Deer Garden Restaurant

Yep, it's another Chinese set meal, and this time it's at Deer Garden, which serves a mix of Hong Kong style cafe food and combos along with more traditional dinner dishes. I've been here before for lunch, and found their lunch combos to be a great value. You get a huge portion entree plus soup and drink for under 10 dollars.

Today, I was there for their dinner set meal, which includes soup and dessert. They have a 2-item set for $26 and 4-item set for $50, and ended up charging us $37.5 for a 3-item set meal (before tax). Unfortunately, this set meal only comes with 2 bowls of rice, and they charged us an extra $2 to upgrade to a bucket of rice, no refills.

The soup of the day was pork and water chestnut soup. This came in a medium sized bowl, and was rather flavorless. We had seconds simply for the sake of finishing it off and not letting it go to waste.

The first dish to arrive was minced pork with eggplant and salted fish.This was served with a sweet chili garlic sauce and was extremely delicious. Unfortunately, cooking eggplant usually means lots of oil and this dish was soaked in the stuff, but it was so good that we didn't mind. We spooned off whatever oil we could see floating on top, and devoured the rest. This is a favorite dish of mine, and Deer Garden makes an excellent version. One of the best I've ever had.

Our second item was satay beef and vermicelli hotpot.  This was also very delicious. Large chunks of lean sliced beef with onions, green/red bell peppers, garlic, scallions, and pineapple in a hearty satay sauce on top of a large pile of firm, yet tender vermicelli. Although the portion size wasn't small, it paled in comparison to the hotpot dishes served at Rainbow Butterfly, and was more expensive too.

The last main to arrive was the assorted seafod thai spicy style hotpot. This wasn't spicy or very well seasoned at all. It was ok as a soup dish, but wasn't flavorful enough to go on rice. There were chunks of shrimp, mussels, imitation crab sticks, cod, squid, bean curd skins, tomatoes and scallions in a  thin tangy soup. Since it was so watery, we couldn't really pack it to go, and finished it up at the restaurant. We wouldn't order this again.

The dessert of the day was coconut milk tapioca soup. Tapioca soup is usually one of my favorite desserts but unfortunately, this was also very mild and could have used more sugar. Other than that, it was creamy and smooth and not objectionable to eat.

Deer Garden is a great place to get lunch, but for dinner, Rainbow Butterfly nearby is a much better deal. You get a a much larger soup of the day, and a bucket of rice comes as default. Their hotpots are also much larger. 

Pros:
-good lunch combos
-large lunch portions

Cons:
-not expensive but not cheap either
-busy
-understaffed and indifferent service
-some dishes lack seasoning

Notes:
-small parking lot next to restaurant, often packed
-mall parking across the street or park on side streets

Dinner Menus:

dinner set menu 1

dinner set menu 2

 

dinner set menu 3

dinner menu 1

dinner menu 2

dinner menu 3

King's Chinese Cuisine

For the last family dinner before my relatives flew back home, we decided to go to Fraser Court Seafood Restaurant since we haven't been there in years. We dropped in unannoucned without a reservation again like we did previously at Empire Seafood  Restaurant, but had no luck this time. There was a full blown wedding reception in progress and we left hungry.

After much discussion, we finally decided to head to King's Chinese Cuisine. We've been going there for years, and while it's a bit of a dive, the food is consistently good and affordable. We're not the only ones that of that opinion as King's is always packed and this time was no exception. After a short wait, we were seated and once again proceed to order from a set menu in Chinese that I had no part of since I am Chinese illiterate. Even though we have a party of 5, we ordered a 6-person set meal, this time featuring a crab main, at $88.

Unfortunately, they seemed to have forgotten about us as we sat around for a good 20 minutes and had to call the staff multiple times before we were served anything. We were all too eager to dive in when we were finally brought our first dish, an appetizer of jellyfish and pork hock. This is a cold cut dish of shredded and marinated jellyfish and thinly sliced ham hock.The jellyfish was very crisp and both it and the pork was very flavorful.

