| rev:text
| - This branch is conveniently located for me and family, and has become one of the go-to dinner locations. Be sure to make reservations in advance no matter the night, time, or party size - will ensure speedy seating as they'll be expecting you. They've also implemented a table service system with a tabletop device with buttons indicating if you need service, want to order, or want the bill. This is super convenient for non-Chinese speakers and ensures your service comes timely without battling the other patrons to catch servers' attention. The traditional hand raising will also work fine. Ordering is also done by paper and pencil, be sure to specify customizations for applicable items (usually in brackets after the item name on the menu).
We ordered xiaolongbao (mini steamed soup buns with pork), potstickers, spring onion pan cakes, kai lan with ginger, Shanghai-style noodles, and a ginger and chicken fried rice. Dessert was fried egg whites covered in sugar, and house dessert soup of red bean, purple rice, and tapioca.
The dim sum (xiaolongbao, potstickers, pan cakes) were up to par with their usual quality - served hot and steamy and fairly tasty. Of the similar places I've been to in the area, I think their quality is one of the few that has not suffered over time as much. The skins were thin, the meat was flavourful, they were served hot - all the basics were covered. The spring onion pan cakes are the thin variety - not the puffy ones. Id you're a fan of the flat thin ones I think they're quite good here.
As for the kai lan...they have a large variety of greens in the menu that you can get plain or with minced garlic. There's also ginger "sauce" - not on the menu but also a Chinese kitchen basic that you can order at no added cost. I assume writing "ginger" on your order will suffice to explain. The kai lan wasn't fresh and some of it tasted too bitter, disappointing. Willing to write it off as partially a seasonal problem as opposed to a fault of the restaurant entirely.
The Shanghai-style noodles were chewy, lots of shrimp and a good balance of other fix-ins like cabbage and pork strips. A good starch dish for something filling but not too heavy, and something fairly mainstream. The ginger and chicken fried rice also had egg whites and was a pleasant surprise - the ginger bits gave a refreshing kick and the chicken and egg made it a hearty comfort food style fried rice. Would definitely recommend and order again myself as an alternative starch staple.
Finally, dessert. We ordered their fried egg white puffs, they have sugar sprinkled on top and there is about a 10-20min wait for them. They don't serve these at dinner time on the weekend because it's just too time consuming, so either book your table early with the dessert order on the weekend or come on a weeknight. Here's red bean paste inside to give flavour and additional sweetness. The chef took their time my last visit - the egg whites were fluffy yet filling, the puffs were big and poofy, and they were served hot. I was worried there'd be a lot of air space given the size of the puffs but they turned out to be well-filled. A crowd favourite that didn't disappoint!
The house dessert on the other hand was disappointing, red bean soup worth purple rice and tapioca. It must have been sitting in a warmer pot for too long because it was lukewarm at most and had the viscosity of a cold gravy - goopy and runny, not appetizing. At least it was free. Definitely plan to order dessert or skip out - unless you want to make a fuss to have them heat it up for you, which is viable an option if you don't mind waiting a bit.
For the reliability and overall quality of food ordered, this is a place worth revisiting all the time. As you get to know the servers you'll find them to be fairly patient and hardworking, but they won't take any shit or sass from difficult patrons.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)