Creative Contemporary Chinese Food in Montreal

Five spice duck platter with condiments

As soon as we arrived in Montreal and dropped off our suitcases, we headed to Oncle Lee Kao, a modern Chinese restaurant in the old part of the city.

Driving there was no problem, but finding parking was quite the challenge. Eventually we found a spot -- and free too!

We entered the restaurant at 8.30pm on a Saturday night and were shocked to see it hopping, all the tables were full, and it was noisy. Did we mention the vast majority of diners were not Chinese?

Savoury jian dui with shiitake and sesame sauce

My main purpose of coming here was to finally try chef Andersen Lee's cooking, after having interviewed him 2019 when he won the inaugural 50 Best BBVA Scholarship. The award entitled him to stage or intern at three top restaurants -- Core by Clare Smyth in London, Odette in Singapore, and Quintonil in Mexico City.

Following his internships he wasn't inspired to go abroad or fine dining -- instead the experience pulled him back to Montreal, where he opened Oncle Lee and now Oncle Lee Kao, with his creative takes on Chinese dishes. 

Most impressive was the five spice duck platter. Lee explained they didn't have the capacity or knowledge to make Peking duck, so why not make it pastrami style, as an homage to Montreal? And the result is fantastic. 

The duck breast is thinly sliced so they can be placed in thin steamed wrappers and condiments can be added before wrapping it up and popping it into your mouth.

Asparagus with mapo tofu sauce

We also enjoyed the steamed oysters with black bean sauce, shrimp toast, and a savoury jian dui with shiitake mushroom and sesame sauce. How novel.

Mini egg rolls are filled with duck rillettes, while chunks of tender octopus are placed on skewers with lap cheong or Chinese sausage and spring onions in between. Typically octopus is paired with chorizo, but lap cheong is an interesting substitute we couldn't identify at first.

Asparagus are in season and they came with mapo tofu sauce on top; the green stalks were so tender that at the end of our Montreal trip we bought some at a farmer's market to bring back to Vancouver.

Sashimi isn't exactly Chinese, but we had some, along with a giant platter of fried rice that Lee likes to cook at home with crunch thinly sliced cabbage and mayonnaise and chilli crisp.

Lee's homestyle fried rice with chilli crisp

For dessert, a bowl of tapioca with coconut, strawberry and rhubarb, and some mini yuzu tartlets with green tea, together with fresh fruit.

Lee recently came back from a trip to Shanghai, Ningbo and Hong Kong -- his first to China -- which really opened his exposure to not only Chinese cooking techniques but also flavours and ingredients. 

Can't wait to see what he will do next.

Oncle Lee Kao

112 Rue McGill

Montreal

514 303 1100