Bernie Beigne — Restaurant in Montreal

Best donuts in Montreal by far. I've tried other places as well but always keep going back to Bernie Beigne as my go to. I find myself picking up their donuts at minimum every second Saturday.

Their yeasted donuts are so light and fluffy. They have many different flavors usually 23 at any given time. You can tell a great donut shop apart from the others by the way the do their original glazed and theirs is just perfection. The best glazed donut I've ever had. Think krispy kreme original glazed but a million times better, softer, fluffier, and BIGGER! Another one of my favorites is the cherry cake, which is a cake style, denser donut. I am usually not a fan of cake donuts or cherry but this one is delicious.

The cherry flavor is not over powering and the donut is crispy while still being super moist.

The Maple Bacon is another excellent choice. The balance of sweet and salty coming from the sweet maple glaze which is complimented by the salty, huge chunks of real bacon. This is another 10/10 donuts that I strongly recommend.

The Simpson donut is another take on the classic donut made popular by The Simpsons show and Homer. The pink icing yeasted donut is topped with spirnkles is soft, chewy and sugary and definitely appealing to children!

Then there is their GIGANTIC Apple fritter. This isn't your average Tim Hortons apple fritters with hardly any apples and all you taste is cinnamon. This one is HUGE, soft, chewy, loaded with apples and glazed perfectly. It is the perfect balance of sweet, cinnamon and tart from the apples. They do run out very quickly so it's best to get their early to get your hands on them. I usually will buy 3 or 4 at a time and freeze the ones I won't eat.

All in all these donuts are by far the best in Montreal. Lots of different, amazing flavors so you are sure to find one that you will enjoy. I do however suggest going early on weekends as their is usually a lineup out the door on weekends and they do run out of some flavors in the afternoon. But if you are in the area or are up for a little drive I highly recommend trying...

I knew this place was good even before the line up and the multiple of favorable reviews. To extol about the doughnut after such advanced hype would be perhaps repetitive. There is so much more, a civilized wait line with at least 6 dogs on leash,, young families with babies out for a Sunday activity, Italian fatties, sleek French women, a sea of tattoos, old men illegally parking in a bus stop across the street gawking in the middle of Bernard at the line up and then returning to their car as their feet probably have lost the strength to wait.

The hustle and bustle in front of Bernie's is contrasted  by the store vacancies on the street, pending gentrification and the solemness of Orthodox Jewish people replete with top coats and hats, long white beards, heads bowed while walking as if in prayer.

Forgetting the rotation of syrupy sugar  doughnuts in the window, selection time was not what I expected. A dozen of apple fritters, cruellers and double chocolate turned into a SOS to the sales girl as to what is the best. She was more than helpful. Oreo, Boston Creme, Vanilla Caramel, chocolate  Caramel, so many choices!! If that wasn't enough, the apple fritters were large enough in diameter to accomodate 50 candles as if on a golden wedding anniversary cake. I took 3 and on my way home resisted eating the treasures prematurely.

Half an apple crisp as well as a Boston Creme and Oreo doughnut later, I was sugared out. I took to the couch for sleep well before the PGA and Stanley Cup.

On reflection, Bernie Beigne is both an experience and a caloric indulgence. Bernie, the owner,  literally and figuratively, stands before you insuring quality and a happy experience . As a diabetic and as  in fiction, this new initiative could be titled Bernie's Curse. These sugar babies...

The donuts are delicious. To be honest, I came just to buy the blueberry cake donuts but they had not none. No one makes blueberry cake donuts anymore. I bought the cherry cake, cinnamon sugar and original glaze instead. The donuts are so fluffy and delicious. I wish I could come over everyday but they are located so far away.

Glowing food review aside, the management is chaotic and you have employees loitering everywhere, making it confusing where and what is going on for customers. The location has benches out front for the summer but they were all occupied by employees! Why? Where are customers supposed to sit? Employees should have their own space in the back to take their breaks. Second, there were employees, who were not working, loitering inside while customers were lining up outside. When I looked in, I legit thought that the employees were customers but it turns out that they were just standing inside in front of the counter (they were wearing uniforms). Then you had another employee who looked to be the manager run in and out to give out donuts for free to kids who were lined up behind me. And then the yelling inside the shop! This is so annoying!

I'm just so disappointed by this experience. Don't get me wrong. The donuts are delicious but there is a serious management problem when you're employees outnumber the amount of customers you have inside the store and majority of them are clearly just hanging out in the customer spaces. I wanted to drink a coffee and eat a donut in front but I couldn't because of all the above problems. So I took my donuts to go, never ordered a coffee and went to Guillaume...