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

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:

The Point Grill

Instead of going to the student-run Pit Pub for the upteenth time, today we decided to go to Point Grill. It was sunny out for a change, and no one was interested in sitting in a divey, aptly named Pit in a dark dank basement. The Point Grill is on the pricier side of campus eats, and just a shy less expensive than dining at the Sage Bistro.

I've never been here before, and was recommended to go for the Berber Chicken Burger, or one of their gourmet thin crust pizzas. I haven't had a burger in quite a while, so I decided on this plus a gluttonous side of their famous garlic fries instead of a healthy salad.

The burger "patty" is several slices chicken of boneless, skin-on chicken thighs marinated with "berber" sauce and topped with vegies and avocado salsa. Berber sauce is apparently a sauce of north African origin, and it was very mild here. The thigh, while moist and barbequed to a nice crisp skin, wasn't very flavorful on its own, and the sauce and salsa was a bit to mild and didn't quite work for me. I ended up having to add a couple of shakes of Frank's Red Hot sauce to kick up burger up a bit; It wasn't very tasty on its own. There also wasn't a lot of thigh meat on the burger, and it was definitely less meat than you typically get with a chicken breast patty. I find this odd since thighs are usually cheaper than breasts.

The Garlic Fries, however, were a great side. They were fried to a good crispness but not oily to the taste, and tossed in a generous amount of aromatic garlic salt. There were also a good portion served with the burger, and I had to pass some around as I just couldn't finish it all. Despite the generous portion of delicious fries, I would rather have had more meat on the burger instead.

The other burger they are famous for is the Canadian AAA Prime Rib Burger. This is a 6oz patty topped with cheddar, bacon, onion marmalade, mustardy  mayo, and greens. Mr. Production practically inhaled this burger and accompanying fries without chewing. He  loved the burger and was fully satisfied and fully stuffed. I probably should have ordered this instead :P


The third burger we had at our table was the Veggie Burger. It's a brown rice and soy patty topped with gruyere and avocado salsa. Few people who order a veggie burger get it with fries, and of course, Bookworm opted for a side of Farmer's Green Salad instead, which again was a very generous portion. She had no complaints about the burger.


Point Grill is also remarked for their thin crust pizzas, and the one represented at our table was the Prawn & Crab. This was adorned with large chunks of prawns and real crab, feta, mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, capers, and onions. This also looked very delicious and something that I want to try when I come back.

A unique item on their menu is the High Fiber and Protein Wrap, described as "Vancouver Island smoked tofu, bulgur wheat, Colusari red rice, quinoa flakes, brown flax seeds, alfalfa spouts, & tomato salsa, all wrapped in a jalapeño tortilla." Booties loved the smoked tofu and remarked that this is probably the "whitest" tofu you can get. She's probably right since I don't think I've ever seen "smoked" tofu served at any asian restaurant. As with the veggie burger, fries wouldn't be on the mind of anyone who orders a high fiber tofu wrap, and Booties too opted for a side salad.

One of our party had already eaten lunch, and so ordered just a dessert. She choose the Chocolate Marquise, which is described as a "chocolate paté" garnished with heavy cream and fruit coulis. She didn't really enjoy the paté, indicating that it had the consistency of a very hard fudge.

The last item at our table was a side Classic Caesar Salad. This again was a very generous portion for a side salad.

Although I didn't really enjoy my burger, the fries were very good and most everyone else seemed to be happy with their meals.  I was told that the food would take a long time to arrive, and it was indeed a long wait after we ordered before we received our food. The decor was sharp and wait staff was very attentive, constantly  refilling our waters. It is more than twice as expensive as the burgers we normally get at the Pit Pub, but the quality of the burger and fries were definitely a few notches up. The locale is also well-designed with large sunlit windows on every wall. A great contrast to the dark dank pit that is, well, the Pit Pub.

The point grill is decent place to go when you are at UBC and want a good dining experience that doesn't break the bank, but if I wanted a good burger, I would go to Vera's Burger Shack at the UBC Village Complex. I will, however, have to come back sometime to try their prime rib burger, and the high fiber protein wrap.


