Satay Brothers Resto 3721 Notre-Dame — Restaurant in Montreal

I had a gift card given to me, so I finally got around to going to the restaurant.

I so wanted to like this place far more than I ended up liking it. I have had their food at the Atwater Market and in the Royal Victoria Hospital this was first in the actual restaurant.

We arrived around 6pm on a Friday, as I paid for 2 hours of parking my wife went in to secure a seat. When I found her they had seated her at the front bar and I was supposed to join her and when I saw the arrangement even though the parking was paid for I got us up to leave. The staff suggested perhaps we'd be happier at the back bar, which admittedly was less busy, but still not what I wanted, but decided to give it a go.

Having perused the menu earlier in the day and had already painted a mental picture of what I wanted, I wanted to try a cross section of the menu. I asked about how sharable the menu was, and proceeded to order.

As a quick side note, the prices on their own website are out of date, and just about everything was a little more expensive, not to the point where I was shocked but there is nothing worse than finding the prices online are incorrect, this is in my opinion unacceptable. I'm not saying a photo of the menu that was out of date, I can accept that, I mean front and center on the website prices are wrong, this would be a 5 minute html fix, but not done.

Nevertheless we ordered and then we were offered a table which we moved to. We had our laksa soup which was very good, a strong start.

Next was a chicken satay sandwich, which was the beginning of the end. It was very middle of the road. Sandwiches have the capacity to be a star attraction, but this was middle of the road, too much peanut sauce not enough of anything else to really appreciate.

Our order of vegetables of the day arrive. While waiting I ordered a Pandan Daiquiri, which was good. We waited over 20 minutes for our Rendang beef and rice to arrive, we actually had to ask them to check on the order, and it was still a few minutes before we had our "main" dish, by now the simple vegetable dish was cold.

The presentation of the beef was lack luster, just laddled on to a plate with little to no ceremony, while tasting fine, it just looked kinda not so appetising.

Lastly we took a kueh salat for dessert. Again while it tasted fine, it was not presented in any pleasant way, but still looked better than the beef.

We paid, and we left. On the drive home I concluded that since I hardly had to pay that much due to the gift card, that if I had paid for the meal I would have been pissed off by what we had.

During dinner I described the place as less a restaurant and more a night club that has food. The place is loud and quite chaotic, which is part of the reason I don't think service is great, it's too busy and full of people for the staff to be attentive.

So I now have another Montreal restaurant I don't need to go back to.

Since the pandemic I have felt less and less inclined to go to restaurants. We used to be so spoilt in Montreal, good food, good service, reasonable portions for a reasonable price. Now I struggle with this regularly and this place doesn't stand out enough for the prices, the portions are on the small side for the prices. I mean a plate of Asian greens for $11 is outrageous, it's cooked vegetables, on a ratio of about 6:1 of preparing it at home versus eating it in a restaurant, 3:1 maybe 4:1 is the most they should be charging for this kind of thing.

I fear for the future of restaurants in our city, people may be willing to pay these prices but I don't think they have an appropriate appreciation of value.

In any case this is my review and I always try to find a strong counterpoint in my reviews to be as balanced as I can be, but I don't think I have anything to add, I can't even say free...

This is not going to go well, unfortunately. This was my experience with a takeout order I placed Nov 26th, 2021 (6:30 PM).

This was my first time ordering from Satay Brothers. I ordered three items, the "3-piece fried chicken", the "picnic for 2", and a "satay sandwich" Presumably this was to feed three adults and one 11 yo. child.To say this food was over-priced would not be an exaggeration. One of the attached photos depicts what you get for $45.00, $12.50, and $9.50. Not much food there. Certainly not enough to feed three adults and the one child.

I placed the order online via one of their partners, "CHK PLZ". The payment process shuffles you through as quickly as possible to the "pay now" dialog. The order was received and the pickup time was clear. Notice there is very little emphasis of the actual price that will be charged as this appears in the smallest font on the page.

As we were unpacking the bag the food came in, I noticed that there was an $11.55 tip added to the bill. I specifically indicated I was not leaving a tip, or so I thought. Not to be cheap, but this was a takeout order. There was no waitress or waiter serving us.

After eating, I tried repeatedly to contact Satay Bros via the telephone number on their website without success. Voice mail answers, with no possibility of leaving a message.

There is no doubt this is a popular restaurant as the food is very good. Nothing to complain about there. But it's not $89 good for the amount we got.

Would I return to Satay Bros or consider ordering takeout from them again? Not for the foreseeable future. I'd caution anyone placing a takeout order to proceed very carefully through the checkout process.

As a final note, Covid is getting long in the tooth. We all want to return to a normal lifestyle. Social distancing, masks, etc.is getting to us all. As popular as Satay Bros is, the place was packed like a bar on a Friday night, pre-Covid-era. with people standing in line to get in. Great for business. Not great for trying to end...

The owners and staff of Satay Brothers’s restaurant should give lessons to other restaurants in creating a perfect greeting and atmosphere. This place lives up to some of the hype we’d seen in reviews before arriving in Montreal. I was skeptical and glad to be wrong.

We turned up without a reservation but won’t make that mistake again. We were greeted kindly and led next door to have a drink while a space was found. The bar staff were super fun, despite the place being jammed, and the owner found us space at the bar about 20 mins later. Rather than fuss around with closing checks for the drinks, they just casually walked us to our seats.

We talked with one of the owners who clearly loves what they do and the food they serve. I’ve recently moved to a plant-based diet with rare pescatarian flex, which they easily accommodated. Highlights for me were the Tempeh satay, the tofu bun, the green papaya salad, and the special sautéed greens. My wife (decidedly not vegetarian) enjoyed the chicken satay but loved the shrimp satay more (peanut sauce with the former, a tamarind sauce with the latter).

One of the current specials was a skate wing, which looked, smelled and tasted incredible. This was a fun dish to share. Not easy to make it so appealing, but wow, I want more!

Overall — after too many years in the US, where most Asian foods have been bastardized and dumbed down to a generic gloop that is nothing like the original — I was delighted to find flavors that were complex, well-spiced, fresh, exciting and balanced. It really brought back memories of traveling through Asia 20+ years ago and some wonderful hawker markets. The addition of some fresh and fermented chilies at the owner’s suggestion really made some of the dishes exceptional.

This is not a quiet date night space - do that somewhere else, or better still don’t. There’s so much enjoyment around you, I don’t think it’s possible not to leave feeling uplifted. I’m not exaggerating in saying this was my favorite restaurant experience...