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| - I was attending a conference at the Palais des Congres, which abuts Chinatown, so it made sense to find some good dim sum for lunch. Thanks to Yelp, I found Maison Kam Fung a block away, inside a labyrinthine strip-mallish building.
After stopping to ask for directions and following my helper to the restaurant, I ended up being seated across a large round table from two businessmen, since I was dining alone.
The restaurant was packed, which gave me hope that the food would be excellent. The gai lan was cooked perfectly, and the server kindly cut it into smaller pieces when asked (I hate gnawing on large chunks of Chinese broccoli). And then there was a cart of food I wasn't interested in. And then there was a very, very long wait before the next cart appeared. In fact, the wait was so long that my tablemates complained to the staff. Finally, another cart appeared. This contained one of the best shrimp fun I've ever tasted.
Then, since I was getting tired of waiting for more food, I stopped a waiter and asked for siu mai, shrimp and chive dumplings, and pork spareribs with black bean sauce. The siu mai was delivered promptly, but I was told to wait for the carts for the rest of the food. In the meantime, I tucked into the siu mai, which were very large but not very good. The ratio of pork to shrimp was off, and it tasted like a pork meatball.
In the end I gave up waiting for anything else and just got some baked bows wrapped up to go. When I left the table to pay the bill, I put a few dollars down for a tip. At the register the host had the temerity to ask if I'd already left a tip as he handed me my change. I guess he was thinking he should just keep it if I'd been so gauche as to not tip.
Needless to say, that left a very bad taste in my mouth. This was the worst dining experience I had in Montreal. I see no reason to ever return.
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