Chez Maxim Oriental — Restaurant in Longueuil

EDIT: After my second time today, I can no longer recommend this restaurant unless you're ordering something that doesn't have to be fried? Went in for two portions of salt & pepper squid today. What I got was a horrible mess which I could already tell while munching on my drive home. Instead of bite size pieces like last time, it was what I imagine is pieces of squid sliced in half. To be honest, I wouldn't of cared, if only it was good. The main problem was the gooey undercooked batter/chunks of flour that was peeling off the squid. I even found a piece with raw egg wash, which should illustrate how bad it was but to be safe, I've included a picture. I am seriously questioning if they "cooked" it in the microwave to achieve such results, but that'd be impossible to get such colours. This experience was so different, I am honestly flabbergasted. It blows my mind that this is even the same place. I threw away the whole second plate because it was way way way too salty on top of previously mentioned issues, did not wanna chance it. At least their servers are top tier, that hasn't changed. With a 50% success rate, I will not be returning.

I got off work in the area, starving, and it was the only chinese restaurant that was left open, short of going downtown. I did not expect anything but I must say I was blown away by the place. Was craving salt & pepper squid and they did not disappoint. Batter coooked to perfection, super crunchy with tender squid. The portions are very good, not to say too much because there can never be such thing. I've also had fried rice, which was fresh and soft, clearly not days old rice as some places. Speaking of freshness, their sea food is incredibly so and I'm not sure how they do it. My lobster sauce shrimps came out amazing, thick sauce, did I say fresh? shrimpies and so much ground meat. Their spices is on point, must be the best one I've ever had anywhere. Overall very good prices, you get tons of food and the lady that greeted and took my order was the nicest. Zero complaints and will...

The location is terrible. If you don't know where you're going, you won't find it. The only reason I knew this place existed was because my friend brought me here. She herself only knew of the place because a man outside of the restaurant was advertising it.

We ordered the 33$ 2 person combo and I must admit it was well worth it. This is another one of Chinatown's hidden gems that make me come back to this random overpopulated alley.

The food was consistently hot, the amount generous and varied. The general Tao was amazing, the soup was delicious, the beef was tasty, etc.

The rice was perfectly made and the spring roll was perfectly cooked.

The decor makes it look like a 3.5-4 star restaurant (table clothes, marble, uniforms, decent view, nice glasses, etc.) while the prices are that of a 2-3 star restaurant.

The staff seemed sluggish in English and I could sadly, at some point, not really understand what one of the waitresses was asking me. That's Chinatown though. Also having lived most of my life in Montreal, I'm used to some minimal language barrier so it wasn't much of an issue. Service was fast, polite and courteous.

I fully recommend this restaurant. 5/5 for me.

One thing that was notably cringe worthy though... At the end of our meal, the waitress gave my lady friend a bag of cream for facial masks. My friend is quite insecure about her acne/acne scars (although I have reassured her multiple times that it's nothing). While I found her face and her eyes popping out amusing (because I'm kind of a dick), I felt pretty bad for her :/. I noticed Asian culture has less filtering than Western Culture so I do think they were unaware of...

I'm a bit confused, I have been many times at Maxim Oriental and have always been pleased with the food, generous and delightful portions for a decent price. However the customer service is quite the opposite, it has always been average but since the restaurant reopened, it seems that it got way worse. I went there last weekend after such a long time with some friends and as usual the food was awesome. However if you're thirsty, be prepared to wait a long time. At some point we asked for water and we got a condescending "Yeah 1 minute!" answer for reply. Finally we got water 20 minutes later after having asked an other waiter. And at the end, we decided to split the bill in 4 then went to the cashier for paying the dinner, telling her to split the total in 4. As the 1st person was paying, some other customers stood up from their tables in order to pay their bills too. And while the 1st person was finishing paying his part, the cashier ordered me to pay by myself the rest of the bill and to deal with my friends as other customers were waiting behind us! I obviously refused, saying that each one of us will pay his on part and that I was sorry if she was alone to take care of the cash register. I'm still amazed that she asked me in the purest calm to do something like that. And obviously, they expect you to give some tips for the service...

Other all if you don't attached that much importance for the service and look for a good place for Chinese food, you'll like the numerous meals they offer for a good price. But be warned, don't expect a high customer service experience and if you're with some important persons, you might look at...