Dobe & Andy

Val and I were running the 5km Montréal Souterrain, so I had obviously planned a little after-run lunch in Chinatown. Nothing has ever been this obvious. In life. This Cantonese restaurant is located on St-Urbain in the same building as Kim Fung (dim sum), on the ground floor.

It looks like ass from the outside and ass when you're inside too. But hey, I've learnt that the goodness of the food in Asian restaurants has nothing to do with the cleanliness. I'd even go as far as saying it's an inversed correlation. Nevertheless, this place was buuuusy! One of the gems of Chinatown.

I had the BBQ duck soup. Everything in that pleases me: BBQ, duck AND soup on a cold day? Yaaassss! My Jer Bear AKA friend from the Asian persuasion, would've been ubs proud of me: I ate the duck meat, the duck fat AND I ate around the bone (there is no effin English word for 'gruger'). There's sooo much flavor in the fat. That's probs why the stock was so good! It was legit wow. The green onions almost made a paste, which was totes up my alley. I had the choice between egg noodles and vermicelli-style noodles. I had the latter one because I thought the egg noodles would be a bit too heavy. They were perfectly cooked. Just perf. Slurp slurp! Going back to the duck, it was delish! It had absorbed all the flavours and oh how lovely that was! I added a bit of sriracha and dang girl!

Service was ok. Quick, as per use. We got tea to start off and they then brought us some water. The waiter didn't really speak any English (nor French), which was fine... but then again, he couldn't really answer our questions. I asked for their specialty (they have like 100 items on their menu!), and he wasn't really able to tell me. They didn't ask if we liked it but I ain't surprised. Asian restos are in a whole other category. I can just imagine Jer bear saying: 'I TOLD you it works like that!'.

And now, the scores!

Food: 8
Service: 6

Althought Montréal's Chinatown is tiny (I dream of a Toronto-sized Chinatown ALL the time), there are many restaurants to go to. Imma try another one next time :)

La Capital

My homie Sasher was in town from his gallivanting (yes, I'm calling it that) in central and south America so I needed to see his ass. OK, he's actually working :) I was already eating with my other homie, Isa, so we decided that we should eat tacos. I'm always in for tacos. Always.

 

I had passed by La Capital many times, wondering wtf a Mexican resto was doing in Chinatown. Well, that's the magic of it, really. Who would've thought they'd put Mexico in China? NO ONE. One of the trick to having a popular resto is putting it somewhere where it has absolutely no competition whatsoever. Hence, Mexico in China. Brilliant!

The place itself is very colorful, with some Spanish music playing, brick walls with some pictures on them (including this creepy one). It had a nice ambiance, as if everyone wanted to be your friend. Do YOU wanna be my friend? Yes. Yes you do.

We shared appetizers, because that's what people that like each other do; they share. Cebollitas asadas OR charred green onions with Maggi sauce. I looked to see what this sauce was about and this is pretty much the gist of it: a lot of artificial ingredients, a lot of MSG and some soya sauce. Well, damn it, it tasted wonderful. I didn't necessarily feel like this had any place on the menu, and it was rather awkward to eat, but I still loved the flavors.

Guacamole. I loves me a good guac! It was perfectly smooth, perfectly spicy and perfectly limy. The totrtilla was just a bit too hard for me so, to reduce my consumption, I just put a motha fuck*n pile of guac on a tiny piece of tortilla. It works.

Los tacos! I had the carnitas: pork confit, coriander, onions, radish, grilled tomato sauce. The pork was what I always dread it will be like: dry. Argh. There should be a universal rule. Right? It was still full of yumminess and the coriander added another layer of flavor. The tortilla was the perfect tortilla: it wasn't breaking all over the place like some and I could bend it in every way (what??? I like to do that!). The tomato sauce was quite spicy, but sadly, a bit too much on the blend side.

I got a taste of some tacos el pastor too, because, as I mentioned, we be sharin'! The pork was dry as well. I'm gonna go ahead and give you, restaurateurs and chefs, rules about food that you must ALWAYS abide by: the pork must NOT be dry, the bread must NOT be stale, the shrimp must ALWAYS be cooked perfectly, the octopus/calamari must NOT be squishy and your pasta must NOT be overcooked. OK, I'm sure there are more but this is a pretty good sample. I really liked the onions and the coriander... but when do I not?! It was also on the spicy side, which was appreciated.

