Arts café

I have some big news: at 12 weeks old, I decided to take my baby on a plane and head to Montreal! I'd tell you all about it except there are tons of blogs about travelling with baby, many of which I relied on myself when preparing for this expedition, so I will leave those details to the experts (but if you are planning on flying with baby, preparation is key! He was a perfect angel but the situation could have been disastrous if I wasn't adequately prepared). What I will do is tell you what it was like eating in Montreal with a baby in tow - and let me tell you, it's not like eating in Toronto!

Restaurant: Arts café
Location: Montreal
Meal: brunch
Day: Friday
Son's Age: 12 weeks

My husband decided to meet a coworker and his wife and baby for brunch. Since his coworker is quite the foodie, I heartily agreed, thinking he must have scoped out baby friendly places with good food. He recommended Arts café.

Accessibility: ⭐️
Apparently his definition of baby friendly is vastly different from mine. First of all, there are stairs to enter the restaurant, so it's definitely not stroller friendly. My husband's coworker offered to store the stroller in his car, which is good because I don't know where I would have put it otherwise. Once we sat down, I was able to put my son's car seat on a chair, but they did not have any high chairs for the other baby, who ended up sitting in her mom's lap. I admit I forgot to take photos of the place because I wasn't sure if I would blog about it or not, but it's quite a small restaurant. There are two washrooms, neither of which have changing tables or counter space. One of the washrooms is very small and the other (yes, I looked at both) is a bit bigger, so hypothetically I suppose you could change your baby on the floor, but since I get grossed out by public washroom floors, I would likely have taken my son outside and changed him on a bench instead of it had come down to that.

Service: ⭐️
This is the first restaurant I've taken my baby to where the server made it abundantly clear that babies were not welcome. We were offered no assistance in settling in with our babies. Our server was slow in attending to us. Since my husband's coworker's daughter was eating solids, the dad asked the server if they could get a simple French toast made for his baby, assuring him that he would pay whatever. The server very snootily responded that there was nothing simple about the French toast on the menu and it was in fact quite a complex dish. Our companion tried again, asking if the server could ask the chef just to prepare a simple French toast, again emphasizing that he was willing to pay for the trouble. The server refused to accommodate, agreeing only to compromise by serving the syrup on the side. Later on, the other baby accidentally knocked over her mom's latte. At this point, our server avoided us until it was time to bring out the bill, which meant that we did not get extra napkins to clean up and the mom did not have the opportunity to order another latte. I have been assured that service is typically much better than this, but based on this experience, I found service to be terrible.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Just when you are probably thinking that this restaurant is irredeemable, let me tell you about the food. I ordered the shakshuka with cumin cardamom sauce, Swiss chard leaf, quinoa, merguez sausage, and toast.

My egg was baked perfectly and the sauce was divine. I'm also a giant sucker for quinoa, which I found really added to the dish. I would definitely recommend coming here for this. My husband, embracing everything Montreal, ordered the poutine with duck confit, poached egg, caramelized onion, fingerling potatoes, cheese curds, and hollandaise.

I had strongly considered ordering this myself except we had just gone to poutine fest the night before so I was ready to eat something else, but this was also an excellent choice. I only caution that the poutine being served over fingerling potatoes rather than fries is a bit jarring at first, but once you get over that, this meal is highly enjoyable.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️½
The food makes this place worthwhile, so I can see why my husband's coworker recommended the place. If you want to come here with a baby, though, be prepared because it can be a hassle. I was lucky that I didn't need to feed or change my baby during my visit as it seems I would have had some difficulty accomplishing either.