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| - This is a rather belated review, as I paid a visit to Montreal a couple of months back in the summer, but I figured better late than never for a place that has left a great impression.
A couple of friends and I visited on a weekend trip and made a note to visit HAO as a) it had great reviews, b) the pictures looked beautiful, and c) (perhaps most importantly for us) it was conveniently close to our AirBnB. Your reason for visiting should be d) none of the above, because in a foodie city where mainstays such as Au Pied de Cochon, Joe Beef, and Schwartz dominate the headlines all the time, we should all be paying a little more attention to the smaller establishments that offer a much friendlier and more accessible food experience.
First, the food: as many reviews mentioned, HAO embraces the "less is more" philosophy and offers a pared down menu of the essentials - baos consisting of a pork or a vegetarian (tofu) filling, topped with garlic crisps, in between white, fluffy buns; dumplings; cucumber salads. We tried both the pork and tofu buns and the cucumber salad. The pork buns were good, but to my surprise, the tofu ones were my favorite. I am always impressed by vegetarian options that really mimic both the taste and texture of meat it is substituting, this is was outstanding; the tofu absorbed the flavors even better than the pork. My only nit-picky comment is that the buns fall apart easily, so it's difficult to eat with your hands or get the perfect bun to filling ratio. The cucumber salad is nothing to write home about, but you gotta balance your meal with vegetables.
Next, the service: I went in a group of 6 and Rachelle was more than receptive and helpful. She explained every dish available on the menu (everything was in French) and despite the limited space, she pulled up chairs and set us up, happily made sure we got water and kept a keen eye on our glasses in case we needed a refill. Because it wasn't as busy while we were there, she struck up conversation and gave us local recommendations. It was really clear that she works very hard to give every customer the best experience.
Finally, the story: Rachelle runs HAO with her brothers. The entire interior of the store was designed by one of her brothers and the recipes and cooking is done by the other. She seems to run the storefront and marketing for the store, and told us how everything came to be; at first, they started as a small catering service and then slowly grew from there until they got a storefront. The store is about a year old now, but they're going to expand to have a large seating area as there is a vacancy in the space next door. It was really inspiring and heartwarming to hear how hard Rachelle and her family worked so hard to get HAO off the ground and clearly they're all very invested in it still - we even saw her mom coming in!
All in all, I really enjoyed my visit and urge everyone to visit for the food and to support an awesome local business!
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