La Banane

For whatever reason, this year, I can't help but notice that my son is getting sick right around any planned celebrations. We rescheduled our Paris trip because he was sick (celebrating my soster's birthday), we rescheduled my birthday dinner, we rescheduled my husband's birthday dinner, and my husband missed a wedding. For my husband's birthday, we decided to go to La Banane - about a week later.

Restaurant: La Banane
Location: Trinity Bellwoods
Meal: Dinner
Day: Sunday
Son's Age: 13 months

I wasn't sure how this was going to go because from what I had heard, La Banane is a fairly boujee French restaurant. They're actually known for their highly Instagram-friendly Ziggy Stardust disco egg dessert, but given that it's pretty expensive and way more chocolate than two people can conceivably finish, we passed on it.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐
No surprise, but the setup isn't exactly designed for babies. To their credit, they actually seated us at a table that had a bench seat on one side and a chair and high chair on the other. The host said it was so we could have options of where my baby could sit.

If you have a pre-toddler like mine who does not like to sit still, this option is actually perfect for while we order and wait for food to arrive. Once there was something to eat, we moved him to the high chair. 

Points for having a high chair, but there is no room for a stroller if you have one, and the washroom is located in the basement. 

There definitely is no counter space for changing a diaper here either, so your best bet unfortunately would be to change the diaper on the ground. Luckily I did not have to do that, but it's pretty much your only option if you need to do a diaper change. 

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Service here was outstanding. The staff was extremely pleasant and accommodating, and some servers came by to coo at my baby, so I felt very welcome. Our server was also very helpful in answering questions about the menu and making recommendations, and the bread was served promptly as per my request. 

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Since we were celebrating, we decided to start with some drinks. I got a glass of Chardonnay while my husband opted for a specialty banana cocktail. 

The bread is actually soft pretzel sticks with mustard, which was a nice surprise. My son, continuing his love of all things bread, really enjoyed this. 

For the parents who are concerned, don't worry, I only let him eat the inside and avoided the salt. Moving onto the food, what better way is there to start a meal than with some freshly shucked oysters?

The east coast oysters were served with the traditional accompaniments of lemon, horseradish, hot sauce, and mignonette. We then ordered the albacore tuna with brown butter, doll, and capers. 

It doesn't look extraordinary but the flavours were perfectly complementary and the dish was so light and savoury. We thought we should probably get some vegetables, so we ordered the white asparagus, served with mussels. 

I was really hoping my son would eat this, but he's very hit-or-miss when it comes to vegetables. Nevertheless, it was a great dish, and I had never had white asparagus before and didn't realize it would taste so different from green asparagus. I must say, though, that the pièce de résistance was the eurobass en croûte. First, they present you with the cooked fish encrusted in pastry. 

Then they take it back to the kitchen to remove the top and serve it with yuzu beurre blanc and zucchini medallions. 

This is just such a delicious dish and you really need to try it. The fish is perfectly cooked and the sauce is rich without being overpowering. We also got a side of the pommes aligot, which is pretty much puréed potatoes with cheese. The side goes very wel with the fish and my son liked both, although he appreciated the cheesy potatoes more, obviously. Each dish was light, but overall the meal was so filling that we didn't have room for dessert!

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The food and service are impeccable so I recommend you come here if you would like some good French food. Accessibility leaves a bit to be desired but I think the rest of the experience makes up for it. As long as you come at a reasonable hour so that your baby doesn't interrupt any romantic dinners or anything like that, I don't see why you can't bring the whole family here!

East Thirty-Six

I was meeting up with my cousin for some vacation planning to San Francisco, and we decided to also grab dinner since we both love food (side note: San Francisco was amazing and my son was a doll for most of it, but I will not be blogging about my restaurant experiences here). Somehow we both ended up talking about bone marrow so we chose East Thirty-Six!

Restaurant: East Thirty-Six
Location: Downtown Core
Meal: Dinner
Day: Saturday
Son's Age: 21 weeks

I must admit that my previous experiences here were before I was pregnant and usually included copious amounts of wine, so I was a bit skeptical about taking my baby here. The service had always been impeccable, though, and between that and our 5:00 meal time, I hoped things would go smoothly.

