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Restaurant Ruby Rouge
Category: Restaurants Chinese Dim Sum Dim Sum [Edit]
1008 Rue ClarkMontreal, QC H2Z 1J9
(514) 390-8828
- Hours:
Mon-Sun 8:30 am - 11 pm
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch, Brunch
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Ambience:
- Casual
- Has TV:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
19 reviews for Restaurant Ruby Rouge
17 reviews in English
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Review from Terrie C.
1/20/2012
Huuuuge location but this is probably the place to have dim sum if you are in Montreal. It was sooo awesome, the wait staff speaks Chinese, English and FRENCH. very cool!
Anyways, the dimsum is the usual, point and they will serve to you. Also there are stations where you order, bring your tab to be stamped and then bring your plate back. All are share-able.
Everything here was pretty fresh and tasty.
It is also a huge space, as well. This is like the largest dimsum restaurant in Montreal! Once in a while, it's good to have a little tasting of everything so the dim sum concept works well for that. -
Review from Gary C.
1/26/2012
Being the only other Dim sum houses in Montreal (Kam Fung being the other) I was disappointed in the food.
I'm from NYC and quickly realized how spoiled we are since we have 2 Chinatowns (NYC & QUEENS) So after moving here I asked around where we can have dim sum and was told Ruby Rouge. Nice large dim sum house but the food was not up to par. Being chinese and knowing good dim sum you can always tell by a good dim sum house by their "Har Gow" ( shrimp dumping) Sort of like going to a italian restaurant and finding out they can't make a proper plate of spaghetti! In A har Gow-The Shrimp dumpling rice skin should be soft, moist, silky and the inside should have full perfectly cooked shrimps inside!
~Fail~ Not what we got at Ruby Rouge! Tough rubbery skin and tasteless over cooked shrimp! I won't go into the other 3 dishes we ordered... I will say that the size of the dim sum was unusually LARGE so you will fill up but as one reviewer (Jando S.) said "Bigger isn't always better though" The food was just adequate!
He was absolutely dead on about his review (see below " Jando S.")
I even went back 2 more times on weekends and week days and it was the same.
In short if you can't get into La Maison Kam Fung then some dim sum is better than no dim sum! -
Review from Mathieu B.
Roxboro, QC
Updated - 12/22/2011
Français après:
I don't know where'S my Review but I've been going there a lot lately and it's pretty much my favorite thing of the Hour. Why? Staff is friendly even though they sometime (and that's quite polite) lack skill in French but hey I don't even care 'cause the food is that good. I go there with a REALLY empty stomach each time to make sure I can abuse in quantity. 2 super ultra hungry person is like 55$ with tip and 1 drink each. There's two menu. White people not to say Non-Asian get what I call (you'll guess it by now) The White People menu. ASK FOR THE DIM SUM ONE! They'll kindly get a menu for you. I'll tell you 2 things for this review: The type of guy I am in terms of eating and the stuff I believe that everybody that kind of «get me» should also try.
Ok I like everything at least once and I'm not disgusted by anything. If I hate it it's still an experience that brang a result: Knowing I don't like it. I personally have a fun game with friends as willing as me: Find something on the menu that you know the other might not like and ask that friend to do the same thing. The result are usually disappointing in a good way: You end up liking it!
1: Crab Roll. This is a big-filled-with-crab-crispy ball with nice tempura-ish (see picture)
2: The Pork dims sums: Whatever the religion, cross your fingers and dig in: Simply put a huge bite of amazing flavoors.
3: BBQ Pork Steam Bums: Nough's said.
4:Shrimp Rolls: Since when there'S too much shrimps?
5: Sticky Rice Balls: They are filled wit meat: What meat? dunno, I just know I like it.
6: Sweet Tofu: Hot Tofu with ginger sweet sauce. Just great!
The staff, when you are smiling and friendly with them and show empathy for their lack of french-speaking is very pushing harder to help you have a nice relaxed meal.
