Barbounya

J’ai essayé le Barbounya avec un groupe de copines pour un brunch, et je dois dire que nous avons toutes adoré! Le choix de plats était intéressant, nous avions toutes pris des trucs différents pour goûter, et personne n’a été déçue! Les plats étaient vraiment délicieux, frais et savoureux! Par contre, je né les ai pas trouvés spécialement turcs, mais après je né m’y connais pas plus que ça en brunch turc ^^
Nous avions réservé, et on avait bien fait car il y avait un line up (à la fin, il y avait aussi un line up pour payer avec la machine! :D)
L’endroit est assez réputé, donc je vous conseille de réserver
Les jus étaient frais aussi
Le service était top et les prix corrects
Le décor est cool aussi, assez chaleureux
Il y avait de toutes tranches d’âges comme clients
A tester!

Food ³⁄₅ staff&service ⁴⁄₅ décor ⁴⁄₅
We got their MTL à Table special since their regular menu wasn’t available. The presentation of the food was nice, beautiful vividly coloured ingredients siting on a wood plank, but the food tasted very bland. We started with an octopud salad, some tempura kale (super yummy!) and a chickpea and beet salad (it was served warm so the beets tasted slimy). The mains consisted of a barley salad which was just soaked in oil and was lacking spice (like rice with arugula and then oil, that’s it), a plate of pulled pork (dry) on chick pea purée and 2 pieces of lamb kefta (lacked spice, tasted like hamburger meat).
See pictures of our starters inclued to get an idea of portion sizes. Mains are about the same size.
2x MTL a table 31 $
2x glass of white wine
Total bill included tax and tip 136 $

My final stop for this year’s MTL a Table event was to BarBounya, a restaurant I have had on my list for a while now. After having read so many great articles and reviews about it and its sister restaurant Su in Verdun, I figured if I was ever going to give turkish food a shot, Chef Fisun Ercan and her team were probably the place to really do it.
Compared to the more formal Su, BarBounya described itself as a Turkish tapas bar. The look of the room fits with that description. Most of the seating is along bars that go around the space. There are a few communal style tables as well. The style is a mixture of old and new where the old elements of a townhouse on the Plateau are blended with some more modern touches of lighting and décor. Your eyes naturally fixate on the beautiful bar along the side wall with the high cabinets behind it — housing the wine — as well as the open window into the kitchen where you can see the kitchen staff work their magic.
BarBounya did their MTL à Table menu a little different in that we were served all the items in the tapas style of the restaurant — the dishes simply portioned according to the size of your dinner party. I was not aware of that going in but frankly, everything on the menu sounded good so at least it eliminated any debating amongst the four of us in what we were going to order.
First service brought forth three items. First was kale tempura served with a spicy tomato sauce and some yogourt. I never thought I would enjoy a dish whose primary ingredient was kale but here we are. The tempura actually stuck to the leaves and created a crunchy exterior. The kale itself didn’t wilt and kept some tenderness within the tempura coating. The spicy tomato sauce and the creamy cool yogourt provided some nice contrasting dipping sauces to use in conjunction.
Next was a salad of beets and chickpeas served with black garlic yogourt. Another big hit at the table — the freshness of the beets was a nice pairing with the crisp chickpeas and the subtle hit of garlic within the creamy yogourt. Another dish where the main ingredient is not an usual favourite of mine but it certainly gave me a further appreciation of beets.
Final dish of the first course was grilled octopus carpaccio. Outside of the contradiction between grilled octopus and carpaccio — yes I know people use carpaccio to refer to any preparation of meat thinly cut but to me, carpaccio means raw — this dish was delicious. The octopus was beautifully tender and fresh and a nice mixture of oil and greens to enhance its natural flavour.
The second course provided another three dishes to enjoy. The surprise hit was the barley salad with butternut squash, sun-​dried tomatoes and nuts. A very hearty salad with the sweetness of the squash and the tomatoes working well with the earthy barley.
The grilled lamb Köfte with tomato salsa was exactly as I would expect — spiced lamb meatballs grilled beautifully. The tomato salsa provided a little freshness to the festivities.
The final dish was pulled pork served over an eggplant purée. The pulled pork was flavourful and tender but truthfully the star was that purée. Wonderfully smooth and creamy — the natural flavour of the eggplant came through so well without being overwhelming to the pork served over top of it. First thing my girlfriend said afterwards was that she wanted to try making it after we had it — the impact was that strong.
To finish things off nicely for dessert, we got some chocolate baklava and almond pudding. The baklavas were not overly sweet thankfully with a nice touch of chocolate mixed in. The pudding was creamy and smooth. The addition of the pistachio and pomegranate crumble over the top added some nice extra flavours. A pleasant sweet touch to end a wonderful meal.
BarBounya was a awesome experience from beginning to end. Every dish was enjoyed and devoured by myself and the rest of the group. Such a great usage of fresh ingredients all across the entire meal. Add to that some nice glasses of wine, a nice atmosphere indoors and nicely attentive service — props to our waitress for checking with my pregnant friend about the lamb — and you have a restaurant that definitely come back to much sooner than it took me to visit in the first place… and I suppose its sister Su is now higher up on my to-​visit list now.
Cheers!

