Growing up, my family and I always looked forward to Dim Sum on Sundays. Dim Sum was a special treat for us. It wasn't something we did too often.

Now that I live on an island that is far away from Chinese restaurants (with the exception of a few "Chinese" restaurants that aren't really Chinese, but "Canadian-Chinese"), I sometimes crave Chinese Dim Sum. **By Canadian-Chinese, I mean restaurants that have chicken balls, fried chicken, General Tao and other generic dishes as their main "Chinese" dishes.**

Whenever I'm in Montreal, we always make a point to go for Dim Sum!

My cousin recommended Tong Por Restaurant in Ville St. Laurent. It was fabulous! The restaurant itself was large and could seat big families and parties. When it comes to Chinese restaurants, I often gauge how good a restaurant is by the number of people dining and how long the line-up is! This place was PACKED...which meant that it was a good place to dine!
One of my former Mexican students was in Montreal and met up with me for Dim Sum. It was so nice to see him again! When I taught at a private language institute in Toronto, he was in one of my classes.
There's nothing like the hustle and bustle of a busy Chinese restaurant! The sounds, sights, scents are so much to take in. Every time the wait staff passed around with their carts filled with assorted dishes, we'd stop them and order a few of everything...except for chicken feet!

The lady with the chicken feet dishes on her cart would laugh every time she passed our table and ask me, "Chicken feet? You want chicken feet?". Each time, I'd say "No thanks!" and smile. It became a running joke between the two of us because she knew I'd always say "No thanks!".
Little One's first Dim Sum experience, and she slept through most of it. For the life of me, I have no idea how she could sleep through all the noise! :)

When having Chinese Dim Sum, use chopsticks...if you can! Asking for a fork will sometimes get a few smirks and giggles :) Also, it is common to drink tea. Forgo asking for pop or juice, unless you really want to have it. Order it if you really want to, but tea is served at every table and is refilled throughout your meal. The tea is flavourful and also helps cleanse the pallate. Not only that, but the tea is said to help in digestion.
The pork buns were amazing! They reminded me of a baked version of Filipino Sio Pao. It's a type of bun filled with sweet and savoury pork.

The sesame balls were also delicious. I don't know what the filling is, but it's chewy and oh so yummy! Though I am part Chinese, you'd think that I could speak the language or read the characters. Nope. I am horrible! :( I don't even know the names of all the dishes. Whenever the wait staff passed around with their carts, I'd just point at whatever I wanted because I didn't know what anything was called!

I'm hoping my friend, Curiosity Killer can help me out in identifying all my fave dishes!

Those white rice noodle rolls with shrimp inside (above photo) are what I call "Chinese lasagna". I also love the shaomai, shrimp dumplings (har gao) and Taro dumplings!

If you're in Montreal, head to Tong Por for an amazing dim sum! The prices are good. There were nine of us (ten, if you count Little One...but she didn't eat any of the food) and the bill came to $97.80. That is pretty good, if you ask me!

Oh, and the bathrooms are clean! That is another big thing for me! I have a public restroom phobia, so if a restaurant has clean bathrooms, they get bonus points from me!

Five out of five stars.