Fong's Restaurant has the look of a place that has been around since Cole Harbour's early days,…read morewith the telltale flair of mid-century Orientalism that pervaded many North American Chinese restaurants. A pagoda-like structure dominates the middle of the symmetrical, brick building, with long eaves that don't quite curl up at the corners, but two, offset rows of yellow dentils do add some ornamentation to the roof. The paint has seen better days, but I suppose Chinese restaurants of that era aren't known for their capital investments.
My wife and I stopped in while on our way to one of our nieces' softball games, and I came prepared knowing what I wanted to order. In my digital research, I saw that they have the local style of egg rolls, colloquially known as meat paste egg rolls, so I had to get those; BBQ pork fried rice checked the 'rice' box, ginger beef was our entree protein, Shanghai noodles are always a must for us, and the spicy tofu and veggies kept it from solely being a meat and carbs affair.
The interior is showing its age, but has a lot of charming details - a slightly inset ceiling tile, wood paneling, Chinese wall hangings, and what I'm sure they're most well-known for - a massive model of an old time sail boat. And I don't mean a small pleasure craft boat, I mean an old naval frigate or cargo ship. It's hilariously out of place, and I guess that's why it works!
It was relatively quiet for dine-in customers, with only a couple other tables occupied while we were briefly there, which wasn't surprising for a Monday evening, but a steady stream of takeout orders kept the lone server on her feet.
Nonetheless, it didn't take long for our food to arrive. My egg roll's wrapper was golden brown and crisp, and we definitely benefited from having them fresh out of the kitchen as opposed to as takeout. I'm sure there's many people that don't like the "meat paste" style filling for its texture, and that's fair, but it doesn't bother me, and I enjoy the fact that we have our own style of egg roll (although it's no Ottawa-style burnt end egg roll!). The flavour even had hints of curry flavour to it, whether it was curry powder outright or some of its components.
We also got to have the ginger beef in its best possible light, as anything battered, and certainly anything that's both battered and sauced, is best immediately after it's cooked. The batter was light and crisp, and the thinly sliced beef was tender. The sauce was a bit underwhelming in that the spice warning was not necessary at all, as there wasn't even any detectable hit of ginger let alone spiciness, so it mainly came off as a hoisin-like sauce, which is fine.
Even at very well-regarded Chinese restaurants, the fried rice can be a bit of aside, so I was impressed by humble Cole Harbour stalwart Fong's as theirs had a very noticeable smokiness to it, known as wok hei. The BBQ pork added its tasty mix of sweet and savoury, but the wok hei was the main story of this rice.
The spicy tofu and veg had a little more heat to it than the ginger beef, but only just enough to be detectable, although Fong's older customer base with more delicate palates might disagree with me. The stir fried veg was tender crisp and the thick wedges of tofu had a light crust encasing the fluffy interior.
Thick Shanghai noodles are always fun to slurp up, and its rich sauce paired well them, and the noodles had a nice hit of wok hei as well.
Fong's has a lot of charm from its classic Chinese-Canadian stylings, and while its menu doesn't venture beyond the typical Canadianized-Chinese fare, its doing well by it with a kitchen that knows how to make what the people want and make it well.