Pros:
-new restaurant with modern pleasing decor and well sun-lit dining room
-attentive staff
-a place to eat at UBC that isn't a cafeteria, franchise, or hole in the wall.
-large side portions

Cons:
-food takes a while to prepare
-a tiny bit on the pricey side for what you get
-parking on campus is pricey and limited unless you are already there for the day.


Notes:
-parking available across the street at West Parkade

Website and Menu: http://www.food.ubc.ca/locations-and-hours/campus-restaurants/the-point-grill

Kishu River

Kishu River has always been an oddity. They have "Happy Hour" pricing on certain items starting at 7pm. This translates into some awesomely priced dinner eats.

Now I've been to Kishu frequently over the last year. Not too frequently though, since some of my friends are wary of the freshness of their ingredients given the low price tag. However, I've never had an issue with their food, which I always found to be well seasoned, appropriately portioned, and decently priced. The general feeling, though is that their hot food is better than their cold, which can be iffy with not so fresh raw fish.

They're a small family-owned shop, with what looks to be young teenaged kids waiting tables at times. They are impeccably mannered though - nothing like me when I was a teenager :p. Probably Vietnamese owned, as they have a small Vietnamese section of the menu. However, I've never had a chance to try their Vietnamese food as they aren't part of the happy hour discounts. Even though it's just the usual pho noodle soup and lemon chicken rice etc, I'm going to have to try them one of these days.

Today though, I decided to go with the seafood yakisoba, and negitoro roll (6pcs). The soba was stir fried in soy sauce with chunks of prawn, salmon, imitation crab, squid, cabbage, and onion. The noodles were al-dente and the portion was generous for the price ($4.17 with happy hour discount).

The negitoro was pretty standard, although they probably used regular tuna instead of fatty (toro) tuna. I couldn't tell. For $8 flat including tax and tip, this was a decent meal.

The rest of my party decided to get oyako don, beef teriyaki don, prawn and salmon tempura, bento box A, and orders of negitoro and california rolls as well.

The oyako don is a personal favorite of mine: boneless chicken pan fried with egg, onions and vermicelli, served over seasoned rice. The beef teriyaki don was also served with egg and vermicelli , which is a bonus in my book since most restaurants don't bother with these when you order beef/chicken teriyaki don. My friends thoroughly enjoyed these dishes, and they were again a great value at under $4.50 with happy hour discount. Sorry for the grainy pictures. Still fiddling with my new camera >_<

Mr. bento box A decided not to opt for any happy hour items. The bento came with chicken teriyaki (this was NOT served with egg or vermicelli which he would have got if he ordered a don), california roll, assorted veggie and shrimp tempura, green salad, miso soup, and a slice of orange. This is not a bad deal for $9.95, as a lot of Japanese joints jack up their bento box prices for dinner time. Mr. Bento must have been stuffed since he didn't eat his orange.

The prawn and salmon tempura was interesting as not many places do salmon tempura. This dish was a real winner. I had a bit of the salmon and it was very well done. The batter was light and not oily or overpowering, and the salmon inside was moist and flavorful. This was not a happy hour item though.

Everyone was happy with their food, and left satiated. I've always been happy with Kishu, and it's safe to say we'll be returning every once in a while.

Pros:
-very well priced "Happy Hour" discounts at 7 PM!
-friendly service

Cons:
-low prices may mean some sacrifices in ingredient quality (according to some)
-small shop can fill up quickly. No guaranteed seating for large parties.
-must order at least $5 for Happy Hour, which means at least 2 items with their pricing

Notes:
-open late
-happy hour discounts after 7 PM
-plenty of street parking or across the street at London Drugs complex

Menus: unfortunately, they have a large array of menus and I forgot to snap everything.

Happy Hour Menu - January 2011

Menu Page 1 - January 2011

Menu Page 2 - January 2011

Menu Page 3 - January 2011

 

Tomokazu Japanese

The first time I was at Tomokazu, it was for their deluxe dinner menu in July 2010. I thought it was fantastic then, and at $27 per person before tax, it better have been. This time, we were there for their $10.95 lunch menu. Expectations were obviously less stellar than before, but it turned out worse than I anticipated.

