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| - First off: Chez Chili does not (I repeat: does not) have skillet queso or chicken club tacos on offer. If you're looking for Chili's, you'll have to look elsewhere.
Secondly: Chez Chili is not easy to find. If you're looking for the entrance on Clark, you'll be out of luck--you're going to have to swing around to de la Gauchetière to find a way in. And it's tucked away in a basement, so the address is actually "1050-B."
Thirdly: Chez Chili's decor ranges from the Sinological to the surreal. The walls are adorned with boldly graphic cultural lessons. Off in one corner, however, stood a lonely half-size traffic sign ("SLOW") that appeared to have been transformed into a clock. A broken clock. Eat your heart out, Salvador Dali.
Now that we've dealt with those pressing issues... Chez Chili features a menu that represents three distinct regions of China with three distinct cuisines: Hunan, Sichuan, and Dongbei (a.k.a., Manchuria). Montreal's Chinese New Wave has been spearheaded by Sichuan cuisine and, to some extent, Hunan cuisine. If you're looking for a Manchurian candidate, Chez Chili just might do the trick.
In typical Chinese fashion, the menu at Chez Chili is fairly extensive, and I've yet to figure out what all the hits and misses are, but a fairly random survey turned up a couple of exceptional dishes, and a number that were less so.
The great: the Sichuan lamb with onions and cumin was a stone-cold winner--the kind of dish that has you thinking about "the next time" even as you're eating it for the first time; there was also a mushroom casserole (Hunan, I believe) that was really squeaky (you'll see what I mean when you start chewing), but also really appetizing, and a welcome vegetable dish.
The good: spicy chicken knuckles could have been more generous on the meat-side, but was near-hallucinatory on the spice side; twice-cooked pork was just good, as were the dry-fried green beans.
The forgettable: Dongbei-style cabbage with glass noodles looked interesting, but was strangely bland; fried chicken strips was like a Chinese chicken schnitzel covered with chilis, which sounds pretty great, but, unfortunately, was characterless.
I could see my rating for Chez Chili going up once I've had the chance to explore the menu a little further (I'm sure there are more gems in there somewhere), but for now...
Worth checking out? Absolutely.
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