We had green sauce and red sauce. The red sauce was just... well, it was a firm no: it tasted like ketchup. Le green was OK but didn't add much to the dishes. Sasher, who spent a while in Mexico, said that this meal was just so so. So, blame the score on him, NOT on the blogger :p (OK, you can blame it on me too)

Deep fried plantain. Mmmmmmm!!!! This was f*ckin' awesome! It was crispy, it was moist, it was sweet! The salty feta on top balanced the sweetness of it really well. And you wouldn't think that, with all this fried stuff, it would still be all fresh and sh*t.. but it was! If it wouldn't make me gain so many calories, I'd have one of those bad boys every day!

Service was very good. We got a table in no time and had water on the table as soon as we sat down. And water was refilled. Many times. I felt good about this. The waiter was wearing one (or eight) too many pwish of perfume, which was not cool. Peeps that work in restaurants should not be able to wear perfume. NO PERFUME.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7
Service: 8.5

There are a LOT of new Mexican restos in town. Must. Visit. Them. ALL. 

Pho Bac 97

When you're sick, you need a couple things: your mommy, Perrier, lemon and ginger tea and a good soup. This is why, when I was sick as a dsawg last week, I went for some pho. I asked my Asian persuasion friend, Jer, who, coincidentally, is in Vietnam right now, where I should head for some good pho. He mentioned that Pho Bang New York is a fave but HIS fave (in Chinatown) is Pho Bac 97.

Pho Bac 97 is located at the end of Chinatown on St-Laurent. OK, saying it's the end of Chinatown ain't sayin' much; it's so small that it's like pretty much when you get in, you're out again. The place itself is like a lot of Asian restos: lots of tables, a tad crammed, pots on tables with chop sticks/napkins/sauces, no music. Basically, get in and get OUT!

The fillers, as I like to call them. Or... the garnishes? Whatever. That! The essentials, basically. Thai basil, bean sprouts, chilis and lime.

I had the #7, or the beef pho. The broth was just awesome and so damn meaty and oniony. You KNOW how I feel about ma onions! The meat had had too much time to cook in there, damn it! It would have been even better with it being a tad less cooked. The noodles were cooked to perfection: not quite al dente and not soggy either. Oh, and I practiced my noodle slurping technique! I believe Jer would have been oh-so-proud. The coriander was oh-so-fresh, which made it oh-so-yummy. Putting the thai basil, the bean sprouts, the hint of lime in there was just the cherry on top. Oh and don't forget the hint/heat of sriracha. YA BABY! What better thang to help my sickness? NOTHING! I obviously added some sriracha in there to make it spicy and also to sweat out all the sick! And it worked btw.

Service was very quick. It's like, you turn around and BAM, there's tea. BAM, garnishes. BAAAAM, your meal is there. Very efficient. It would have been nice to have water tho. I only thought about it at the end of the meal. I think tea is like water to Asians. And yes, I'm very deep. Totes. Oh I must also mention that when I went to pay, the man at the counter told me they only accepted cash and I was like DANG! He told me I could either take out some money at their ATM with mucho dinero charges OR come back another day! Uh, what? 152 points for niceness right there! Actually, going back tomorrow to pay the nice man. And trust me when I say I'll be giving a GENEROUS tip!

And now, the scores!

Food: 8.5
Service: 7.5

Well, obviously I'm going back. To pay AND to eat some more amazing pho!

Nouilles de Lan Zhou

I love G & D supermarket in Chinatown. Actually, it's probably my favorite: they have everything and it's clean. Oh and after speaking to 3 people, I usually get someone that speaks chinefrish (chinese-french-english, duh) that can tell me where I can find something that three other Asian grocery stores don't. Point is, it rocks. Other point is that on the main level, Nouilles de Lan Zhou is cookin' up a feast of hand pulled noodles, beef and spices! Just my cup-o-tea!

We were lucky to get a seat because the place is quite tiny! I'd say around 20 people can sit comfortably. It has beautiful lanterns right on top of the escalator bringing you down to the supermarket and little ones all around the room. The 'noodle-pulling station' is right up front with a large window so that passers by can see the gifted men (I've only seen men doing it there...) pull dem noodles. It's pretty spectacular and while I was waiting for my friend, I looked for like 5 minutes without a clue of how they actually get the noodles to such a small size from a pile of dough. If anyone knows this secret, please contact me ASAP.

