Sometimes, really rarely, you are really surprised by the restaurant industry. This just happened to me yesterday. Kanda Sushi is a relatively mediocre sushi Chain based in and around Montreal, the one in Decarie hides something special. I thought people were joking when they told me there's a decent Chinese restaurant hidden within it, a sort of a secret menu of some sort that people don't know about. The truth is even better.
To access it, you enter Kanda, you go past the first hostess, go down to the basement where the bathroom is located, turn right instead of left, and you shall be greeted by the hostess of the Secret Chinese restaurant.
At first, I thought it was a Pop-up or an equivalent. I was wrong, this is an actual sit-down joint that only opens at night. The decors downstairs is a bit more refined than your off-the-mill Chinese restaurant, the lighting is well-thought and the chairs are actually quite comfortable.
Usually, peanuts served in a Chinese restaurant are actually quite of a joke. Stale, dry, pretty horrible. Not those, braised with 5 spices and soy, they are soft, tender, and delicious. I happen to actually love boiled peanuts.
The daily soup, Watercress, pork bones, carrots. The soup was simple, the flavour clean. Technically a perfect soup, but I actually find those kinds of soup boring.
Steamed razor clams, with confit garlic, and vermicelli.
This is one of my favourite dishes in the world. The vermicelli was perfect, the accouterments were great, but the clams were a tad overcooked.
Stir fried beans with pork and Salted Soy Beans
Again, I dislike beans, there's a certain rawness in it i cannot stand. Those were pretty solid tho, enough wok hei, well seasoned. Would order if I actually like beans.
Fried Pork Intestine
Delicious, the right amount of chewyness. Great dish. I happen to love offal, and everything fried's good.
Garlic and ginger lobster with Yee Mien
The noodle contained were stir fried at high enough heat, so it didn't turn to mush during serving. The lobster was fresh, sweet. I mean, wok fried lobster is pretty hard to screw up, only hard component in this dish that's hard to get it right is the noodles. It was good, simple food.
Sichuan Style Boiled Fish (水煮鱼)
One of my sister's favourite dish. This dish originated from the inland province of Sichuan, where they have no seafood available. Traditionally, this is made with delicious river fish. The chef didn't use the thicker beans sprout, instead, he used cabbage to undercut the heat. He didn't used whole Sichuan peppercorns, but grind them so you could feel it through the dish. This was actually quite a decent dish, surprising, especially if we consider the fact that this is a Sichuanese dish in a Cantonese restaurant.
Chicken and Shrimp With Mayonaise
The chicken and shrimp were well fried, crisp enough, but I disliked the sauce, which is traditionally a combination of Kewpi mayo, some condensed milk, and probably some cornstarch.
Beef tripe and Cloud ear mushroom
This dish, full of 5 spices, some sichuan peppercorn, ginger and other spices, was a festival of texture and flavour. Surprisingly my favourite dish of the evening.
Red Bean soup with tapioca
I hate big bubbles of tapioca, but it was complimentary. Get a Julep after instead.
Apparently, the kitchen brigade used to work at Fu Kam Wah in its heydays, around 2009-2011, which was probably the best years of that particular spot. Would gladly return. They apparently make a great Lobster/crab with salted egg yolks too. I will try next time.
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