TL;DR/The Short Version:
Very affordable Chinese restaurant with delicious food and huge portions.
The Long Version:
So I've walked by Restaurant Guan many times, but they have always been closed because they are closed on weekends and I'm usually only back in Montreal on weekends. I was there on a weekday on a previous visit but it was around the Christmas holidays and they were closed for an extended time during the holidays. Anyway, I finally walked by on a Friday and they were open! So I had to pop in for a little something to check them out.
From the outside this place reminds me of the type of restaurant that I loved when I was in Montreal as a poor starving student, living in a studio apartment and sleeping on an inflatable mattress, many moons ago. That is restaurants with huge portions for cheap, with tasty food. Since I had youth on my side, I wasn't too concerned about nutrition back then. There was this place on St. Urbain at the corner of Ave des Pins and I can't remember the name, but I'd be able to get a huge plate of General Tao Chicken with fried rice and a spring roll for $3.99. It would literally fill me up for 24 hours. Restaurant Guan reminds me of that place.
On my visit, I just got a small order of pork peanut butter dumplings which was 5 dumplings for $3.50, as a snack, but I saw others getting meals and their portions were huge. The Pad Thai would easily be 2-3 meals for me. Anyway, my dumplings were tasty. The dumpling were filled with ground pork and topped with a delicious rich thick peanut butter sauce. I asked for no sesame seeds and they were able to accomodate.
They even gave me a glass of water and a fortune cookie with my meal. And staff were incredibly pleasant.
This place is very popular with students. Lots of kids with backpacks were coming in for meals. The École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) is close by. Lucky students, lol.
I'm looking forward to returning and trying their other items.
The restaurant is in Griffintown. Street parking only.
Review #76 (2025) read more