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| - I'm told this restaurant has been around for numerous years and the rest of my party were regulars here. Inside it reminded me of a typical Chinese restaurant - golds and reds, fish tank, things weren't new but not too old. There were a number of tables seated and the bigger tables around the edge of the restaurant were filled or had reservations.
There was a dinner combo set menu available as well as a regular à la carte menu. My table ordered off the à la carte, probably for flexibility in getting exactly what we want.
The soup came out first - it looked hopeful with greens and meats visible, but the taste was watery and bland. It was also apparent the service was going to feature kind-hearted ladies with fair-to-average serving skills as the soup ladling job was all over the place, literally.
Other dishes came out eventually, featuring sweet and sour pork, thousand island sauce deep fried pork, egg tofu with baby shrimp, garlic shoots and squid with chili sauce, XO sauce string beans, fish fillet with peas...a collection of fairly simple dishes that one could make at home, but would require a hefty grocery run to accomplish all in one dinner. Overall everything tasted good and nothing was poorly done, though the garlic shoots and string beans were much spicier than expected. There were no food-related complaints around the table otherwise. Dessert was sliced oranges and red bean soup - standard, nothing special.
I was impressed by the variety of dishes available at Emerald and satisfied by the pricing - my table of 16 came out to only $16.50 each for what I felt was a large variety of dishes. While nothing stood out nothing was utterly dissatisfying either, which is a great accomplishment given the size of my party. Personally - I felt more interesting and more flavourful dishes can be found in Markham and Richmond Hill, but for being in Mississauga it wasn't bad at all.
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