Universel Déjeuners et Grillades and Café Vasco da Gama

We asked our concierge for a restaurant that makes a good omelette. His first suggestion was the hotel’s restaurant. When we asked for a restaurant we could walk to, he accurately sized us up as the casual American diners we are and told us about Universel, an American-style diner/restaurant. He also suggested Café Vasco da Gama if we wanted to grab some coffee or a gluten-free treat afterward.

Today was the coldest day yet in Montreal. The temperature was actually higher than yesterday’s, but the wind made it feel much colder. The sidewalks were also quite slippery, and walking on them with sneakers didn’t help.

Universel was only a few blocks from our hotel and had a modest exterior. There appears to be a section of the restaurant that is closed for the cold season, which is a shame as it’s that section is right on the street and would have provided some nice people-watching.

The menus had definitely seen some better days. They were worn and the text was fading. The service and food was good, however. I ordered the Déjeuner Universel, also known as the “Universel Breakfast.” It included eggs, a choice of waffles, crepes, or french toast, a choice of bacon, sausage or ham; cantaloupe, orange, and pineapple, baked beans, potatoes, toast and cretons. Davia ordered a three-cheese omelette with gluten-free toast, which came with potatoes and cantaloupe, orange, and pineapple.

So, WTF is cretons? According to Wikipedia, it’s “a forcemeat-style pork spread containing onions and spices… usually served on toast as part of a traditional Quebec breakfast.” I couldn’t resist the opportunity to have my petit déjeuner like a true Québécois.

The cretons was interesting. I tried it by itself as well as on some toast. It was cold, which was a surprise to me, and it tasted similar to scrapple I’ve had in Philadelphia, although with a bit more seasoning. Spread across some toast, it wasn’t too bad.

The rest of the food was quite enjoyable. The potatoes were very good. Davia loved the cheese in her omelette, which consisted of cheddar, swiss, and brie. At most diners near us, the only cheese option to add to an omelette is American cheese.

Interestingly, when you pay the check with a credit card in Canada, the routine is a little different than when you’re in the United States. When the server sees you want to pay with a credit card, they bring over a wireless card card terminal to the table and insert the card into the machine for you. Then they place it in front of you and you can choose to tip a certain percentage of the bill right on the machine itself. Some of the machines have buttons to choose to tip 15%, 18%, or 20%. Other machines will ask if you want to tip by percentage or dollar value, and then you enter in the number yourself. Not only does this take away the hassle of calculating the tip yourself, but this system is much more secure since some stranger doesn’t disappear with your credit card for a few minutes, which is a big source of fraud in the U.S.

All in all, it was the worst meal we’ve had so far. Although the restaurant was nice, the food was good and the service was good, we don’t have any interesting stories to tell like we did with Ted the serial killer. So we headed off to Café Vasco da Gama for coffee and a gluten-free treat in hopes we would meet some more murderers.

It’s such a small place that, at first, we accidentally walked right by without noticing it. When we went inside, it was quite busy with relatively tight seating.

We went up to the display case to see what kind of treats they had to offer.

The only gluten-free options they had, however, were pre-packaged products by Cookie Stéfanie, a gluten-free bakery in Montreal. Unfortunately, when Davia picked up a cellophane-wrapped package of cookies, the hardness of the cookies scared her off from buying them. I picked them up myself, and they definitely felt hard enough to scratch glass. Aside from poking fun at their gluten-free offerings, there isn’t much else to say about this place.