Welcome to Ethan restaurant, located on De La Gauchetiere West, in the heart of Montreal's Chinatown. You will be delighted to taste this delicious authentic Chinese food, where all the dishes cost less than $10! You can find a variety of delicious dishes, such pork, roast duck, the famous General Tao chicken, or the delicious noodle soup, prepared with honey BBQ pork. In short, the menu will suit all tastes and appetites!
Ethan restaurant is also well known by the locals, who appreciate not only its exquisite meal, but the speed and courtesy of the staff, which allows you to take time to eat your lunch, especially if you are on your lunch hour!
Come and try this unceremoniously friendly restaurant, for which you will remember as a feast of flavors!
Ethan serves a very large Cantonese menu with generous portions and prices that many reviewers call excellent value, making it a go to for affordable Chinese food in Chinatown. Dishes like Peking duck, soft rice rolls, congee with shrimp wonton soup, dumplings, and Cantonese fried noodles are frequently praised for staying tasty and satisfying, and dim sum offerings and bubble tea get positive mentions for flavor and portion size. The atmosphere is described as lively and fast paced, with quick service that suits hungry crowds, though some note that the pace can feel brisk and the staff sometimes appear stressed or overly pushy about tipping. Several reviews warn that not every item hits the same note, with some dishes being hit or miss and a few reporting off flavors or undercooked dumplings. A few accounts recount a troubling incident involving a homeless patron and criticism of how the situation was handled, influencing loyalty for some readers. While there are criticisms about service or ethics, others emphasize great value and reliable comfort food that keep them returning. Overall, Ethan is seen as a dependable, inexpensive option for big portions and authentic flavors, albeit with a caveat to temper expectations on consistency and service.
We ordered the BBQ pork duck rice, the BBQ pork chicken rice, plus the scallop shrimp dumpling dimsum.
I've had lots of char siu, & it's always one of my favourites. I love the glazed outside, sometimes a little charred, well-seasoned with BBQ sauce, a bit of fat, & usually served with extra sauce. It should be oily & have a nice colour. But this BBQ pork was plain, dry, & tough to chew, with no real seasoning & no oil. The duck was the same. The chicken, though, was good- mostly tender, oily, & juicy. The food came out quickly after we ordered, & the staff were nice to us.
The dimsum, however, had way too thick dumpling skin, too starchy, not translucent or soft. It was just okay… I wouldn't recommend the dimsum here.
Je trouve qu'une étoile, c'est déjà trop généreux.
Mes deux arguments à faire
1. Le restaurant n'a pas respecté la loi 96 sur la langue du Québec, s'adressant à moi en anglais & en chinois dès le début.
2. Le plat qu'on m'a servi avait clairement été laissé de côté pendant un certain temps, il n'avait pas été préparé à la commande (je l'ai comparé au même plat servi à la table blanche à côté de moi). Servir des restes à des clients asiatiques, c'est pas vraiment acceptable, non ? (Malheureusement, je me suis rendu compte qu'il y avait un problème seulement après avoir fini mon repas & je n'ai pas pris de photo sur le moment.)
La caissière était extrêmement désagréable. Elle était aimable avec les Blancs, mais pas avec les Asiatiques. Sans parler des restes de nourriture ; tant la nourriture que l'expérience en général m'ont donné l'impression que le restaurant pratiquait une discrimination envers les Asiatiques. Il s'agit d'un cas de discrimination inversée.
J'ai trouvé que même un pourboire de 20 % était excessif ; je n'aurais pas payé un centime. J'ai commandé un plat de riz combiné au canard & au porc, mais par rapport au repas identique servi aux clients blancs de la table voisine, mes légumes semblaient rassis, sans saveur & extrêmement difficiles à mâcher. En y repensant chez moi, le riz lui-même était également tiède & dur (après avoir observé le repas du client blanc voisin). En tant que client asiatique, j'ai d'abord écarté mes inquiétudes en recevant le plat. Cependant, pendant mon trajet de retour, j'ai soigneusement repensé à cette expérience & l'ai comparée au plat identique servi aux clients blancs à côté de moi, ce qui m'a conduit à cette conclusion.
Il s'agit d'un cas où le racisme intériorisé s'accompagne d'hostilité horizontale.
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I think one star is already too generous.
My two arguments
1. The restaurant did not respect Quebec's Law 96 on the language, addressing me in English & Chinese from the start.
2. The dish I was served had clearly been left out for some time; it hadn't been prepared to order (I compared it to the same dish served at the white table next to me). Serving leftovers to Asian customers isn't really acceptable, is it? (Unfortunately, I only realized there was a problem after I finished my meal, & I didn't take a picture at the time.)