Je pense que mon avis a été effacer ou j'ai une revue sur un autre avis du resto mais peu importe. Ces derniers temps je suis complètement méga-giga accroc au Dim Sums. En gros, c'Est juste un excellent coin ou manger comme un cochon pour pas plus que 55$ pour 2 personnes (avec tip inclus). Ils ont l'habitude d'amener ce que j'appelle amicalement le Menu des Blancs. Mais je demande toujours le menu dim sums. Dans le fond pour cet avis je dirais simplement quel genre de foodies je suis et puis les mets que j'aime prendre chaque fois que je vais là
1: La boule de crabe croustillante. C'est juste tellement plein de chair de crabe, cE'st génial.
2: les Dim sum au porc; une explosion de saveur en bouche
3: Les pains à vapeur au porc BBQ.
4: Les rouleaux de crevette: Juste encore des crevettes mais c'est juste trop bon
5: Les boules de riz collante: un peu comme les onigiri japonais. Cest juste délicieux enveloppé de feuille qui sent le thé.
6: Du tofu sucré. C'est du Tofu chaud (assez liquide) avec du sucre de gingembre: Superbe
Le personnel n'est pas vraiment qualifié en français mais en démontrant de la patience, de l'amitié et de la tolérance, on obtient un très bon service relax.1 Previous Review: Show all »
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10/8/2011
Francais après.
I watched Anthony Bourdain No Reservation - Shanghai episode the other night and… Read more »
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Review from Diane Z.
4/22/2012
Comparing this to NY dim sum, it really isn't very enjoyable. The food wasn't as fresh as it should be, and the flavors aren't anything special. Definitely pass on it.
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Review from Shane L.
4/15/2012
Walking in, the scent of dim sum just puts me at ease....reminiscent of NYC style dim sum joints that I grew up with. Buffet section gave lots of options. Standard dishes were on point. Service was good and place was packed as expected for a Saturday morning, but still plenty of tables with virtually no wait. Chicken feet was a little bland, but I've had worse.
Bottom line: A taste of familiarity in a foreign place since we were visiting Montreal. Hungover and dim sum hits the spot. As far as dim sum places goes, Ruby had variety, speedy carts and good overall flavors (we ended up coming again the next morning). FYI....chinese restaurant bathrooms are the same no matter what country you're in. -
Review from Schuyler L.
8/10/2011
Went for Dim Sum. We just wanted to try it. We weren't starving, so we just got three things. The bean curd rolls were great but not incredible. The pork dumplings were average. The Chinese broccoli was incredible!! I think the broccoli was the best we'd ever had. Perfectly cooked, not too oily and a little salty.
The servers were well coordinated with each other and were very good about keeping track of which table was finished or who had just arrived. Service was quick, efficient, and extremely polite.
TVs on the walls showed public service announcements or Asian soap operas, alternating every few minutes. It was entertaining.
Go inside and up the stairs to find Ruby Rouge
Overall it was fun to try Chinese Dim Sum in a French area of a French/English speaking foreign country. -
Review from H C.
Verdun, QC
1/31/2012
I have been to this restaurant for their Dim Sum and dinner. I have to admit, its ok. Then again, its hard to find a decent Dim Sum place in Montreal since we have a smaller Chinese community in comparison to Vancouver.
Its ok, the service is ok. Child friendly and decent food. Good price too! I wouldn't go here for dinner, you can definately find better quality elsewhere. -
Review from Coty S.
5/28/2011 11 photos
Compared to Maison Kam Fung, I was happier dining at Ruby Rouge for the traditional dim sum brunching. You walk into a small shopping mall, and as soon as you come off of the staircase you will appear in the center of the banquet hall. This can be rather intimidating if you arrive during a busy hour and there are people waiting everywhere. If you arrive between 10:00-11:00am, then you should have no problem getting nice seating. By 11:30am, they were officially slammed with customers and there was a wait. They do have many tables for two and four, so sharing a table should not be a necessity if you arrive in time.
