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| - We went here as a small group as a preliminary test meal for a potential Chinese banquet wedding. For anyone who's never had a truly great Chinese Wedding Banquet (and I pity you), know that you can come here to splurge without having to pay tens of thousands of dollars for an actual event!
We wound up ordering several classic banquet dishes off the regular menu, and boy, is this place impressive. As others online have suggested, this is not your typical Chinese restaurant.
Eaten:
- Wedding appetizer selection of Roast Suckling Pig (perfectly crispy and delicious), marinated Jellyfish (hint of sesame, and of the highest quality, which, I guess was only obvious to those of us who'd had it before), Crab Claws stuffed with Shrimp Mousse (again, perfectly executed - tender and delicately-seasoned), all served with the time-tested appropriate dipping sauces (hoisin for the suckling pig, and red vinegar for the claws)
- Braised Mushroom and Whole Japanese Abalone (intensely flavourful dried Chinese Mushrooms, rehydrated and served alongside chewy, in a good way, abalone)
- Squab (this was the one thing we probably would not order again, it was deliciously-prepared with a lemon sauce, but none of us were fans of paying good money for only a speck of great tasting skin and maybe a thumbful of meat)
- Braised E-Fu noodles (this is a type of noodle that I don't imagine a lot of non-Chinese people are very aware of - these are thick, and go through a lot of work to make, fry, dry, re-hydrate and finally cook - and there really is nothing like them - they are silky and light and absorb flavours like sponges)
- White Fried Rice with Conpoy - no soy sauce, and served with ingredients that support the light-coloured theme, egg whites, conpoy (a delicacy of crispy dried, shredded scallops)
- Steamed Fresh Sea Fish with Soya Sauce (the name does nothing to describe how completely wonderful this dish is - the fish is served whole, but is carefully deboned and served to you at the table - the flavour is derived from the freshness of the fish and the subtlety of the complex soy-based sauce - this is NOT some grocery store sauce thrown over a random piece of fish)
- As a complimentary item, we were served the classic wedding banquet dessert of Red Bean with Lotus Seeds and Lily Bulbs (I wasn't a fan of this, but others adored it - it's a sweet bean porridge)
- And, we were also given some Chinese petits-fours (I think there were three different cakelets per person)
We would've replicated the rest of the standard Banquet menu, but alas, we needed the rent money.
As for the decor, if it weren't for all the Asian people, you'd think you were there to have traditional English tea. Immaculate.
The service was extremely professional. And for us, at least, it was full-service, we barely had to lift our forks to our own mouths, everything was served out to us, with appropriate changes of china and cutlery.
For four, the meal came out to about $300 with tax and tip, which, considering the quality of the place, the service and the food, was quite reasonable
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