Café Clarke

Café Clarke is a small and cute little café on Centre street in Pointe St-Charles. Let me make this clear, Pointe St-Charles has, like, one good restaurant worth the detour and that is Machiavelli. There are a couple other good spots like Miel and Bloom, but I wouldn't necessarily come from, let's say, the Plateau to eat there.

The now defunct Boulangerie Clarke in the Mile-End had a little baby. Frank Servedio, the owner, use to work at the boulangerie, which was owned by his parents. This is a big great family story! Café Clarke is basically a sandwich shop that serves awesome coffee (or so I've heard!). What differentiates them from other sandwich shops is the fact that their sh*t is fresh as can be. Sandwiches are made to order AND they cut their own meat. Hello. What a difference that makes!

The place feels very homey and warm. Feels like you want to bring all your friends there, you know? I also really loved the color scheme: green, white, and light, classic brown. Yes, 'classic' brown. It's a thing.

I started with the pasteis de nata, because it was already right there! I was a bit dispointed that it wasn`t A: made in house and B: not supes fresh. Obviously, it was a day old. I just went to Portugal, see. I KNOW what a day old pasteis de Nata tastes like. I am used to the yummy, crunchy, soft, pastry. Not the dry one. Don't get me wrong, it was still OK, but it just wasn't worth it. I got so excited! And then I got so annoyed. At them. For selling me a day old nata :/

La sandwich in a croissant! I loves me a good croissant sandwich! A good looking sandwich, without any fla fla. Dunno if that's a thang in English, but I'm dsoin it. It just means that it is simple. Thinly cut ham, almost like paper: THAT's the dream. The croissant was buttery and right about melted in my mouth. The only negative, if you can call it that, is that the tomato was a tad too juicy.

The only thing I'll say about the service (which was at the counter.. so I won't rate it), was that it took the dude a while to even say hello to me. Just say hello, and tell me I'll have to wait a couple minutes. GEEZ.

And now, le score!

Food: 6.5

Well, I'm bound to go back now, aren't I?! When it's only 15 steps away from where you live, you go back.

Aloha café

How cute does that sound? Who wouldn't want to go to Aloha Café? I went last week with my coworker who likes all things Hawaiian and possibly related to surfing (like September Surf Café for example  http://www.eatingoutmontreal.com/2016/05/september-surf-cafe.html) to see what this place was about.

You literally feel like you're in another world when you get inside: bright wallpaper with red flowers, wooden everything, colours and more colours. There's no way you can feel sad, or mad, or bad, when you step foot inside Aloha Café. Even the name should make you smile! We would have liked more surf-y music, if that is a thing; it was a bit too much on the chill side. Their wallpaper is ON POINT: very islandy!

I'm always inclined to get hot chocolate in new cafés because I tell myself that hey, if they are coffee experts, they must also care about their hot chocolate. Sometimes, I am wrong. It wasn't hot enough (hello, it's in the title), it had a nice foam goin' but not enough flavour. All in all, a bit disappointing.

Carrot and ginger soup. I love that mix! It could have been hotter and there could have been less herbes de provence. It was a bit overpowering. Still one of my fave mix of flavours though.

Volcano sandwich. They make their own focaccia, which is pretty freaking awesome, if you ask me. It was a cloud-like bread. This is le top du top: a bread you can float on. I swear I didn't take any hallucinogens. So soft and lovely and fresh. YUM! This sandwich had porchetta, caper aioli, grilled eggplant and zucchini, and arugula. A nice little mix o' flavas. This sandwich was niiiiice. I would have liked more aioli because I'm just a sucker for garlicky things, as you may know. I also didn't really taste the capers in the aioli. I absolutely loved the grilled veggies and the meat was fatty and delicious and there was lots of it! A sandwich hit!

Waikiki sandwich. First of, best name ever: 'I'll have the Waikiki please'. Man, that sounds awesome. It was a bit on the wtf side o' things: sardines, hard boiled egg, capers and fine herbs. It was...weird. The anchovies and eggs were a mix that I'm not used to and there was too much dill in there. On the good side of things, the egg was marinated and that was f*ckin' awesome. The sandwich was a bit on the dry side compared to the other one. Not as much of a hit.

We just HAD to share the matcha croissant. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!! That's actually why I wanted to go there in the first place! So basically, you gots a green croissant...It looks a bit bizarre but soon you don't really care because it's IN YO MOUTH. It has a praline mousse with matcha with most likely some kind of food coloring because it was as green as well watered grass (wow, what a comparison) . The paste (or mousse if you prefer) was thick and the croissant, fresh and tasty. It was very yummy, as the experts put it, but the matcha wasn't present enough. I guess that might be a good thing...'I'll have a tea croissant please'. Ya, it IS strange. It was still good tho. Croissants are ALWAYS good. Always.

