Brunch at Bar Reyna

Surprise, surprise, I got up to some more brunching – this time, at Bar Reyna, with blogger friends, Anna, Camilla, Didier, Karen, Kirsten, and Tiffany. One of the best things about brunching with lots of friends is that you can order the entire menu and share. But, if you’ve ever seen us in action when we get together, you’d know that we can create quite the commotion (bless the poor souls of all the other folks trying to enjoy their meals).

Case in point: our brunch at Bar Reyna – one of the newest hot spots in Yorkville, and in my opinion, one of the best places to get fries in the city! It’s in a narrow, old Victorian home on Cumberland Avenue, nestled between a parking garage and Caplansky’s. It also happens to be absolutely gorgeous inside and outside. The back patio is decked out with lots of multi-coloured cushions, large and small Moroccan lanterns, and hanging plants. It’s like a beautiful, little oasis in the middle of Yorkville – in fact, so beautiful that we spent the first 40 minutes after we arrived taking photos of the back patio from all angles possible and using it as a backdrop for our individual photo shoots!

The food at Bar Reyna is Mediterranean and Middle Eastern inspired. It has a pretty extensive dinner menu, which I will have to go back to try. Brunch is served on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. When it was time for us to eat and drink, we were presented with Her Royal Highness ($30.00), a humongous cocktail made from rum, vodka, cardamom and rosewater syrup and grapefruit, and served in an oversized copper pineapple chalice! We also sampled a variety of the other cocktails on their menu, which were equally as delicious and pretty. We ordered a selection of their mains, including the Duck Benedict ($16.00), Avocado on Toast ($14.00), Qatayef Pancakes ($14.00), Reyna’s Croque Madame (smoked salmon, labneh, dill, sourdough toast, fried egg and greens, $18.00), Breakfast Spanish “Poutine” (shoestring fries, chorizo, Manchego cheese, fried egg, $13.00), and the Reyna Salad (purple kale, quinoa, beets, cucumber, avocado, fennel, tomato, radish, fried chick peas, tahini dressing, $18.00). And after raving to all of my friends about the fries (which I had the other time I went), you better believe we ordered 3 sets for the table to share: Greek (wild oregano, shaved feta, olive oil, lemon and feta drizzle), Spanish (chorizo, Manchego cheese), and Italian (shaved Grana Padano, truffle aioli), each $10.00.

Well, obviously, the fries were a big hit! What makes them so amazing here is that they’re shoestring, salted to perfection, and have great ingredients. The Italian fries and Reyna Salad were our favourites (I’ve also had the shakshuka in the past, which was very good). The other mains were also good. However, we didn’t care for the pancakes, which did not have the consistency of regular pancakes, and the avocado toast, which has sliced pieces of avocado, rather than mashed. Nevertheless, we all had a fantastic brunch at Bar Reyna, and I know I speak for everyone when I say we would go back for the fries over and over again! I also highly recommend that you hurry up and check out that back patio of theirs before the summer is over!