Next, we were served fish maw soup. This was a very large portion for 6 people and everyone had at least 2 servings each. This had noticeably less chunks of seafood than the other night at Empire, but this was not a surprise since we expect to pay a lot less for this meal. Despite this, the soup was very good and enjoyed by everyone.

After the soup, we were brought the pepper salt fried prawns. This was shell-on shrimp deep fried with lots of chilies, scallions, and garlic. The shell was sliced open at the top to facilitate easy peeling, but was still a bit of a hassle to peel. The flavor profile was very good though. The chilies were sweet and not overly spicy, and there was plenty of garlicy flavor without being overpowering or salty.

We were then brought the live crab. This looked to be poached crab topped with a thin sauce and served on top a bed of egg noodles with ginger and scallions. The essence of the crab was infused into the sauce and made the egg noodles very delicious. However, the sauce was very mild and could have used a touch more seasoning.

The next course to come was fried tofu skin with mushrooms and bok choy. There were osyter, shiitake, and enoki mushrooms served with a thick sauce. The tofu skins and sauce were very sweet and went very well with the tender bok choy. This was a very delicous dish.

The 6th course was cod and broccoli. It again had a thin sauce that was adequately seasoned, and both the fish and broccoli were nice and tender. This is a pretty typically executed dish you can find at other restaurants. Nothing special to say about it other than that it was well executed.

At this point, we were pretty stuffed, so we were quite surprised when the pepper chicken hotpot landed on our table. We didn't think we were going to touch this very much, but we ended up finishing most of it because it was soooo delicious! There were huge chunks of succulent boneless skinless chicken, with pickled red and green bell peppers, and onions. What made this dish successful was the sweet and sour peppery sauce. This was very appetizing and rejuvenated ours right away. The pickled vegetables were crunchy and crisp, and married very well with the tender chicken. Everyone loved this dish!

We ended the meal with the usual red bean soup. This was a very good meal, and dollar for dollar, much better in my opinion than the one we had at Empire the previous night. Not only were the flavors altogether more successful, but we had a lot more to eat as well. If you don't mind the fact that they've probably never renovated in 20 years and that the paint is literally chipping and peeling off some of the walls, King's is a great place for some decently priced Chinese food. Be prepared to wait for a table though. They were especially packed at lunch since they also have dim sum awesomely priced at $2.30.

Pros:
-decent food at reasonable prices
-decent portions
-cheap dim sum

Cons:
-food can take a while to come out
-extremely busy
-you can see the paint peeling off the walls
-service can be sparse due to volume of customers

Notes:
-small parking lot in back.
-ample free street parking nearby

IKEA 99-cent 10-Piece Meatball Dinner Promotion Feb 17-20

I first caught wind this nationwide deal perusing RedFlagDeals. I've always known IKEA had a restaurant, but have been warned to stay away and save my money. But 99 cents for 10 meatballs and mash? That's pretty safe to try I guess, so I went to line up at the Richmond branch of Ikea at about 6:30PM.

The lineup was pretty massive and it took a good 25 minutes before I even got to the cash register to pay for my food. I must say the management there prepared for this very well as there were staff there handing out free "Daim" candies to the people in line. These are Swedish chocolate covered hard caramel candies that they sell at their food section for about $7 per 400g bag. These were pretty darn good. Next time I have a chocolate fix I may come by and pick up a bag.

Since it was questionable if I would make it through the lineup again if I was still hungry, I got 2 plates of the meatball dinner. The choice of sides were mash or fries. I got one of each, and just so I don't feel like a total cheapskate, I also got one of their regular priced pieces of garlic bread at a whopping 50 cents :-P

Each plate of meatballs came with a ladle of thin gravy and a scoop of lingonberry jam. So was it worth the wait? The meatballs were tender and very mildly spiced. They reminded me of the Michelina's frozen dinner stroganoff meatballs. You could tell they were highly processed and slightly freezer burned. Not surprising since you can often pick up the frozen dinner versions for 99 cents too. IKEA also sells these meatballs frozen at their Swedish Food Market. You're basically paying them to rip open these bags and heat them up for you.

