SubscribeDINNER October 24, 2008
I am wary of pan-Asian restaurants. You know, those something-for-everyone places that pump sushi, General Tao and Vietnamese spring rolls out of the same kitchen. Call me Cartesian but I like a little rigor in my menu. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. Last week in New York we ate at Momofuku where steamed pork buns rubbed shoulders with a kimchi stew and a nice selection of sake.
Chinese food in Montreal tends to have as many thrills as our recent election, but emboldened by the Momofuku experience, we opted for a local restaurant that seems to be trying to offer the same type of inventive pan-Asian food. Soy offers a predominantly Chinese menu, but one that incorporates dishes and ingredients from the other culinary traditions of East Asia.
More effort has been put into the décor than at most Chinese restaurants (still, that’s not exactly like playing the varsity team) resulting in a generally tasteful dim-lit and yellow shaded space offset with Chinese calligraphy, modern Japanese themed prints and contrasted by the bold orange tables and garish green spilling out of the kitchen pass.
Set menus ranging from $19 to $25 encompass most of the items on the menu and include a soup or salad, appetizer, main and ice cream of sorbet for dessert, together with coffee or tea. Not a bad deal indeed.
Appetizers include a number of dumplings and rolls as well as a couple of distinctively non-Asian items like tartare. The fried barbecued duck dumplings, served with a “Szechuan” sauce that does not contain any of the spice I expected, are nice and crispy on the outside but do not pack a lot of flavor. Meh. Deep fried tofu squares with a ginger teriyaki sauce with a crispy but not too oily exterior and a silky inside fare much better and are even gobbled up by the JJ, a tofu hater of some renown.
The salmon tartare, prepared with miso and lime and served with nori squares, thinly sliced cucumber and pickled ginger is impressive in design but not in execution. The lime has “cooked” the salmon a bit and the tartare is more mushy than fresh. The toasted nori do not appear to be toasted and the overall dish barely gets out the gate. Grilled calamari served with cucumber ribbons and sriracha mayo is a better selection. The portion is generous (relative to the other appetizers) albeit a tad overcooked and, while the sriracha mayo does not live up to the fantasies I had created for it, overall this is a winner.
The inconsistency of the appetizers was reflected in the mains with a number of dishes that were generally good but not great. Szechuan duck with northern Chinese steamed buns, scallions, cucumber and hoisin sauce leaves us wondering what makes the duck, compressed into a big rectangular patty and fried, so Szechuan? It is a pleasant enough make-your-own meal experience that involves making little pressed duck sandwiches with the little steamed buns but as a main course it does not quite ring my bell.
A Korean outlier on this predominantly Chinese menu is galbi, served on a bed of rice with cucumber and romaine leaf wrappers. The meat in question was not beef rib so probably does not qualify as galbi. It actually looked more like bulgogi and while it was tasty, a devotee of Korean food would probably not have thought it was a particularly alluring specimen.
Faring a little better is a seafood stew with rice wine and coriander. The abundant fish, octopus and shrimp are well cooked and the coriander leaves give off an alluring freshness. Scooped onto bowls of steamed rice it made for a satisfying stew on a cold fall evening, the only complaint being that it might have been a little less sweet. Shanghai style egg noodles sautéed with napa cabbage, shiitake mushrooms and chicken make a very tasty, if unspectacular, noodle dish.
Clearly this is not Momofuku, but nobody was expecting it to be. While its nice to see Chinese food that is more creative in design and plating than our usual nondescript fare, the execution at Soy may be falling a little behind the inspiration. An interesting meal, but not one that has inspired a sequel.
Cost: Approximately $200 for four ordering the set menu with a couple of glasses of wine, a liberal order of Sapporo supercans and tea.
Soy
5258 St-Laurent
514.499.9399
http://www.restaurantsoy.com
