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| - Let me start by saying that I first fell in love with this place over a decade ago when it was at 400 Sherbrooke St. East. Then it closed down and I searched for it online but to no avail, so I concluded that it was gone for good. It was only recently that I discovered that it in fact reopened at 2115 St. Denis many years ago. I lamented the thought of all those years I could have dined at Yuan (sigh).
Anyway, so I was super excited to eat at Yuan again on my recent trip to Montreal. It was freezing outside and it was a 30 minute walk from our hotel, but I figured it would be all worth it (and my husband, who is a carnivore through and through, agreed to give it a try). So we get there and we totally wanted the "all you can eat" lunch but were told that they stopped offering that recently and the "all you can eat" is only offered at dinner. Major disappointment :( Ok, so we got the bento box lunch ($16.95 each). We both got the General Tao "chicken" (a.k.a. soy chunks) as our main because we love General Tao anything. My husband (the sweetie that he is) ordered different sides from me so I could sample more items.
You get a starter soup with your bento box. I got the Hot and Sour soup and my husband got the Miso soup. Both soups were warm at best, more like tepid. I like my soups really hot, so I was like sad face :( However, the Hot and Sour soup was full of mushrooms, tofu and bamboo shoots. The broth was really thick and it was full of flavour. I finished the bowl, but it would have been so much more awesome if it was actually hot in temperature. My husband's Miso soup was a total dud. It was mostly broth (no chunks of tofu) with some sorry pieces of nori seaweed on top (not wakame seaweed, but nori, like the seaweed they use to wrap sushi - weird to have this in soup in my opinion). There were also some tiny slivers of celery in the soup, but it was mostly broth and too salty at that. My husband only had a spoonful. I ate the nori and about a spoonful of broth as well.
The General Tao "chicken" was good, but there's no fooling anyone that it's not textured vegetable protein (TVP). It is so obviously TVP. I like TVP, so no big deal, but my husband the meat lover was not too impressed. The TVP pieces were nice and chewy and the sauce was sweet and tangy. However, I've had better General Tao TVP.
You can choose between sushi or dumplings as a side, so I had the sushi and my husband had the dumplings (although he gave them all to me and didn't eat any of them). The sushi was 4 pieces of maki with cucumber, avocado, some other vegetables and vegetarian "shrimp." The vegetarian "shrimp" tasted like really dense and solid surimi crab (a.k.a. fake crab sticks). The maki contained a sweet white sauce in it that was a little too sweet, but I still liked it. My husband had a piece and he actually liked it too.
The dumplings were boiled wonton filled with what looked and tasted like ground up water chestnuts, carrots and some other vegetables. The filling was somewhat skimpy though. The dumplings were covered in a sweet peanut sauce (like Hunan dumplings). The dumplings would have been really good if the filling to wonton wrapper ratio was higher.
My husband also got steamed edamame in the pods with his dumplings. He hates edamame so I got to eat all of them. They were nicely steamed and lightly sprinkled with salt.
The bento boxes also came with steamed broccoli which were steamed al dente (perfect). We also got rice which was nutty and delicious. They called it brown rice, but it was not typical brown rice, it was much darker, I think it was red cargo rice. We both loved the rice. We also got a small salad (mixed greens) with some TVP slices on top which was also good.
For dessert we got 4 small pieces of glutinous rice cake with a red bean and mung bean centre. It tasted like mochi and was chewy and delicious.
The restaurant is in a basement and it was very cold down there. We sat next to the baseboard heaters but I was still cold. The washrooms were also very cold and there was no hot water and the hand dryers blew only cold air. There was a broken faucet in the women's washroom and it was covered with a plastic bag to indicate that it wasn't working.
The server was really polite and attentive. I had no problems with service.
When Yuan was on Sherbrooke East it was a beautiful restaurant with the most delicious food. I was sad to see what it has become. The food was ok, but I was expecting the same experiences I had over 10 years ago. Maybe I am just looking back at my memories through rose-tinted glasses. Maybe they didn't have their "A" Team in the kitchen that day. Maybe my tastes have changed. I don't know.
I want to go back and give them another chance. Maybe for their "all you can eat" dinner.
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