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| - My downtown coworkers love eating out... I don't blame them as they have the dining world at their feet at King and Bay. Most often, we'd head to a food court but at times, the group wants something a little more formal than a grab and dash but still very quick on the service. This place fits the bill nicely. This sits above ground level in the First Canadian Place building and it's REALLY busy. It offers quasi authentic Chinese food at lightning fast service but at fairly steep price.
The atmosphere is quite nice as it mimics the FCP building... open, clean, and modern. It's quite loud here as they cram tables and body into this space. Even though it is a fairly large place, during lunch time, you're elbow to elbow from the moment you walk into the lobby. It doesn't help their take out counter is also in the lobby as well and they're yelling out order numbers and such.
Our group of 8 had reservations and we were seated within minutes. Quite quickly menus were dropped at our table and drink orders were taken. There are many wait staff running about and seeing how fast they bring the food out and turn the tables around, I can see why! Our server was polite but clearly busy. We ordered 5 plates to share for our group.
The Schezuan beef came out in less than 5 minutes. I think they must make this in ridiculously large batches as no one I know has ever waited more than 5 minutes after an order of this. It came really hot, brown, gooey, mildly spiced, and salty. Most of my co-workers (who are not Asian) loved this dish. I don't mind it but it's slightly too gooey from excessive brown sludge syndrome (too much corn starch and soy sauce). I wouldn't order it personally but considering what it is (quasi Chinese food), it's fresh and the beef was tender and not overcooked (I wish I could say the same for the sauce).
Cashew chicken followed by the lemon chicken came a few moments later. Similar to the Schezuan beef, it came hot and freshly made. The pieces of chicken were nicely cut and none of the excessive fatty or tendon pieces were in it. Lemon chicken is what it is... sweet and goopy over crispy battered chicken pieces. My coworkers ate this up in minutes and it was gone faster than you can say "gwai lo food". From the piece I had, I can see why they would like it. Lemon flavour was bright and bold with a slight tang. The goopy, sweet, and deep fried batter component makes it a guilty pleasure like a McDonalds apple 'pie'. Cashew chicken was decent. Definitely better than any of the food court Chinese food as it had fresh vegetables. The last thing that arrived was the fried rice. It's better than the food court as it has real pieces of vegetables (not frozen), shrimp, and pork. It wasn't overly oily either which was a pleasant change from food court rice.
The price tag is expensive for decent quasi Chinese food especially if you compare it to any HK cafe out in the east end. Considering you're at King and Bay, it's still expensive but the quality over regular food court Chinese food is noticeable. I think it's popular because it really caters to non-Asians in a super convenient location, consistently fresh and decent, and really really fast. I personally would rather walk to an authentic Chinese restaurant nearby and pay half the amount for similar food but when dining among less adventurous colleagues, the path of least resistance (apprehension) is often the case.
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