Chez Chili — Restaurant in Montreal

Don’t believe these reviews, it’s all fake.

I wish I could give zero stars for the service here. The staff is extremely aggressive and unprofessional. One particular incident stood out: a young female staff member asked about our experience, and when we shared honest feedback about the food and service, her response was shockingly rude. She insisted that the service fee was their “salary” and implied that tipping was mandatory. When I questioned if the fee was compulsory, she aggressively stated that it was their salary and, after I refused to pay, she said not to come back.

As for the food, the quality was disappointing. The Tao chicken was overly coated in thick batter with barely any chicken inside, just small pieces hidden under the batter. The stir-fried chicken noodles, which cost $16, contained only about three small pieces of chicken.

This experience was unacceptable both in terms of service and food quality. I would not recommend dining here.

Since I was unable to reply the owner’s comment left on my review, I had to edit this review…

“Response to the Reply on My Review”

I don’t appreciate you being the owner replying like this to your customers. Your response misses the point entirely. The issue isn’t whether the food was consumed—it’s about the overall experience, which was disappointing due to both the subpar food quality and the unprofessional behavior of the staff.

To clarify, food being eaten does not equate to it being enjoyable. In many situations, people may finish a meal out of politeness, hunger, or reluctance to waste money. However, that doesn’t excuse the poor quality or lack of value for the price paid.

Rather than deflecting or questioning the validity of customer feedback, I would encourage you to take reviews as an opportunity to reflect and improve. A dismissive response only reinforces the negative experience. I hope this feedback helps you provide better service and food quality...

Do not visit this place. Absolutely terrible experience. I ordered their "shui zhu yu" (水煮鱼), which is supposed to be one of their popular dishes. As someone who is Szechuanese, I can tell you it was nothing like the authentic version.

The fish had a strong fishy smell and hadn't been marinated with salt or cooking wine. There was no hint of Sichuan pepper. It wasn't spicy at all. There was no sizzling oil on top (a very important final touch of this dish) It barely had any flavor; it was just a bowl of water with fish that had a fishy smell and some chili powder.

I asked the waiter about the dish, and he insisted this is how 水煮鱼 is supposed to be cooked in their restaurant and it’s authentic. He then said the chef would remake it. Confused and uninterested in eating their “authentic” dish, I asked if I could exchange it for another dish because it tasted nothing like the real thing. I asked to speak with the owner, who refused to come to our table. I had to go to the counter to find her, and she was completely uncooperative, insisting that I had to take the dish (no exchange) because it would be too costly for the restaurant to throw it away. Frustrated, I paid and left.

It is disappointing as I used to go to this restaurant many times before and have had delicious 水煮鱼. Not sure what has changed but guys save yourself the trouble and avoid this place or else you’ll be forced to eat and pay a dish...

Came to Montreal to visit and saw this highly rated restaurant and decided to give it a try. The verdict was, I really wanted to like this place, but was utterly disappointed.

We ordered the sichuan style steamed chicken (served cold), boiled fish in hot chilli sauce, and their seafood fried rice.

The Sichuan style steamed chicken is one of my favourite dishes, but here they did not deliver. The chicken was overcooked and most of the pieces were dry (and yes of course chicken breast is usually dry, but other parts of the chicken was overcooked). The sauce however did compliment the chicken in terms of flavour.

The boiled fish in hot chilli sauce was also a big let down, though you can taste the Sichuan peppers, but it lacked chilli spic and it was salty.

The seafood fried rice was okay, decent amount of seafood was in the rice, flavours were okay.

For us, the service staff was nice to us and was very patient with us. However, I did see another waitress not being friendly to another table. All they wanted was for some recommendations by their waitress and she was just being rude to them. Then again, this was not my business but it was sad to see these two couples being treated differently by another staff.

Anyways, it was good to try, but it was a if disappointment. Would not come back to this restaurant if I was ever to travel to...