- Restaurants |
- Nightlife |
- Shopping |
- Coffee & Tea |
- All
Eggspectation Resto-Cafe
Category: Restaurants Breakfast & Brunch Breakfast & Brunch [Edit]
201 Rue Saint-JacquesMontreal, QC H2Y 1M6
(514) 282-0119
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Breakfast, Brunch
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Has TV:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
33 reviews for Eggspectation Resto-Cafe
Review Highlights
"I'm a huge fan of eggs benedict."
(in 11 reviews)
"orange juice was fresh squeezed too."
(in 3 reviews)
"...tried the omlette with bacon and cheese, eggs benedict with..."
(in 3 reviews)
Loading...
33 reviews in English
-
Review from Bobby Y.
10/12/2011 1 photo
Wow, sad to see the horrible reviews for this place.
I enjoyed all my visits, but hey, guess a place can change. -
Review from Riccardo S.
12/23/2011 3 Check-ins Here
This place is incredibly convenient for me from a location perspective, but as many of the other reviewers state, terribly inconvenient for me from a time perspective.
The food is good, the fresh-squeezed juices fab, and the espresso packs a good punch.
The service leaves a *lot* to be desired, though. Take-away in particular is a hassle, where I'm usually forced to find someone and *BEG* them to take and swipe my credit card because I, unlike all the other languidly lunching customers, just can't spend 2 hours while the overstretched staff sort things out. Actually...stand by the bar under the stairs, and you'll get an even better idea of how confused this place really runs.
Go if you have time. A lot of it. -
Review from Sean D.
11/26/2011 1 Check-in Here
I will admit I am not overly creative when it comes to this restaurant as i always order eggs benedict. I do try the different types of eggs benedict though, and today it was salmon. food is as good as usual, but I need to say the service sucked this morning. it took 10-15 min before I even had coffee in my cup. Then i had a meeting at 9am, figured asking for the bill at 8:25 would do it, but with only 15 min left to get to my meeting I brought my credit card up to the front to pay. A bit disappointing.
Takes Amex. -
Review from Matthew T.
7/31/2011 1 Check-in Here
I suspected this was a chain. And i should have went screaming in the other direction instead of having breakfast here. But hadn't really checked out the area by the hotel yet, and when you are starving for breakfast you'll make crazy choices.
I ordered the bagel and smoked salmon. Bagel was barely toasted, the salmon barely smoked and the three capers they put on the plate, not nearly enough. And when I found out the price was really $13.95 and not $9.95 as printed in the english menu, pretty much decided never to darken their door again. The other bad thing wasn't what happened with my poor over priced food and outdated menu, but the table next to me were two poor brits who just never go the right food. The whole time the waitress was messing things up the manager was sitting enjoying his coffee chatting with the line cook.
Plenty of other better choices in the area, don't be like me and settle for the first thing you see!Listed in: Montreal '11
-
Review from annie t.
9/9/2011
Torn between the eggs Benedict (my staple breakfast dish) and their eggs on yolk, which I felt immediately drawn to. Went for the latter. The egg on a yolk had an unusual presentation. The bagel sides were turned upside down with egg on the bottom and about 3 slices of bacon with cheese on top. The bagel was a Montreal bagel so of course I loved it. I feel like I didn't need all that bacon. The meal also came with a side of fried potato which I didn't care for, and some fresh fruits.
The service here was practically nonexistent. It took our waiter a while to get to our table even though the place was quite empty at 7am. Never checked up on us. And, we had to hunt him down for our check. I'm just happy that I tasted my Montreal bagel.
3 stars for the food
0 star for service -
Review from Julia H.
East York, ON
9/28/2011
a few years ago, this used to be the place to be for bunch. I was really excited to take my boyfriend here to experience one of the "must visit places in MTL". Boy were we disappointed!
We had ordered the eggspectation omelette and eggs benedict. The omelette was bland, overcooked. The eggs benedict were ok, but I've had better. The portion size has come down.
Overall, food and service has gone downhill and not worth my time anymore. -
Review from Tom K.
Updated - 6/1/2011
One year later and while still a fan of Eggspectation Resto-Cafe, the service delays force me to detract a star.
It forced others to leave while we were there as for some reason they didn't like being ignored. Here's a tip for future visitors to Eggspectation, don't sit where the wait staff can't see you.
If you sit within the line of sight of the wait staff, you'll still have a wait to receive a menu and the check but at least they'll eventually get to you.
