Chinese restaurant serving comfort food, originating in the northern parts of China - Sauerkraut fish is spicy, numbing, sour, delicious, and oh so good when done correctly.
Restaurant is located on the North-East corner of McCowan and Hwy 7 across from Markville mall. Plenty of parking spots in this plaza. The decor in this restaurant is absolutely stunning with wooden finishes, very zen vibe and minimalist. I had dinner here last night around 7:30PM; restaurant was very busy but we were promptly served by wait staff.
The menu is not massive which is good (quality over quantity, unless you're an HK café)
Menu is QR code based on the edges of the tables
For 3 people, we ordered quite a few dishes to sample
Suancai & Fish - Small (Snakehead Fish) 小份酸菜鱼(黑鱼) - Spicy, Numbing, has vermicelli noodles - decent portion for a single person... flavor wise it is a 5-6/10; it was lacking a bit of seasoning/salt, the flavor was there but there was something missing. My wife and mother in law found it not spicy, so if you have high spice tolerance
Sichuan Peppercorn Fish Fillet 鲜麻青花椒鱼 - this was for me since my spice tolerance isn't crazy high; good flavor, umami, same comments as the snakehead fish - missing some seasoning/lacking but overall good dish (preferred this over the other one)
Stif-fried Pork Belly Slices 火爆辣椒炒肉 - good wok hay, good flavor, could have been spicier (even for me)
Tasty Fried Chicken Wings 二哥爱鸡翅 - really crispy wings as a snack, loved me the mustard on the side, portion comes with 6 wings
Mapo Tofu - This was ok flavor too, similar comments to the dishes ordered
The Sichuan Spicy Chicken 重庆口水鸡 - decent flavor, good cold dish to offset the spicy and sour fish
We did order rice and noodles on the side to enjoy with our dishes
Coconut Ching Bo Leung 椰香冻冻清补凉 - tasty and creamy, refreshing
Orange drink - tangy, sour, good blance to the other flavors
Service was great, the wait staff were attentive and very friendly, they hired the right people for this restaurant.
Overall i give this restaurant a 7/10 rating; improvements could be made I feel
A little oily for my own palette as i had to bbg today twice - I also enjoyed that it wasn't heavy on the MSG as I didn't feel the MSG thirst after eating at this restaurant. It's great for me cause this spice level I can tolerate but for super spice lovers you may be disappointed (unless they have a super spicy option lol) read more