Kongee Dinesty 金津粥品專門店

After a year long hiatus, I'm back with more reviews, and I'm starting with a newly opened restaurant in Richmond called Kongee Dinesty.

The restaurant is in an easily accessible plaza on Garden city and Capstan Way. The plaza is now filled with restaurants, but even at lunchtime there were plenty of parking spots. 

The interior is quite new and reminds me of Dinesty (same owner maybe?). It's bright, spacious, and plenty of daylight comes through the interestingly dressed up window that makes it near impossible to see into the restaurant from outside. 

We were given the lunch menu so it was quite limited. We ordered just a few dishes to see if it was good and we weren't disappointed.

Sampan Congee - A congee staple at most establishments, it was average to good. J doesn't meat pig's ears, so I don't know why she orders this. H didn't really care for it but she didn't complain either.

Sweet Chinese Donut - A favourite of mine. It was decent here, but tasted a little too doughy. H loved it though. I liked how it wasn't overly fried. 

Pan Fried Turnip Cake with X.O. Sauce - This dish was the main event of my meal. The turnip cake was cut into cubes and pan fried in sauce. The cubes were a little on the thick side, so you get a lot of soft turnip cake in every bite (as opposed to the crispy outside). It could be cut a little thinner to increase the ratio of crispness. The sauce was tasty, but they could have been a bit more generous with it. The one thing I didn't like was the bean sprouts. They were flavorless and seemed to be added to the plate as more of a garnish than part of the dish. 

Chinese Donut Wrapped with Rice Roll - in a nutshell I was disappointed with this dish. Maybe I was getting full and they served this nearly 20 minutes after everything else we ordered. However, I found that the doughnut was too doughy, and the rice wrap was a little below average. They provided a bit of sauce, but it felt a little stingy too. Overall, I probably wouldn't order it again. 

H also got a glass of warm soy milk, which was just okay. 

Service wasn't bad. There were probably 6 staff waiting tables and hosting, but there were also a few times we had to wait to flag someone down. The restaurant only has about 20 tables, so they can probably do with being a little more attentive. 

Overall, I think I will go back because it's new, there's lots of parking, and they have a more extensive dinner menu that I haven't even looked at yet. For now, I do recommend trying it out, but time might change that recommendation. 

Summary
Food: Good. Based purely on lunch, it was close to just being average.

Service: Good. There were plenty of servers, but at times they weren't very attentive.

Setting: Good. It's a new establishment.

Value: Good. Their prices are quite reasonable and the food is pretty good.

Pearl Castle Café 圓香生活餐飲

This review is for the Pearl Castle chain, although my most recent visit was the Richmond Centre location.

Milky Seafood Hotpot

Pearl Castle was a long-time favourite of mine, but in recent years they have spread themselves quite thin and lost the focus on quality. They regularly raise their prices and keep opening new locations. 

My most recent visit was to the Richmond Centre location. Their menu is pretty consistent across locations and they have quite a bit of variety. I decided to try their milky seafood hotpot for a change and was a little disappointed. 

Milky Seafood Hotpot

The pot was rather large but most of it was soup and lots of cabbage. There were a few pieces of seafood in the pot including a shrimp and a mussel. The soup was rich with milk and pretty flavorful. However, overall I wasn't impressed and probably won't ever order it again. 

Service is standard for a Chinese restaurant, and the setting is pretty average. The only bonus for the Richmond Centre location is that it's in a mall so parking and shopping are readily available. 

Overall, I would recommend the Pearl Castle chain of restaurants, but I would stick with the Sexsmith location and some of the other dishes that you everyone else ordering like the crispy peppery chicken nuggets or the three spice chicken.

I find that in general, the Minoru (Richmond Centre) location is slower on service and the food quality isn't at the same level as their original location on Sexsmith. 

Summary

Food: Good

Service: Average

Setting: Good

Value: Average

Chongqing Restaurant 重慶飯店

Chicken Corn Soup

It's been quite some time since we went to Chongqing Restaurant on Kingsway (10 months!) so we decided to head there for lunch after H's gymnastics class. We arrived around 12:30pm and the restaurant wasn't very busy (yet).