The thin gravy did not add much to the meatballs and were severely lacking in flavor itself. Although the fries were not oily, they were all limp and not crisp at all - even the ones not smothered in gravy. The mash potatoes were just that: potatoes. I could not taste any salt, butter, or garlic. Definitely go for the fries here. They were not good fries by any definition, but were much better than the mash. The garlic bread was soggy and didn't have much garlic taste either.

The saving grace of the meal was the lingonberry jam. This was sweet, tangy and delightful, and tasted like a mix of strawberry and raspberry jam, minus the seeds. This went well with everything: the meatballs, fries, and mash were jazzed up nicely with this fusion of sweet and savory. I love this stuff! I have a lot of jam at home already or I would have picked up a jar from their Swedish food store.

Unfortunately, you're not given nearly enough jam to go around. I had to resort to salting my own fries, shaking my own pepper and adding vinegar to make the flavors more palatable. The whole meal reminded me of a frozen dinner, and I guess at 99 cents, that's acceptable. Would I pay the regular $4.99 for a plate of this stuff again? I'm kind of torn. If they let me get more jam, then yes. Otherwise, probably no.

Now the jam left me with a bit of a sweet tooth, but the lineup was too long for me to go get a piece of dessert from their somewhat wide and tasty looking selection. Luckily, they also have a "Bistro" downstairs that featured frozen yogurts for $1 - and 10 times shorter lineup. I noticed that they also sell self-dressed hotdogs here for 50 cents each and they were going at quite a pace. I will have to come back some other time to try one.

The yogurt was very large for $1, and very smooth and creamy. It was just the right amount of sweetness and thoroughly enjoyable. I will remember these in the summer when it's sweltering and I need a frozen treat.

If you happen to miss this 99-cent 10 piece meatball dinner deal, they also have a 15 piece meatball meal promotion that will last until April from what I heard. It's also a pretty safe price point to try if you want to see what their food is like.

Pros:
-cheap 

Cons:
-cheap
-you get what you paid for, pretty much just reheating frozen foods for you.
-mostly flavorless food, requires some self-assembly (seasoning)
-more of a cafeteria than restaurant. You bus your own tray and get most of your own food.

Notes:
-ample parking in IKEA lot
-prepare for a LONG lineup if you're going for the 99-cent deal this weekend

Website and Menu:
Richmond, BC: http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/store/richmond/restaurant
National: http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_CA/IKEA_Food/restaurant.html

Congee Noodle House

A return to Congee Noodle House for me means the return to dragon boating. It's close to False Creek, open late, and serves Chinese comfort food at reasonable prices. A visit to Congee is always a likely destination for our team after a long night of paddling in the cold.

This is actually our second visit in as many weeks. Unfortunately, I was so hungry during the first visit that all the food was gone before I remembered to snap any pics.

Today, we started with the classic Preserved Egg and Shredded Pork Congee. With "congee" as part of their name, Congee Noodle House is proud of their congee and they sure know how to make it. It's always creamy, smooth and fluffy and doesn't need to be salted yourself. It's already mildly salted and topped with peanuts and scallions. There were good chunks of preserved/century eggs and shredded pork throughout.

A standard side dish with congee is the Chinese donut. This is a picece of fried dough and comes in a savory or sweet variety. The savory version is usually served as long strips, and the sweet version is normally shaped in an oval. These are also usually cut into chunks for dipping into the congee. Congee Noodle House makes great versions of both, and today, we got the savory Steamed Rice Roll with Chinese Donut. The rice rolls were embedded with dried shrimp and onions, and also comes drizzled in a mild soy sauce with hoisin dipping sauce on the side. This was very tasty as usual, and gobbled up quickly.


