Parma Café — Restaurant in Montreal

Italian cafe & sandwiches with cute staff. What else could you need? TLDR: espresso great, matcha best I’ve had (!!!), sandwiches very good, had a classic tomato pesto style BANGER.

I ordered a flat white which was made small like a macchiato 🤌🏼 It was nice and strong and the espresso was smooth. Well made. My friend ordered a matcha latte. God damn. those who seek the green dust- look no further. I kept thieving sips of the best matcha latte I have ever had. Often matcha lattes (and all lattes for that matter) are a time-consuming excuse not to steam milk smoothly (under or over), or mix the powder like it’s a bowl of your morning oats. But this was not just some powder + liquid, this was a consistent drink. The matcha itself was not sandy, grainy, muddy, earthy, bitter, or any other descriptor you non-matcha drinkers might use to describe it. Anyways just frickin try it. The sandwich, a monthly special on the menu, was a delectable way to bring joy to ma bouche. Toasted, bread not to thick, greasy, with a perfect distribution of cheese, tomato, pesto, and whatever else was on this bad boy… I simply regret not going back for seconds before close. I evaluated my hunger to gauge if it would influence my review… and after careful consideration I believe that in fact I just...

Encouraging staff and a nice, balanced caesar salad. The pizza is the tall, bready kind. Quite tasty. It should be illegal to put so many nutella jars in front of anyone trying to enjoy a conscious lunch, but that's Parma's only infraction. The wallpaper is fun, the upholstery is a rich camel that's just flirty with millennial pink. I didn't have a coffee but I kind of regretted it. My boyfriend didn't order anything and I understand that he just wasn't hungry and I was, in fact, I'd been starving for the last three hours on the train, but still. Okay it's not his fault, it's just annoying when one person eats and the other declines. You're going to be on different food schedules for the rest of the day. He missed out, Parma is great. They played "Jessie's Girl" just as we were leaving. It's...

I've ordered here every other week, sometimes multiple times per week for over a year now.

The recipes have recently changed, and not for the better. The San Daniele staple has now suffered cost cutting measures while still costing 20$ after taxes and tip, for a sandwich! Arugula was switched out for McDonald's shredded iceberg, and olive tapenade was scratched off entirely. This sandwich can now be made yourself for less than 5$.

My regular smoked salmon sandwich, which is the one I can eat regularly for dietary restriction reasons, without going for the terrible "veggie" one, has now been removed from the menu.

Value for the price no longer seems to be there. Shame, as it was for me the best...