A few weeks ago I went to a cafe called Byblos in Montreal’s Plateau neighbourhood with a friend.
Byblos is a very cute Persian cafe with a really cozy atmosphere. The menu isn’t large but it’s divided into main courses, a brunch section and a section with yogurt and legume based dips.
To start off, I ordered a rosewater sherbet. The syrup was at the bottom and you had stir it to mix everything up before drinking it.
The little black bits are chia seeds. I really enjoyed this as I like rosewater but the flavour can sometimes be so overpowering that it feels like you are drinking perfume. This was perfect, not too strong and not too weak.
My friend Alex had a mint tea which came with lumps of sugar. I wanted to try this but the day we went it was 35 degrees outside and there was no air conditioning in the restaurant.
We ended up ordering a few items to share. This was a trio of dips: hummus, a lentil and eggplant dip and another lentil dip. The first two were good but the last one was really bland. Neither of us liked it.
This was a trio of yogurt dips: a beet one, a spinach one and another one which I can’t remember. We liked all of these; very refreshing in the hot weather.
There was also a generous amount of pita bread.
We also ordered these chicken and mushroom pastries. These were a tad overdone and the filling was very dry. In general a lot of restaurants tend overcook chicken, unfortunately.
I would go back again. I liked the atmosphere and some of the menu items were rather unique. I liked the commensality of sharing dishes as it’s a fun way of trying new things. The service was a little slow and I had to flag down waitresses more than once to make sure we were able to order or get more water. The prices were fair and it’s a nice place to go catch up with a friend.