Service was not so super. We were rather disappointed, actually. It is a new establishment and they should really get their act together! I feel like a teacher telling a student they did something bad. But seriously. On top of it, they were no less than about 6 people working there with about 6 patrons. AND 'our' girl just talked to a friend for the better part of our visit. We had to ask for water and YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT THAT. Also, no one asked if we liked our food OR if we would like to order anything else after having finished our meal. You are there to make money, people...act like it! This is no way to run a business. OK, I feel like I'm being a bit (a lot) harsh... but it's for your own good :)

And now, the scores!

Food: 7
Service: 6

If I go back, it'll be for that sandwich.

Régal matinal

Thank you Isa for this post about a great way to get your yummy breakfast in the morning or pastries all day long!

I was looking for a new brunch place after learning that the place I wanted to go to was closed (ah! Vive the holidays schedules!). Browsing on another blog (Une Parisienne à Montréal), I stumbled upon Régal Matinal. Their concept is pretty simple but oh so marvelous! You order your bread/pastries/jam the day before (midnight is their deadline) and they’ll deliver directly to your home or business the next morning in a time frame that you get to choose!! Say what? I know! I was in heaven!

I went on their website, placed my order, paid (you can pay cash at the door or via paypal) and waited… until 9:35am the next morning…when the bell rang (and woke me up! You don’t even have to set an alarm, they will also provide that service ;). And there he was, the petit boulanger delivering my order with a smile in full pastry chef uniform! Wow! So far, still impressed!

I opened the box and it smelled soooo good! The pastries were warm, not as warm as I would have liked but it was -30 outside so… This is what I got:

-mini croissant: buttery, not the best I ate but definitely a good croissant

-mini danoise framboise: good, very framboisé

-mini danoise érable pacane: miam! I’d put more than a half-pacane on it but the maple taste was delicious!

-mini chausson aux pommes : hot inside! Tastes like real apples. Suggestion: put apple pieces inside.

-mini brioche cannelle-raisins: good but lacks a little in cinnamon

-mini chocolatine : so chocolatey! I hate it when there’s chocolate just in the middle. It wasn’t the case here, I got chocolate in every single bite.

-feuilleté poireau-parmesan and feuilleté épinards-feta: both really good and loved both combinations, they’re classics!

I have to add, that the pastry dough itself was perfect. In my mind it needs to be flaky; when you eat it, you need to have crumbs all over you and this is just what happened! I took the mini pastries as I wanted to sample as many of their choices as possible but they also offer full versions. It costs me less than 16$ for everything and delivery is free (my only regret is that I forgot to tip the delivery man : ( I was still sleepy… but I’ll order again and you’ll get double the tip petit boulanger!!) You also have to place an order of a minimum of 5$. And here’s the catch… you have to be a resident of Outremont (or very nearby). 

The score for the pastries: 8

All in all it was a great experience, let’s just hope they will expand their territory in the future!

 

Nadège

After walking through Sylvia's favorite park, Trinity Bellwoods Park, we stopped by a lovely pâtisserie on Queen Street West. It looked very white: white walls, white counters. But then you looked at their produce and a BANG of colour! Sandwiches, macaroons; everything was so colourful!

Macaroons, macaroons, macaroons!

Nadège is a French pastry chef (actually, pretty much her whole family is into pastry) who opened her first bakery in Toronto in 2009. She then got rave reviews and just opened her second pâtisserie in Rosedale I believe. It's more of a fancy place then a 'let's go get a small croissant for breakfast' place. Their sandwiches range from 7 to 9$, so it's not that cheap but they do have great ingredients. Their macaroons are 2,20$ each. I find it kind of steep (ok, I never really buy macaroons) but damn worth it because they were amazing (bought the cherry chocolate one and the mojito one...both great).

Yummy sandwiches

Anyhoot, I had the fig and goat cheese croissant. It was very nice, the croissant, very soft and buttery. The cheese was lovely and there was just enough of it. The figs, on the other hand, meh. I LOVE figs and since my Sciences des aliments class, I have a real fondness for them and how and when they are ready. Those figs were not ready. They were almost tasteless and a bit on the hard side. Darn it.
Oh but I had a pomegranate and elderberry drink from bottle green which turned out to be the highlight of my meal. It was cold (YES!) and refreshing and just sweet enough.

Sylvia had the smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich which was apparently amazing. The cheese was whipped into a frenzy and therefore really soft and unctious. She also had homemade juice. It was really tasty but there was too much foam (like 1/4 of the glass).

The service was really great. Always with a smile, always efficient. They were all nice and considerate. We sat down outside and 4 minutes later, we had our meal. She even came by to check if everything was fine. Y'all know how much I appreciate that!

And now, the scores!

Service: a big 9,5
Food: Sylvia gives it a 9 and I give it a 6. Sorry, figs!

A great place to enjoy fresh produce and soft croissants. Go. Enjoy. Don't take the fig sandwich if they are not ripe :p