I had the medium sized beef soup. The small one would have been enough! The one I had resembled the size of a large salad bowl and the large one, that our next table neighbours had, was HUGE! I'm thinking, fruit punch at a wedding party huge. Oh and they don't give you a spoon, they give you a tiny ladle! Just to make you feel like a tiny person (well, I always feel tiny but this was somethin' else)! The colours were B-eautiful! I just wanted to jump in there and frolic. Oooor... something else that wouldn't burn me to the third degree. Mmmmmkay.  

What's fun is that you can pick the width of your noodles. And yes, that counts as fun for me! I asked the waitress which one is most popular and had that one (my friend thought they were too big). The broth was very tasty: spicy (they ask you if you want some heat in there), tangy, and it just warmed up my insides. Green onions and fresh mint and coriander added that freshness I like in any dish and another level of flavour. Let's just face it, coriander and mint is just THE best herb mix you can get! The daikon was actually quite amazing in there and added some crunch! The beef was OK: in my opinion, it lacked seasoning, rendering it a tad bland. 

Service was quick and efficient (give me ONE example of non-efficient service in an Asian resto). We had tea in a matter of seconds and our soup in less than 8 minutes (why 8? because I just like that number... SEE, I AM half Asian!). We didn't get water glasses though and had to finish our tea to use our mugs for the water that was on our table. That was a bit bizarre.

And now, the scores!

Food:7.5

Service: 6.5

Yep, Imma gonna go back and try all the different widths of noodles. Now THAT's a life goal right there!

Chez Bong

I had been meaning to go back to Chez Bong for a while--I went about 5 or 6 years ago mostly because it was in the book 'Cheap Thrills' (they tell you where you can eat for cheap in MTL). Obviously I had loved it AND I love Korean food AND it's in Chinatown (because here, if it's anythin' Asian, it's in Chinatown...which we will henceforth call Asiatown).

Anyhoot, went a couple weeks back with my homie Lea with a sole purpose: to eat a good bibimbap! Oh how I love thee!If you don't like bibimbap (for shaaaaaaaaame!), you have about 27 choices on the menu. Dem Asians don't do shiz half assed I tells you.

Aight, so when you get into this resto, there is, you didn't guess it, techno music! What the what? The place looks nice and out of the ordinary with wood everywhere including the walls. The ceiling though is made of panels... with some mold. I tried not to concentrate on that.

We started off with some pork dumplings. The looked great but turned out to be a bit on the doughy side and even though there was a nice, vinegary sauce to go with, it couldn't save the dish. They were still alright though, por favor don't get me wrong (that's right, I use Spanish only when I'm serious about somethin').

They also brought us some boiled potato cubes and my fave by 8000 units (it's a thing!---remind me to tell you about that time in the tent when my friend Jadster said I was taking up 8000 units, just do it!), the BEST thing ever to come out of Korea, kimchi. Ps: I tried my hand at making kimchi last summer and it was quite good indeed (if you don't know what kimchi is, for the love of little baby Jesus, look it up! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimchi).

The potatoes were a tad overcooked and although they weren't necessarily bad per se, they didn't taste like much. Obviously the kimchi was wonderful. Oh God, I want some now! That fermented cabbage, in my mouth, RIGHT NOW. OK, I shall calm down.

Bibimbap actually means mixed rice, did you know that? Well, I didn't either until about 3 seconds ago :) The egg is kind of supposed to be raw but I was happy with this one; raw egg is a thing I not-so-much appreciate. Traditionally the rice is served with veggies, some meat and chili paste. I had all sorts of goodness in my bowl (which is scalding by the way---which is why I had to blow on my food throughout the meal!). There were some pickled veggies that had just a hint of vinegar and went well with the rice, the meat and the egg and well, everything. There were even some fiddleheads which was quite surprising! A damn nice surprise! They were cooked to perfection. And I ain't used to eating warm cucumber but you know what, it's pretty damn darn tootin' good!

