capers, red onions, olives, and seared tuna. It was served with a very nice sesame dressing.

The only thing I didn't like about this salad was that the tuna tasted like it was cooked hours before it was served. It was cold and slightly dry on the edges. I would have much preferred the tuna to be freshly prepared.

Pepper Crusted Tuna Nicoise Salad

It was a cold day and the patio chairs were still out, which meant the doors were slightly open. I was freezing and needed something warm. I ordered an awesome Mightly Leaf chamomile citrus tea.

Mighty Leaf Chamomile Citrus Tea

Mighty Leaf tea comes in beautiful hand crafted silken tea pouches that are biodegradable. The tea blends I've tried have all been great, and some blends have beautiful dried flowers in them.
The food wasn't as spectacular as I remembered it being, but it was still nice to be back.

MBCO (Montreal Bread Company)
1447 Rue Stanley
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Telephone: 514-284-0404

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