Bonjour Brioche

Mmmmmm butter.
The croissants are flaky delights.
The pain au chocolat is a delectable treat for added sinful pleasure.
And if sweet isn’t your thing, try the cheese twist croissant.
(Or, buy all three because you need to sample and «share».)
It’s worth the trip from downtown (and walking through Riverdale is always pleasant). You can tell yourself the walk will do you good after eating french pastries.

I went on a Sunday and I had read about the line-​ups and so I was prepared for that, no problem. The food was excellent, the dessert was excellent and although I am not a big coffee drinker, the fact the refills were no charge and readily available was very positive.
I have read several reviews from people claiming that the staff was rude or that the service was poor. Contrary to this, I found that everyone was very nice and very professional. The place is very busy and if they have to ask you to move out of the way or line up outside, don’t take it personally, that is efficiency at work and not rudeness.
One, and only one issue that I had was with the shredded potato thingy. It needs to be fixed or cease to exist. Thanks.

Best French brunch I’ve had in years. This despite standing outside in the freezing cold with about fifteen other determined Sunday brunchers waiting for a table.
Crowded noisy interior, but it’s got that magic state where you have a sense of intimacy with your date despite the cramped tables, perhaps because of the charming warm décor? Or maybe it’s the lusciousness of the chocolate croissants and other pastries in the beautiful display case. How French pastries can create a sense of intimacy with a date may explain more about my love of food than is elegant, but still.
The service can be a bit rushed, but professional. I get the sense the owner has a firm hand on the till (er), and would have it no other way. Or maybe the rest of the week is quiet, so they’ve really gotta pack ‘em in on the weekends? Still worth the wait, provided you’re not with hangry company.

First of all, we waited for an hour in the cold, which is fine, cos we assumed this place is popular. What’s not fine, however, was that four couples bypassed us (there were three of us), and we ended up sitting at a two-​person table. Two of us had to basically squeeze into a one person spot. The seating was extremely disorganized, which probably explained why the wait was so long. Customer service was poor, no one apologized for the wait, nor for shoving us into a tiny spot.
Food came half an hour after we were seated.
We ordered the savory french toast and croissant Benny with peameal bacon (their specials). Overall quality of food was average, definitely not worth the long wait in the cold. The side salad was good though. We also ordered two croissants cos we were starving, the plates that the croissants were served on were hot, so we thought we were getting warm fluffy croissants. However the croissants were cold and hard, guess they’ve been sitting in their bakery for a while.
Overall, poor experience with this place, food was really average, I paid 22 $, which was pricy given the quality of food and service.
(If you are getting your food packed, make sure you triple check to ensure that you are actually bringing your own food home. I went home, expecting to find my Benny in the bag, and found a half eaten chocolate cake instead. Gross!)

Uptight French bistro with a set of lunch and sandwich options. Smells nice and buttery from outside, and looks homestyle from the inside. Come early on the weekends or don’t bother dining in. The service is on another level of French sovereignty (lol) Don’t speak French? Prepare for slower service. Absolutely do not come with coffees or water bottles from outside! They’ll make you pour it into a glass. While the food appears to be made with care the aloof service on the patio did little ease the chilly and damp spring morning my friend and I visited. I dont really remember what I had much, except that my baguette was rather tough. The madeleines or buns are just ok. I think Nadege does them better.

I love the food here, but I will not return for a while until I get over being cheesed with this place. Yes I understand this restaurant jumps, but when you purposely come early to avoid the rush, you do expect better service. Instead we got hostility. The restaurant was less than half full, so we were told to sit where ever we want. We pulled two two seat tables together. After placing our coffee order with the server, another female staff member came over and gave us a really snotty lecture about how three people are expected to share a two person table. She was very rude and her attitude made my delicious breakfast sit like a stone in my stomach. Way to make your guests feel welcome.

A couple friends and I were on our way to Lady Marmalade for brunch, but after finding out it would be a 45 mins wait we backtracked to Bonjour Brioche. I’m really glad we ended up here because this place smells like freshly baked bread and all things fried in butter. So much butter. Also, a very small lineup. We were seated right away. It’s a very small space and the patio is quite packed in, especially for Saturday brunch. After reviewing the specials I decided to go with the Grilled cheese with egg, prosciutto and tomato on olive bread. It was delicious and filling. However, the real star of the show was the salad dressing on the side salad that accompanied my sandwich. It was perfectly dressed and really well seasoned. They sell it at the front if you’re looking to pick it up. You should also give the freshly made fruit juices a try — the one with mango is quite good.
At the end of our meal, the server came over to us with a tray of delicious tarts and cakes and asked us if we were ready for dessert. This is very clever and very cruel. How could we say no?! We each picked a tart to go, they come to $ 5 each. Definitely worth it. After getting our treats we ended up standing in line for some more baked goodies because we couldn’t leave without trying their freshly baked croissants, and baguettes. I think we picked up about half a dozen items for less than $ 10!
So to summarize, fantastic place for brunch. I don’t think you can go wrong with any item off their menu/​specials. Don’t leave without grabbing their baked goodies to go. And, the salad dressing is divine.
I’ll be back to grab some of their cakes. Can’t wait!
FYI — this place is cash only, and the crowd really picks up around 11am on the weekend.

A lil taste of France in Toronto… Sigh. Bonjour Brioche wasn’t our destination, but when we walked by it, I wished it was. Thankfully Lady Marmalade had a line up down the street so we returned to Bonjour Brioche. and I am glad we did! Although the atmosphere doesn’t quite warrant 5 stars; we had a rickety table and I was stuck behind a door looking into the dingy backyard of something, or someone’s home. The food, was delicious! Everyone in our party really really enjoyed the brunch. I really wanted to try their pomegranate mimosa however they can’t serve alcohol before 11 am, and we were a bit shy of that time frame. At the end of our meal, there was a server who came by with some very delicious looking desserts which we had no room for, but we did take them to go. We then stood in line to get some fresh breads which were amazing! Can’t wait to go back!