Hot and Sour Soup

I asked for a high chair so the server directed us to sit at a table near the entrance so there's more walking room around the chair. However, the new booth he gave us was in direct sun. Even with the blinds down and closed, J and I were feeling the heat and asked to move. With a much cooler booth, we sat down and put in our orders.

Seafood Chow Mein - standard chow mein with some seafood included. It wasn't bad but it wasn't memorable either.

Seafood Chow Mein

Tan Tan Noodles with Pork Chop - I ordered this one because I like comparing Tan Tan Noodles at various restaurants. I have to admit that I really liked the way they made it. The soup is very thick but there's enough of it that the noodles don't absorb everything. This is important for me since I spend a long time feeding H while I eat. Some places, the noodles absorb all the soup and it's like eating dry noodles. Anyway, the noodles are good and the soup is a bit spicy. I would like to try the Deluxe version next time, which comes with ground meat in the noodles. The pork chop that was served on the side was pretty good. It's dipped in a curry sauce before being fried, so there's a curry taste to the meat which is actually quite original. H really loved the pork chop and ate all but one piece that she let me have..

Tan Tan Noodles

Pork Chop (c/w Tan Tan Noodles)

All lunch special menu dishes come with your choice of soup: hot and sour or chicken corn. We ordered one of each since H can't handle spicy. The chicken corn soup was very thick and had some egg swirl, shredded chicken and bean sprout tips. It was a little too thick and would have been better if there was more substance to it.

Service wasn't bad overall. It was very apparent that they didn't turn on the AC until sometime later when someone probably complained or the employees realized it. It also get pretty busy in there as the lunch crowd started to arrive.

I'm going to make an effort to try out Chongqing for dinner as they have a lot of Szechuan dishes that I really want to try and the food is pretty good.

Summary
Food: Good. Everything is average or better (more better). Soup can be skipped.

Service: Good. Nothing to write home about.

Setting: Good. They have their own parking lot and there's quite a bit of street parking nearby. The restaurant is pretty clean.

Value: Good. The lunch specials were $8.45 and a decent size. Food is good too.

Po Kong Vegetarian Restaurant 普光素食

Aside from dining with vegetarians, every once in a while we have a craving of the meatless variety and we pick from a short list of restaurants that serve no meat at all (because vegetarian options at regular restaurants often use the same cooking implements or even the same oil as that used for meat dishes). We've been to Po Kong on Kingsway once before and chose to go again this long weekend.

Jai (Gluten) Combination

The restaurant is located at a busy section of Kingsway near Knight Street, so parking can be challenging. We ended up a block away right on Kingsway, so it wasn't so bad. The restaurant has about 3 parking spots out back, unless you feel like double-parking and having to move your car if you box someone in, or get boxed in yourself.

Baked Vegetables in Portugese Sauce

The interior is very... green. They have quite a few tables of various sizes and on the Saturday that we went, it was half full when we arrived. Throughout our meal, more patrons showed up and a small line started to form by the entrance, which is almost always a sign of good business.

As a Chinese restaurant, you get your choice of tea as you sit down and we ended up ordering perhaps a little too much.

Jai (gluten) combination. A combination of different kinds of marinated wheat gluten. Spongy in texture and easy to chew, Bo Kong's wheat gluten is a great appetizer and goes well in the main dishes as well.

Enoki Mushrooms on Fried Tofu and Broccoli

House special chow mein. A myriad of vegetables and thick broth-like sauce over a bed of crispy fried noodles. Meat or no meat, this dish is excellent for the variety of vegetables and textures of the ingredients. There's bok choi, bamboo shoots, marinated wheat gluten, wood ear (a type of fungus), broccoli and carrots. I think there was bean sprouts in there too. There is so much variety in this dish that you forget there's no meat.

Sizzling Steak with Black Pepper Sauce

Baked vegetables in Portugese sauce. If you like Portugese sauce and the chewy, stringy taste and texture of baked cheese, order this one as soon as you sit down. There's a 20-30 minute preparation time for it, but it's well worth it. The dish is comprised of mostly broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and taro, baked with Portugese sauce and covered in cheese. The sauce works very well with the baked vegetables and the portion size is very generous.