The food is great. They really thought out all the dishes and flavours to fit together. No single taste was overpowering an other taste. I also discovered some new and interesting flavour combinations.
The ambience is nice and the staff are really helpful describing and suggesting things on the menu.
A small meal can easily cost you upwards of 60 $.
If you plan to stop by without a reservation you might be stuck eating at the bar and not at a table.
Would suggest if you are not too hungry and looking for new tastes.

So many mixed reviews about this place that I had to try for myself and see where all the discordance laid.
First off, the setting calls for more of a group outing than an intimate date. Long tables where you are seated directly next to your neighbour. The space between each patron is adequate but there is no ‘official separation’ between each seating.
Very nice touch to overall atmosphere as there is an open concept kitchen where you get to see the head chef at work as she finalizes each dish and ensures the platting is up to her standards.
Diversified menu with many interesting choices. Now here is where I think the discrepancy lies. All items are priced between 10 – 15 $ or so, some are really worth it (especially the ones listed lower on the menu aka heavier on the meat side) whereas the more veggie and fish oriented dishes really fall short of their price tag.
We started off with the zucchini flowers stuffed with feta. It was a delight to try as it’s not something you often see in the Montréal restaurant scene, but two small fried flowers for 12 dollars is a bit of a stretch.
We followed by the Tuna lakerda, which was basically three pieces of tuna sashimi in a middle eastern flavoured marinade. Very disappointing … 11 $ for 3 pieces of thin tuna? It doesn’t matter how flagrant the sauce was (which was on the weaker side)… but unless it’s blue fin tuna, that’s way overpriced!
Then came the grilled eggplant topped with cheese. Very tasty but yet again, small and hard to justify the price for a purely veggie based dish.
Things did get much better from there on as we moved onto the meat dishes. We had the lamb tartar (less gamey than I would have expected, needed a bit more seasoning though), the lamb koftes (lamb meatballs — my favourite dish of the night — this was so good that if I ever went back, I’d order 10!) and finally the fried chicken (perfectly done, crispy and well seasoned batter).
Were we still hungry after this? No, but we found that it should have cost as much as it did.
Otherwise, the service was excellent as the waiter was very attentionate and knew his menu and wine list to every detail.
All in all, it’s a decent restaurant with a good atmosphere and rather innovative menu for Montréal standards. If you go stick to the bottom half of the menu and you won’t be disappointed!

If you’re looking for brunch with a twist, this may be the place for you.
For Saturday and Sunday brunch, they offer up a prix fixe menu that gives you a sampling of appetizers and a choice of entrée for $ 14.50.
The apps include (from the website) honey and kaymak (like a clotted cream), olive mix, tomato and ricotta salad, nuts and dried fruits, homemade nut spread (like Nutella), homemade jams (we got orange and some sort of berry), and bread. The honey and kaymak is the star of the plate — I could have eaten the stuff by the spoonful, but I decided to be lady-​like and ate it with bread… which was also very very very good.
Oh, the bread. I have no idea what kind of bread it was, but it was crusty on the outside, tender on the inside, and had this wholesome nutty flavour. Yum. Thankfully our server was super nice about giving us more bread whenever we ran out. (I can’t stand places that are stingy with bread, ugh.)
On to the mains. Much deliberation was needed, as all of the mains sounded delicious to me. Ultimately, I decided on the shakshuka. The eggs were just perfectly set, the tomato sauce delicately spiced, and the whole dish finished with just the right amount of herbaceousness. Others in my party ordered the borek and lamb meatballs and they were all pretty happy with their choices too.
I love brunch and I love that Barbounya serves up something different from your standard brunch fare. Everything I had tasted great and service was fantastic. I will definitely be back!

