literal Underground Chinese Restaurant in the Kanda sushi on decarie

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.

Late Night in Chinatown: Seafood at Keung Kee

So, drunken munch in Chinatown is pretty much a staple in almost every major city in North America. So, what do you do when you are relatively sober? In some cities, there's usually a Seafood place where you can swing by, in Montreal, it's Keung Kee. I pretty much grew up in this joint, my parents has been frequenting it for at  least 15 years. So I guess it is fair that I'll try to give them an impartial review.

Chili and Soy for dipping.

Stir fried Clams with soy. The soy is enriched with oil, scallion and ginger. It's a good dish, you can still taste the subtle sweetness of the big ass clams. 

 Steamed oyster with Scallion and garlic confit.

There's actually a right size to steamed oyster, not too small, because the meat won't stand it, they will shrink to nothingness, and not too fat. They were good

Clam Congee

I guess its just congee with clam.

Rice and beef noodle pan fried.

seafood pan fried noodle.

Saka-Ba, Japanese Ramen on the Plateau

The man behind Saka-Ba is Junichi Ikematsu, the brilliant chef behind Jun-I, often described as an amazing French-Japanese Fusion Sushi restaurant. Junichi's background, prior to Montreal, was in French cooking, but it doesn't show at this place. Made to look like a casual bar-like restaurant, from the Pachinko machine to the old Japanese movie posters, this place looks like a fun bar. I won't mind spending my afternoon sipping cocktails in the place.

The Drinks

A Highball

This one been a Bourbon and Soda, probably Jim Beam. A highball is the traditional name for cocktails which contains an alcohol mixed with a non-alcoholic mixer. Decent drink, but I'll probably order something different next time

Sapporo Freeze

 Why is there a quirky frozen slushy made out of Yuzu and beer on top of the beer? Why, WHYYYYYYYY. Because it's refreshing and it's summer, that's why. Meh, not my kind of drink, I dislike slushies/slurpies in general, but I would order if the day was burning hot. Hell, I'll get myself one of those machine.

 Octopus Salad

Flavourwise, it was good, some chili oil, soy. This is quite close in flavour to Northern Chinese food/Korean food. Quite decent actually. Goes great with beer.

 Yaki Buta, Pork on a skewer.

Quite simple, but good. Pork pieces skewered and grilled. 

Ebi Ramen

Lobster Broth, Japanese style ChaSiu, Corn, Bamboo, bean Sprouts, Green Onions, Noodles

I mean, the ramen noodles were ok, I personally think they could have a bit more snap, the charsiu was good, the side were decent, but something was lacking. In all the very good ramen bowl I had, it was a downright dirty experience, the broth was borderline muddy, but so damn complex. I think they are trying to showcase the lobster from the lobster broth, the small inherent sweetness from it, but this is not for me. I guess it was an ok dish.

Karage Chicken Fried till crips, with a decent spicy mayo. Would order again.

Yakitori

Chicken skewers, simple but good.

Would i come back? Maybe for a pint of frozen Sapporo and some snacks.

Old World Pub: Ye Olde Ochard

After an interview with a horrible company, for the record, I was offered the job, I declined, I refuse to work for under the minimum wage. I swung by Ye Olde Ochard, the original one, which a few street away from where I had my interview. It is quite a charming pub.

sorry for the shitty pics, this time they were taken with a potato cam.

Drinks:

A 5$ 5-7 pint, my friend who accompanied me in this folly had a pint of cider.

Bacon Jalapeno Cheese Burger

It's pub food, but well done. Fries were great.

Since my friend is a vegetarian, she had a vegetarian burger. I guess she thought it was OK. The sweet potatoes fries were from actual sweet potatoes tho, not that frozen stuff.

I mean, it's a great place to blow off steam, foods good and beer is good.

Would return if I'm near, Monkland Tavern/Mikado is also a good place to grab a bite in that area.

Liban sur le Plateau: un vrai Tripe de Bouffe

Well, I was hanging out with Gabby, and after quite a a few drinks at Billy Kun, we headed in front at Tripe de bouffe for a quick bite.

Cheese Eggplant Thing on Rice. Creamy, tomatoey, full of flavour. It was absolutely delicious. 

Tabouleh and an eggplant salad. Both were Fresh the eggplant salad was particularly amazing.

Fatayer, both meat and spinach, Kibbeh and Falafels. They were all really good, the Spinach fatayer was especially good, a lot more balanced than what I was used too, not as sour. The falafels were amazing. We came back the day right after to grab a few. Sober. 

Would return, the food was dirt cheap too.

Late night in the east side: Italian at Milano.

This place holds a special place in my heart, mostly because I spent countless night drinking espresso and beer in that place. The sandwiches are awesome, I would rather go there than at any chain in the city, and the sweets are pretty good. 

 The Milano Special

Well, it's the new kid on the menu. I usually get the old school sausage or steak sandwich, with extra eggplants and hot peppers, but this chopped up frenzy of steak, peppers and onion stir fried sounded too good. 

The Macchiato.

Cannoli, some of the best in the city. Creamy, cheesy goodness.

Lobster Tail, I think the cannoli is better but they are still amazing.

Will return.

indian in Park-Ex: Maison Indian Curry

Gabby LOVES Indian food, and didn't have any since she moved to Montreal. Laughing at her, I took her to one of my favourite area in town, Southern Park-Ex, also known as Little India. I didn't know where I wanted to go, there's plenty of good choices in the neighborhood, Chand Palace, Pushap Sweets, 786 Halal, and many other amazing places covers the plethora of South Asian food pretty well too, but I brought her to Maison Indian Curry, which is a pretty solid Indian restaurant. 

The Idli Sambar

A true staple of Southern Indian cuisine, Idlis are made by steaming fermented black lentil and rice batter. Big puffy tasty ball of dough. Comes with a spicy sambar, a really tasty one too, although I do prefer it to be a bit spicier and a fresh raita. It was really delicious.

The beer is from a micro-brewery in Bromont, decent beer, an IPA, a bit short on the hops, but it works well with spicy food.

The Mango Lassi. A thick, sweet lassi. I happen to prefer salted lassi, but this was a decent sweet one.

The Shrimp Byriani. Delicious rice, baked with shrimps and spices. I should have asked to have extra spice, but this is good as it is. Plus I don't think Gabby could have supported the extra spice. It is a good version of a Byriani, sometimes, it is too wet, sometimes, it is dry. This is a delicious version.

The Raita that came with the rice. Amazingly salty, and it cuts through right through the spices. Really refreshing.

Matar Paneer, Peas and cheese, with tomatoes, yogurt and garam marsala. It is delicious, green peas, making a bit sweet, snappy, delicious paneer, which is one of my favourite thing in the world. 

Tikka Masala, just like General Tso or the Hamburger, is a dish that is a mutation from the old country. Popularized in Great-Britain, Chicken Tikka is roasted Chicken in a tandoor, and they put it in a tomatoes sauce full of spices. Not too sweet, juicy chicken with bread. Delicious, full of peppers.  

 

The Naan, freshly baked, great with both curries.

Would Return again.