12/04/2013
The place: Orange Rouge, 106 Rue De La Gauchetière Ouest
Montreal, QC.
The vibe: not your average General Tso joint. High ceilings, bare, open space. A bit noisy. (Maybe it's just me, but lately I find very few restaurants or bars pay any attention to acoustics. The vogue for spartan decor is no doubt partially to blame.)
The food: Yum. Fresh and tasty, neither drowning in oil nor illustrating why 'steamed' equals 'boring'. Quality ingredients and high veg and herb content made a chinatown lunch seem like it might even actually qualify as healthy.
Beware of small portions, however. If you have even an average appetite you'll need to order at least one plate per person plus rice. (If you still eat carbs, that is. We do.)
The service: Mmm. Needs work. A bit too hasty to clear the plates. (I hate that.) But not so responsive as to our drinks order. To be fair, I think the server couldn't hear us (see above comments re: acoustics). But seriously, people, nobody likes getting the feeling they're being rushed out of a place when they're trying to have a relaxing lunch club meeting on a Friday. Especially when the place was half empty.
Let us linger, already.
What else: One last little quibble: Be it resolved that all restaurants in Montreal should tend to their guests' wellbeing by installing big heavy medievalish curtains in front of the door, so as to prevent huge gusts of icy air from messing with our digestions.
