La Belle Tonki — Restaurant in Montreal

We were celebrating a friend’s birthday as a party of 20. However, overall, the poor quality of services and food for large groups made the experience disappointing. I do not recommend it. Due to occupying a large number of tables, each person in the group would have to pay 45$ before taxes+tip.

The Ambience: like other reviews, it was funky, fresh, and unique every time you would look at the wallpapers.

The Waiting Time: as we entered at around 8-8:30, we had to wait about an hour to get served. After getting served 5 platters, we all waited about 45 minutes for dessert. We had to stay in the restaurant for around 3 hours (We left at around 11:40). The waiting time is extremely long, I even noticed that the neighboring table served two sets of clients before we can get our fourth platter.

The Food: There was a set menu of four appetizers, one meal, and one dessert split among six people (number of people per table): Eggplant Miso, Small Pho, Papaya a la Playa, Roch Burger, Kimcheese Poutine, and the Passion Flakie. Not only was the menu set, we had to share many small appetizer plates with six full grown adults. I am aware that this is a Viet and Cambodian fusion restaurant, expecting there to have spicy items, but the food either tasted bland or extremely spicy (as someone who does not like spicy foods). The fact that I was in a group and had to pay 45$ for half of the set meals being spicy made me extremely unsatisfied and had to go to a nearby McDonald’s to fill my hunger. I would recommend posting the set menu for large groups because if I knew I had to split up this little amount of food for so many of us, also that half the food is something that I will not enjoyably consume, I would have never come. The food was unsatisfactory, bland or way too spicy with nothing in the middle. Additionally, I am someone who gets full easily, and I couldn’t even be somewhat full from my experience here. The Small Pho just tasted like chicken broth with veggies, with less than a cup of noodles (again needing to share it with others). The Passion Flakie just tasted like a Roti with blueberry jam and ice cream which was not worth 45 minutes of a wait. To give perspective to people who have not eaten here yet and wanted an honest review for larger groups, imagine having 1 cup of rice, and needing to split that into 6 people. Now imagine that with 6 other platters (No one had their plate, everyone had to share).

The Price: Giving more perspective to the entire thing, the itemized price of our food was a total of 90$ (give or take) per table (we were 3 tables) making the restaurant invest at around 270$ for our party. But we were charged around 50$ (without tip) making it around 1000$ in revenue. On an individualized basis, it is way cheaper than in larger groups.

The Service: It was very mediocre, nothing but lower than the bare minimum. There was barely any greetings, explaining what the food is, and no apologies/accommodations for having to stay in the restaurant for 3 hours! A lot of us had work the next day, and staying there up till 11:30 or so to get out money’s worth is ridiculous.

Overall, I bet that this restaurant would be great in smaller groups, but as a large party splitting up just appetizers of a meal was just a horrible experience. The waiting was so long, and it is way too expensive for larger groups. I do not recommend coming here as a large group it is...

The overall experience was positive and I'm glad I tried it, but ultimately not special enough for a second visit in my opinion.

I ordered Imperial rolls, the lobster ramen Mac'n'cheese, the sate drip poutine and the Flintstone pho. My major complaint was that it simply wasn't enough food. The waiters touted it to be some behemoth amount of food, but in reality one dish per person wasn't enough (which would normally be ok if 1. The amount of food wasn't hyped and 2. The price wasn't so high). We shared the dishes among 3 people, and we were still very much hungry after. The second problem was that the food was not hot. The poutine and ramen dishes weren't even hot enough to melt the cheese. It took a while for the food to come out so I'm thinking they might have just sat at the counter for a while before coming. Either way, it lead to a less than ideal tasting experience.

My favorite dish was the Sate drip poutine, the sauce was unique and had some Hawaiian flavors to it. I just wish it was hotter. The Flintstone pho wasn't a regular pho on "crack" as the menu puts it. It was missing the flavors that an actual pho place would give you. Yes they gave you an extra meat bone, but my complaint for pho was never the...

Okay, so we came here the same day after experiencing the magnificence of Casse-Croûte MangeDansMonHood, because we found out that this place was the sister restaurant and it was that damn good. Best choice ever. Asian fusion at its finest. Immaculate vibes, just like their other restaurant —full of hip hop, anime, and Asian pop culture.

The lemonade smacked so hard we had to get another one to go. Their Tonki Burger, was an innovatively delicious take on a crispy chicken sandwich, which also hella smacked —pickled veggies and toppings on lock. The pho was just chef's kiss all around. They had in house hot sauce that was a tasteful step up from chili garlic and went so so well with the dish —and they had a petit pho option, which is super cool for people like my partner who eat smaller portions. The creme brulee dessert was also top tier —perfect crust on top, leading to a pudding of sheer decadence. It tasted to me like there were hints of matcha —but either way, an amazing rendition.

The service and our waitress were super chill, welcoming, and just so sweet. We can't wait to come back and try everything else on the menu. A shiny...