Service was alright: we got water quickly and he came to take our order in a timely fashion. He didn't come check once if we liked our meal or to serve us water so that's -23 points right there. He did, however, bring us hot sauce 3 seconds after asking.


And now, the scores!

Food: 7.5
Service: 6.5

If I ever get the bibimbap craving again, I'm going back! Oh, wait, ya, it's here :) You know where to find me!


 

Hoang Oanh

I don't know why but I had been craving a banh mi (uber vietnamese treat) for about a month. Well, that craving was satisfied at Hoang Oanh last Sunday! Called up Lea, told her about my banh mi dreams and set to meet up in Chinatown (I just want to mention how much I appreciate the fact that when I go to Chinatown, I can eat chinese food, korean food, vietnamese food, japanese food etc! Now if it could only be a tad bigger!). Half an hour later, we were there baby!

The place is tiny and has no room to sit, which kind of sucks for people like us who had not planned on eating this loveliness at home. Iz ok, don't cry for me Argentina, we hopped over to the Palais des Congrès and found a comfy sofa to drop our crumbs on :)

Anyhoot, we practically were in and out in 3 minutes! These banh mi girls are fast I tells ya! We didn't want to eat the same sandwich so Lea got the veggie one and I got the beef one. Oh and a big ass ps here, it only cost 4$. Yes I say.

This is the veggie one (and the only good picture---the other ones, they just look like 'well I see some ingredients but it doesn't look like anythin'). Lea had the choice between tofu marinated in curry or marinated in soya sauce. Great choice with the curry; I hardly ever tasted tofu that tasted this good. Ok, rarely. Alright, never. My beef was really tasty too; they apparently really got their proteins right :) Seriously, it was kick-you-in-the-crotch, spit-on-your-neck fantastic (thanks Rachel) but in a good way. The bread in both sandwiches was a tad stale though which was not that super. Plus, you know, all the crumbs. When we got up, we actually saw a reverse body-shaped crumb infested area on the couch. The veggies were so darn good: just a tad pickled and oh-so-fresh! Carrots, daikon, coriander and a hint of hot peppers; so basically all the right stuff. Oh and there was a little bit of yummy yummy sauce that just made everything better. I's gotta say that the veggies were cut a bit too big but in the end, who gives a crap when it tastes this good? Precisely no one! Oh and the hint of really hot peppers was a good choice on our part; it just gave it a nice little kick.

Although I won't be grading the service because of the super duper short time we were in there, it was great! Fast, efficient, nice. 

And now, the score!

Food: 8

I'll be back every day I can. Now THAT is a promise!

 

Pho Bang New York

My friend Val and I LOVE restauranting (oh ya... btw I invent verbs now) together: she doesn't care that I spend a third of the time taking notes and pictures and I don't mind if she talks on the phone. Anyhoot, Val and I decided that, since we are uber poor right now, Chinatown will be our new hang out spot. Many restaurants, some of them good, most of them cheap!

That evening, we decided on a place that had gotten mostly great reviews; Pho Bang New York. Well, for me, any place with 'Bang' in its name is a done deal. So we're about to walk in and notice that it's full, overly lit and cafeteria style, meaning there are long tables and many dining groups sitting beside one another. I know it's not going to be a long dinner so cafeteria style sitting is ok by me.

We were seated quite quickly and as soon as we hit the chair, some tea was on our table. Thank the little baby Jesus (or as I like to call him, Heysus) for that hot tea 'cause I believe it was nearing the minus 8000 Celsius outside. Not cool man, not cool. We looked at the menu but knew what we were going to have, we were there for some Pho (more on pho: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pho). I really needed something hot to thaw my insides (insert picture here).

We decided to share a spring roll entree and both ordered the grilled chicken pho.

The spring roll. I LOVE spring rolls. This one, unfortunately, did not live up to our expectations.  I was dry and quite hard. Plus, I did not even taste the shrimp. And y'all know how much I loves me some shrimp.

Grilled chicken pho. Not the best decision ever made by either of us. The broth didn't taste like much; let's just say we added a lot of sriracha and hoisin to make it taste like somethin'. The chicken was good, thank Heysus, and the charred taste really came through. The choice of veggies... I mean, who wants what I call 'carottes d'avion' (you know, those tiny stooopid carrots) or cauliflower in pho? It smelled amazing when it was placed in front of us but even the yummy thai basil, the lime, nor the sprouts could save it.

