Preface:
I've always been looking for a Cantonese restaurant to replace my long-gone favorite, Canton Gourmet. I came across this newly opened place during a walk which was a couple blocks away from where I live. I only realized this restaurant was Cantonese styled when I had entered.
[Really Off-topic] By the way, this location used to be "Leader's World" which was a Chinese after school tutoring place which I attended more than a decade ago. Mrs. Chan was one of those ruthless old lady tyrants who put terror in us male students.
Main Review:
Entered the store and greeted the waiters in Cantonese. They were really polite and nice people.
If you don't speak Cantonese, they speak English, too. Heard them take orders from a few white folks, and they were able to converse without a problem in English.
The decor was pretty clean and nice looking. The place was mainly white and there was a fish tank along the edges (Generic Chinese restaurant style, presumably to show off freshness of the seafood). I enjoyed the aesthetic.
I asked for a few cups of ice water and they gave us the ice water in paper cups. It was ghetto and I hadn't asked why, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt and assumed their delivery of Wine glasses hadn't arrived on time for their Grand Opening.
An issue I had was that the AC was blowing right at us. I don't have an issue with the cold, but my other group members were freezing. Plus, the food got cold quick due to this.
Another issue was that I found it weird they dished out the Beef Chow Fun first. Usually, the carbs would be sent out last so you don't fill up your precious stomach space with it and would fill your stomach up with the tasty main meat dishes instead. At the end is where you fill up your stomach with carbs, if you are still hungry.
Food Review:
*Next to the English names, I spelled out the romanized pronunciation in Cantonese for the other ABCs that may read this review.
*The food is also reviewed in order of which they are served.
Beef Chow Fun (Gohn Chow Ngau Haw)
-Potentially flavorful, but really lacking in salt. If it had enough salt to pull out the flavor, this would have been great.
Ginger Scallion Lobster (Guhrn Chohng Suhrn Lohng)
-Excellent flavor. Lobster cooked just right where it meets the spot between overcooked, dried and undercooked, chewy. Tender with a salty touch and the ginger really kills the fishy taste from the lobster. The scallion leaves a very nice aromatic smell just before it enters your mouth.
Drunken Chicken (Gwei Fei Juei Gei)
-I didn't order this. My fellow group member who ordered this really disliked it and said it was dried from being oversteamed. I thought it was okay. It's a cold and slightly salty steamed chicken with a slight alcoholic taste. Your mile may vary.
Mayonnaise Deep Fried Shrimp w/ Walnuts (Hahp Toh Haa Kau)
-My favorite dish and they created it perfectly. Can't go wrong with this here. Deep fried shrimp slathered with mayonnaise sauce and broccoli on the side to mop up the extra sauce left over from the shrimp. The caramelized walnuts were a perfect addition and had a very nutty fragrance. A "must-order".
Deep fried milk custard (Jaa Ngau Lai)
-Not a great pick here. The crust was great, but the milk in the encasing was not sweet enough leaving it to feel like there was tasteless mush in your mouth. I'd like my mush to be sweeter instead.
Peking Pork Chops (Ging dou Gwat)
-This was a shock to me. The sauce was very sweet and tangy, but it simply did not penetrate the pork chop. The inside of the crispy pork chop was bland and I had to drown the pork chop in the sauce every bite in order to make it taste good.
Water Spinach w/ Fermented Tofu (Fuu yuu Tohng Choi)
-Bland and Tasteless. Easily the worst tasting dish out of all the others. Normally, I would eat 70% of this dish at Canton Gourmet, however there wasn't enough Fermented Tofu to make the water spinach explode with flavor making it taste like a pile of slop.
Young Chow Fried Rice (Yeurng Zhou Chau Fahn)
-Fried rice with not enough salt. Felt like there wasn't enough oil and heat (wok hay) from the wok to crisp up the rice.
Verdict:
Would I come back? Yea, I definitely would. This place has a lot of potential. More potential than Nan Ben Ho, imo. Aside from the blandish food, the decor is not too shabby and the waiters don't look like they are really looking to send themselves to the shadow realm. read more