Oh Look, It’s an $800 Salad With Caviar and Gold Leaf on the Plateau

PLATEAU — You’ve seen the $100 gold-plated brownie (from Juliette & Chocolat) and the $100 dumpling with Rémy Martin’s Louis XIII cognac (at Jiao) — but the next excessive food item in Montreal is even more expensive. Hillary Salad on St-Denis Street (you may remember them as the place that does salads based on customers’ personalities) has an $800 bowl on its menu, with status symbol ingredients like 40-year aged balsamic, 24-karat edible gold, and caviar (technically salmon roe, as it’s not from a sturgeon). It’s rounded out with pine nuts, parmesan, arugula, olives, and sun-dried tomatoes. (You can even order it on Foodora, to have someone on a bike shake it around a little bit before eating.) For those not willing to throw down $800, you can also add gold to a regular salad for a bargain $49.99. What does this salad say about the personality of somebody who buys it? Probably that the person doesn’t spend money very wisely, given that edible gold can be bought for $US40 on Amazon.

LATIN QUARTER — No-BS burger favourite Uniburger has got some new digs — it closed moved out of its original Ontario East location (formerly La Paryse) and around the corner to St-Denis, a bigger space that was formerly a Dagwoods, and it comes with a whole bunch more seating.

ALL OVER — Chain-buying giant MTY has slurped up another restaurant group for its portfolio — according to an October 31 press release, it will purchase BYOB Greek chain Casa Grecque, with the sale being finalized around the end of the year. MTY owns chains like Thai Express, Baton Rouge, Jugo Juice, Houston, Industria Pizza, and many more.

GRIFFINTOWN — Another café inside a former Montreal metro carriage seems to be on the way — the same pair of brothers that opened Station F-MR by the Lachine Canal will use several retired MR-63 metro cars to convert into a cultural space in Griffintown (likely near Peel and Ottawa), with a coffee shop included. However, Station F-MR will not return in future years.

POINTE-ST-CHARLES — Montreal-based chocolatiers Cacao 70 walked away with three silver prizes in the International Chocolate Awards’ Americas division (so, among the best in North and South America). Head chocolatier Gaiia Kim scooped up those awards with the Lights Out 70 percent plain dark chocolate bar, the 70 percent asochivite cocoa bar (dark chocolate) in the micro-batch category, and the Smooth Operator 45 percent milk chocolate bar.

• This Upcoming Comptoir Will Do Salads Based On Your Personality [EMTL]
• Old Montreal Gets a Dim Sum Bar With a $100 Dumpling Next Week [EMTL]
• Montreal’s Most Unnecessary Food Is This $100 Gold-Plated Brownie [EMTL]
• MTY enters into an agreement to acquire Casa Grecque [CNW]
• Brothers make moves to build $7M cultural hub using MR-63 metro cars [CTV]