Soy Still So Good: Critic Loves Seasoned Chinese Restaurant

Soy, the veteran Mile End Chinese and pan-Asian restaurant, gets a good look from Thierry Daraize this week. The rave comes almost a year to the day after Jean-Philippe Tastet wrote up chef Suzanne Liu's spot for Le Devoir. Daraize, the critic for Le Journal de Montréal, is just as smitten. "Certainement, dans son genre, un des meilleurs à Montréal. La chef Liu et son équipe virevoltent de saveur en saveur en y ajoutant aussi une certaine ­modernité."

Standouts from Liu's kitchen include fried barbecue duck dumplings with Thai basil, teriyaki chicken spring rolls, and, notably, steamed dumplings with minced pork and ginger ("Une pure merveille!"). Daraize also enjoys Soy's takes on Hunan dumplings, Peking duck, crispy shrimp with rice, and Shanghai-style noodles. Desserts, however, are a bit of a bust. Still, with excellent service, affordable prices, and a "cuisine asiatique raffinée faite avec amour", Soy nabs four stars on five. This is half a star more than Daraize gave the restaurant when he last reviewed it back in 2009.