Nord Lyon is located at 665 Queen St. W. at Bathurst in the western half of downtown Toronto's core, and offers a weekend brunch buffet. Nord Lyon has modern, almost upscale interior, nicely atmospheric with contemporary music. Chilled orange and apple juice, and coffee and tea are included which is excellent.
There are many more items on the buffet, and it is much larger, than the pictures on the website would have one believe. I ended up starting at one end and working my way to the other to try to get everything. There are several types of French cheese including brie, possibly Camembert and a harder cheese similar to cheddar I am unsure of. There are cold meats including smoked ham, chicken and possibly turkey... unfortunately nothing is labelled so we need to guess as best as we can. Village Greek salad was very good as there was plenty of feta. Croissants appear to be baked on premises. Crêpes were excellent because they are served with real maple syrup, not synthetic liquid-sugar syrup and we both loved them.
Penne salad was delicious with a nice herbal arrangement. Baguette bread with cream cheese and a small piece of smoked salmon on it was delicious, whatever it may be called. Tomato with cheese and olive oil was kind of boring, and I don't like raw tomatoes anyway so perhaps this is more of a personal preference. Mishy loved the spanakopita (Greek phllyo spinach pastry) and I certainly agree it was very good. Croissant with possibly smoked ham and cheese was delicious.
Tiny breakfast sausages were excellent and better than just about any full-sized ones. Mishy said the French toast was hard as a rock and cold; it definitely was dried-out. Devilled egg didn't have much paprika or mayonnaise in it. Sauteed mushrooms were excellent and we both love them too. Bacon was thinner-sliced, beautifully seasoned and just about the best I've ever had, however it's hard to get as it runs out quickly being so good... it may be beef bacon which explained the excellent flavour. Roast potatoes were excellent and very well-seasoned. Pancakes were a bit boring and probably made from a mix, but it doesn't matter as there was real maple syrup which was a major bonus. Sauteed mixed vegetables were excellent. Mishy wasn't big on the filled pastry bun so gave it to me, but I found it excellent, especially the darker interior part... was not as big on the lighter outside bread.
Roast chicken was a bit dry but tasty. Roasted eggplant with tomato sauce was excellent, and I usually don't like eggplant. Quiche was very good, though it was mildly seasoned, but I guess that is how it is supposed to be from previous experience. Creamy dill salad was excellent and very well-seasoned and fresh. Cucumber salad was also very good and fresh, and the sauce tasted like real cream was used in it. Pepper salad was good and well-seasoned, although not really my taste. Chickpea salad had dandelion or arugula leaves in it, and was delicious.
For dessert, the small pastries were absolutely fantastic especially the chocolate ones which were so rich with chocolate I was in danger of an overdose; Nord Lyon sells pastries at the front counter so they they would be expected to be excellent. The vanilla custard with chocolate we both found was just fantastic as well; it had a flavour reminiscent of rice pudding, yellowish as per French vanilla with a dusting of chocolate. Weekend brunch buffet is $34.99. This is not unreasonable as a base cost, being only a few dollars more than the standard these days. As well some of the items offered were quite pricey and tasted so, and there was really only one shortcoming worthy of notice. It was certainly memorably enjoyable.... bon appétit!
Rating: 9 / 10
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