e Montrealers have a love-hate relationship with Chinese food. We love the cuisine, but we hate what passes for Chinese food around these parts i.e. roasted dead duck as window display. And please, forget about the fortune cookies that dish out pithy anecdotes on how to better your life at a dime a dozen. Chinese dining here is an unbroken plain of greasy brown slush. Or, we should say, almost unbroken. There is one exception, so thoroughly unparalleled that it seems almost unfair to call it the best Chinese secret in Montreal. Soy is one best-kept secret we don’t mind giving away.

“Soy’s cuisine is inspired by typical meals found throughout Asia,” says Chef Suzanne Liu. Liu inspires herself by constantly coming up with adjustments and changes to the lengthly menu. The results are meals that are often on the light side but still intensely flavourful.

A few of our table’s favourites were the steamed pork dumplings in bamboo baskets with ginger-vinegar dipping ($6) and the tartar of salmon in miso-lime mayo with roasted seaweed ($8) for starters. For the main course, my spicy Malaysian seafood stew with rice wine & coriander ($17) was comparable to my guest’s more run-of-the-mill General Tao's chicken ($17). Both were succulent and void of any cheap and fast Chinese food foppery.

The most efficient eating strategy at Soy is to order tapas style so that everyone at the table shares a variety of dishes. Believe me, even if you order one plate per person, your chopsticks will be wandering over to your neighbour’s plate to try “just a small bite,”
so do as the Chinese do and share.