| rev:text
| - About a year and a half ago, I wrote an update lamenting the death of China House, one of my favourite old-school Chinese haunts. It was a grand room, populated by wizened servers and a menu as secret as the ending to "Titanic". (Spoiler Alert: The ship sinks, and Leonardo DiCaprio goes on to play Jay Gatsby in a similar sinking ship).
I received a mysterious tip that much of the China House crew had gone on to open SCH a few doors down. At the time, I was newly-married and living in the suburbs, so quality Chinese food was the last thing on my mind.
Fast forward, I'm back in the big city, and craving some serious Sinophile satisfaction.
I visit SCH on a weekday for their buffet (I know, I know, but some times a guy's gotta do it). It's a little after one pm. The place is deserted, and the steam tables are either empty or congealed. The staff offers to make more of whatever's on the steam trays but I politely decline. Once they're actually cooking, why wouldn't I just want to hit the menu?
I return a few days later, earlier in the day. A few tables are taken, and these turn over during the duration of my visit.
Sadly, the food isn't much better.
Hot and sour soup is thick and crammed with veggies and tofu; a promising start even if the heat is a little too in my face. It's even better when I sneak a few won tons from their nearby bath into the mix.
Egg rolls are pleasantly filled with bean sprouts and assorted veggies as well. Interior and exterior are both sufficiently crispy.
Samosas are fine, but dude; this is a Chinese place (and not a Hakka one at that). I'd pass on these, along with the anemic scraps of fried fish (I fondly remember the days before tilapia and bass invaded our menus), and vile-looking sweet and sour pork; a dinner companion chews a few rubbery morsels and gives up to get himself more noodles-they're a neither crispy nor warm, and stingy on the veg. Better to go with veggie fried rice, if you can time your visit to catch it while it's hot.
Temperature is a recurring theme here. For all of the steam trays, methinks the unit is not turned on. Items get plunked in their pans, then turn cold almost instantly.
There's also chicken in what I think is black bean sauce, beef in what I think is black bean sauce, and stir-fried veggies in...black bean sauce?
I'm sure the full menu is better, but the experience isn't worth chancing another meal here, especially when I pass the "Conditional Pass" public health sign on the way out.
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