Enoki mushrooms on fried tofu and broccoli. The overall taste of this dish is similar to the house special chow mein, except it is a little more subtle. The enoki mushrooms are mixed with carrots and poured over a stack of fried tofu on a bed of broccoli. The tofu and broccoli aren't completely dry, but there wasn't quite enough sauce to spread around the whole dish. This dish was pretty average overall.

Plain Rice Roll 

Sizzling steak with black pepper sauce and broccoli and cauliflower. The steak is imitation meat or sausage (really made of tofu or other bean ingredients) and sliced up and pan fried on the sizzling plate. The black pepper sauce very good and adds a bit of kick to the 'meat' and the vegetables. It might be better with corn or cabbage to soak up the sauce, but it's a good pick regardless.

Plain rice roll with sesames. The rice rolls are pretty standard. The dipping sauce is pretty good with a peanut taste to it which goes well with the sesame seeds.

Sesame sticky rice balls with lotus paste. J had a craving for these so we ordered a small plate of them. The balls were served piping hot and we had to wait a few minutes for them to cool down. The sticky rice balls were thin, soft and not too sticky. My only criticism was that the amount of lotus paste inside was little more than the size of my pinky fingertip.

Service at Po Kong was pretty standard for a Chinese restaurant. The owner/manager (I think) was very active in playing the part of host for new guests and departing customers.

After this good experience, we will definitely be back.

Summary
Food: Very good. The food is made well with quality ingredients and not as greasy as average Chinese restaurants that serve meat.

Service: Good.

Setting: Good. The interior is brightly lit and spacious.

Value: Good. The prices are similar to meat-serving restaurants, but the food quality is on par, if not better, than many.

Green Lettuce 貴賓閣

Indian and Chinese fusion? Yes please!

It's been a few years, so we planned a dinner at Green Lettuce in Vancouver with our friends. We made reservations and showed up for dinner on a Friday night. We were surprised that the restaurant wasn't very busy, as in the past it was always packed for dinner.

Spicy Chili Garlic Wings

We started off with a couple of orders of Spicy Chili Garlic Wings. The wings were quite crispy depite being covered in their chili garlic sauce. They tasted fantastic and had a bit of kick to them. Peeling away the sauce and the skin, the kids had some as well.

On top of the wings, we put in our order for a few share plates.

Chili Beef

Chili Beef - This dish is listed with 3 chili peppers next it (the maximum), and When asked if we could turn down the heat level, the server said that it can't be adjusted for this dish. As it turned out, it was only mildly spicy. The beef was rolled in batter before being fried. As a result, we had a bit of difficulty discerning 'where's the beef'? The texture of the fried batter made it taste very much like fried fish. Upon closer examination, the beef was thinly sliced and likely pre-tenderized so there wasn't much beefiness spring to it.

Sweet & Sour Fish with Pineapple

Sweet & Sour Fish with Pineapple - This fish tasted very similar to the beef in that it was battered and fried as well. The blend of sweet and sour sauce mixing with the batter was quite delicious (even though the result was that it was hard to tell the difference between fish and batter). There could have been more pineapples though.

Vegetable Korma - This dish was quite simply a stir-fry of vegetables with some curry sauce. It wasn't spicy despite the chili rating in the menu. I would have preferred a thicker curry, but the vegetables were a good break from the other (fried) dishes.

Vegetable Korma

Service and setting weren't bad overall. When I spilled some water on H, our server came by quite quickly and gave us extra napkins (racial stereotype about Chinese and Indians purposely omitted). She also recommended a small bowl of rice which would be enough for all of us.

When the restaurant is full, it can be a little crowded. However, that Friday night it wasn't very crowded at all, so it was quite comfortable. Parking is also readily available in the nearby residential streets if you can't find a spot on Kingsway.

Overall, the dining experience was good, but I would definitely order some different dishes the next time so we don't end up with 75% of our dishes being fried.

