New Downtown Resto Ladels Up Montreal’s First Spicy Chongqing Noodles

Spicy Chongqing-style noodles — also known as xiao mian — have arrived in Montreal, with casual restaurant CQ Montagne now serving them on Bishop Street.

CQ Montagne appears to be the first restaurant in Montreal to take on xiao mian, a wheat-based noodle dish popular as a breakfast street food in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing.

The dish is typically made with thin noodles, and an oil-based sauce of crushed chilies and Sichuan pepper (known for its numbing feel), and may be topped with crushed peanuts, meat (pork or beef, typically), green onions, and herbs like cilantro. It’s a bold, Sichuan dish roughly in the same food family as spicy and nutty dan dan noodles — while Chongqing is technically just outside of Sichuan province proper, it’s still present in that city.

At CQ Montagne, it seems those noodles are served both dry and wet — the latter meaning the noodles come with a meaty and tangy broth, and the former, without broth.

The restaurant takes over former grab ‘n’ go spot Épicerie Umami, and has a variety of other dishes beyond those noodles — think Sichuan sausage, dumplings, and crispy fried pork.

STATUS — CQ Montagne is open at 1195 Bishop Street from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily (11 p.m. Friday and Saturday).

• CQ Montagne [Official]