Maquis Yasolo — Restaurant in Montreal

I really hate that I have to write this review as we really wanted to like this restaurant given that it's one of the few places serving food from West Africa. My family is Ghanaian and we were so excited, yet horrendously let down.

Unfortunately, we had a horrible experience dining here. My family of three ordered one entree each (fish, chicken, and beef dish), a side of plantains, two hot teas, and one bissap juice. The drinks came out within the first half hour but we waited nearly 90 minutes to receive our food.

About 40 minutes after ordering we were told they were out of beef. We were asked our order no less than three times. We didn't have any substitutions or changes to the menu options.

When the food arrived, nearly everything was scorched/burnt. The plantains were burnt. We couldn't get beef and instead was given pork. The pork was terribly dry and the sauce that came with it had a scorched flavor. The fish was flavorful but also overcooked (dry). And most sadly, the jollof rice also taste scorched. It was as if someone burned the rice at the bottom of the pot. And instead of cooking a new pot they just tried to serve the rice towards the top, but the burnt flavor had already penetrated throughout. We even spotted a slight pinkness in the chicken. Everything about the food was reprehensible.

While the wait staff were quite nice, they simply could not make up for the fact that we waited entirely too long for dismal food. Nothing we ate was good, or barely edible. Unfortunately, customers continued to come in after us. They, too, began looking around wondering why folks were waiting for food.

The only good thing to come out of this restaurant is their bissap tea and juice! That was a delight. Maybe sell that at a coffee shop or juice bar? The place also has some lovely art and decor touches. Again, really wanted to enjoy this place after seeing the reviews and write ups, but whoever is back there cooking has no business serving food to the general public. The pictures were...

We accidentally walked past this restaurant while we were looking for our dinner.

The entrance was small but there were 2 white boards outside showing some dishes.

We had never tried African food before. So we decided to jump in.

The day we dined here, they served as a set menu of 3 or 4. ( entrée, main dish, dessert with or without tapas)

For the entrée, we could choose from soup of the day or salad. Both are tasty. Our soup was vegetable cream soup. We loved it.

For the main dish, we could choose 1 out of 3. (Fish, beef or chicken)

And also we could choose our side dish from African rice (Jollof) or cereal (Attiéké)

We loved the fish dish with both jollof and attiéké). Me, I preferred jollof.

Here came for the dessert. I didn’t like it. It looked like yoghurt with stuffs.

So far, our experience in African food was nice. The restaurant was well-decorated, beautiful and stylish.

We will bring some...

A friend and I tried Maquis Yasolo for dinner this evening after I found it on Eater Montreal. We both really enjoyed our meals. I had the fish with stewed vegetables and yucca. The flavours were magnificent! You can easily tell that everything is cooked fresh. The only disappointments were that their heating system was not functioning and that we were informed at the very end of our meal that their interac machine wasn't working -- it would have been nice for them to let us know before we sat down, especially since we had called ahead of time. These critiques can easily be rectified and I'm confident the owners, who were very welcoming and hospitable, will make an effort to do so at their earliest convenience. That said, I will definitely return and look forward to trying the rest of the menu. Go support this new...