C
Joined: Mar 06, 2004
Posts: 17
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C
Name:Chows
Type:restaurant
Street:335 Dorval Ave.
City:Dorval (Montreal)
State:
Zip:
country:Canada
Phone:514-636-4770
Status:operational
Description:
Chow's is small Chinese buffet that was renovated in 1984 with a well-executed Polynesian look. It's located in Dorval, a western suburb of Montreal that's close to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport, across the street from the Dorval Gardens shopping mall.
My mother went there with a friend because it's close to her work, and excitedly called me to tell me that they had a bunch of Tiki mugs for sale. Needless to say, I had to investigate.
Chow's is extremely well preserved, with all the raffia and tapa as well as rattan ceiling tiles. It's a bamboo paradise.
There is a party room in basement with a bar, dancefloor and netting ceiling. It features fiberglass sconce lights shaped like giant clams and a big mask overlooking the head table.
The owner, Paul, showed me the vintage Orchids of Hawaii catalogue he ordered everything out of - the restaurant, including the carvings on the wall and doors, is a virtual OoH showroom, circa 1984.
No longer serves tropical drinks and most of the remaining OoH tiki mugs (the usual stuff) are for sale at the front for $5 Canadian.
Fantastic birdcage lamps in the main room in great shape, lots of bamboo.
The goopy and tooth-rottingly-sweet food is uniformly awful, at least by my effete and delicate standards.
No drink menus, placemats, matchbooks, ashtrays, swizzle sticks, etc.
Paul was kind enough to give me some placemats for a steak house he owned 20 years ago in downtown Montreal - not tiki related.
I'm working on getting a scan / colour photocopy of the OoH catalogue. It's full of really interesting carvings and is a great tool for ID'ing decoration.
For some reason, he had a Moai mug from the Kahiki amongst the other mugs for sale, which I snapped up.
If this place ever goes up for sale or renovation, it'll be a feeding frenzy for the extremely well-preseved decor.
Conclusion: worth examining, an undiscovered Tiki spot. Forget about getting any drinks though.
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