Aux Vivres Plateau — Restaurant in Montreal

Aux Vivres (St. Laurent location) for the past 2 1/2 years have been my partner and I go to spot. The experience in the beginning was great that we even recommended family, friends and work colleagues to this restaurant as the food in our opinion was tasty.

Recently, we've noticed that the flavor profile was no longer in balance and was lacking. Examples from our visit below.

Mango Lassie - on various visits, we found that the Mango Lassie was inconsistent in flavor. Prior to our visit yesterday, they did not add enough agave to the mango lassie, then yesterday, they added way too much coconut milk. The smoothie was not balanced.

Dahl Soup - The Dahl soup was always tasty. We loved the combination of aromatic spices used in the soup. This was one of our top favorites especially during the winter months. Unfortunately, this time around we would call the Dahl soup a Dahl broth as it was very bland and thin. There was no coconut milk at all in the soup. There were little to no lentils present in "soup" (like before) only few pieces of onion.

Cheesecake - I would normally order the peanut butter chocolate cheese cake, however, the last time I order this cheesecake it was too salty. Yesterday, I decided to try the berry cheesecake. Half way through the berry cheesecake, I found hair in the berry compote and to my dismay I did not notice that the berry cheesecake expired within one day.

Double Chocolate Cookie - this was my partner's favorite. This time, the cookie was extremely crunchy and hard.

The only saving grace was the paratha, which we ordered with the "soups". It was flaky and tasty and a...

I had heard so many great things about Aux Vivres (and I absolutely LOVE their tzatziki), so I was disappointed to walk in and find it to be more of a "diner" than an actual "restaurant". It's definitely more of a casual place for a quick bite than somewhere I would go on a date night. Sadly, there are not many other vegan options in Montreal so despite our trepidation, my husband and I stayed to try the food.

Our waitress was very friendly and efficient. She knew the menu well and was able to suggest a great organic beer for me and a smoothie for my husband that he practically finished in one gulp it was so good. She also suggested a delicious curry soup that both my husband I and I loved - the Chana Paratha appetizer did not go over as well. After that, we opted for burgers, my husband choosing the seitan burger and I took the Aux Vivres burger. Both were under-cooked and mushy and the roasted potato wedges they were served with seemed like they were yesterday's leftovers; coldish and soggy. I bet they would have been delicious if they were served fresh & hot from the oven.

Tables were TINY and very cramped - we could barely fit our food and drinks on our little table for two, so I had to keep using the empty table beside me. I would have liked to try some of the delicious-looking desserts, but we were feeling claustrophobic in our tiny cramped booth, so we skipped dessert.

Probably...

I'm disappointed after seeing the overwhelming amount of positive reviews and how this was the first vegan restaurant in Montreal.

There is a VAST array of dishes from across the world - okonomiyaki from Japan, dahl from India, Mexican burritos, just to name a few. There are also about 6 cakes and tarts, so everyone should be able to find something tempting, and gluten-free options are also clearly indicated.

The issue is that they are bland and unoriginal. We had a burrito and a okonomiyaki and the flavours were barely there. It also felt like especially the okonomiyaki was off - it seems to be optimised for a burger patty rather than the fishy profile it has in Japan and I've definitely seen it done better (try the ramen restaurant Umami in Little Italy instead). It's earthy and well-done, and lacks the tones, finesse, and blend of umami and freshness of the inspiration.

The desserts were better, tasty, and good creamy textures on the cake and tart fillings (we tried the chocolate-peanut butter cake and the chocolate-banana tart) but nothing groundbreaking, maybe a 4/5. If I'm coming back to try something it'll be the carrot cake!

The look of the venue is 80s/90s dinner, with brown leather benches. I would highly recommend that they modernise the look of the place and also their dishes - please add more...