The food is still quite good.Listed in: Whither Canada? Eats, Shoots…
1 Previous Review: Show all »
-
6/1/2010
My great eggpectations were readily met by Eggspectation, a welcome change from the hotel breakfast… Read more »
-
-
Review from Mike B.
7/16/2011
we went to another Eggspectations in Montreal 2 years ago. it was freaking awesome. my friends staff an anime con in Virginia and found one there. they enjoyed it.
we found another Eggspectations in Montreal...and it was, sadly, mediocre at best.
I had the Egg-chilada, pretty much a western omelette...only it was kind of bland. this in spite of having peppers, salsa, and more in it. when the best part of the meal is the fresh fruit on the side...ughhh.
the caffe au lait and the freshly squeezed orange juice were good.
service was kind of slow, which is inexplicable for a rainy Wednesday when the huge place was empty.
not horrible, but whereas I was able to overlook the stupid puns of the first Eggspectations (I hate puns), here I was unable to.
will not hit this again. -
Review from Mike Z.
4/25/2011
Went here because it's right around the corner from our hotel (Intercontinental). I've been to the MA location many years ago and remembered loving it. This time was just OK. When you enter the door you notice the nice decor, but then you're left standing there for minutes before anyone acknowledges you. When we were finally seated it took many minutes to get a waitresses' attention to order and another lengthy wait to finally get our food. The food itself is actually pretty good. It's too bad the service sucks. When we were done it took forever to get the check.
...and then like a bunch of dummies we went back again the next day for breakfast and had the same exact experience. -
Review from nick m.
3/19/2011
Eggspectations does a great job of luring you in. You're still groggy from a night of Montreal festivities, you search on your phone for breakfast or maybe ask the hotel front desk where to go for breakfast, and you wind up here, in a kinda cool/trendy decorated space.
Then you notice the LINE. And the host (once they finally notice you in the back of the line after 5 minutes) tells you the wait right now is about 45 min to an hour. So you think 'Hmm well if all these people are here to wait in line then this place MUST be great!'
And that, dear readers, is the logical, yet incorrect assumption. Because what you don't realize that this place is basically the first stop for hoards of tourists who were directed (like yourself) to this very mediocre eating establishment, and now that all of you are finally here, and waiting in line, you say to yourself, "people wait hours for amazing food in the metropolitan city where i'm from, this must be one of those places." The other problem is the tourists in Montreal generally come in packs, so there's a lot of underage college/high school kids in groups of 6-10 who will be fighting you for tables.
One of the problems is the service is incredibly slow. I watched the host/hostess bussing tables and even getting sucked into taking orders while the line kept piling up and nobody was bringing order to the chaos, while empty tables weren't even being used. The other problem is their waiter/waitress ratio for the size of the restaurant is totally out of whack. Eggspectations are pretty big, maybe 40-50 tables and 2 stories, and on several occasions I've been here each waiter/waitress is trying to handle something like 10-15 tables.
If the food were out of this world I might overlook these shortcomings, but really, it's very mediocre diner food, on par with Denny's or IHOP, (which has much better service). For a local alternative, do yourself a favor and walk to Olive et Gourmando for a proper breakfast. Seriously people, you're in the closest thing to Europe (with all its amazing bakeries and cullinary choices) in North America- there are much better dining options than this tourist trap. -
Review from Lisa S.
7/26/2010
We were walking around Montreal starving on Saturday morning and passed this place. It seemed pretty busy- there was a few people waiting for tables- so we decided to give it a try. We waited about 15 minutes for a table. No one was coordinating who was being seated when, there was nobody to ask about wait time, and there was no actual line. So we kind of just milled about in the front of the restaurant until someone pointed at us and told us to follow them.
Our waiter was really, really slow. Eventually, we ordered. I ordered iced tea, and they charged me by the glass without mentioning it first. My friends ordered coffee, and every time they needed a refill, it took us 15 minutes to wave down our waiter and ask for more coffee. I ordered a bacon and cheese burger with fries. It arrived cold, without bacon. My friends both ordered eggs benedict, and their eggs arrived hard, and not runny at all. However, they said it was still good- but also cold. We could have asked our waiter to warm up our food- a table next to us asked him to warm theirs up- but we were so hungry and sick of waiting that we just decided to eat it.
