Canada Trip Day 18: Montreal's Chinatown, Chuan Xiang Qing Restaurant & Complexe Desjardins

30 June 2010 - After our refreshing visit at the Mont Royal Park, we decided to head next to the Chinatown for some nice Chinese lunch. Mum was not particularly keen about museum visits and had prompted us to go on ahead without her. With a destination in her mind, we thought we'd just stop museum visits for now and stick with the Chinatown idea.

Little did I realise Chinatown was actually pretty far! It felt really far because the walking just seemed endless as we passed blocks after blocks of streets. Google Maps gauged a walking distance of 4.9km! It was drizzling, so we were out walking in our Maid of the Mist blue, plastic poncho raincoats.

Chinatown was a busy place. The streets and shops were crowded. We surveyed the area wandering from one gate tower to the opposite one along Rue Clark, watching people set about their personal tasks. We were also looking for a nice restaurant to have lunch in. We saw a Mongolian restaurant and got excited after skimming through a newspaper clipping pasted on its front door. Unfortunately, it was getting ready to close and was no longer entertaining orders. We found another restaurant with nice food pictures right across it. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the food at Chuan Xiang Qing Restaurant was absolutely fantastic! We had a great meal, one that kept us happily reminiscing during our way back to McKay Street where the hostel is located. The duck in a heating wok was most delicious and unique! Along the way, we stopped by Complexe Desjardins for some shopping and also to get out of the rain for a while.

Some photos are taken by Sakana






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Buffet restaurant in Chinatown

Gate tower and a busy Chinatown street

Newspaper clipping of the Mongolian Restaurant with mouth-watering hotpot menu

Me walking up the stairs of Mongolian restaurant only to find it closing in about 15 minutes.

Chinatown of Montreal

People sitting by at the square in Montreal's Chinatown

There are some nice Chinese art carvings on the stone walls

Entrance of Restaurant Chuan Xiang Qing, which takes us to a staircase leading to the basement

The extremely, extremely delicious and succulent duck dish with assorted vegetables, served in a heating wok

Absolutely fabulous egg plant dish. Mind you, not many places cook egg plant extremely well.

This tofu dish was also very delicious.

Spicy Szechuan soup, also delicious!

Complexe Desjardins' entrance

Just walking in to Complexe Desjardins

Main hall of Complexe Desjardins

Us walking in our plastic poncho raincoats

Shopping street