Mekong — Restaurant in Ottawa

My husband and I have been going whenever we are in town for 15 years ( lived in the area off and on). It was always my favourite. We went on Tuesday for an early supper , late lunch, and after reading the reviews tried something that we had not yet: the lemon chicken. We also ordered the Beans in black bean sauce, crispy beef and hunan dumplings. The place was unclean, which is odd because that had never happened before. The waitresses were very sweet as per usual. The food however....well suffice to say that it's finished for us. The lemon chicken was simply chicken breast breaded and fried with a lemony sweet sauce. Not our taste , akin to chicken balls in Canadian-Chinese buffets, the crispy beef had a funny unpleasant flavour, vinegary we can put our finger on it, the rice , as per usual, is meh, flavourless and a starch to fill, the dumplings were good 4/5$ , I am glad that they were at that price and finally the beans were good, but not like usual, just good and they came quite a few minutes after the other dishes. This is at least the 3rd time out of a good 20 times that we have had a mediocre experience: this time however we agreed, we'll try elsewhere from now on. It was really off. At an average of 17$ a plate ( plus service, taxes), it makes for an expensive...

This is, without a doubt, the best provider of Asian cuisine in Ottawa. They do everything, just a bit better. Tonight we had; Vegetable spring rolls: were they tasty...absolutely. They were fresh, crispy and flavorful. The sauce they serve with it is sweet, zesty, and the most unique "spring roll" sauce I've ever had. Chicken Pad Thai: wonderful smokey flavor, and tons of chicken in it Lemon Chicken: every Asian place has lemon chicken. Most give you a microscopic piece of "chicken" wrapped in a ton of batter. Mekong makes the best, most meaty Lemon Chicken I've ever had. I've eaten it at the restaurant twice and been amazed at how tasty it is. When you order it for home, the sauce comes on the side, and you lode no value at all. Best Lemon Chicken in Town. Crispy Beef; I have no clue how they make a beef this crispy with so much flavor. I've eaten crispy beef at 100s of places around the world (it's my favorite Asian dish), but this is special. For me, it's one of the top 3 best single dishes served in Ottawa...period. This is an amazing plate. Steamed rice: I think they steam it with magic...lol

In short (too late for that), this is the singe best Asian resto in Ottawa and the quality does not drop an iota if you order it for...

I have been going here for 25 years and it has always been excellent. However, the did not weather the Covid situation well. I recently visited again and was very disappointed with the quality of the food and service. The restaurant has air conditioning on when it was 7 degrees Celsius outside and was frigid. The few patrons were all complaining if the cold and ate with their jackets on. Dumpling appetizers were served cold and returned to the kitchen. When the appetizers were returned to the table, the sauce was forgotten. The dumplings are also smaller and different than they once were and not as good. And we had to request it. We ordered green beans in black bean sauce and a different plate was served without black beans. The five spice shrimp have changed and although they are not quite as good as before they are still tasty. They also forgot to serve us out rice order. When we complained the Manager explained that they had lost all their good staff because of covid. Nothing was done to rectify our disappointing experience. The decor has also changed and is now quite bland. Mekong used to be a great restaurant but is now a disappointing experience for diners. I guess some plates might still be acceptable...