‘Wheatless and Meatless’ Toronto Mini-Chain Sets Sights on Montreal

Extremely popular vegan and gluten free Toronto restaurant Kupfert & Kim is planning to open in Old Montreal, the small chain’s first venture outside its home city.

According to an Instagram post from the company and information on its website, the lunchy outlet will open on Notre-Dame West near McGill.

The menu for the new location has been posted online and is more or less identical to those in Toronto: smoothies (with a range of “enhancements”), smoothie bowls, and a few breakfast items make for morning-friendly options, while the main lunch and dinner menu consists mostly of bowls, with plenty of brown rice, beans, and quinoa.

The Kupfert & Kim image is hyper-health conscious: the menu is positively loaded with items that some might call “superfoods”: hemp, goji berries, flax, and chia, to name a few, with most items produced from scratch in store. Per the K&K website: “The proteins are complete, the carbs are complex, and the fats are ‘good’ because they come from plants.”

The tone could seem a little insufferable to some, perhaps because it uses the silly euphemism “plant based”, perhaps hoping to lure in those scared by the V-word, even though it’s the kind of place certain meat-eaters will probably poke fun at (because “vegan”). Nonetheless, the company does seem genuinely environmentally conscious, using compostable containers, offering discounts to customers who bring their containers, and with its stores apparently generating little to no food waste.

Kupfert & Kim has apparently been a huge success with its five Toronto locations: the Toronto Star reports that it often sells out of its main meals by 1:30 p.m., and that lunch lines routinely stretch to 30 minutes. (The Star also tested one of the chain’s most popular bowls, the Mexican-ish Oaxaca bowl, and while it found it wasn’t quite as healthy as it might seem, it shaped up reasonably well.)

The reviews are quite positive, too: Blog TO (which has no affiliation with MTL Blog) deemed the espresso “expertly-made”, and while the main options came across as “rabbit food” in appearance, that critic found them “incredibly flavourful”.

There’s no word on when Kupfert & Kim will open — Eater has reached out for details.

• Kupfert & Kim review [BlogTO]
• Are Kupfert & Kim’s meatless, wheatless meals healthy? [Toronto Star]
• Kupfert & Kim [Official]