Best restaurant in Montreal Chinatown?

February 8, 2006 2:39 PM

What's the best/your favourite restaurant in Montreal's Chinatown?
posted by ITheCosmos to Food & Drink (8 answers total)

Mon Nan on Clark street has tasty, Cantonese fare and some limitde Szechuan. Open VERY VERY LATE. Until 4 or 5 am daily I believe. Hun Dao On St-laurent has amazing ginger lobster but last time I went it ( 2 weeks ago ) was closed due to a dispute with the landlord regarding the lease. These restaurants are not high end or classy joints but offer good food. Montreal Chinatown is not a good place however to find a decent bar. Luckily the bars On St-Laurent Blvd are just a hop and a skip away..
posted by dawdle at 2:47 PM on February 8, 2006

I'm told Niu Kee is amazing.
posted by Succa at 3:01 PM on February 8, 2006

Oh, also forgot to mention that if you know a place that's got lots of vegetarian options, that's a big plus, although most Chinese places are fine for that.
posted by ITheCosmos at 3:06 PM on February 8, 2006

does Hunan still exist?

it's on St Laurent, below Rene Levesque

it used to be soooo goooood.
posted by seawallrunner at 3:38 PM on February 8, 2006

I've been a fan of the Maison Guang Zhou for years, and they have a short but decent vegetarian subset on their menu.

Tiniest resto in Chinatown: the Zhong Cheng, on la Gauchetière a step east of Saint-Laurent. Has about five tables, does old-timey Hong Kong style food (according to a friend who comes from there).

Interesting newish place: upstairs of the Hong Kong on Saint-Laurent there's now a Uyghur restaurant serving the cuisine of Xinjiang. Quite different from the usual Chinese fare.

Dim sum: I usually go to the Ruby Rouge on Clark, but there are other places probably as good.

Vietnamese: the Cristal No. 1 (used to be the Cristal Saigon) is my fave in Chinatown.

If you're utterly strictly vegetarian, actually most Chinese places are not so good, because they're apt to use a little meat broth in almost anything. There isn't any Chinese Buddhist resto in Montreal's Chinatown now, and that's probably the only category of Chinese cookery which you can be sure is 100% vegetarian.
posted by zadcat at 4:08 PM on February 8, 2006

You sure there's no veg Buddhist place left, zadcat? That one on the second floor closed? I went there years ago with a vegetarian friend.
posted by docgonzo at 5:48 PM on February 8, 2006

The Manbo closed a few years ago, docgonzo - there's offices upstairs there now, I think.
posted by zadcat at 6:35 PM on February 8, 2006

I second Mon Nan. Also, for good Viet Namese I recommend Pho Bang New York which used to be on the north-west corner of St-Laurent and Viger but is now on the north east side of St-Laurent and up a few doors.
posted by furtive at 5:47 AM on February 9, 2006