We continued the meal with the Honeymoon Fried Rice. This is a fried rice topped with a sweet and sour tomato onion and chicken sauce on one side, and a creamy shrimp and peas sauce on the other. This is also sometimes called Yin Yang Fried Rice, as the two sauces are layered in the same of the yin yang symbol. It's called honeymoon fried rice as well because it's a popular dish served during wedding reception dinners.

To me, the sweet and sour sauce makes or breaks this dish. I like the sauce on the sweeter side, and this version is quite mild. Congee's version is decent, but not great. I like the version served at Koon Lock the best. You can get a picture of their version at Chowtimes. You'll notice that Koon Lock didn't bother to pour their sauces in the shape of a yin yang despite their version actually being called yin yang fried rice on their menu.

To get our recommended fiber for the meal, we got a plate of Kai Lan and Beef. This wasn't on their menu, but is a common dish at Chinese restaurants and was made for us upon request. It's basically just strips of lean beef stir-fried in soy sauce with Kai Lan (Chinese Broccoli) and scallions. The beef was good, lean, tender not overcooked. The Kai Lan was good and crisp but I like mine tender and this was not the most tender that I've ever had. All in all, this was an enjoyable dish.


At this point, we had received everything we ordered, but was still hungry, so we got an order of Sliced Chicken with Green Pepper in Black Bean Sauce Chow Mein. Despite its name, it also had chunks of red peppers and onions. The chow mein was perfectly crispy, and part of what I love about chow mein is mxing the crunchy dry fried noodles with the sauce-soaked tender ones. The thick and savory black bean sauce worked very well for this effect and I enjoyed this dish very  much.

This meal of 4 costs us $12.50 each including tax and tip. Quite reasonable for good old fashioned Chinese comfort food. We left stuffed and satisfied, and I have no doubt I'll be eating at Congee again many times this year until it's too cold (for sane people) to paddle again. (Some might argue it's too cold to paddle now, but I'm steering and not getting wet :-P)

Pros:
-reasonable prices
-decent portions
-good value on set menu if you have a large party.
-huge restaurant with lots of large tables for large parties. 

Cons:
-not the prettiest decor, if that matters to you. 
-that damned parking lot: Almost always full, extremely difficult to maneuver, and accident prone.
-metered parking in adjacent streets, which are also almost always full, and in high traffic areas.

Notes:
-open late, with late night menu (smaller versions of regular menu items with smaller prices).
-free street parking in front of store if you are lucky to find a spot. Otherwise, prepare to pay meter or park a few blocks away.
-open late, but sometimes they run out of stuff like dessert :*(


Menus:

Yet Another McDonald's Buttermilk Biscuit and Chocolate Banana Pie Review

(Chowtimes has now run out of gift cards) In case you missed McDonald's free biscuit sandwich promotions on Feb 9 and 10, or want more free sandwiches, Chowtimes is giving away gift cards for additional free sandwiches courtesy of  McDonalds Canada. Head over to their review page to claim your copy. While supplies last!

There is also a giveaway over at Eat 'n About. Go claim your gift card!

As a semi health nut, I normally avoid McDonald's and other fast food joints. However, I'm always interested in trying everyone at least once, and never one to turn down free food. So, I also got in line to get one of McDonald's new Buttermilk Biscuits. In fact, I got 3 over the course of the 2 day promotion. Unfortunately, I ate the bacon one before I got a picture, and on the 2nd day, in the chaos of the free giveaway madness, they gave me two sausage instead of one of each that I ordered, so I only have a picture of the Sausage Buttermilk Biscuit with Egg.

The first thing I noticed about this breakfast sandwich is that it's one greasy artery clogger. So greasy, in fact, that in the short bus ride from McDonalds to work, the oil had soaked and disintegrated part of the wrapper, dissolved the ink on the receipt in the paper bag it was in, and soaked through the napkin and paper bag. I then proceeded to blot the sandwich with 2 more napkins and it still showed no signs of drying up. This is not surprising since one of these sausage biscuits contain nearly 600 Calories and 60% of your recommended daily fat intake.

