Denise

This place is really a small gem in the neighborhood where you can come rediscover every time they change their menu once in a while. The selection of cocktails was great. I really loved their margarita of the moment that had a summer feeling to it. Strongly recommend booking in advance since it's quite small.

We had a lovely time at Café Denise, although it did not live up fully to my high expectations given what I had heard about the place. First, the food is amazing. The dishes were fun and tasty, fresh, and well presented. Really fantastic work on the flavours! The drinks we got were also good, although we did not try the extensive wine list. Second, the service is warm, friendly and makes you feel right at home. The place has super cute decor and lighting, making for a very good date spot. Now the reasons why it (barely) didn’t live up to the expectations: the food came out of the kitchen very slowly (it was a busy Friday night, but it was nonetheless on the very slow end). Even for though three out of four dishes required limited cooking such as the cucumber salad and burrata and the tartar, we were looking at 40 minutes until we got the cucumber salad, and at least 20 minutes between other dishes. For four plates, we were at the restaurant for a little over 2 hours. The final dish (cornish hen) took unusually long to arrive, the staff apologized which we appreciated. This alone did not disappoint me too much since the vibes of the place are nice and, if you’re having more cocktails or wine you could fill that time up easily. However, the other negative point was price-value. Although the food we got was individually fantastic in flavour (when it did arrive), the quantities are limited for the price paid. I don’t mind paying a steep price for quality food, but I was surprised by the small quantity in some dishes, especially the 14$ cucumber salad. It made it almost hard to share between two of us. The burrata, on the other hand, was more substantial and what I would expect for similar restaurants at similar prices. Conclusion: I recommend the spot for a cute date and drinks later at night, definitely try the food which is fantastic. On the other hand, I would probably have a snack or meal before coming.

It was my first time dining there and it instantly became my favourite restaurant. I love it so much I almost want to keep it a secret from my friends. The food is amazing, the service is amazing and the vibe is amazing. Sorry for the lack of word choice, everything is just amazing🤷‍♀️.The price is also very very good. We had four dishes, 1 dessert, 2 glass of wine, 2 cocktails, and it was only slightly above 100! As a Chinese who enjoys good food, I’d love to see more Asian food like this, and as a cook, it’s also THE place I would love to work at!

This establishment is a hidden gem, I figure most of QC has places like these. We were recommended by a friend. There is a seasonal narrow selection, and for at least what we ordered, everything was tasty. Some dishes we liked more than others of course, but overall a very pleasant experience. I think service in QC is very different in Toronto, despite what you hear, everyone is friendly, staff are very knowledgeable, and the team felt very cohesive together in such a small space. The kitchen is tiny, but the culinary team can pack a bunch of flavour in their dishes. I can't recall all the details for every dish but I will try my best. Also, I believe they have a seasonal menu, so everything changes after a while. We started with these corn croquettes with a gochujang butter. They must make their own gochujang, typical Korean red pepper paste is sweeter. The butter was quite mild and most likely from the fattiness of the butter cut the spice. Overall it was a good crunch, slight sweetness, and creamy mild kick. Next, we had beef tartare, I guess it's a common French dish, but the beef they used was perfectly fatty and very well prepared. Eating it with crispy rice and nori, kinda pays an homage to kimbap or maki I guess. Very tasty, it was one of my favourite dishes of the evening. Thirdly, "fat noodles", this is a little hard to describe, the noodles are made from scratch I believe and they are paired with kale, some crispy shallots and a sauce. It was pretty tasty, the kale absorbed a lot of the sauce though, so at least for me it was a little salty. I am a little more sensitive to salt than my wife. The noodles had a good chew, bouncy and shaped in a way that could absorb all the flavours together. Lastly (before dessert), I think it was a homemade duck sausage, overall it was good and well balanced. But maybe the ratio from pork to duck is missed. My palate isn't amazing, but it was hard to taste duck. I love meat, so no real complaints. Dessert is the "not quite like ferrero rocher", and it was amazing. A perfectly scooped quenelle of chocolate ganache, topped with hazelnuts (I think), and a dehydrated blueberry compote was out of this world. My wife and I reminisce on the perfection of this dessert. It's like that center in a ferrero rocher, but not as light, but still very silky. We had some orange wine to pair everything together. My wife enjoys wine more than I do, and she loved every sip, she is trying to look for the bottle in Toronto. Overall, a very lovely experience, still astonished by the chefs that cook and serve in such a small kitchen. Literally, they would cook and prep with their backs just nearly touching anyone washing dishes. Bravo!

We came here for our anniversary dinner. The food, wine, ambiance and service was wow. The staff was super lovely and attentive. Special shout out to chef Mark :)

Food was good. Clams a bit chewy. Flavour excellent. Tartare de beuf was excellent and so was the Burrata. Server could have been nicer tbh.

