La Mere Restaurant

3.5÷5
When I went to Japanese Ramen King the first time around, I noticed this restaurant which was quite busy. Looking at the menu, I decided to give this place a try some other time, which ended up being this past week.
First thing to note, this is a Mandarin speaking restaurant. The employees do not know Cantonese (at least the ones I dealt with that day), and their English knowledge is limited to acceptable. However I did notice they gave preferential treatment to ones who can communicate with them, which was a poor sign for people like myself.
This is a Northern-​style Chinese restaurant, so don’t expect dim sum here. I ordered the Peking style meat pie and a beef noodle soup. I was also looking at the pork bone noodle soup and the pork noodle soup, but opted to go with beef for my first visit.
I liked the meat pie a lot: Crispy, yet soft at the same time, just the way I like it. There was also a good amount of pork meat in there. For the noodles, I liked the noodle and the beef slices, but the broth was a little on the plain side. I suppose it’s meant to be not as oily as other places, but it’s definitely not something I’m used to.
For $ 12 after taxes this dinner meal was definitely a steal. I left the restaurant completely stuffed and had to walk it off a bit before driving away.
With practically all Chinese restaurants, food trumps service. Using that theory I will return for future visits.

Came here a few times already but i always forget to do a review!
Anyway, I absolutely love LA mere !! I tried their pork bone noodles, cold tofu with green onion, lamb kabobs, spicy cold noodles, spicy tripe, beef pancake and just the pork bone dish
They were all really really good ~ it’s cheap too!
The flavors are all amazing if you like spicy and cold !

The place is very small and seems like its always busy.
Its a great place to eat some fresh noodles.
Got the porkbone with noodles — the only complaint is that the porkbone were mostly bone and very little meat. Had to take my chopsticks to really dig out the meat and my hand was really sore from all the digging of the meat. Noodles have great texture and a huge difference from packaged noodles. The beef noodles were just as good and beef was sliced super thin.
The beef pancake was a good side snack. Crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. Goes well with pepper oil however the pepper oil they have on the table looked so dirty that I didn’t feel like using it. In the end I still ended up using it.
Low cost and filling meal

This place is awesome for lamb lovers. Several dishes with strong lamb taste. We got:
–toothpick cumin lamb, which was great. The pieces are actually quite big and tasty
–lamb noodle soup. Noodles are good, and broth had a strong lamby taste. Awesome. Only complaint is some of the lamb pieces are fatty
–lamb pancakes: again good stuff
–also tried a sesame peanut butter pancake for desert that was tasty. Reminded me of nutter butters.
Big parking lot shared by rest of strip mall

La Mere is a Northern Chinese restaurant located in a strip plaza amongst many other restaurants. For this place to even stand out is incredible. The menu here offers some Northern staples but not many. They have dumplings and hand-​made noodles along with the meat pancakes, but they also have fully cooked pork bones (with meat on of course), which you don’t see much.
I ordered the Pork Bone Hand Pulled Noodle Soup while the girlfriend ordered Pork Belly with Chinese Sauerkrat and Noodles. The Pork Bones come in a bowl with this deep rich brown broth (like beef stock), except it is soy and pork based. The hand pulled noodles were OK, but were not as fresh as I had anticipated. The meat was tasty as well and the broth was good. I’m used to it being saltier, but I am glad it wasn’t so.
The Chinese sauerkrat was a weird dish for me, as it truly tasted like sauerkraut that you get at a German restaurant, except that it was poured into a clear pork broth with pieces of pork belly in the soup as well. The pork belly was fatty and rich, but the broth wasn’t, which was a nice balance.
Also got their «famous meat pie», which is a Chinese pancake with meat sandwiched in it. They did a great job as it wasn’t that greasy and the dough was crisp and smelled wonderful. You can choose between beef, lamb, or pork. We opted with the beef and it wasn’t that great. Other than the dough, the dish probably won’t be ordered again by me.
Definitely worth going if you’re a fan of Northern style Chinese cuisine and want some pork bones! There is another location in Richmond Hill and replicates the same menu as well. Either are good places to go for some good grub.

First off, La Mere has opened a NEW location on Highway 7 in Richmond Hill — congratulations!
I’ve been back a many times at this Scarborough location, and they are always busy — even on a random Tuesday night this week! Again, recommended for small groups of 2 – 6 ppl. Unfortunately, they don’t take any large group reservations :(
They now have a new fancy menu with colourful photos, and still offering the same food items (I prefer the old menu design better, mainly because I memorized where all the items are lol!)
I’m still very happy with their food (service… not so much but I don’t blame the woman, she is working her butt off by herself! She is very quick on her feet.) I would highly recommend the following:
1. Marinated pork bones — MUST order!
2. Marinated pig stomach with cilantro — *spicy*
3. Shredded potato salad — very crunchy
4. Stuffed beef/​pork/​lamb meat pancake
5. Spicy lamb meat on toothpicks
6. Sweet potato balls with red bean paste filling
7. Glutinous rice balls in sweet light wine soup
One more thing to note: I never really liked their noodle soup dishes… tried it a few times. I like the fact that the noodles are chewy (+1) but the soup base is very off for me. Maybe that is how it should taste like (?) but I’m not a fan, sorry! Everything else on the menu is delicious! Definitely a place I will frequent often :) Keep up the great work!

I love the meat pancakes from this place. A really thin crêpe like exterior is filled with delicious beef. It has just the right amount of spice. I highly recommend this place.

I think this is an excellent place to go for lunch, due to its small menu. Obviously I ordered the meat pancakes, which were really delicious. However I find that it is better to let it cool a bit, because when it’s piping hot, it’s hard to enjoy the flavour of the meat inside. I also ordered the fried sweet potato dish, which was also really delicious and unique, since I’ve never had that dish before. Overall, I found this restaurant really enjoyable, and my mom also found the dishes like the congee (which is different from Cantonese congee and may be an acquired taste) to be reminiscent of my grandmother’s cooking since she was from Beijing as well. Furthermore, all dishes are really affordable with a decent portion size which made things all the better. I’m not sure if this would be a good place for dinner though, cause I’m not sure if they would offer a bigger menu at night. Also, for those who read Chinese (not me =[) there are also extra items on the walls. Overall, I found my experience here pretty good, and will surely return for lunch, or maybe just for a snack!

A lovely little Beijing style chinese food, specializing in meat pancakes. My wife is from Beijing and she definitely confirms that this place is as authentic as it gets.
Cold veggie dishes are lightly seasoned and very refreshing using very fresh ingredients. Meat pancakes are lovely flavoured, thin tasty skins. Noodles are cooked perfectly and soup is rich and complex. Highlight is the sesame paste pancake. Small menu and not many tables, but turnover is quick so come for a quick bite.

Soulful Chinese Beijing food. Pork pancakes are amazing along with fried potato the noodles and side dishes. Very affordable and cheap but this isn’t the most English friendly restaurant

La Mere is NOT a French Restaurant… and it has nothing French about it!
La Mere is just the Northern Chinese restaurant doing small plates. It’s Chinese name means «Old Mother Meat Cake». Since it is their specialities I decided to try one of those.
Stuffed Beef Pancake ($ 4.50) took a little while to arrive as it was made to order. The beef was minced and it was juicy and savoury. It was filling too! I ordered a congee ($ 1) to go with the pancake and it made a really authentic Northern Chinese cuisine experience!
La Mere is really a single friendly restaurant because all their dishes are smaller portion at a cheaper price point! That’s why there were at least another 3 singles eating in the restaurant while I was there!