I felt that even a 20% tip was excessive; I wouldn't have paid a cent. I ordered a rice dish with duck & pork, but compared to the identical meal served to the white customers at the next table, my vegetables seemed stale, tasteless, & extremely difficult to chew. Looking back at it at home, the rice itself was also lukewarm & hard (after observing the white customer's meal). As an Asian customer, I initially dismissed my concerns upon receiving the dish. However, during my journey home, I carefully considered the experience & compared it to the identical dish served to the white customers next to me, which led me to this conclusion.
The cashier was extremely rude. She was nice to white people but not to Asians. Including the leftover food I received, both the food itself & the dining experience made me feel that the restaurant was discriminating against Asians. This is a case of Internalized Racism comes with Horizontal Hostility.
Mar 3, 2026
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I think that because of their vast menu not all of their dishes are their forte. Having come here multiple times, I can say that their Peking duck, soft rice rolls, satay beef fried noodles & milk tea are delicious. Don't bother ordering fruit flavoured bubble tea or pad Thai, it isn't the best they have.
Regarding the service, they have place for improvement. Recently, it's gotten better from past visits though so I think they're going in the right direction.
Gave an old Chinese restaurant We landed in Montreal & found this restaurant because my friends were craving for duck. We ordered some other dishes. In general, food was fine but I'd not come back if I crave for Chinese food
Jan 24, 2025
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Little Chinese restaurant in chinatown with over 150 choices on the menu. Also serving Bbq duck & pork. Service is extremely fast. Received all my food within 10 minutes of ordering. Prices are very affordable! Probably, not the best in chinatown, but definitely worth a try. 8.2/10
Only ate here because the wait upstairs at Keung Kee was too long. Made the mistake of ordering the Peking duck. The wrappers were tiny & too thin, the duck was dry, & instead of getting leftover duck with lettuce wraps we got fried bean sprouts! It was $65 for the Peking duck alone which was SOO overpriced. This place is better for casual eats like fried rice, sweet & sour pork, etc. The place was also extremely noisy & felt chaotic. For those traditionally "nicer" dishes & a calmer atmosphere, go somewhere else!!
We tried the three course Peking duck & it was really good. The service was great & the place even though it is not fancy at all, it was packed with people.
Apr 1, 2024
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Certainly treated so much better here than upstairs resto where we were ignored for almost 10 min waiting while they had empty tables. The peking duck, salt & pepper calamari & salt & pepper shrimps with shrimp fried rice wad absolutely amazing 👏 service was prompt & good 👍 delicious food, made right to taste, we asked for extra spice & extra spicy the seafood was ❤️ We were grateful to be served with a smile & served fast. You can see them cooking behind the window. Their Peking duck is also really amazing. Thank you so much for welcoming us in after a horrific experience upstairs 🙏 😢 ❤️ You have won our hearts & tastebuds over. Next time we are ordering more dishes & a couple to go! Good service + tasty yummy food = more business 😋
Gets a bad rep. Food is fantastic & the price for it is unmatched, ESPECIALLY the Peking Duck Combo for 4 (tons of good food). Customer service isn't lacking at all; they were courteous with our requests & got the food out quickly.
As a Chinese, honestly, if you look for better or high quality Chinese food, here is not the right place, however, the price is not too expensive which is kind of equal the quality of their food. Environment is not too clean in my opinion. Toasted duck is very dry & it's overnight, definitely not like it. The skin of the dumplings is too soft, the taste is not good.
Aug 29, 2023
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Good food. I definitely recommend the juicy duck & BBQ sweet pork.
Service is so-so, but the food here is good. Come here if you enjoy fast & Chinese food.
Remember that this is a fast food restaurant! + CHEAP PRICES!
We were four (2 adults/2 children) & ordered Won Ton Chop Suey Soup for four, Roasted Duck, General Tao chicken, Chicken Fried Rice, Shrimp in Lobster Sauce & two Smoothies. A plate of duck was placed in front of us. When I enquired about the soup, & asked why we were getting the duck before the soup without rice or anything else, I was told by the skinny waitress to calm down & that this was a fast-food restaurant. The rest of the food was brought to us at the same time (in less than 1 minute) leaving no room on the table for us to put our bowls or plates. Yet the couple next to us were eating their soup separately.... & their other courses came afterwards. No need to say that I will not go again nor will I recommend this restaurant to anyone. The cashier & waitress in question were also laughing out loud looking in our direction. Portions are of good size, food is not bad, but smoothies were just cracked ice with little flavour! This waitress truly ruined our good humour!
Had lunch there, earlier on. It is not a fancy place, but the food (chinese dishes, plenty of porq bbq, duck based fares) is relatively affordable for the quantity of food. The food itself is not bad at all, by montreal standards: as an example, my soup of pork bbq, duck & vermicelli (a generous bowl, at less than $7) featured tasty duck & pork, the bouillon tasty enough. In this genre, it is not among the very best in town (their speciality is bbq meat) but definitely acceptable. Friendly service.