The set-up here is slightly different than any banquet hall dim sum dining experience I have had so far. Mostly because of the layout and how you acquire the food. Hot tea is complimentary. Speaking in French is best, because some staff does not speak any English. You will need a "runner" for your table if there are specific items you are looking for or you want the best items fast. The runner for my table was me, of course. There is a bar with noodles and desserts, you will need to bring your bill ticket and request those items to have them fresh and carry them back to your table. The meats are also carved at that same counter on the spot at your request with your ticket. The pork here was sensational and came with a side of minced scallion sauce. The soy sauce noodles were also good. The crullers are here, but the congee is on cart.
Don't get me wrong, there are still carts going around all over the place, but the Montreal culture is much different, so you will not have cart "pushers" like you would in other cities. You will need to ask for the items or ask to see what is on the cart, otherwise they will not bother you. I am used to NYC, where staff will just put random food on your table and say, "Eat! You will like it!" Nothing like that happens in Montreal, and the pace is much easier.
Vegetables are sometimes needed to break up all of the gluten and meat eaten, asking for ong choi or gai lan is recommended. It took us a while to receive our totaled bill and paying at the front counter is a must. They do accept credit cards, but you will want to tip in cash.
Best of luck to you in your food gathering!Listed in: Downtown Montreal
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Review from Ken D.
9/5/2010
Dim Sum on this Sunday morning in Montreal turned out to be a real treat. Open earlier than other places (9:00 AM), Ruby Rouge was already packed at 10:00 AM when we arrived. With patience and persistence, we left full to the gills with delicious treats.
Carts are only part of the story here. You can also order from the buffet and from the kitchen. My favorite: the sticky rice wrapped in tea leaves. Truly wonderful! My only regret is having only my one stomach to fill. Oh, if only Gluttony weren't one of the Seven Deadly Sins! -
Review from Jando S.
7/8/2009 23 photos
When I was having trouble finding Montreal's most famous Dim Sum restaurant, a la Maison Kum Fung, I ended up stumbling to this banquet style restaurant, which came recommended to me by some Chinatown locals.
It's located on the 2nd floor of a Chinatown mall, where it was an absolute zoo when I arrived. The stairs were filled with patrons all waiting for their number to be called and the crowd only got thicker with every stair step to the top. There was almost little-to-no room to move and getting to the front to collect a number felt like an impossibility. Not to mention I had 10 people with me and no reservation.
I some how made my way to the front, where I managed to play nice with the manager, who was busy handing out numbers to folks. A crowd of close to 100 became a crowd of no more than 15 in a matter of minutes, due to the diligent seat assigning from the hostess. Talk about a deceiving wait, I almost convinced the group to leave for another restaurant but was glad I stuck it out. My group was given a nice private room overlooking the restaurant and not a moment too soon, since we were all starving.
Service was a little overwhelmed and was not able to clean our table or get food to us right away. The staff was a little slow and getting attention to the room was marred by the fact they almost seemed too busy to tend to us. Eventually the Dim Sum ladies wheeled their carts into room and managed to serve us heaping plates of Dim Sum goodies. While most of them spoke some broken French / English, most of them had a tougher time speaking Cantonese than they did Mandarin.
Food portions here are ginormous. I've never seen Dim Sum in bulk like this, not even in the South where everything was fatter and greasier. The wu gok (fried taro dumplings) looked like they were the size of grenades and when stacked on top of eachother, looked like a hairy nest of eggs or unpeeled kiwi fruits. Ha Cheung (shrimp crepe) and Ha Gao (shrimp dumplings) were both also massive, to the point where it took only a few dishes to make everyone full. Zha Hai Kieu (fried crab claws) reminded me of jawbreakers and the Siu Mai was plenty thick with more meat than rice wrap.
