Recent Reviews
I was in Montreal during the Jazz festival with a friend who was visiting the city for the first time. My friend insisted on two things, (1) we try a crepe restaurant, and (2) we go for dim sum in Chinatown at a resto of my choosing. Here are the results of our excursions:
Chez Suzette (St. Paul, Old Montreal) - We were staying at the Hotel Intercontinental, and I noticed this apparently small crepe specialty shop in Old Montreal. I decided after examining the menu that since crepes were the only thing on it, they must be specialists. So I took my friend here. We got there in the late morning and I noticed it's actually not such a small place. There are actually 3 floors, and you can get tables at the windows facing St. Paul on each of the 3 floors. We got a table at the window on the 1st floor. My friend ordered a lunch crepe that had bacon, avocado and melted cheese (and sour cream) if I recall correctly, while I got a breakfast or dessert crepe that had fresh fruit in it drizzled with maple syrup. I must say it was fantastic, and far better than the crepes being served at Chez Cora. The Chez Suzette Crepes are made from a sweeter, pancake-like batter to my taste buds. My friend and I both immensely enjoyed our meal here.
Ruby Rouge (Clark Street, Chinatown) I have been going here for years and I have previously reviewed it at least 3 times in this thread. The meal I had here was as good or better than any of the other 8 or 9 times I had eaten here previously going back to 2002. Of particular note was the spring rolls, which were very tasty if not piping hot (not a reasonable expectation at any dim sum restaurant), and the shrimp and vegetable dumplings. I just this past week ate dim sum at one of the more popular places in Manhattan (Jing Fong), and Ruby Rouge is better. And the service is at RR excellent based on my fairly significant experience having eaten dim sum at all the major places in New York, Boston and San Francisco; the waiter actually was politely offended when I tried to go to the cash register myself rather than let her take my check to tally up the bill and return for payment. By the ways, my friend and I ate like pigs and our bill, including tax, came to $17.00.
Winnie's (Crescent Street) - I dragged my friend here, telling him it was the best burger on Crescent Street. And it still is. The waiter, who was gay, allowed me to sweet talk him into cooking my burger medium rare. I played the role of the tormented and frustrated tourist in true Drama King fashion, and it worked. If you act like a Drama King in a polite way with gay waiters, I found that it always works because almost all of them are really into the theater. However I knew he risked his job by getting that burger cooked medium rare, so I tipped him well. My friend order a soup which was called Mexican vegetable soup or something like that, which was greenish and looked blended, and a Caesar Salad. He said that the soup was bland but the salad was very good.
Beijing (Chinatown) - My friend wanted to go back to Chinatown for more Chinese, so I told him this is the place for the traditional sit down Chinese meal. Excellent as usual. I have never been to this restaurant when it wasn't full on Thursday, Friday or Saturday nights. Also, I never had a bad meal here.
We ate at a few other places but the above were the standouts. My friend told me he thought Chez Suzette and Ruby Rouge were our 2 best meals on the 5 day trip. I tend to agree.