So is this monstrosity tasty enough worth the massively increased risk of heart disease? Not in my humble opinion. Compared to the classic McMuffin, the biscuit is more moist and flakier due to the increased fat content. However, I like the chewier textture of the English muffin, and the fact that it doesn't crumble and leave a mess anywhere. Rest assured, you will make a mess of crumbs while eating the biscuit. I also have an aversion to foods that leave a film of oil on my lips, and the biscuit does this in strides. If you're also worried about sodium, each biscuit sandwich also contains about 50% of your daily  recommended sodium intake.

In the battle of bacon vs sausage, the bacon is slightly healthier at 460 calories, lower in fat and sodium, but far less tasty. I find that in the midst of the greasy salty biscuits, the bacon kind of gets lost while it helps accentuate the McMuffin by adding a bit of oil and saltiness. The sausage biscuit wins the taste test in this contest.

As for biscuit vs muffin, I would be sticking with the classic McMuffin. I find it far more palatable, and the fact that it's also the healthier option seals it for me. I won't be ordering the biscuit off the menu if I ever choose to have breakfast at McD's.

I also had the opportunity to try one of their baked Banana Chocolate Pies lately. I think this is quite a worthy addition to their lineup. It's not overly sweet, and the banana custard is creamy and the chocolate is smooth compliments the custard. The crust is the same delightful flaky pie crust that is used in the classic apple pies. Unfortunately, I don't think this pie will be in the lineup for very long. A lot of the people I've talked to vehemently hate it and that seems to be the majority opinion from other web reviews I've read. I don't believe this pie will end up being a permanent part of the menu. Given the choice though, I'd rather see something like their baked blueberry pies back on the menu. I see these at select locations but not all of them. I've always rather enjoyed McD's baked pies, and priced at 2 for $1.40 right now, they are quite a bargain as well.

Rainbow Butterfly

I took by parents out for a belated Chinese new year dinner on Friday. They're in Coquiltlam and I'm in Vancouver, so it was difficult for me to get out to see them other than on the weekend. The selection of Chinese cuisine in the tri-cities area is pretty abysmal, but Rainbow seems to be one of the better ones. I first found it through Sherman's Food Adventures earlier this year, and have been back for dim sum and dinner several times since. They look to be a family run business, with some hired help.

Rainbow Butterfly isn't named like your typical Chinese restaurant, and doesn't look like one either. The place looks like it was a former western diner or coffee house of some sort, and it's clear that they didn't bother to redecorate much. This is probably because the Chinese population around Port Coquitlam is pretty scarce, and they cater to a lot of western clientele. If you ever come here for dim sum and dinner, you'll notice quite a larger demographic of non-asians than at your typical Chinese restaurant. Their menus are heavily based on Americanized Chinese food as a result, with lots of sweet and sour, chop suey, egg foo young, fortune cookies, and other crap like that. No self-respecting Chinese person orders this garbage for dinner.

They do have authentic Chinese cuisine, which I find delicious and well-priced, but they only bother to publish these on the menu in Chinese characters, which is a shame. This means I can only ever eat dinner here when I'm out with my parents or other Chinese literate people. Why they do this is beyond me. They're probably losing a great deal of business this way. It's also probably why their place is virtually deserted at dinner time, while packed beyond belief at lunch. Another odd thing to note is that despite some Chinese-only menu items, Some of their Chinese waitresses at lunch isn't fully Chinese literate!

Since I had my parents with me that night, I got to eat the good stuff! We ordered from their set meal, which comes with soup, a bucket of rice and dessert, with a minimum order of 2 menu items. We ordered 3 items, and was immediately served the soup of the day. It was a pork bone soup with veggies. There were bits of pork that fell of the bone, carrots, onions, and lotus root in the soup. This was mildly seasoned and a very nice way to start the meal.

