It's not Chinese New Year anymore.. but it was last week! And it's due time for some reviews on Chinese food here in Ottawa!
Chu Shing Restaurant
One of the two Chinese restaurants you notice as soon as you pass the Chinese columns into Chinatown. Across the street from the more noticeable Yangtze Restaurant, Chu Shing is hidden upstairs in a small brown building. This is my first time having dim sum in Ottawa, so I'm approaching this review from a "Toronto-dim-sum" perspective.
My first impression when I walked into the restaurant was “wow, they need some renovation”; I’m sure…that once before.. sometime long ago, the restaurant once stood in glory, but now.. the restaurant looked old and just very.. unpleasant. Despite the unpleasantness of the restaurant, we sat down and waited for the carts of food to be pushed our way. We ordered a couple of things; the famous must-haves at dim sum: har gow and siu mai. The siu mai was.. alright; maybe I’m expecting too much but I’m used to siu mai with a bit of fish roe on top, or maybe even a bit of red stuff as ‘fake’ fish roe, but this one.. had nothing. Nonetheless, the siu mai was alright, didn’t taste bad. On the other hand.. the har gow was BAD, CAPITAL B-A-D! The skin was way too powdery and thick, it left a thick layer of har gow skin in my mouth; I swear.. there was more skin than actual shrimp-BAD. Everything else was fairly.. meh; but, again, I’m comparing it to dim sum in Toronto.. which is incomparable (sometimes, dim sum in Toronto is even better than dim sum in Hong Kong!). Service-wise, it was meh; normal service, nothing special in particular. When I asked for some sauce (this vinegary soy sauce) and salt for my fried squid, the waitress just looked at me like I was crazy, and replied rudely , "What?I don't know what you're talking about it. There's no such sauce that goes with this". NORMALLY, in Toronto/HK, you would get a small sauce plate of salt / vinegary soy sauce with the squid. Not that I minded eating it without the sauce.. but the waitress was sure rude about it! Next time, I will try out Yangtze across the street, and let you know how it is!
Decor: 1/5
Food: 2/5
Service: 2/5
All in All.. I did not like this place, and don't plan to return.
So Good
Since it was Chinese New Year, my friend had asked if I wanted to head out for Chinese New Year dinner, and .. ofcourse I did! I heard a lot of good reviews about So Good and wanted to try it out for myself, as did my friend, so we decided to head over to So Good, since it was near her place anyways. We ordered General Tao's chicken, Half Fried Duck, and something with tofu and slices of marinated beef.. LOL forgot what that dish was called, but it was the best tasting dish out of the three we ordered (:
It's a small place in Chinatown, and luckily we didn't have to wait, as there was just one more table left for 3 at the back. Because of the small size of the restaurant, I found that it was very squishy, and uncomfortable. Despite sitting in the corner, and a difficult spot to catch the waitress's attention, I found that we had no problem having the waitress refill our tea or take our orders, and they were all quite pleasant, though not spectacularly amazing, they were nice and courteous.
Food-wise.. I would say it wasn't what I expected from one of the "best" Chinese restaurants in the area. General Taos chicken is supposed to be crunchy, but this one was soft and the sauce had already sorta "soaked" into the crunchy skin of the chicken. The half fried duck was more bone than duck, and much smaller than I expected, but it wasn't too bad. I expected a small side plate of salt to go with the duck, instead, we were given a tube of plum sauce.. which isn't bad, but I find plum sauce very Canadian-Chinese, and not authentic enough. The best dish was the tofu and marinated beef dish (forgot the name on the meal, but it had tofu and sliced marinated beef); this dish tasted much more authentic than the past two, and the tofu really soaked in the flavouring, and tasted great!
Decor: 2/5
Food: 3/5
Service: 3.25/5
Well that's all I have to say about these two restaurants! I have yet to try more Chinese restaurants in the area, but I will let you know how they go!
PEACE
- Ching
It's a small place in Chinatown, and luckily we didn't have to wait, as there was just one more table left for 3 at the back. Because of the small size of the restaurant, I found that it was very squishy, and uncomfortable. Despite sitting in the corner, and a difficult spot to catch the waitress's attention, I found that we had no problem having the waitress refill our tea or take our orders, and they were all quite pleasant, though not spectacularly amazing, they were nice and courteous.
Food-wise.. I would say it wasn't what I expected from one of the "best" Chinese restaurants in the area. General Taos chicken is supposed to be crunchy, but this one was soft and the sauce had already sorta "soaked" into the crunchy skin of the chicken. The half fried duck was more bone than duck, and much smaller than I expected, but it wasn't too bad. I expected a small side plate of salt to go with the duck, instead, we were given a tube of plum sauce.. which isn't bad, but I find plum sauce very Canadian-Chinese, and not authentic enough. The best dish was the tofu and marinated beef dish (forgot the name on the meal, but it had tofu and sliced marinated beef); this dish tasted much more authentic than the past two, and the tofu really soaked in the flavouring, and tasted great!
Decor: 2/5
Food: 3/5
Service: 3.25/5
Well that's all I have to say about these two restaurants! I have yet to try more Chinese restaurants in the area, but I will let you know how they go!
PEACE
- Ching
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