Café Parvis — Restaurant in Montreal

I was looking for a local place to have a coffee and a small breakfast on my way to the Vieux Port when I stumbled upon this restaurant. It had "café" in its name so it was safe to assume they would serve coffee. The host was very nice and sat me at the bar. The ambience of the place was quite pleasant, with the plants and the peeling paint on the walls. It's when the server who was working at the bar came to greet me that the whole experience went downhill. She asked me if I wanted anything to drink and I politely asked for a coffee. She looked at me like what I asked didn't make any sense, or like I came from another planet, and asked me what kind of coffee. I told her I wanted a normal cup of coffee as I was here for breakfast. Then she pretended not to understand what a normal cup of coffee is and started to list the types of specialty coffees available: americano, latte, capucino, etc. I tried to explain that all I was looking for was a regular coffee and that's when she got very pretentious and proceeded to let me know that they didn't have drip coffee in this fine establishment. The subtext was that if I wanted a normal coffee I should go to Tim Hortons with the rest of the riff raff. I decided to go with an americano as this would be the closest to a normal coffee and asked for cream and sugar. Again, the pretentious/superior/blasé look: there's no cream in this fine establishment, how dare I ask! Not only do the refined clientèle of this select establishment drink only specialty coffees, they do not drink cream. So I asked for milk. In all honesty, the americano was good, and the eggplant sandwich made a good breakfast (they didn't serve breakfast, which is probably considered uncool, just like drip coffee or cream). So my 1-star rating is really based on the haughty/condescending service, not the food. The worst in that whole experience is that I'm a coffee lover and really enjoy ordering capucinos or lattes in restaurants. But this morning, I felt like a normal cup of coffee and I don't think there's anything wrong or demeaning about this. The server knew exactly what I was looking for, but pretending not to understand and then judging me negatively for my poor/uncool tastes in coffee somewhat made her...

Location: Downtown core. If you're using transit, you can get off at McGill or Place-des-Arts and it'll be a short walk from both. Street parking is 'available' but metered. That being said, good luck finding a spot, especially with all the construction. Use the subway or walk.

The place: I walked in and thought I'd already been here before because it reminds me so much of Falco, next door. A lot of wood, big windows - it's a pretty cozy place. We lucked out and got a seat by the window. If you plan on going for lunch on a weekday, get there before Noon or call to see if they take reservations. It fills up pretty quickly.

The goods: My date and I ordered individual pizzas (meaning that we were too selfish to share) and two salads (we shared those). She went with the veggie pizza while I chose the Italian sausage variety. So first, these pizzas are small, but since each dish is meant to be shared, I'm OK with that. I think that if you were dining alone and ordered a pizza + salad, you'd be good to go. Anyway, the sausage pizza was quite delicious. The only downside is that there was nothing hot about it. In terms of salad, we ordered the beet and the cauliflower. I enjoyed both, and the portions were actually fairly large so we had some leftovers that we just couldn't finish. I think it would be nice to have the beet salad served warm, but that's just my preference. One thing I will say - the cheese that is served with this salad (goat, I think?) was SO bloody good.

Service: Overall, the service was good - our water glasses were always full and staff checked on us regularly. However, we were asked five times if we were done, when our salad bowls were visibly NOT empty. While I certainly appreciate the desire to clear tables quickly, I don't want to be asked if I'm done, that many times. We were a bit put off by this.

Price point: Each dish ranges between $6-$10,...

If you are just coming for a girls date night and would like some healthy food, this is a great place with a nice atmosphere. However, my review will be based on a family dining experience with a young kid that has a dairy allergy.

I usually like to order from the regular menu for my kids so they can try something more than just chicken fingers and fries, so it is fine to me that they don't offer a kids menu. It took some time to find one item from the menu that does not contain dairy, but we finally managed after a dish that is able to revise and make it work for my son.

The taste overall is great. I like the layers of flavors from the fresh ingredients and the creative approach, so I would come back again with my girl friends.

The service was decent, the waiter did try to push for a salad for my kid since no modification was needed to accommodate the allergy, but let's just be honest how many kids would like a cauliflower salad for dinner. After some back and forth communications with the kitchen, we found one dish that can be modified, and we ordered some additional take out later somewhere else to fill his tummy. The only thing I noticed was, most restaurants I go to, the waiter/manager will follow up half way during the dinner if the food is okay or the kid is having any allergy reaction - I didn't have anyone approach us mid-way when I saw the other tables did. I still tip the normal 15% after tax, but wishing there was a better customer service experience, and that is what people are looking for in...