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| - Summary: popular Hakka dishes in big portion sizes are fairly tasty, although service is iffy and lighting is dim.
Top Must-Get: Manchurian Chicken
Top Regret: Chicken Fried Rice
This is the most popular Hakka restaurant in an area full of them (three in that plaza)! We get seated pretty quickly for lunch, but I've been here for dinner and sometimes there's a wait. To be honest, it's good, but not worth waiting for.
First impressions? Dark and confusing. When you walk in, there are two doors. One (to the right) is for dine in, and the other (go straight) is for takeout, but it's easy to miss the signs because they opt for a dimmer ambience. Maybe it's supposed to be romantic, but I personally find it feeling moody and broody, especially since the service staff often look bored to match.
BUT TO THE POINT - the food. First thing, it's going to be a nice sized portion, and second thing, it's going to be drenched in sauce. I found out on my last visit, after ordering, that you can get it dry, and will be trying that next time - but the sauce does go well with rice, which comes with the lunch special. Food comes pretty fast and lunch comes with a pop of your choice.
Chili chicken is fairly good. Darker colour, lots of kick, and - with all the sauce - you can't really make out the tenderness or juiciness of the chicken, but it's good.
Manchurian chicken is like chili chicken but with less kick, more sweetness, and way more red sauce (which I think is just artificial colouring; it LOOKS spicier but definitely isn't).
Pakora (chicken) are pretty good. I think they deep fry peppers with the chicken altogether, because a pepper was caked in one of the fried exteriors - so it's definitely got a bit of spice, but not too hot. A bit more oily than I like, but that's most deep fry places.
The chicken fried rice was a little boring. Not a ton of flavour, somewhat dry, and the mixed veggies that came mixed in (carrots, peas, etc) were kind of bland. I'd pass on this dish.
Over all, pretty good for a quick, filling, saucy-somewhat-greasy meal!
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