Yuan Lei Restaurant Gourmet — Restaurant in Dollard-des-Ormeaux

We went to Yuan Lei this past weekend. We were a party of 8 and got there around 6pm on Saturday. The restaurant was about 40% full. The first red flag: they brought us 3 menus for 8 people. In placing our order, the waiter was not able to provide answers to very basic questions. I asked what the difference was between 2 menu items and the answer was "I'm not sure, I think it's the same thing". They then brought us 5 glasses of water for 8 people. When we asked for another 3 glasses, we were told that they did not have enough glasses and gave us extra tea cups to use for water (restaurant is still only 40% full at this point). We ordered 8 menu items: soup, spring rolls, steamed rice and 5 main dishes. First, the soup came out, then 5 minutes later the spring rolls followed. Mixed vegetables were served 10 minutes later. Each dish thereafter, followed one at a time at 10-15 minute intervals - even the rice was served separately! After an hour and a half we decided to leave without even getting the last dish. No tip was left and they questioned us why there was no tip given. I have been to restaurants where it took 45+ minutes to get served but when the meal arrived, it was all there. I have never seen service where each dish was served 15 minutes apart! It's very surprising to see the positive reviews on this restaurant. Maybe there has been a change in ownership because the recent reviews are less favourable. We will not be returning due to the excruciatingly painful service. All I can say is that I hope the owners read this review and make the...

It's not every day that my mom calls me and says she wants to take me to try a restaurant she discovered.

She went to Yuan Lei, an authentic Chinese restaurant, with a friend and was so impressed. Even my dad and my sister loved it. So we went there last night.

A little background, we are a Chinese family. My dad has worked in the restaurant business for 50 years. He had a restaurant in Cote des Neige for many years until he retired.

Some dishes were a miss, like the singapore noodles were bland and watery, but their specialty dishes were 👌

Their stir-fried green beans and shredded eggplant was my favorite. I totally did not miss meat. Their hot and sour soup is quite good too.

Although the restaurant looks dated, i found the decor to be nice. I especially appreciated that they seem to have a good ventilation system and it didnt smell like fried grease like many small chinese restaurants.

The service was very friendly despite the lady not speaking any other language than Mandarin. The service can get a bit slow if it's very busy because its run by just the mom and son. The son does everything.

You also can't beat the 6.99...

Not your average over sweetened msg kind of place !! This is one of the best flavourful spots. We had the 3 chili spiced chicken which was one of the first times I've ever had a dish like this before. It is a no sauce dish where the plate had plenty of fried chilis with scallions I personally didn't find it very spicy so don't be overwhelmed if your scared of spice they were packed with flavor and exscentuiated the light crispy batter on the tender chicken.

We also enjoyed the chicken fried noodles where the broth was plentiful and not overwhelming you could taste the flavor of the flame throughout the crisp veggies and succulent chicken breast.

The sweet and sour chicken was one of a kind where the sauce didn't leave you thirsty like most places the same light crispy batter was used in this dish and was nicely complemented with bell pepper and onion quarters all and all was a great night out with my wonderful wife and will definitely come back for more ohnistly the price was more then fair the portions were Harty and food was amazing the chef was a...