Turkish Cuisine is best known for its simple comfort food — the falafel, hummus dip, or kebab, but it’s also a very rich and tasteful cuisine you can discover at BarBounya.
We had the Muhamarra (hot pepper dip), the Gozleme (savoury pastry), the trout, the lobster sandwich and a pull pork dish, all pretty yummy.
To check it all out, see my full review of the restaurant here:

On a essayé dans le cadre de Montréal à table qui a fait beaucoup baisser le prix. L’ambiance est plutôt bonne. C’est un peu étrange de devoir passer à travers les toilettes pour accéder à la salle arrière. Aussi, l’implantation des tables pour maximiser le nombre de tables fait qu’on né peut pas se lever sans déranger d’autre tables.
Le service était correct, la nourriture aussi. Mais les prix sont bien trop élevés en temps normal et la nourrit trop ordinaire pour que je considère ce restaurant une prochaine fois.
Finalement, nous étions un groupe d’amis pour manger, et à la fin on né nous donne qu’une seule facture avec inscrit dessus que c’est pour mieux nous servir. FRANCHEMENT?!? J’ai été serveur et ça prend quelques secondes pour émettre plusieurs factures! Au lieu de ça, on a tous sorti nos téléphones pour savoir qui a pris quoi etc… Vraiment ridicule! Ça laisse un mauvais goût lorsqu’on sort de là.
Je né recommande pas du tout.

A must try! It’s my first time going there for brunch, but not my last. If you’re looking for something different, this is the place. I was introduced to a variety of amazing flavors. Honey & kaymak, olives, tomatoes & ricotta salad, nuts & dried fruits, nut spread, homemade jams, warm bread. All made at the resto except for the bread, which I can say is out of this world, I could’t stop asking for more!
The Beef, veal & lamb börek, pine nuts was out of this world.
The Service was exceptional, super friendly and explained everything clearly.
Only downer was the white napkin. Could be a poor set but it left lint all over my pants and my friend’s dress. Maybe it’s time to change them.

The Good: The food here is really good and unique. We had some really good fish dishes, including octopus, the barbounya and tuna. They all tasted really fresh and were very nicely presented. We ordered 9 dishes (see «The Ugly» below) and I thought that perhaps ⁶⁄₉ were very delicious.
The Bad: The setup is very strange. We reserved a table for 3 and we were seated at a bar like table. My friend was seated at the corner so it made it awkward for her to talk to both of us. I much prefer sitting at a table where I can talk to my friends face to face.
The Ugly: The price!!! As you can tell from the pictures, these dishes are teeny tiny! This restaurant is tapas style, which means you need to order at least 2 – 3 dishes/​person to feel even remotely satisfied. Yet the price here for one dish is comparable to other regular restaurants. We were three girls last night and we ordered 9 tapas to split among us. We each had perhaps 2 – 3 glasses of wine and we shared two desserts. At the end, the bill for each was $ 100 (including tip)!
I had a fun time, but I will not be back.

Bel endroit. J’y suis allé pour le brunch c’était bon mais pas renversant. Ça change des brunch qu’on a l’habitude de trouver sur toutes les cartes.

Je suis tombée en amour avec le décor. À la fois chic, industriel et confortable.
Le service est super sympathique et souriant. Très chaleureux aussi.
Le menu est en papier et ainsi, le client peut inscrire lui-​même ce qu’il veut commander. Tout a l’air délicieux. Le magret de canard et compote de figues confites est particulièrement bon. Tout comme le gâteau aux pistaches imbibé d’un sirop vanillé et accompagné d’une purée d’abricots.
Seul petit hic, il faut 3 à 4 plats par personne pour manger à sa faim et les prix de chacun varient entre 8 et 16 $ … La facture grimpe vite. Surtout que les bouteilles débutent à 40 $ et vont très vite en montant.
Malgré tout, c’est un bel endroit pour un repas en amoureux ou un apéro entre amis pour papoter un peu sur de grandes tables à partager.