CLT Brunch: Terrace, Toast, & Cafe Monte

It's summer, and we're a young couple in our twenties in a large(ish) metropolitan city. Of course we love brunch.

We've eaten at Terrace Cafe, Toast Cafe, & Cafe Monte so here's the breakdown on these three Charlotte spots. We ranked each of the brunch spots on 1.) Atmosphere & Service 2.) Food and then averaged our scores together.

Atmosphere & Service:
Terrace: 8.5
Toast: 8.5
Cafe Monte: 8.5

Yes, we incidentally ranked these three spots the same for atmosphere, but you should know they are different vibes.

Terrace is a 'classier' spot with contemporary glasses, nice linen tables, and the South Park location has a gorgeous upstairs that overlooks the restaurant. This is more of a take your mom to mother's day brunch or honeymoon brunch. The waiters have been professional, but not overly friendly.

Toast Cafe has a casual & cute outdoors area where you can bring your dog, but they also have an inside area that's nice too (just not as upscale as Terrace). This is your more casual locale for girls' brunch or couple's brunch.

Cafe Monte is somewhere in between. It's French, and it is reminiscent of a bistro. Classy, but think more thematic in a way that isn't kitschy.

Food:
Terrace: 8
Toast: 8.5
Cafe Monte: 9.5

Don't let the 'lowest' ranking fool you. Terrace has some fantastic food. For instance, every time I go, I order the fried green tomatoes, and they are the best ever. Our friend AJ had amazing Southern biscuits & gravy. In terms of food we've ordered here, lemon waffles, s'mores waffles, omelettes, breakfast sandwiches, and steak and eggs have run the brunch spectrum. The meals themselves were consistently good and worthy of an 8, and decently priced for such a nice brunch setting in South Park or Ballantyne.

We've only gone to Toast once, but the meals we had were damn delish. Matt ordered the Avocado Omelette with avocado, tomato, bacon, and parmesan and for such a giant omelette, he nearly finished his entire plate. I ordered one of the best breakfast meals I've ever had (I know I keep saying 'the best I've ever had', but I speak the truth). This one was top 5 for sure--the Crab Benedict special--handmade crab cakes topped with poached eggs & hollandaise sauce. I never in my life thought of putting crab and eggs together, but this was the perfect combination. The huge $5 mimosa I had was an awesome deal too, compared to Terrace's $8 mimosa in a tiny glass.

Cafe Monte is crepe heaven. It is the priciest out of the three, but we used a page out of the coupon book to get a discount on our meal to make it 'worth' it. Even if we hadn't used the coupon, this still would have been worth every dollar. Matt had the Shrimp & Artichoke Crepes that had a cream sauce & spinach, and he thought it was an excellent dish. For me, hands down, this is the #1 brunch meal I've ever had: Lobster & Crab Crepes--a tomato cream sauce, with scallions, some of the best pastry crepe you've ever eaten, stuffed with fresh lobster & crab. Every penny of that $16.00. I will have dreams about that meal until I can eat it again. Both of us were so full when we finished and still wished we had more in front of us. So we may not have ordered more entrees, but we did get macarons and other desserts to go and didn't even wait to pull out of the parking lot before devouring.


Charlotte has a lot to offer, and brunch is a definite strength on the restaurant scene. Just remember--no mimosas (or any alcohol) before noon on Sundays!