Café Parvis

Every time I eat breakfast with my dad, we eat at chains. OK, almost every time. I ain't supes fond of chains: always the same thing, plastic eggs, over/undercooked potatoes, too much sauce, tiny sausage (hehehe...tiny sausage :p ). When I have the opportunity to go to a non-chain resto with my dad, I jump on it. Well, it's more like I send him an email saying we should hit up that place. I'll send him the menu AND point out things that HE could eat. I have to be thorough if I want to eat a nice breaky! And so, a couple weeks ago, we met at Café Parvis!

The place itself is quite cute, but also a tad too hipster for me. It ain't bad, it's more like 'oh, we have bowl haircuts, and round glasses, and clothes from the 1980s'. Hahaha! I did enjoy all the greeney in there and the high ceilings, but it was a bit too much on the dark side for me. The atmosphere, at 7:30 am was calm and actually quite nice! I really dug the place itself, but the location, on a weird side-street kinda street, was kind of out of nowhere.

They have a small selection of breakfasts, written on a board at the cash: a small menu, just the way I like it! I had the pain doré with tomates confites (translates to candied tomatoes... but I'm not supes fond of that), lots of herbs, bacon, swiss cheese, and balsamic syrup. Mmm: balsamic syrup. That thick liquidy goodness makes everything better. Everything. I LOVED all the herbs that made everything more flavourful, but I found that they had thymegerated (come on, get with it!). The tomatoes were just lovely: not too oily and very savory! I was a bit disappointed by the bacon: it could have been thicker. I like me a good, nice slab of thick bacon. Let's face it, I love me some bacon. The bread was way too eggy in the middle; it was basically one big runny egg :p The cheese was, wait for it, cheeeesyyy! It completed this savory pain doré quite well.

The service was at the counter so I shant rate it, but I will say that we waited a sh*t long time for our food. For a girl that's hungry as soon as she wakes up, this did NOT please me.

And now, le score!

Food: 6.5

I'll probs go back, this time for lunch or dinner!

Larry's

Larry's was on my list. OK, this is how it goes: I have a pretty extensive list of restaurants I just need to try and when I go out for lunch/dinner with friends, I always look at my list first. Larry's was located right where I needed it to be: mile end. I was meeting my baby gurl Isa for lunch before work! FYI, Larry's is Lawrence's baby boy. Lawrence is ALSO on 'the' list.

The place itself, at 11h40AM was full. FULL! WTF! Dsamn man. With around 16 seats on the floor plus 11 at the counter, it was pretty small. It had a nice ambiance, an open kitchen, actually nice soft-like country music and a VERY hipster-ish vibe. A tad TOO much for our taste.

Mmmkay, so this resto serves up small dishes akin to tapas. I loves me some tapas! Of course, I had chosen them before getting there. Hello, do you not know me?

Isa decided to have the Spruce pop. She wanted to have a 'regular' pop, but they don't got any. I tasted it and it just reminded me of Buckley's. You know, that really freaking harsh syrup you buy to get rid of all your germs? Ya, that one. She wasn't cray for it either and half of it was left in the bottle when they took it away.

Le ceviche. Albacore ceviche. Hum, yes! I loves me some good albacore. This was fresh. Oh, so fresh! A tad on the oily side but good nevertheless. The pieces were a bit too big for me (for a ceviche, really), but it did taste yummy. Very well seasoned, with a little homemade salsa type thang atop it. Yasssss.

Anchovies and tomatoes. I gots to say, I ain't a fan of run-of-the-mill anchovies. But fresh anchovies? You GOT me! The tomatoes were right on, grilled to perfection. Juices were comin' out of them and dem juices were good! Unfortunately, the bread under the anchovy wasn't day-old bread, it seemed more like three-day-old bread. Meh. And the oil. Why so much oil? Not uber pleasant.

Pasguetti!!!!Spaghetti with bread crumbs, capers, mackarel sauce and herbs. At the bottom, a bunch of oil. But WHY??? The bread crumbs gave it a nice texture, the capers, some acidity and the mackerel just fit right in there. But we were dumbfounded by all the oil at the bottom. WHY?? It was just unnecessary!

Flammkuchen! A mouth full, really! Hahaha! Akin to somewhat of a pizza. That dough didn't seem cooked enough. Those herbs were lovely though. The flavours were awesome but again, that dough did not seem cooked through.

The oxtail. Obviously, we don't get much of this here. Like, ever. It was, again, in this dough. Again, a tad on the oily side. But why? I LOVED the oxtail. Isa wasn't havin' it. I mean, she's from South Africa, where oxtail is pretty much like beef: everywhere! I thought it was tasty and flavourful. It even tasted a bit like cinnamon I thought. She thought it was lacking in flavour. Damn it!