Summary
Food: Good. The wings were excellent, but the heavy batter on 2 of our dishes was a little too much.

Service: Good.

Setting: Good. Restaurant is clean with many tables, and there is parking nearby.

Value: Good. The prices are moderate, with the popular dishes being a little pricier.

Szechuan Chongqing Seafood Restaurant 重慶海鮮大飯店

We bought a Groupon for Chingquing months ago, mistakenly thinking that it was part of the same restaurant group as the Chongqing in Burnaby. We realized our mistake when we read that it was only valid at the Broadway restaurant. We made reservations for a Saturday night for our family and our regular dining buddies.

The restaurant is in a complex that has its own parking lot accessible from the back lane so we parked there. There were plenty of spaces available. When we walked up the stairs to the restaurant, our visit didn't look very promising. The restaurant had its own patio overlooking Broadway, and of the five or so tables two of them were occupied. Not bad. When we walked into the restaurant, it was completely empty.

We were greeted by three different people, of which one I'm sure one was a manager. All three of them greeted us in English, which isn't normal for a Chinese restaurant. Regardless, we were designated a table and I asked for a high chair for H. As the rest of our party arrived and settled in, there was still no high chair. H was walking around having fun, but I was standing the entire time looking at the server I requested the high chair from. He looked at me a few times but never brought a high chair and then disappeared. I asked a second server and he walked out to the patio to check on the diners there and came back in to finish setting up a different table, completely forgetting about my request. Finally, I got his attention again and he ended up bringing a high chair.

High chair shenanigans aside, we all sat down and looked over the menu. I don't normally criticize badly designed and constructed menus, but the menus at this restaurant were very low-grade. I can make vastly better menus with some freeware and my camera phone in under 2 hours.

One other problem that came up was the air conditioning. When we arrived, they had the patio doors open and the restaurant was hot like a sauna. We asked them to turn on the AC so they did. However, they turned it up to the max and a couple of the vents were pointing right at our table. They fixed that a few minutes later which was good. What was not good was that there were swarms of flies in the dining area. Just looking towards the entrance of the restaurant I could see at least 5 of them flying in circles waiting for some food scraps. It wasn't a pleasant sight and no one seemed to care.

Anyway, we ordered several dishes including the lemon chicken and some stir fried dishes. I can't recall exactly what we ordered, but they weren't very memorable. In fact, the lemon chicken was pretty bad. There was too much batter and very little chicken. The chicken was also a little rubbery. The other dishes were mediocre to average at best, and every dish was quite small.

Service was pretty average throughout the meal. The Asian servers all spoke to us in English. Even when we spoke to them in Chinese, they replied in English (with very strong accents). Maybe they were trying to improve their English, or maybe they are instructed to only use English. Who knows? It was very bizarre.

I will not be returning to Szechuan Chongqing Seafood Restaurant again, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone... unless I don't like them.

Summery
Food: Poor. Some dishes were average and some were downright bad. Don't get the lemon chicken.

Service: Average. Dinner service was okay but they have an extremely short-term memory for things like my high chair.

Setting: Poor. I'm sure this could be Average on days when they don't let the flies in, but then again they didn't do anything about them either.

Value: Very Poor. Prices were moderate to high, but the servings were small. Even with a Groupon it wasn't worth it.

Shanghai River 滬江海派料理

I went out to Shanghai River this past weekend for lunch with the in-laws to celebrate my brother-in-law's first job and paycheck. This restaurant is on my list of regular places to go eat and I've been going for the last 7 years. Besides a noticeable decline in XLB (小籠包 - (xiaolongbao) or soupy pork dumplings) quality several years ago when supposedly the master chef left the restaurant, the overall food quality has been pretty consistent over the years.

On this particular visit, we ordered quite a few dishes including the popular Shanghai Thick Fried Noodles. For some reason, the noodles were completely unseasoned. We sent the dish back and it was returned to our table with some extra grease, but it tasted completely unchanged! Rather than cause a scene, we packed it to go and salted it later ourselves.