When we finished the meal, it took forever to get our waiter to bring us our check, pay, and leave. The food was average to below-average, the service was horrible, and the meal took forever (about 1.5 hours). Not a good combination! -
Review from Lenny Z.
7/2/2011
This place is a bit overrated. We were told it has the best breakfast in Montreal. Not quite. It was good, but more like average. It's super crowded and you have to wait long for your food. If you're getting anything besides an egg dish, don't waste your time. But if it's eggs you want, and you have a few days to check out some other places, it's not bad. In fact, their eggs Benedict is pretty good.
-
Review from Mr T.
8/30/2011
Overrated breakfast joint. To expensive and not that good.
-
Review from Patrick B.
6/12/2010
Despite the handful of negative reviews, I went for breakfast. Service was slow (and it wasn't busy). Arrived at about 7:30 on a Saturday and wasn't served until about 8:15. After the wait, I got burnt bacon, a burnt bagel and over cooked eggs. The food at McDonalds is better!
The only positive is the place looked nice inside (though the chairs were uncomfortable). -
Review from Dave L.
9/17/2008 1 photo
Did not meet my eggspectation.
Normally it's not a big deal if one of my over-easy eggs comes with a broken yoke, like at Denny's or something. But at a place that's all about eggs, they should know better! Actually, it's not even a problem since I break the yoke myself anyway. What was definitely annoying was just one waitress working the whole restaurant. Everyone was up out of their tables trying to track down the waitress, trying to get their bill so they can finally leave.
Tips: Come here for a leisurely breakfast. And by leisurely, I mean eternal. Good eggs though.Listed in: Montreal & More
-
Review from Sunny M.
3/16/2009 2 photos
Have you ever thought of having IHOP reinvented into a cleaner, tastier and no-smellier version?
Canadians have the Eggspectation (not really sure if they have it outside of Quebec though). I've been to the ones in Montreal.
They have very good breakfast plates, less greasy flavor. I never eat sausages, but theirs were so good. I had scrambled eggs, with two sausages, two pancakes and a salad, w/ cafe au lait. Service was pretty fun, we had a very funny waitress.
Liked it a lot! Try it out for a rich breakfast while visiting Montreal!Listed in: The Coffee & Lunchable…
-
Review from Shar B.
10/11/2010
One things we noticed when we booked our recent summer stay at L'Hotel (formerly the "19th Century Hotel") was that online reviewers listed the hotel's proximity to Eggspectations as a bonus. So of course we had to check Eggspectations out. The food's pretty delicious! We dined here twice - the 1st time I ordered the savory Oy Vegg (latkes, eggs, grilled tomatoes & sour cream, came w/ fruit & toast). The second time I got a tasty Bagel Dore (bagel dipped in egg whites & cooked, served w/ fruit, yogurt & honey). (Though as New Yorkers, we love & laud OUR bagels, we had to try the famed bagels in Montreal a few times - yes they are good! Different from ours in NY, more bread-like w/ a bit of sweetness? Though NYC bagels still have my heart... ). Great coffee here! Dug the cool interior - exposed brick, paintings, etc...
Admittedly, I saved our least-favorite aspect for last - the SERVICE. During our first visit, we were practically ignored for the initial few minutes we were in this restaurant, then once seated, ignored a while longer (it wasn't that busy). Our waitress was - well, not UNfriendly, but kind of... void. (The waiter who had seated us & got us menus was a bit more cordial). We witnessed a table complain about cold food twice, the waitress didn't really handle the situation well (got the food, returned it microwaved & did everything mechanically, with no apologies or reassurances), the table eventually left without eating. On our SECOND visit, however, we got much better service - friendly & attentive. So just know that the service here might be inconsistent but the breakfast food at this chain was tasty enough for us to return & for me to give it 4 stars. -
Review from Scott S.
7/7/2009
I ate at the one on St Catherine by the jazz festival, but it's not listed on here, so I shall review here.
I know it's a chain as a poster below mentioned, but still, if someone asked me my fav rest in NYC, I would probably say Nobu, even though it has about 15 locations. Or maybe even Striphouse, which has a bunch too. Shake Shack has 3 in NYC..So if you can give me a weekend where I have eggspectations for breakfast, shake shack for lunch, and nobu for dinner....(maybe even late night at Wendy's), I don't think I could really complain too much...
