Restaurant review: Oncle Lee

And three chic restaurants I adore

Early Sunday Sunday night at Oncle Lee

I’ve been feeling a bit old lately. Not in the way that my joints are hurting or the grey needs covering up. No, I’m feeling old because I’m writing about a restaurant whose address, 222 Laurier Avenue W., is well known to me as the former café, La Petite Ardoise. I spent many a morning sipping café au lait at this beloved Mile-End institution, which drew in crowds since it opened in 1981. When it closed in 2015, the space was reincarnated as “Wilfred sur Laurier” by chef-restaurateurs Michel Ross and Zach Suhl, who made their name at a little Plateau bistro called Brunoise from 2003 to 2007. Hard to think that was close to a decade ago.

After Wilfred closed, this great space, complete with a fab terrasse in the back, lay vacant for a while, before a short-lived restaurant (or two) came and went. Having enjoyed so many meals under that roof, I’ve been sad to see the space sitting empty like so many great restaurant locales of the past (don’t get me started on the state of shuttered restaurant spaces on the Plateau). But lo and behold news came that 222 Laurier Avenue W. now housed a restaurant called Oncle Lee. And even better, it wasn’t just another café or French bistro, but a nouveau Chinese establishment. Helmed by twenty-something chef Andersen Lee, Oncle Lee is run by the brilliant group behind the restaurant Bouillon Bilk, the wine bar Cadet, and the brasserie Place Carmin. Talk about promising!

Asian restaurants have come and gone in this part of town. Especially missed (on my part at least) is the former Thai Grill that was two blocs away from Oncle Lee. The nearby pan-Asian restaurant Soy on The Main near Fairmount is also no longer. For Montreal Chinese cuisine, the two prime destinations are the Guy-Concordia area or, more traditionally, Chinatown on the southern end of The Main. Also on Blvd St-Laurent is Eva Lau’s (formerly of L’Orchidée de Chine) Latitude 31 near Prince Arthur, which remains a Montreal Szechuan stronghold.

Dinner at Oncle Lee is a far cry from the Chinatown experience. With a menu seemingly designed to attract the Mile-End/Outremont crowd, Oncle Lee reminds me a bit of Hà. A beloved Vietnamese restaurant with locations in Old Montreal and on Mount-Royal (closed for renos), Hà serves modern Vietnamese food along with cocktails, wine and beer. Oncle Lee shares that same hip vibe.

I booked an early table for a recent Sunday night, and the room quickly filled to capacity. Opening hours are Wednesday to Sunday, and most days operating hours are from 4 p.m. to midnight, which is good to know because until the back terrace opens up, the 48-odd seats fill up quickly. Once Lee is definitely a hot ticket, early on with family groups, but later with the cool kids and the after-hour hospitality crowd.