Dessert. Now, THIS was a nice surprise. Rice pudding with custard and torched à la crème brûlée with some cranberry compote on top. I'm pretty much in love with the breaking of the crème brûlée and this was the same. For a second, I felt like Amélie Poulain. The cranberries were very fresh and had a hint of orange mixed in. The whole dessert wasn't overly sweet and it was just so f*cking good. That rice was perfect and that custard was perfect too. Just one bite with all the elements of this dessert was enough for me to make a decision: it was hella good. 

Service was OK. As Isa pointed out, it's never ideal to get served by four different people. Totes on her side here. I like two, tops! The dude that took our order had to ask us three times because he wasn't writing it down. Boy, I don't think your memory is as good as you think! What sort of really annoyed me A LOT was the hipsteryness of it all. What IS that hair cut? What ARE those pants? Are those FAKE GLASSES? I know, I know, I judge, I judge. But you guys already know that I am a judger. They looked funny to me but they were still nice kids :) Oh but one of the waitresses had really long hair and I could just see it in the wind, practically landing in my food. Hair and food just dson't go.

We did get our food in a timely fashion tho so that was nice. They did not check how much we liked our meal but one of them explained the dessert in length so that was appreciated.

And now, the scores!

Food: 6.5

Service: 6.5

As you must know by now, I rarely go back to the same restaurant. I guess if I need my oil fix, I will return. Hahaha :)

Café Bloom

Look! Look, it says 'Café Bloom' on the window!

Do you know how many restaurants are opened at 8 am on a Saturday morning in MTL? 3. OK that's a lie. But for us early risers (yes, even on the weekends!), there aren't that many options if you don't want to go to a 24 hour diner (meh) or a coffee shop (let's face it, NOT breakfast!). I was looking at my options on Zomato and I found this little gem, hidden in plain sight, about a 10 minute walk from my place. Oh, and in the past 2 years of living in this neighbourhood, I had neva eva EVA heard about or seen Café Bloom. Oy! 

Alright, so, located in a weird part of Pointe St-Charles where people rarely go if they don't work/live around there (unfortunately restaurants often close their doors because of lack of clients in that area), Café Bloom closes early on week days alike many restaurants around it (i.e: Café Cantina) because, well, there's pretty much no walking traffic. Like, at all.

This place was a lovely discovery, I must say! It's tremendously cute with its kids corner, mismatched tables and chairs and kinda hipster-y vibe (only kinda :) and great indie music. I kind of felt at home. They have an open kitchen, which I love... well until you see the cook pick his/her nose but thank the little baby Heysus I didn't witness any of that that day. 

The menu is on the black board behind the oh-so-very-cute bar: viennoiseries, coffees, home made juices, and brunch. Val and I both had the same thing, which, I must say, is a rarity; we usually try to get different things so we can taste them both but apparently we had our eyes on the 'tartine du brunch'. 

Tartine du brunch: scrambled eggs with herbs, parmesan and mushrooms on rye bread, mixed salad and cabbage salad. Let's start with the bad. Neva EVA put mixed salad anywhere on your menu. NO! I do not care if YOU like it (I don't know why you would) OR if you think it's oh-so-cheap (obviously there's a reason for that). Just don't do it. It was slightly acceptable about 8 years ago. Then, it was arugula, which is MUCH better, and now it's somethin' like kale which is MUCH MUCH better. Needless to say the addition of the three slices of radish was lost on me. Then, the cabbage salad. It was alright: adding sesame seeds was a nice touch and brought a little je ne sais quoi to the dish but it lacked salt, therefore flavor.

The scrambled eggs were nice and fluffy and moist (I despise that word--cringing!). The parmesan could have been a tad saltier, surprisingly. The mushrooms which were mainly morels (hello!) were good and full of flavor (garlic, hello!) but a tad on the squishy side. The herbs were great and obviously fit right in there: eggs? bread? mushrooms? I'm gonna have to say 'hello!' again! All in all, good but I wished the parmesan would have been a bit melted, ya know?

Service was ok: First off, when we said we didn't want coffee (that's right, TWO non coffee drinkers eating breakfast together), she didn't even bother asking if we wanted something else. Well, she a: lost more sales and b: more tip. And we had to ASK for water. I don't like asking for water. It should always be in my glass. Point final.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7
Service: 6

I'm toooootes going back to try more! And soon!

FYI: they have hosted exhibits in the past 2 years for up and coming artists!