Although...when I saw their menu and their locations...Montreal, OK, Toronto, OK, and then two totally f$@#ing random spots in Maine and Maryland?? Seriously? why not New York if you want to expand? I'd say Hoboken too, but I'll still order Turning Point any day over eggspectations
Enough about that, the service was great (what can I say, I love cute French-Canadian chicks), the prices are cheap, and the food is fantastic. And....they have lil packages of peanut butter at the table..don't judge, but i threw some in my bag for later...
I had an omlette with cheese and jalepenos which was spicy and really good...the potatoes and toast too...
My chick had a breakfast burger, and although Ive never had lettuce and tomato on a hambuger bun with eggs, it really was good...don't mock it till you try it...orange juice was fresh squeezed too. There were about 25 more things on the menu i really wanted to try..too bad i only went there once during my trip..well...i guess I can always take a road trip to Maryland one of these days.. -
Review from Nicole E.
5/31/2009 1 photo
Yum Yum!! First, I love breakfast. Second, it's often very hard for me to find a good breakfast place while traveling.
Eggspectations is decorated in lots of fun egg art and the staff is friendly and prompt. The menu has more options for Eggs Benedict that I have ever seen before. Hubby had a bagel version that was pretty good. For me, the Eggstravaganza was awesome!!
On top of the great good, the juice I ordered was certainly fresh squeezed and delicious!!
If you're in town make sure you stop by so that you can get a great breakfast in Montreal. -
Review from Eva H.
9/8/2009
The food was good, the sevice was great. Prices are pretty reasonable. I had a crepe with chicken, spinach, mushrooms, and 3 cheese inside. It was pretty good, and didn't feel like I was going to have a heart attack after eating it. Other's from my group tried the omlette with bacon and cheese, eggs benedict with smoked salmon. Everyone seemed to enjoy there meals.
Would go again for breakfast. -
Review from Vanessa W.
2/16/2009
Both my husband and I loved this quirky little place. It was a nice mix of tourists like ourselves and locals. The decor is funky with many iron accents with a play on eggs.
I got french toast with bananas. It was delish! I am usually not a huge fan of French toast - but hey I was in Montreal. It was nice and fluffy - not heavy like I'm used to. Just enough to satisfy my mid-morning hunger without it being a mountain of food. Coffee was great too. My husband got the yolk around the clock or something like that which has dippy eggs, meat and bagel among some other things. He was grinning from ear to ear by the end of that meal.
If I'm ever in town again I'll definitely be back! -
Review from Stephanie B.
Montréal, QC
6/23/2010
Overall the food is fine, but not a satisfying value given that I don't eat much bread, fried potatoes...
At a glance, the variety and selection are fairly impressive but that's where the delight ends. Most of the dishes come with a side of fresh fruit. They make white bread that is fresh, thick and fluffy...
Getting seated took a while. After our food arrived, it took some effort to let our server know when we wanted something further.
I ordered corned beef hash w/ eggs, naturally and I was disappointed with the meat portion and quality. It's basically hash from a can with lots of little tiny bits of potato, in a flattish 2.5 x 2.5 patch, surrounded by starchy fillers like bread and potatoes. I've had much much better with nice tasty chunks of beef, less potato and a generous plateful for less than $7 at Pamela's in Pittsburgh.
My husband ordered a side of baked beans and he got these in a little plastic cup roughly the size that you taste samples in at the grocery store...
Of course you can customize your meal with sides. Extra Hollandaise sauce is as is typically the case in Montreal available for a supplement.
Note also that they have a bar and alcoholic beverages are served here, but the hours are quirky so check before going.
I will probably be back but I am in no hurry. -
Review from Lan T.
Toronto, ON
6/7/2009
I loved the decor and the food. I'm a huge fan of eggs benedict. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever ordered any other kind of eggs as long as egg benedict is on the menu. The options are vast if you're a fan of eggs benedict as I am.
I also have an appreciation for fresh squeezed juice. I don't drink out of a jug at home so I certainly won't when I'm eating out. Fresh squeezed juice my friend. What more can you ask for?
Actually, there is something you can ask for, a shorter line. The line up is too long. By the time we were seated, my hunger had passed. It came back when I saw the menu though. -
Review from Jenna R.
8/30/2008
I think my niblings are still wiping the drool from their faces. Before they were even halfway through their meals, they asked if we could eat here every morning of our vacation. Micaela's strawberry-flambé pancakes had just the right level of sweetness, while Carter's latkes and eggs weren't overly heavy and had just the right level of grease -- not too much to have your arteries whimper, but enough to make you smile with each bite. I had a yogurt-and-honey-dolloped cinnamon brioche, which was quite tasty on its own, especially with the fresh fruit.
