THE BEST CHINESE FOOD I'VE EVER HAD!
And at a very affordable price of $12-$20 CAD per plate (the portions size is huge, enough for 1.5-2 people each and each dish is meant to be shared via a huge Lazy-Susan. )
I honestly think that to find better Chinese food, you'd have to go to China.
We had a large party and got quite a few dishes:
(ranked best to ... to not best, there wasn't a single bad dish here, let alone a "worst")
Orange Chicken: 10/10
Probably the best chicken I've ever had, period. Packed with umami, extremely tender and soaked in a delicious smoked soy sauce it was completely different from every other orange chicken I've had.
Shrimp in Lobster Sauce: 10/10
Also the best shrimp we've ever had. So flavorful, complex and delicate the shrimp were swimming in a delicious soup of flavors I have yet to identify. Each bite brought out a new more subtle flavor hidden beneath more prominent flavors.
Shrimp Fried Rice: 10/10
The best fried rice we've ever had, very rich, yet somehow light and refreshing with a strong tangy taste of sesame sauce, garlic and ginger. I'm going to have to learn how to replicate this one or I'm going to end up eating here every week.
Lemon Chicken: 10/10
The best lemon chicken I've ever had. Extremely tender, flavorful and the best lemon sauce, I've ever had. It's almost like a custard but incredibly refreshing and packed with umami.
Sides of Steamed Rice: 10/10
The rice was perfectly cooked and went great with all the sauces.
Assorted Fried Vegetables: 9/10
Rich very well seasoned and so fresh!
Szechuan Shrimp: 9/10
Extremely flavorful with powerful and complex umami. Quite mild, not nearly as spicy as I like to make at home. The mildness may disappoint others but I thought the umami more than made up for it.
Szechuan Scallops: 8/10
These tasted exactly the same as the Szechuan Shrimp, not bad by any means but I wouldn't get both at the same time again. Was a tiny bit disappointed it only had regular-size scallops and not the big ones, but it was still very good.
Chicken Balls: 7/10
They were the best chicken balls, I've ever had. Very tender with a very sweet and delicious, yet refreshing cherry sauce. However I'm biased against them because I'm not a huge fan of chicken balls in general.
2 x Appetizers of Torpedo Shrimp with Plum Sauce: 7/10
Truthfully they were very, very good. However $8.50 CAD for 4 torpedo shrimp it is not nearly as good a deal as anything else on the menu and is a bit hard to justify if you're on a budget. They are good enough that you could easily eat 2-3 plates by yourself and still have room for the rest of the meal.
As for the other aspects of the restaurant.
Firstly, this place is kind of hard to find. Nestled in the corner of an ordinary shopping plaza between two cannabis shops and an animal hospital with a Dollarama and an A&W a stone's throw away; it's the absolute last place I'd expect to find large 5-Star Chinese Restaurant. But I guess that's how they keep their prices so low.
I have no complaints about their location. However, they need better signage. We drove around for about 10 minutes looking for it, and only arrived 1 minute before our reservation.
The inside of the restaurant is perfectly clean, well-kept and modern. You won't find a wide assortment of stereotypical "Chinese Restaurant Décor" here, this place is completely authentic.
For our dinner we had my 90-year-old grandma in-tow who uses a walker so good accessibly is an essential for us. Upon arriving we found that neither of the wheelchair buttons on the front door worked. Our waiter tried it himself and apologized profusely and said it would be fixed as soon as possible. Not too big a deal for us but it may be for others.
Most of their dining area is elevated 2' or so and is only excessive via short stairs. However, there are plenty of tables at ground level, if you need an easily accessible table, make sure to make a reservation and specify wheelchair access.
Their washrooms are cramped and I found the height of stalls too short for me; when standing up my head goes over a foot above the stall, I'm 6'. The men's washroom had only 1 toilet and 3 urinals. The women's washroom had 3 toilets. There is also a unisex wheelchair accessible washroom. However, my mother found it rather cramped looking after my grandma in there.
The washrooms while cramped, were very clean and smelled clean too.
I was amused that we were only given forks and knives and had to ask for chopsticks but I guess they're used to serving tourists who've never used them or maybe white people who can use them aren't common here. Even more amusing the chopsticks we were brought were Japanese-style rounded-end chopsticks not Chinese-style square-end. They even said 「いらしゃいませ」'irashaimase' "Welcome" in Japanese. I'm not complaining though, I just had a giggle.
The service is first class!
Needless to say the food is incredible and we will definitely be coming back. read more