Bigger isn't always better though, as most of the food was just adequate enough not to be mediocre. I prefered most of the cart items than fetching items from the long table in the banquet hall area. Most of those plates looked old and overly greasy.
Given the price and the portions, I think I could stomach another visit here in the future. The final bill was a modest one, which came out to be $120CAD for roughly 10 people. Surely the same Dim Sum rules still apply - come hungry, get a good spot, and arrive before noon. A reservation here probably doesn't hurt either, something of which I'll consider next time I bring a big group. -
Review from Aidan D.
7/7/2009
One way you can tell if a Chinese restaurant is good is if there are Chinese people eating there. Restaurant Ruby Rouge caters almost exclusively to Chinese-Canadians; I'm always one of the few non-Chinese people there when I go. I can't judge whether the food is authentic, but it's very good.
I love this place, and I come here every time I'm in Montreal. The atmosphere is great -- formal Chinese dining room -- the wait staff are friendly, the service is good, and the food is excellent.
If you're in a group and feel adventurous, don't bother looking at the menu -- just tell your waiter what things you like, and let them bring you whatever they want. I've discovered many amazing dishes there this way.
They're a little pricey, but worth it, because you get good quality Chinese food. And don't do takeout -- the dining room is a fun part of the experience. -
Review from Mark A.
6/22/2009 1 Check-in Here
Don't be turned off by the fact that it is right next to the Holiday Inn. I would be the first to say that hotel restaurants or restaurants connected to the hotel are often mediocre and high priced. This restaurant is neither. They serve both Cantonese and Szechuan cuisines but the main draw is the dimsum.
Dimsum is served from the traditional metal carts. Diners simply pick which item they want and the server then marks the price of the item on the provided check. All the traditional favorites are available like pork siu mai, har gau, pot stickers, egg rolls, fried crab claws, char siu bao, etc., as well as, the more exotic items such as chicken feet. Congee is also an option with all the necessary fixings.
For dessert, they really did an excellent job with egg tarts and sesame seed balls. The other dessert items are still great options.
There are also some dimsum items (mostly dessert) that are served from a dedicated table. As with the carts, diners simply pick which item they want.
Despite the variety of dimsum items available, it is clear that quality was not sacrificed. The only areas that could be improved is service by wait staff (slow and not very responsive) and decor (dining room flooring and walls could be refurbished). -
Review from Luca M.
Montréal, QC
3/23/2010
Packed with Chinese patrons and a haunt with local students, Ruby Rouge is fantastic.
The wait staff is very efficient and the carts keep coming without long waits, although I'd really like more dim-sum carts and less of the fried/heavy stuff.
Try their dou-hua (or do-fu-fa, they'll understand), I think it is to die for. They got me so hooked on it I get cravings every week now.
I think it is slightly more expensive than Kam-Fung in the neighborhood, but I recommend trying it. I found Ruby to be less hectic and better organized. -
Review from S. A.
Halifax, NS
8/3/2009
This place is great! An excellent selection of dim sum dishes. Fresh! Noisy because busy. Good value.
One of the best dim sum experiences I've ever had.
The atmosphere is fairly standard but dim sum restos that I've been in aren't really big on that anyway. I found the staff helpful, you might have to flag them down to get their attention but once you have it they are quick to sort out your questions/requests. Definitely worth a visit. -
Review from Jason K.
12/28/2010
2.5 STARS
- i don't visit montreal very often, but this is a very serviceable spot for dim sum. not toronto or vancouver good, but if you need a har gow or sticky rice fix, it's a decent spot.
- being a place that takes up the entire 2nd floor of a small chinese shopping building, i was very surprised at how jammed the place was. it was a packed house, and we had to wait a few moments for a table for two. -
Review from Steve P.