Our smoothies were only so-so. I was excited to down my berry concoction, but it just didn't live up to my expectations. Neither did the niblings' pagés, which, according to my native francophone friend, doesn't mean squat in French. There were several other items on the menu that we didn't get to try, so I'm sure we'll be back at least once more this weekend. -
Review from Maria S.
10/16/2008
Loved the decor. The place was super cute, with an egg theme--trust me it's worth going for the sheer fun of cracking egg yokes for the rest of the day. Oh no I didn't.
The service was awesome. Ask for Fred, who probably no longer works there. We went with a large group and were treated great. The running joke (that took serious restraint) was trying to determine which way Fred swung, which was tricky because he was flirty and touchy with both the guys and girls. We tried and failed to find him on myspace. The mystery remains.
The food was also really good. I got the eggs benedict and had no complaints; everyone in a group of 9 was content. Had I stayed in Montreal longer, I would have definitely revisited Eggspectation. -
Review from Holly J.
10/12/2009
We went to more than one location in Montreal. We were converts to the Montreal bagels -- they are seriously yummy. Maybe even yummier than a New York bagel (sorry New York). This is right on the border of the touristy Basilica area and business district.
On the plus side is a fabulous menu of eggs, bagels, crepes and smoothies. Everything we tried was fresh and brought hot to the table.
I think the service is a bit Operatic at this location. It's very happy to help you and then I want to spit daggers at you. So be warned. The food is rather good for a quick meal. Just the service is all over the map. -
Review from jonathan f.
Brampton, ON
8/7/2009
The place is pretty impressive from the onset as the decor is slick. I went twice with my family on a recent Montreal weekend. The first day the service was awesome and the family was delighted with their breakfast. Unfortunately, I found a hair in my eggs benedict halfway through breakfast. I didn't bring this to anyones attention as the rest of my family was raving about the food and I didn't want to ruin the experience for them.
The second day we were seated upstairs and waited too long for a server. When Carlos finally graced us with our service he was a total prick. He was unfriendly and my wife and I were both of the opinion that he didn't want to serve us. We had to wait far too long for our food and he didn't ask the perfunctory question, "Can I re-fill your coffee?"
This guy knocked a full star off my yelp rating.
I hate to be negative so I'll finish by saying that the food was quite good and that chances are you won't get stuck with Carlos. -
Review from Lulu T.
9/16/2010
Nothing too spectacular but it does satisfy your craving for good breakfast food. The egg white vegetable omelet was tasty. The Eggsileration plate had french toast, 2 eggs and sausage links. The french toast was weak. There wasn't much flavor to it other than it being very sweet. We've definitely had better.
-
Review from Darwin G.
5/31/2010
What's there not to like about breakfast/brunch food. At a reasonable price and with an extensive menu, Eggspectation is a level above your grungy diner. Definitely the place to go after a night of partying out in the streets of Montreezy.
-
Review from Nickole M.
West Vancouver, BC
7/8/2011
Great service, portions won't leave you hungry, the best darn fresh squeezed grapefruit juice I ever did have!
-
Review from Michael K.
6/1/2009
The reputation this place has as a tourist trap isn't exactly getting help from the kind of service I had today. After delivering coffee, the server disappeared for more than 20 minutes - he never took my order. He wasn't busy; he was at the cash, chatting with the only other server. Unless you're stuck in Old Mtl. with nowhere else to eat at 7am, head for the nearest Chez Cora instead.
-
Review from Sarah A.
3/16/2009
We had high eggspectations but were rather disappointed. As others have mentioned the decor is cool with whisks serving as door handles and a huge egg chandelier. However, it took FOREVER for us to get our eggs. Apparently our order was lost. FORTY FIVE MINUTES just to make some eggs. Please. When my eggs came they were tasty. I ordered the classic eggs benedict. My friend's eggs were cold. The server made no attempt to make things right by giving us a free coffee or juice or anything. Looks like at least one other person here had a similar experience. They need better staffing, IMO. Too many customers, too few waitstaff.
-
Review from Oanh N.
3/29/2009
i had corn beef hash with eggs. it wasn't fresh corn beef hash, boo. it was nice late brunch with the girls and hit the spot. really good toast and good smoothies. the restaurant was super close to our hotel, embassy suites.
