YIN JI (銀記腸粉) — Restaurant in Montreal

Nostalgic/retro flavor for some items (grandpas' generation, maybe even further aback; somehow it's not so much grandmas' taste(s) I am not sure why - in actual fact I can't tell if it's Mainland Chinese or retro-Hong Kong).

Some other items were more contemporary, healthier, cleaner, lighter style.

It may be a good idea to mix and match if one is ordering more than a couple of items.

Portions of protein and other ingredients/fillings can vary across different types of rolls R-.

Nice and well-organized, well-trained staff with good management control and a good checking system in place (e.g. verbally repeating a customer's order item by item, cross-checking every finished product against the ordered list), and nice/safe take-out packaging.

Worth a visit. Some items are worth repeating, depending on one's taste (and mood).

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Items tried/re-visited recently (consult full menus)

R1 beef & shrimps

R13 chicken shiitake

R19 roast duck

R4 shrimps

R5 pork & beef

R6 beef

HK milk tea DH1 pretty authentic.

R21 HK street rice noodle rolls and S1 curried fish balls brought back some fond (re-imaged) childhood memories.

N6 fried noodles w soy sauce

DS03 siu mai

BTW Congee and zha leung our 2nd time last year were also quite enjoyable. We finished both fast in the car.

Pics: March 31st, April 4th & 14th 2023

April 14th 2023 × 5 pics

April 4th 2023 × 4 pics

March 31st 2023 × 5 pics

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Note 1: re HK milk tea, Yin Ji's was full-bodied / pretty good thick smooth silky mouthfeel. Would be very authentic (to me) if it was more orange/gold color and with a tiny bit of acidity. And if the evaporated milk was even fresher, it would be comparable to Marathon/Ma Lik Hung in uptown Toronto which Samuel and I both loved. Not common (or not found everywhere) in HK either but Yin Ji's milk tea also lacked a bit of high-grown Ceylon Uva aroma, or that feel when tea was brewed fresh right at 12 noon or shortly after they opened daily in some eateries/cafes/cha chaan tengs in HK - cf. also UCan Montreal bygone à la carte evening version around 5 pm (not lunch combo free drink, and not their food (portions) ...), that is if you knew that place in the same area on the opposite side of St. Catherine Street before - really aromatic milk tea even take-out back home, but slightly thinner mouthfeel. Surprisingly Yin Ji's was much better than some well-known places in Richmond BC which charged more for a cup of HK milk tea of a similar size, or maybe even a smaller one - rough, extreme bitterness to a point, nothing else.

Note 2: re thin smooth texture Canton/Guangzhou vs. HK style cheung fun, not mutually incompatible with Yin Ji nor with other HK Cantonese dim sum restaurants in Montreal, and not that we go to Chinatown frequently these days anymore, but we liked Ruby Rouge's bygone Sunday cheung fun chef special in the past with e.g. shredded pork/shredded chicken/shredded vegetables/anything fresh and seasonal, made fresh on the spot - very nice. Not sure whether it's still available now and whether the same chef is still there anymore. Last time we went the Sunday special cheung fun was no longer the same. Anyways. Paradoxically, in general, even as a kid, I also liked, and still do, the thicker HK old style steamed shredded chicken rice noodle/rice flour rolls (really rolls, fun kuen), now rarely found in HK, almost extinct I guess anywhere else. That to me is more grandmas' style(s). We like all good cheung fun's / rice...

Although they messed up my congee order, I have to say the food is very good and tasty.

However, this poor review is to describe my negative “pick up order” experience with the restaurant and its waiting staff. I am sure they (the waitresses) are super nice and just following procedures but really need to work on communication with customers.

Long story short: When ordering for pick-up, call the restaurant and order directly from the in-resto menu. They surcharge 50 cents per item you order, if you order pick up through their “chkplzapp” application. We ordered 5 items, so we could’ve gotten an extra order of youtiao for the extra $2.50 charge…

Yesterday, the weather was gloomy so my girlfriend and i really felt like some good congee and youtiao. We looked online and found this restaurant. We tried to look for their menu so we can order for pick up, and through google we clicked on their website button and were directed to some ordering platform called “chkplzapp”. It had an order for pick up option, so we thought we could just submit our order but ended up having to fill out a bunch of information and pay in advance.

We submitted the order at 6:30 pm and got to the restaurant at 6:35 pm. We went in and requested to cancel some of the items but they said it was almost done (with attitude) so ended up not being allowed to. We waited another 25 minutes to receive the order…. Almost done? Hmmm.

While waiting, we noticed that the in resto menu prices were not the same as the menu we found online. Each online menu item was marked up 50 cents extra, so we asked about why that was, and the waitresses kept on trying to tell us it was the way the manager set it up… concluding with a comment that we should have called in to have the in-resto menu prices…

So if you ended up reading through to this point of the review:

Call in to order for pick up. Would definitely eat here again, the food was great! just double check your order if they gave you the right thing. We should be allowed to cancel some items if requested 5 min after the...

Yin Ji is a casual diner offering some simple Cantonese classics of congee and cheung fun, and a bit more.

The congee is well-seasoned with a smooth and almost creamy consistency. The cheung fun were silky and the seasoned soy sauce was lightly sweet without being overpowering.

The cheung fun have a great texture, but perhaps the price is a little steep for what they are. Cheung fun are typically such simple and casual dishes made with inexpensive ingredients. I almost have trouble justifying the 10$+ post-tax price for a plate, and that's in the mid-range of what they offer for cheung fun. I also did not love the iceberg lettuce in the cheung fun and would prefer they be served without it. The lettuce is wilted and wet, and does not leave enough room for the silkiness of the cheung fun to shine.

Ordering can only be done online via the QR-code that is made available on every table. While we understand most people have smartphones and can access this link, unfortunately much of the Asian demographic in Brossard is of the elderly who are unlikely to have a smartphone. The staff was understanding enough of this concern and was able to provide us with a physical menu for our elder, but also warned us that the menu was outdated and the online menu should be referenced instead.

All in all, the food was good for what it is: simple, casual, filling, and hits the spot for those who are a little homesick for something traditional. Perhaps if you are coming to eat with elderly Chinese folk who may be frugal and a little judgemental, don't tell them how much you spent...