Our August options are in. This month: platters and prosecco at Casanova, organic goodness at Green Kitchen, no-frills French at Cafe L'avenue and a brunch failure at L'Etage. ***

Green Kitchen

Green Kitchen, like its more casual cousin—Green & Safe, the often-packed café and salad bar just downstairs—wants you to remember that it’s organic, goddammit. Here’s an entry on its brunch menu: “organic smoked salmon truffle scrambled eggs, comes with organic seasonal vegetables and organic bread”. Yes, “rustic” and “free-range” appear elsewhere on the menu. So if you’re a sucker for these foodie-mag buzzwords, then you’ll likely be a sucker for this place. The food is good, though, and not terribly expensive. It’s all a la carte, with most mains ranging from 68-88rmb. The most expensive entrees are the roast chicken and ribeye steak plates at 108 and 128rmb, respectively. We tried the homemade focaccia with smoked salmon, arugula, capers, tomatoes and eggs (88rmb) and the beef burger with mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes (88rmb). The tree-huggers at Green Kitchen impressed us on both counts. We thought we’d get another bland, too-sanitized Asian version of the burger, but this one was delightfully messy, juicy and flavorful. The focaccia impressed more in terms of quantity rather than quality, though. Drinks are on the pricier side, with fresh juices and teas averaging 32rmb each, draft beer around 40-50rmb and cocktails at 58rmb. The place is popular with young families, so if it’s going to be a boozy kind of afternoon, we’d suggest going around 2pm or later. The Shiso Sangria (58rmb) is particularly good. Sat & Sun: 11am-4pm For a full brunch listing, click here.

Café de L’avenue

If you give zero shits about ambiance and décor but want good French food without the frills, then might ye traverse westward to…this mall café in Changning. Seriously. It’s got this really impersonal feel. It’s not enclosed by walls, so anywhere you sit in the café, you can see all the passerby with their screaming kids and Gucci shopping bags. It seems the interior designer based his or her concept on a French café as depicted in Hollywood movies. But damn it if the food isn’t just spot on. And, the brunch set is a great deal compared to Café de L’avenue’s regular lunch and dinner menus. For 188rmb, you get three courses and one soft drink. You can select any combination of starters, mains, desserts and even oyster plates (some cost a bit extra). Everything we tried was solid, though we’d suggest sticking with the mains—the mussels in white wine with frites, the cod en papillote and rustic steak with vegetables were excellent. The desserts are also good, but the place is targeting an Asian clientele, so it’s less rich and decadent than foreigners might like. We spotted a Frenchman manning the kitchen, though we were unable to ascertain where exactly in France he hails from, how long he’s been here, etc., because he didn’t give two shits about us writing a review and continued on with cooking…which was actually kind of great. Sat & Sun: 11am-4pm For a full brunch listing, click here.

L'etage

Late last year the folks behind Sushi'O tried to expand their reach with a Yakitori restaurant and craft cocktail lounge. By April, however, it became clear that it wasn't working out, so they regrouped. A couple of months later, they re-opened as a bistro called Le Petit Canard and a mojito bar upstairs called L'Etage. We've been to the bistro, and they do a fair job at casual French cuisine. But now L'Etage is trying its hand at brunch. When we arrived at 12.30 three staff members — to protect their identities, let's just call them Moe, Larry and Curly — were barely keeping it together, and the place was barely half full. Moe dismissively pointed us to our seat. Larry brought a drink menu and said nothing to us about the buffet, so we just helped ourselves to a picked-over selection of dishes, like bow tie pasta, a lone bowl of blueberry yogurt (nothing like muesli or granola to go with it) and a couple of brie wheels. For the next half hour that was about it. Slowly (very slowly) but surely, they restocked the buffet with underwhelming option after underwhelming option — barely warm home fries, a tagine of cous cous, a chafing dish full of overcooked fish fillets, smoked salmon on the rocks (see the picture above). Eventually, Larry and Curly brought out a selection of Viennoiserie like croissants and pain au chocolat, still in the bags from the bakery that made them, and they remained that way on the buffet spread. Finally, when we asked for the bill, a fourth server came by (we'll call him Shemp), ready to take our drink order. Granted this was one visit, but hey, you know what they say about first impressions... Maybe L'Etage should just stick to mojitos. Sat–Sun: 12-3pm For a full brunch listing click here

Casanova

This Italian restaurant sits almost invisibly upstairs from its younger rowdier sister venue Pata Negra. The latter seems to get all the attention, but every once in a while Casanova sends us news of a new promo or deal. The most recent is their menu of three brunch platters. One features a mix of braised, grilled and seared meats served with lemon mashed potatoes, asparagus and roasted onion. 258rmb gets you enough for two people to share. Another is centered around seafood, like shrimp, langoustine, scallops calamari, sea bass, mussels and clams with ginger mayo for 368rmb. Once again, that serves two. However, neither option sounds terribly brunchy, to be quite honest. For that, there is the third platter. It's Italy's version of a big English breakfast. You get a giant plate full of lots of separate little meals. They include: fried potato wedges topped with grilled Italian sausage; a Caesar salad with thin, crispy slices of streaky bacon; a martini glass full of scrambled eggs; and the highlight: two buttery crostini topped with homemade smoked duck and dill-flecked marinated salmon. It's certainly not amazing but it's more than enough food for 148rmb. And while it's not an all you can eat deal, you'll get better service and quality for the same price as the brunch described above. Also, tack on 60rmb and they'll pour you unlimited prosecco. Sun: 11.30am–2.30pm For a full brunch listing click here