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️
As predicted, our early bird seating meant that the restaurant was empty upon arrival, so we were able to sit anywhere. The server helped us pick out a spot where we could park the stroller.

Oh, in case you're wondering, that's me shoving a pacifier in my son's mouth. This photo is completely indicative of how cooperative he was for the rest of the night. Thank God the restaurant was empty. In terms of getting inside, we did have to get the stroller over a step. The washroom, as expected, did not have a change table, and there are also a couple steps to get there, so it's not stroller friendly either.

I consider this washroom to be unaccommodating for changing babies, but my husband claims he was able to change our son's diaper on the counter space. I suppose it's doable but I don't know that I'd attempt it as that seems very narrow. I'd say perhaps the men's washroom is different, but I showed him this photo and he said the sink is the same.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I've always found that East Thirty-Six has great service and this time was no exception. The staff was very friendly and patient and helped us pick out our table. We had lots of questions about the menu, as the concept is based on shareable plates, and our server was happy to make suggestions. They also offered to alter menu items to accommodate my allergy to tree nuts, and when one of the dishes was brought out with nuts on it, the server was quick to notice let us know that they would be remaking it. Even though my son seemed quite fussy that night, no one appeared to be bothered, which made me feel much more comfortable.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I love the idea of shareable plates because it means I can try a larger variety of things. We started with the buffalo mozzarella.

I love cheese, and this was well done, served with tomatoes and micro greens. I found the ratio of cheese to the other ingredients to be very satisfactory - the cheese was still the focus of the dish but it didn't feel like I was just eating a big hunk of cheese. Next was the albacore tuna.

This was such an interesting combination of flavours. The tuna was served in coconut broth with tofu and bok choy, and somehow, it worked. I admit that it wasn't my favourite dish but it was still quite noteworthy. After this was the reason we chose to come here in the first place: bone marrow with chicken liver parfait and toast.

I know I've used the word "love" a lot in this post, but I love the bone marrow here. I love bone marrow in general, but I found we were able to scoop out a lot of marrow without having to scrape at the bone too much. The marrow is so rich and buttery, and it's complemented by the chicken liver which is much lighter. The last dish was the aforementioned delayed dish.

It was cauliflower with capers, lemon, brown butter, and parsley. It's typically also served with hazelnuts but these needed to be removed due to my allergy. The cauliflower is delicious and a great way to squeeze some vegetables into our meal.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Bringing a baby into this establishment is a bit tricky, but if you time it right, the service and the food will make your visit worthwhile.

L'Express

I have now come to my last restaurant destination in Montreal! At this point, I have come to accept that restaurants here do not appear to be as accessible as my encounters in Toronto, or at least not the ones that I have been going to. Luckily, the city has numerous benches outside so I had no trouble overall finding a place to change or feed my son. Our final stop, again at my husband's coworker's recommendation, was L'Express.

Restaurant: L'Express

Location: Montreal

Meal: Dinner

Day: Saturday

Son's Age: 12 weeks

Once again, we made dinner reservations for 5pm. I find early dinners are good because I don't feel guilty about interrupting other diners. I mean, how many romantic dinners happen at 5pm?

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The good news is that there are no stairs! This means we were able to easily wheel our stroller into the restaurant. Once inside, though, we had to fold the stroller and leave it with the coat hangers, as there was not enough room to bring it to the table. Our server did help us set up two chairs next to the table to make sure the car seat wouldn't tip over. 

By the way, your eyes do not deceive you - my son has a new interest in his socks, and this leads to him pulling them off his feet on a regular basis. Don't worry, we still have both blue panda socks. Back on topic: similar to the other restaurants, the washroom did not have a change table.