Service was lacking, as it is in a lot of Asian restaurants that serve a shiz load of people per meal. Water was on the table quickly and we got the food really fast too but our waiter was looking around while taking our order and that just pisses me off. 

And now, the scores!

Food: 6

Service: 6

I'm not sure I'd go back, even for another kind of pho. Pho sho (hahaha, get it? mmmmya).



 

Amigo

I had heard about this restaurant in Chinatown a while back and really wanted to try it. Actually I'd heard great things about their salt and pepper pork so obviously I was going there for that. 

If I hadn't known the address, I would not have found it: it's on the second floor of a now defunct grocery store (used to be my fave grocery store and now iz dead :( ). 

This place looks like nothin'. NOTHIN'! When I got there, there were three men practically sleeping, waiting for someone to come in. Plus, there's wall to wall dirty carpeting and what could possibly be a nice view of Chinatown is blocked by posters, air conditionner and many dusty plants.

I was told to choose my table and my rude looking waiter came to give me the menu, some tea and some water. I knew what I wanted to have so I ordered right away. Let me just tell you that for 5,95$, you get soup AND a huge plate. And by huge, I mean HUGE! 

My meal started off with some spicy soup. It was alright but as it usually is, it was a bit too... slimy for my taste. I did like the addition of the green onions. They added a nice freshness and needed crunch.

Look at that huge mother freaking plate!!! Fried pork (and I'll try anything fried... except for KFC), veggies, springroll and a ton of rice! I still cannot believe the price! The pork was tender and juicy, the onions and the peppers were a tad spicy which was very much welcomed and the eggroll was nice and simple. The sauce they gave to dip it in was a tad lemony so I put some on the rice too to give it more flavor. Only thing was that most pieces of pork were half fat...as we all know... there's a shiz load of fat in pork. 

The service was not as good as the food: it was 'family dinner' time so they were all busy eating. I almost had to yell to get more water. I felt bad so I was about to get up and pour myself a glass when my waiter actually turned around and brought me the whole pitcher.

And now, the scores!

Food: 7.5

Service: 5

I was not disapointed but better service would have been swell!

ps: they gave me 2 fortune cookies at the end... quite happy :)

Mai Xiang Yuan

I had heard great things about this restaurant and how it had possibly detroned Qing Hua. I was all getting ready to go eat marvellous dumplings at Qing Hua but then decided to go to its better half :) So I went with Isa and we had really high hopes. You know what it's like when you have high hopes right? You get easily disappointed. 

Anyhoot, we got to this chinatown resto (which looks like nothing from the outside) and there was only one table left. Score! There are about 40 to 50 seats in this tiny, crowded room. 

You can see four people, mostly women, making dumplings as fast as the wind behind a window in the kitchen. It was fun to see them go at it with the dough and the filling (yes, that's right, go at it). Could not be fresher than that. Amazing! The place itself is nothing special, with chinese art on a brick wall along with some cartoons (ish things).

As an appetizer, we splurged and shared a 1,50$ cucumber salad :p It was nice and refreshing although a tad to spicy for Isa. She still ate it though! It had some chillies in there with a tiny bit of carrots, coriander and sesame oil. The cucumber pieces were cut a bit weirdly though; one could say they were really roughly cut! Actually, everyone would say that. It's almost like they used their hands.

We had two orders of dumplings. You can either have them fried or simply boiled. Obviously they take longer if fried and obviously (duh!) they are better fried (isn't everything?). I was told to have the chinese cabbage and pork one and we also decided to order the shrimp, coriander and pork ones. Oh and FYI, the lunch special from 11 am to 3 pm is 15 dumplings per plate for less $. Nice if you are more than yoself :p You must also know that if you order for under 15$, you have to pay cash. 

Alright, so both were good. Both weren't fried the same way though: it seemed that the chinese cabbage one was fried on both sides and the other one, not so much. Both were more squishy than crispy unfortunately. Apart from that, they both had wonderful taste and just enough seasoning. The shrimp one reminded me of shrimp dumplings I used to buy au Jardin de Jade just on the other side, on de la Gauchetière. Yummy. I loves me big chunks of shrimp! And the coriander was great in there! 