Beautiful baguettes and salads with brunch, lovely croissants, coffees VERY French! I love it
Usually line ups though

Hmmm not sure what the hype is. walked in with empty coffee cups in hands, were told right away «WE DONT ALLOW coffees in here… ummm «They were empty…“please direct me to the garbage can,» I said. to which they pointed outside… and said WE ARE CASH only…
Ummm hmmm now that we exchanged pleasantries and they lived up to the typical «French Stereotype,» let’s move on to the food…
I ordered the famous Savoury French Toast Treat and my better half ordered the Omelette Du jour…
My French Toast was extremely tasty! Soft bread with perfect amount of sweetness, cinnamon, and yuminess. Omelette came with small French baguette and nice piece of French butter which tasted not so French…
In the end it was nice to hear the French Accordianish music in the back ground… and our waitress was extremely gorgeous.

From a service standpoint I won’t comment as I think it is adequate for what they do. I mean, this isn’t exactly a 5 star dining experience. Yes, it’s somewhat slow. No, the waiters are not exactly super attentive and cheery. The constant lineup out the door with hungry, angry people gawking certainly doesn’t help with the service struggles either.
Aside from that, the food is great. The baguette is exceptional, croissants are moist, fluffy and buttery. The food is on the slightly lighter tasting side but tastes fresh and delicious nonetheless. To those who crave big slabs of greasy bacon slathered in sriracha, five spice and curry 9am in the morning… this is not your joint. The flavours and subtle, clean and fresh.
Go ahead and sit on the patio, it will make the somewhat slow service somewhat bearable.

I’m on a mission for butter tarts in Toronto, and after reading some mixed reviews I decided to try it for myself. Went on a Wednesday morning around 11-​ish for some butter tarts, it wasn’t too busy. The café is a lot smaller than in the pictures.
Went in and ordered 2 butter tarts to go. At first glance it looked like butter tarts with some pecans. But when I got home, I noticed that the pecans are actually raisins. FML. I hate raisins. There is no word or sentence that can describe my hate for raisins, except for… I hate fucking raisins.
After sulking for while I decided to eat them anyways considering I just spent $ 10 on them, and it would be a waste of food. The flavour is pretty good, almost a hint of maple syrup in the filling with was nice. The crust is also not bad. a good tasting butter tart… minus those damn raisins.
Overall, I wouldn’t return simply based on the raisins! IF they should decided to make some butter tarts without raisins, than I would go every week for them. God, I hate raisins.

This is a mixed review — ³⁄₅ for brunch and ⁵⁄₅ for dessert.
Two of us went here on a Sunday at around 12:30 pm. We waited about 35 minutes for a table. FYI — they take CASH ONLY.
Food: ³⁄₅
— Croissant — was very buttery which was great, but a bit too dense in my opinion
— Bonjour Brioche Eggs Benny with Salmon on a croissant — it also came with a mixed green salad and part of a baguette with a large chunk of butter. The plate was half covered in salad and I could have done with half the salad. The eggs benedict was underwhelming. It lacked flavour and richness — the eggs were runny rather than having that golden yolk and I didn’t really taste the hollandaise sauce. My favourite part of the plate was the baguette and butter — the baguette was almost perfect: doughy in the centre with a golden crust.
— Croque Madame — I didn’t get to try it but was told it was underwhelming as well
DESSERT: ⁵⁄₅
— Lemon tart — the lemon custard was tart (maybe too tart for some) but this is meant for a true lemon dessert lover
— Pear almond tart — So delicious! The almond cake/​crust is perfect: moist inside and crisp on the outside. The pears add balance to the rich crust and it’s dusted with icing powder to finish. I highly recommend this dessert!
Although the food was a bit of a disappointment, I will definitely be back for the desserts, baguettes, and will have to try their brioche royal (with lemon raspberry or blueberry custard) which was sold out when we got there. I wouldn’t recommend lining up to eat here, but would highly recommend having a coffee and dessert or taking a dessert/​bread to go.

Considero o Melhor Croissant (butter, chocolat, savory) que experimentei ate hoje. Massa e o preparo sao diferenciados! Bom atendimento.

It was a nice little place but a fee disappointments after we’ve read the reviews from here. This morning was Friday and they didn’t have eggs benedict, only served on weekends as We were told. Madame brioche was alright, panini sandwich of the day was good but skip the smoke salmon — just tons of eggs and one small piece of smoke salmon, come on! While their coffee was good their cappuccino was tasteless. Then there’s one one way to pay, CASH ONLY! they had a bank machine downstairs but again, how inconvenient. Won’t return there for a while. Oh and there are a lot of bees flyin around, some went into the pastry cupboards and one landed in our drink.
Good baguette though

Bonjour. Ce restaurant n’est pas worth the wait, dans mon opinion humble. Split with friends a smoked salmon omelette (decent), a mushroom/​pesto/​roasted red pepper omelette (meh), and french toast (yummy). Also ordered blueberry lemonade which was exceptionally tangy, but good. We had a super friendly (which is a rarity, according to my friend) and cute waiter.
I would not come back here. The food just wasn’t good enough for me to justify trekking down to the east end, waiting 20+ minutes for a table, waiting 20+ minutes for food, and paying cash-​only. Nothing special here.

Love this place, very small and there is long wait on the weekends, but worth waiting. Also they only accept cash.