The last time we were here, we had 3 hot pot dishes. They were all $10.80 and were HUGE. We though it was a great value and expected more of the same this time. Unfortunately, the first dish that we ordered, Cod Fillets with Gai Lan, was underwhelmingly small. As the most expensive dish we ordered that night, we were not impressed with the tiny amount of fish. The last time we were here, we had a cod and tofu hot pot, and it was cheaper at $10.80 and at least 3 times the size; a giant pot stuffed with cod , tofu, shitake mushrooms and Chinese ham.

Fortunately, it was made up for by the extremely tender gai lan and melt in your mouth fish. The dish was tossed in a lightly salted thin sauce. We griped quite a bit amongst ourselves about the disappointing portion  here, but agreed that it was very tasty. We wouldn't ever order this again, but at least it was enjoyable.

The second dish we had was also a bit of a disappointment. It was a vegetarian dish made up of Tofu and Bean curds with Veggies. I don't quite know how to translate it into English, so that's the only description you're going to get. Again, we expected more tofu and less veggies. It became clear immediately that we had ordered more veggies than we would have liked. Again, the tofu was a mild thin sauce and very appetizing, but the broccoli was less impressive than the gai lan we had earlier. Some of it was slightly bitter, and my dad thinks it's probably pesticide that should have been washed off. Yuck! That aside, I still enjoyed this dish.

The last dish to arrive was the eagerly awaited hot pot. We ordered this last time and was my favorite dish so we had to order it again: Chicken and Taro in Coconut Sauce Hot Pot. This was a huge pot overflowing with thin slices of taro and boneless, skinless chicken. Most places I've been to serve this with skin-on, bone-on chicken, and makes it a chore to eat. Rainbow's version is the best I've had, and a great deal at $10.80. The chicken and taro are stewed in a thick coconut sauce with large cloves of garlic, and slices of ginger. This was as delicious as I remembered. We couldn't finish all of it, and I ended up packing it home. I had some for lunch today, and will finish off the rest of dinner tonight. YUM!

To finish off the meal, we received the daily desert, which was Red Bean with Black Glutinous Rice Soup. Most places just give you plain red bean soup, and this version with black glutinous rice was very welcome, and successful. It was not overly sweet, and the rice added a nice pleasing chewy texture. It was a fine way to to end the meal.

The final bill is pictured here, so you Chinese literate people can see what we ordered. It was about $15 per person after tips, and I think it was reasonable. It was a little disappointing today, and we had a much better experience last time with all hot pot items, but I think that we will still return some time in the future.

I've also been here for dim sum before, and as I mentioned previously, it's always packed. Their dim sum items are quite reasonably priced at $2.75 for most items, and with a wide selection to boot. As their restaurant was originally designed as as western diner, they have little room for push carts, so dim sum is by order forms only. They also have some cheap lunch specials from Monday to Friday, but the fact that these prices were only for weekdays is noted in Chinese only. This led to quite a rude surprise when we got the bill. The price for some items increases by as much as $2 on weekends, and others no longer come with soup and rice. On week days, these are under $7 or $8 and quite a deal in my opinion.

Also of note is that when I first sat down on Friday, I started snapping pics of the menu while my parents perused the menu. One of the wait staff (looks to be the owner or owner's wife) saw me and immediately came over to ask me to stop. She made it clear she didn't want their menu posted anywhere, and I will respect her request. I took one of their handout pamphlets on the way out, and will post pics of this instead. Unfortunately, it looks a bit outdated, and not quite the same as the one we were given at the table. Hopefully it will give you an idea of what they serve here and the price ranges.

Pros:
-large portions on hot pot items
-decently priced
-cheap dim sum
-mostly well-executed food

Cons:
-lots of westernized Chinese food on menu
-doesn't look like a Chinese restaurant
-packed during dim sum hours, doesn't take reservations for lunch
-good dinner items are in Chinese only
-inconsistent portion sizes
-parking lot can be packed during lunch hours

Notes:
-street parking can be found about a block away
-have cheap weekday lunch specials

Menu: (owner requested for full menu to be omitted, so here is the take out menu/pamphlet)