Dining During the Pandemic: Take-Out and Delivery Highlights
Throughout most of the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants have only been able to provide take-out and delivery service. For individuals with special needs, services like curbside pickup have been most convenient. Naturally, home delivery is even more convenient. Here are some dining tips.
La Cage – Brasserie Sportive
La Cage – Brasserie sportive’s take-out service has become a true discovery for diners. In the winter of 2020, just a few weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I was so excited to attend the grand opening of the new La Cage – Brasserie sportive (www.cage.ca) at the former P.F. Chang’s location at rue des Jockeys near Decarie Blvd.
Formerly known as La Cage aux Sports, the two-level, 317-seat restaurant barely had a chance to attract a following and showcase its $1.5-million makeover before shutting its doors. Groupe Sportscene president and CEO Jean Bédard slowly began to reopen the 37 La Cage properties in Quebec last June. The company also owns breakfast restaurant L’Avenue on the South Shore, P.F. Chang’s at Carrefour Laval and Moishes Steakhouse. The latter just had its iconic property on St. Laurent Blvd. sold and will resurface sometime after the pandemic at a new venue.
La Cage has transitioned marvelously to the present situation by launching “La Cage chez vous,” an enhanced offering of delivery, take-out and ready-to-cook meals. For my mother-in-law and father-in-law, bag number one was dropped off containing a Blitz (100 percent Canadian beef patty) with lettuce, tomato, red onion and mustard only, and a fresh Atlantic salmon served with croutons. They were pleasantly surprised and plan to order the same items again.
In my household, we ordered an appetizer of three lobster tacos, a green salad, two salmon poke bowls and a salmon tartare meal, which came with fries and a salad. We miss many things about Moishes, so it was a treat to order the famous Moishes millefeuille for dessert. The tacos were fantastic, and it was a pleasant surprise to enjoy some ready-to-cook kits created by executive chef Louis-François Marcotte!
La Cage – Brasserie sportive Decarie is located at 5485 rue des Jockeys, Montreal, QC H4P 2T7. Hours of operation are Monday to Friday (11 am to 11 pm) and Saturday and Sunday (4 pm to 11 pm). You can order via lacagechezvous.com, ubereats.com or doordash.com, or call (514) 731-2020. The entrance is perfectly placed for curbside pick-up.
Petinos for Breakfast and Lunch
One of the things I have really missed since the pandemic started is a good early-morning breakfast at some of my favourite restaurant spots. I jumped at the offer to drop by Petinos in the Sainte-Dorothée district of Laval for a pick-up before reporting to work recently. There are 17 Petinos franchises in Quebec.
Harry Sikellis owns the Laval, Charlemagne and Dollard des Ormeaux locations. The Laval restaurant is open daily from 8 am to 3 pm for breakfast and lunch pick-up and delivery orders. Charlemagne (near Terrebonne) and DDO have the same hours but are only open Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Curbside pick-up is available at all locations.
Here is my advice: treat yourself to breakfast first. I enjoyed my combo selection called “The American,” which included two eggs over-easy, a prime AAA 10-ounce sirloin steak, tomatoes, onion, pickles, home fries, baked beans, toast and coffee. Once I was there, I also ordered something to place in my fridge for lunch — the smoked salmon platter, which included a generous serving of smoked salmon, a bagel, cream cheese, tomatoes, capers, onions, asparagus, sliced olives and lemon. I added in a fruit cup. For dessert, I ordered the Montérégie: half a waffle topped with English cream, Nutella and Oreo crumbles. Wow!
Check out the Laval, Charlemagne and Dollard des Ormeaux locations in particular:
Laval: 540 Autoroute 13, (450) 689-5444
Charlemagne: 65 rue Émile-Despins, (450) 654-6866
DDO: 3520 Sources Blvd, (514) 685-1161
Order via Uber Eats and DoorDash for all locations, and SkipTheDishes in Laval and DDO.
For more information, visit www.petinos.ca.
