Café chez Téta — Restaurant in Montreal

As a Palestinian who lived in almost all the middle eastern countries, I eat and cooked most of the Middle eastern food. I was excited to eat at Chez Téta, I went there with my wife, we looked at their menu(very small) specialized mainly in Manoiches and not presenting even one tiny bet of the Middle Eastern food. It’s a small cafe with almost self-service approach. You order at the counter, you pay before you eat, you serve your self with water, but they bring you the food to the table. The place is cute and simple but has no middle eastern touch on it. Food: this was a very big disappointment for me. We ordered 2 manouche with the dip add-on. The dough of the manouche was very thin and rolled like a wrap. It felt like it was a thin crust rolled pizza. The flavor was there especially the cheese and tomato. The meat one was very lemony and lacks spices. The dips that we ordered were: hummus which came very thin (like a bet liquid) with no olive oil on it which will never happen back home. The baba Ghannoij lakes almost everything, especially the olive oil. And the Mohammara was very thin and not spicy as it should be. I am sure that Téta would have love at least to have olive oil on these dips for sure. Additionally, the bread that came with the dips was the same thin dough that they use for the manoiche. It was not the Pita bread that everyone knows and love.

I don’t know what is the moto or the targeted audience for the place. I am a visitor in Montreal and I was looking forward to eat an authentic Middle eastern food. But I am still ...

Quick review:

Extremely overpriced hummus (almost double compared to similar competitors, see below). Nice decor. Friendly staff.

Detailed review:

I’ve been on a hummus tasting spree in Montreal recently, and Teta came up on my list as a place to try.

I was flabbergasted at the price of their hummus (9.78$ for 200 grams) compared to other quality Lebanese places such as Omnivore (9.20$ for 340 grams), Sumac (about 12$ for about 400 grams), and Abu Elias (11$ for 500 grams). See the picture for sizes: Teta is the middle container, Abu Elias right, and Omnivore left.

3 stars because the hummus was quite good, the workers were nice, and the decor was cozy and welcoming, but -2 stars because nothing could justify paying so much more (almost double the price!) compared to other top quality hummus available in/around Montreal. I felt cheated for the price of this purchase compared to all the other places I’ve bought hummus from in the past few weeks (Sumac, Omnivore, Tesfa, Abu Elias, Petit Alep, Sirene de la Mer).

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Edit after receiving a comment from the owner:

Many thanks for the respectful and thoughtful response. No reimbursement is needed (although I appreciate the gesture) since I did pay the price knowningly for 200 grams, and I did so because I did really want to taste your hummus...

The food is lebanese and authentic, from the zaatar to cheese and keshek, it was simply perfect. 1- The waitress was nice nost of the time, except at the beginning when she doubted I was coming with someone (had to convince her we kept the baby in the car so that she doesnt wait in the cold) 2- The way people are welcomed is not something I liked, you are asked to wait, order, and pay before even going to your table (you and whoever is in your company) we were 4 (including a baby girl) and we were second in line. I dont believe that s efficient or convenient. 3- we were asked to sit on a table for 2, while originally were told we ll have the table for 4, for some unknown reason that included another group to leave. I rejected that and told them it s not possible. I have mixed feeling, though the food is beyond being good and authentic, yet the experience was below average. When you have a small spot, reservation can be helpful, and service on table is way better than the...