Despite that one problem, all the other dishes were very good as usual. We ordered XLBs, green onion pancakes (one of my favorites), salty soy milk, Chinese doughnuts, sticky rice stuffed with pork floss and Chinese doughnut, a wonton soup, some spicy beef noodles, and gyozas. I love the green onion pancake at Shanghai River because it's thick and fluffy. I haven't been to any other restaurant that makes it this way. It's usually thin and very firmly packed together, making it harder to chew as it cools down.

I will continue to revisit the restaurant as overall it is still one of the best Shanghai places to go in the Lower Mainland.

Summary
Food: Very good. Their XLBs are still good and the green onion pancake is exceptional.

Service: Good. There are many servers around and they are quick to respond. They may not have the best attitude all the time, but overall it's good.

Setting: Good. Easy parking (always one of my top considerations) and the dining room is large, well-lit, and very clean. It can get loud though...

Value: Good. The food is a bit on the pricey side, but your money goes towards everything: food, service, and the establishment.

 

Cattle Cafe (4883 Kingsway - Metrotown)

Note: This review was originally posted on Dine Here and reposted to this blog on Sep 16, 2013.

I've been to Cattle (every location) many times and I've never been disappointed.

The ambiance is just average and is typical for most Chinese cafe-style restaurants.

The service is pretty average as well. If you've been to one Chinese cafe, you know what I mean.

The value is pretty solid as you get free hot tea and the meals are around $8. The most popular choice at Cattle is the noodle bowl. For just under $8, you select your soup base, your noodle, two items (eg. tofu puffs, beef brisket, fish slices, etc.), and any premium side items at an extra charge (eg. fried chicken wings, pork cutlet, etc.). The meals and noodle bowl all come with a hot drink, or a special drink for another $2. The special drinks include bubbleteas, smoothies, and shakes, which are all fairly large.

The food is good, if not better than the average Chinese cafe. I've tried a few flavours of their milkshakes, and they have all been good. Their mini-meals and their baked meals are all pretty decent, and their noodles are great. I've tried a few different soup bases, and my favourite is the Tom Yum soup. It's a bit tarte and spicy, so be forewarned (as not everyone may be accustomed to that).

Summary (repeat of above)
Food: Good.

Service: Average.

Setting: Average. Almost every location is cramped and parking is average at best.

Value: Good. You get a big bowl of noodles or meal with a drink for under $10. If you spend another $2 you get a bubbletea.

508 Bistro

Note: This review was originally posted on Dine Here and reposted to this blog on Sep 16, 2013.

J and I always see this place as we drive by on Kingsway, and we decided to finally try it out. The restaurant is spacious and the atmosphere is a little hard to pinpoint. Clearly, it used to be a lounge/bar. The service was average to good, as we had to flag down the servers whenever we needed them. The prices were average and comparable to others in its category. We ordered a bubbletea which was surprisingly better than a majority of establishments that specialize in making bubbletea. What makes this restaurant unique is their Taiwanese style to their dishes.

We ordered three dishes and an appetizer. The first was a stir-fry pork with chillies which was quite spicy and tasty. The second dish was a fried rice with dried shrimp. It too was pretty good and not too greasy the way most restaurants make fried rice. The third was the well-known 3 cup chicken. At first, I wasn't too excited about ordering it, but at 508 Bistro they make it with boneless chicken which wasn't drowned in sauce. Another good dish. Finally, our appetizer was the handmade beef roll (another common dish at Chinese restaurants). They use a thicker wrap than most places, but it was quite soft and fluffy. The beef was tender and it came with a delicious garlic dipping sauce. Instant favourite.

We are already planning on returning with my family as we were happily surprised at the quality of the food. As of the time of writing this review, the restaurant is open in the evenings only (until late, for those with midnight cravings), plus lunch on weekends (not weekdays).

Summary
Food: Good. Although a little on the greasy side, the dishes were very flavorful and their drinks are made well.

Service: Average. Nothing good or bad to mention.

Setting: Good. Parking is readily available and the interior of the restaurant is nice.

Value: Average. The dishes were average priced for Taiwanese eateries in its class, but the dish sizes were a little on the smaller side.