Very cool ambiance and set up. The food tasted fresh, light and full of flavor. We ordered the cucumber salad and miso coleslaw as our appetizers - both were very refreshing and the coleslaw had a nice lemongrass flavor. For our mains, we ordered the Bun Bo Hue soup which was a generous portion and great for a cold winter day. For dessert, we ordered the pandan leaf tapioca which was delicious and light. Overall the meal was tasty and filling without leaving you feeling like you overate. Prices were also very reasonable.

Really good tapas menu for food. We ordered their specialty beef tartare with nori, meat skewers on papaya and shaved ice for dessert. All very unique dishes. The menu changes regularly so I would come back here again for sure.

Denise had a change in the head chef recently (not sure how recent), and their tapas dishes now showcase innovative twists on foods we're all familiar with, and are Asian inspired. This restaurant is quite small (seats around 20 people max inside) and in the summer, they have a modest but cozy sidewalk patio. It is a true hidden gem that is tucked away in a corner and can be harder to find if it's your first visit but I definitely recommend checking out Denise! I've visited over 6 times now and each time the menu is slightly different and the food has consistently been above average. Service is attentive, intimate and friendly and the atmosphere is cozy, warm and trendy (despite the small size). They don't accept resos for outside patios but they do accept resos for indoor dining. Organic wine bars with a tapas menu seems to be the new trendy thing in Montréal and I'm here for it. Especially when they do both well! Portions are on the smaller side (as to be expected, as they're meant to be shared) and I suggest sharing between 2-3 items per head, depending on how hungry you are. Even though the menu changes constantly to reflect ingredients that are fresh and in season, the house made focaccia remains unchanged and I definitely recommend you try an order of those! Prices are reasonable and comparable to other establishments of this nature, however since the portions are smaller and if you're hungry, you'll have to order many dishes per person which can add up. Overall: 5 Ambiance: 5 Food: 5 Service: 5 Value: 4.5

Small cute restaurant. The food was ok. We had the burrata which was delicious. The tuna tartare was good but nothing special. I was really disappointed by the fish It was very fishy and bitter. The desert was just okay but I found the melted sugar too bitter.

This place is a 3.5 for me, but I like to give Biz owners the benefit of rounding up. It's rough out there! I'd been wanting to check this place out for a while and finally made it happen and I'm glad I did! The spot is tucked in an unexpected corner of mile ex, it's tiny and super chill and cute. The service was warm and friendly and good vibes and the wine list is excellent. I came with a fellow veg, we ordered the eggplant starter to share and then each ordered the grilled tofu dish. Our waiter suggested rice would be good with both the eggplant and tofu so we added that. I wish they had all been served together in that case so we could have taken advantage of having the rice with the eggplant as suggested. The eggplant was truly delish. The tofu dish was good, and definitely needed the rice imho. It's nice to have a veg dish on a menu that has lots of protein- tofu and walnuts - the flavours were subtle but good and I felt could have used another dimension to make the dish something really worthwhile and exciting. The eggplant or a green would have need a great addition to make it well rounded. There were a couple more options for fish eaters and omnivores. I think as full it'll be a while before I try again. But I will be back!

I heard about this new cafe-by-day / resto-by-night back in December and had been meaning to try it out. Last night, I finally got around to it. I loved the vibe; discrete, tiny little place on a street where you'd never expect to find such a cool resto. The music was great and the service was thoughtful and helpful. Overall very enjoyable, my only suggestion would be to have more comfortable chairs, as the backless small stools are less then ideal. As for the food, I came in with really high expectations, which were kind of left hanging. Don't get me wrong, the food was good, just not as good as I had envisioned. My favorites were the miso slaw and the caramel porc and egg. I also tried the miso eggplant, which was pretty tasty but seemed a little naked on the plate without an accompaniment. The green curry clams were ok, but a little grimy, which threw me off. I personally found the portions a little small, while the price added up quickly. Nice little spot, worth a try if in the area.

Made it. This cute little cafe out of the way... really in the middle of nowhere...is a pleasant surprise. The atmosphere is very Mile-end but right in Parc-ex or maybe some will say Mile-ex. I liked the setup and the vibe, but it is very small. We ordered the eggplant and miso coleslaw entrees and they were good. For mains we had the caramel pork and the clam dish. The pork was good, but I wasn't a fan of the clams. The restaurant was very nice but the food was only OK for me. The price I found expensive given the food experience. It was a very nice experience and it is a good option for the area, so I suggest you try it and decide for yourself. Enjoy.

Worst restaurant I've ever been too. Awful service, food was tasteless and very overpriced. We told the server respectfully and they did nothing about it. They were disrespectful and didn't even care that the service and food was awful. Environment is very nice but they need to respect the people eating and be more attentive. Would never recommend to anyone after this experience.

Really cute spot. Food is fresh and delicious. Ambiance is awesome. Glad to have such a place in the area. The staff is lovely. Highly recommend!