Shrimp, coriander and pork dumplings

The cabbage ones were silky and juicy. We also had both soya sauce and hot sauce on the table. The hot sauce was a bit disappointing though---not hot enough. Just one advice, these things tend to be juicy, as previously mentioned, so if you bite into it, the boiling juice may squirt into your nose. Just sayin. And it hurts.

Chinese cabbage and pork dumplings

The service was nice. Poor guy was alone. He was running everywhere but was quite efficient and managed to say 'bonjour' to everyone coming in! He served us hot tea as soon as we sat down and since there's a high turnover, he's quick to clean the table.Fast waiter=good waiter :)

And now, the scores.

Service: 8,5

Food: an average of 7,25. I would have loved to put higher but it just wasn't a 10

If you like dumplings, it,s a good place to go. Don't get your hopes too TOO high though. But don't get me wrong, it WAS good :)

Maison Kam Fung

I believe my favorite thing to eat Sunday morning is dim sum. I just love it love it love it! Did I mention I LOVE it? Yep. I convinced the wife to go (she wasn't too keen on it at first) and invited a couple friends that had never (yes, NEVER) eaten dim sum before. We got there at around 10h50, apparently the right time to get there for there were only a couple people in line before us. Usually, we have to wait a good 30 minutes minimum and the whole floor is filled with people waiting to eat this wonderful dim sum (can you tell I like it?).

This is how it happens: you get there, they give you a number, and you wait until they call it out on the microphone (that's right...and no, you don't feel like a celebrity ;). You go in and it's freaking full... and I mean FULL. So full that you usually have to squish yourself and go through the labyrinth of tables. Needless to say there are always a shizload of people! A shizload of asian people. You know what THAT means: this must be good asian food!!!

'Trolley girl!

The place itself is HUGE ... I'd say around 200 to 250 seats, lots of windows... and lots of employees! There are the 'trolley girls' (the women that pass by with the different dim sum) and the waiters (most of them men, in charge of cleaning your table and providing you with water, etc). Every time they give you food, they mark it on the piece of paper that's on your table (2,75$, 3$, 5$).

We were seated in somewhat of a corner which, at first, we thought was unlucky; that we weren't going to get to see all the food passing by. Turns out it was A-OK: the girls passing by were always yelling (I'm not kidding: yelling) what they had to give (sell) you.

So, it had begun: the feast! Our friends looked like they were really enjoying themselves, which made us happy; we just wanted to share our experience at Maison Kam Fung! Also, you know that when you go there, you won't have to wait for your food... it's there as soon as you sit down!

We had a variety of dim sum that day... I can't remember it all...

Shrimp rolls

Pork rolls

Spring rolls: Moist and delicious, we had some pork ones and some shrimp ones I believe. SO good!

Shriiiimp!

Fried shrimp: My fave, of course! Shrimp, fried in a spicy batter that makes you go 'YUUUUM'.









Dumplings: Some shrimp ones and some peanut ones. Both good. The peanut ones had too many...peanut chunks and were too hard for my poor teeth but still amazing!








Chow mein: One of the moistest chow mein EVER.... so damn delicious you want to order more even when you are full and everyone else as well.... and you tell yourself that would just be ke-ra-zy!

There were also some veggies (which, when you are surrounded by fried goodness, you don't really care for). We had some rappini, which turned out quite tasty :)

For the desert, we had what we usually have: some kind of jellied coconut and mango. Very nice! Texture is questionnable but it's nice! 

This, as per usual, was a great food experience: good food, funny people fighting, language you don't understand, lots-o-people and good times! The tea that they serve you at the beginning is quite good and it's free refills (woohoo!).

We shared the bill and it cost us about 14 to 15$ each INCLUDING tip! If that's not a good deal, I don't know what is!

Our two friends that came along had a couple things to say:
1- Loooooved the tea (they give you tea with your meal and they refill it regularly). Chow mein had a good texture not slimy like Chinese fast food.

2- Spring rolls were delicious, expecially with the sauce. Chow mein was baller as well as dessert. 
 

And now, the scores!

Food: an average of 8.75
Service: an average of 8 (good until the end when the very busy waiter basically told us to fuck off when we wanted the bill and to go directly to the cash!!!)

All in all, as usual, a great dim sum experience! We just loved it!