Again, there wasn't even enough counter space to change a baby. I'm not sure if it's just that we only went to restaurants that people wouldn't typically bring babies to, or if others would normally just change a diaper in the dining area.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As previously mentioned, the server was accommodating enough to put chairs together for the car seat as well as make sure the seat wouldn't tip over. He was also both patient and attentive and kept my water glass full when I needed to breastfeed.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I know I was at a French restaurant but I've become cognizant of what food I can eat with one hand, since my son has gotten fussy sitting in the car seat without moving (i.e. in the stroller or car). As such, I ordered the shrimp risotto.

I watch a lot of Top Chef and I know Tom Collichio always makes a big fuss about how a good risotto is supposed to spread. I think he would agree that this was a great risotto! It was perfectly smooth and creamy. It was served piping hot, but cooled down while I was breastfeeding, and even then it was still just as delicious - I find sometimes when food gets lukewarm it's not as tasty anymore. My husband ordered a hangar steak that he was very happy with as well. We ended up taking a look at the dessert menu, and even though we were both happily satiated, my husband saw that they had a floating island with caramel and felt the need to order it.

I personally don't care for floating islands (or ile flottante, as it is properly called), because I find they taste like diabetes, but my husband has quite the sweet tooth and said that this was divine and airy, albeit filling.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
The food is delicious and the service is outstanding, so while the restaurant itself isn't particularly accessible, it's worth it to come with your baby anyway.  

Cluny Bistro

Happy three year anniversary to my husband! We were determined to have a lovely anniversary celebration and bring the baby with us, and we remembered that Cluny had a large space that could surely accommodate a stroller, so we gave them a call.

Restaurant: Cluny Bistro
Location: Distillery District
Meal: Dinner
Day: Wednesday
Son's Age: 8 weeks

We made a reservation for 5:45 (ah the "early bird special" dinner time - I guess I'm really not in my 20s anymore) and let them know there would be a stroller, since our son was not old enough to sit in a high chair. They told us not to worry and they would have a table for us. Of course, I am feeding my son on demand and his schedule required us to call and move our reservation to 6:15. Luckily, there was no problem in doing so. We found out on our ridiculously long drive home that Beyoncé's concert was the same night so I guess there weren't too many people having fancy dinners.

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
They weren't kidding about the table - we were seated in a quiet corner near the patio so we had a perfect view of both inside and outside the restaurant, and we parked our stroller easily beside us.

There was also plenty of room between tables for me to push the stroller through without interrupting any of the other patrons. The washroom was easy to get to, with one large stall that housed a change table.

From an accessibility standpoint, this was definitely the best experience I have had to date.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I already mentioned the change in reservation, which was much easier than I anticipated. Everyone was polite and seemed happy to accommodate the baby. This was our first nice dinner since the baby was born, and I had tons of questions about the menu and what to order. Our server was patient and thoroughly answered all my questions.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This was definitely the perfect place to eat! We started with a fresh bread basket; Cluny has a beautiful display of fresh bread in the middle of the restaurant so you can see your server preparing the basket as soon as your order has been taken.

Okay, I also indulged in a glass of Pinot Grigio. I think I deserved it! It nicely complemented our meal, starting with the ginger chilli fried frogs' legs. 

This is probably a good time for me to mention that my photography skills are not the greatest. The frog legs were succulent with the perfect hint of heat. This was quickly followed by the lobster poutine!

I love the shishito peppers with the lobster. Of course a poutine isn't a poutine unless there are cheese curds, and this did not disappoint!  Even though these dishes were already amazing, the best part of the meal was the seafood tower. 

This consisted of east coast and west coast oysters, crab salad, shrimp, and salmon tartare. I had not eaten raw oysters since before I was pregnant, and let me tell you, these tasted like heaven! People always talk about how you'll miss sushi but no one ever mentions the oysters! The crab salad was really elevated by the mustard grains, and the salmon tartare was fresh. The shrimp was not particularly memorable, but never mind that because did I mention the oysters!

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Based on this visit, I have to say that Cluny is an excellent restaurant to take your baby! The place is very accessible and stroller friendly, the service is impeccable, and the food is delicious - no need to sacrifice quality to find a family friendly restaurant! I would absolutely want to come back here with my son again.