4/5/2010 7 photos
Our (Fiancee and Myself) final dinner in Montreal and a perfect way to round off a week of fun filled immigration paperwork, meetings, security checkpoints, and sightseeing. My fiancee and I were feeling in the mood for some Chinese or maybe even dim sum, so I popped on here and found this place located in Chinatown. 20 minutes later we were circling the block trying to find a place to park, which, having it be a Friday night was next to impossible. Add-in the fact that she rolled her ankle the night before, I knew if we ever wanted to eat "tonight" I couldn't park at any of the lots down the road, we'd never make it in time. 45 minutes after arriving in the location, and our 6'th trip around, I saw someone begin to pull out and I snaked the spot, only a few hundred feet from the entrance. We made it in, and to the second floor. There must have been some kind of party going on because there were whole sections blocked off and people setting things like tables and speaker systems and the like. After standing at the top of the staircase for a few minutes wondering if the place was closed down for some kind of rented out party. A smartly dressed elderly gentleman grabbed some menus and gestured for us to follow him, alrighty then. We were sat in the back room next to the window overlooking the street we just came in from, nice spot, gave us a view to look at. Something I did notice was the large flat screen TV that was in front of us, wasn't showing a sporting event or anything, it was showing what was going on in the adjacent room. In case I wasn't interested enough in watching the people close to me eat, now I can watch the people far away from me eat as well.
The menu is quite substantial with many options, but what I immediately took notice to was the lack of "carts" pushing around Dim Sum. We must not have been there at the right time, so we decided just to go for the dim sum sampler platter to get a feel for what they served. Neither of us could decide on any one dish so we gave the "Dinners for Two" a shot with, I think, platter "E" Not a bad deal when you look at how much food they give you. 2 soups, 1 order of Dim Sum, 5 plates of various meats and fortune cookies. It seemed to be the best way to try a variety of what this place had to offer and satisfy our confusion on what to get at the same time. Since we didn't have any particular server we just told the first one who stopped at our table what we wanted and off they went.
Within a few minutes the Dim Sum platter was sitting in front of us, not bad considering they were a little busy, the cooks must have been on top of things in the back of the house. Everything on the plate was fantastic, my fiancee especially loved the pork siu mai. We weren't even halfway through when the soups came to the table. Hot & Sour and Wonton. I can say with hindsight looking back that the wonton soup was the most disappointing thing we ate. It had no flavor and smelled a little...Earthy. We elected to just share the H&S. The food began rolling out at a nice pace. Starting with the Lobster shrimp, and ending with the Beef w/ Broccoli, the middle also had Pork, Chicken, and Duck. All the meat groups were present and all of them tasted fantastic. It took us about 2 hours to take everything in and we enjoyed everything we had. Finally the cheque came with the 2 fortune cookies.
Now I have a rule I made with myself, albeit a silly one, but it's still one that I follow. I will never choose my own cookie. I will either take by process of elimination of what is left on the plate, or allow whomever is with me to give me one. I dunno, just something I do..
This particular day as I said before, was filled with immigration paperwork that has taken almost 2 years to complete. Two long arduous painstaking years.. I am in the process of getting my Canadian Fiancee down to the states, and that Friday in Montreal marked the day that she was given the green light to come. It was quite a joyous day for the both of us, which is why we were treating ourselves to a big dinner.
I tell you that part of the story so the conclusion makes a little more sense. We cracked open our little sugary sweets in unison and read our fortunes. Normally we play the "In bed" game, where you put the words, "In bed" at the end of whatever it reads, try it sometime, it always makes them sound better. "You Will be experimenting with new and exciting things....In bed.." See?? However in this case, that was not needed. After a brief chuckle from the both of us, we read them to each other. Hers read "You will soon be traveling abroad" and Mine... "Patience Will Triumph". It's like, they knew we were coming. We definitely had to be there that night.
Give this place a try, everything was great. Would have been a 5 star experience, but the soup tasted like soil, and there was a very loud band warming up for whatever was going to happen later in the evening, made eating and talking to each other difficult -
Review from Kelly K.
11/14/2009
I was here a couple of years ago and the dim sum was good.
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