We started out with the usual appies, miso soup, goma-ae, and ebi sunomono. The goma spinach was tender and covered with just the right amount of sauce. I didn't have the other appies, but the rest of the party had no complaints. Sorry about the grainy pics. I'm still learning to use my new camera :-(

Next, we got some rolls and cones. People didn't want to fill up on these, so we only had a few orders of the Tomokazu roll, california roll, spicy tuna cone, and spicy seafood cone to satisfy a few people's cravings.


The Tomokazu roll had what appears to be a imitation crab tempura with some tobiko and assorted veggies (cabbages and cucumber). It was rather dry and flavorless and needed some tangy mayo or sauce to help it out. The california roll was your standard imitation crab and avocado - nothing special here.


The spicy tuna cone was quite tasty, but had way too little tuna stuffed into it. The spicy seafood cone looked to be canned flaked salmon/tuna with a splatter of mayo. It also suffered from a dryness problem as flaked canned fish often do. More sauce would have helped a lot here, but nothing can really save this mystery meat.

We then had orders of agedashi tofu, chicken katsu, beef teriyaki, chicken teriyaki, and gyoza.

These were all excellent. The chicken katsu and tofu were lightly breaded and fried until lightly crispy - not oily at all. The usual pork katsu sauce complimented the chicken well. The chicken teriyaki was also pan fried to a perfect crispness and dressed with a right amount of sauce. They also used a nice fatty chicken for both so they were very moist.

The first order of gyoza was slightly burned but the wrapper was light, and the pork filling was moist and flavorful. The beef teriyaki was also well tenderized and reminiscent of slow cooked fall-off-the-bone type stewed meats. There were no tendons, or hard veins of fats or anything that you usually find in low quality beef teriyaki. In fact, they should have called it teriyaki beef stew because it was swimming in a pool of thin liquidy sauce. This was the only downside to the dish but I still thoroughly it. I ordered seconds right away.

Next came our orders of nigiri sushi. We got salmon nigiri, tuna nigiri, tamago nigiri, tobiko nigiri and inari nigiri. I enjoyed these as little as I did the rolls earlier. They all suffer from poorly seasoned sushi rice. The tamago was alright, but the the salmon and tuna used for nigiri just seemed a bit off to me both taste and texture wise. Having eaten some prime sashimi often in the last little while, it was hard to stomach this obviously lower quality sashimi meat. Despite my reservations, the others in my party managed to scarf down 50 of the salmon nigiri alone and thought they were great. I guess they have less discerning taste than I do.

No lower mainland Japanese AYCE would be complete without some motoyaki. Tomokazu offered seafood and seafood motoyaki with "Portuguese" sauce. Normally, seafood motoyaki has imitation crab, salmon, tiny scallops, mushrooms and other ingredients you can identify. However, these were unlike any seafood motoyaki I've had elsewhere, and were filled with a mash of corn and some sort of mystery meat paste that reminded me again of canned salmon, but this time, the non-flaked, whole filet with bone and skin variety. These didn't suffer the dryness problem because they were soaking in oily mayo, but the mystery meat was still unappetizing. Despite this, I ate four of the motoyakis...

The "Portuguese" sauce variety, though, everyone agreed was terrible. The sauce was not as oily as the mayo-smothered regular version, but it was bland and the texture was off. Paired with with the mystery meat, one of the 5 orders we had sat until it turned ice cold at the end of the meal.

Continuing with their pattern of excellently fried foods, the yam tempura and unagi fried rice were very tasty. The tempura was lightly battered and again not oily at all. Unfortunately, the variety of yam/sweet potato they used was not my favorite. I prefer the orange-fleshed variety and they used yellow. Since both of these are the same price at grocery stores, I can't really fault them for choosing an "inferior" variety. This was just my personal preference. Despite having next to no trace of unagi, the unagi fried rice was well-seasoned and a tasty carb filler item.

A few people also had chicken karage and I had an order of Alaska roll. Didn't manage to take pictures of these, but they were both pretty good. There were actually many orders of the karage and I should have snapped a few pics. 

We finished off the meal with orders of fruit which turned out to be slices of oranges, and jello. The oranges were fresh, and this is important because I've been to many awful Japanese AYCE places that served near rotten or moldy ones. These were very sweet and the crew ate a ton of them. The jello was the real darkhorse here. Nobody had high expectations for this, but those who choose to eat them couldn't get enough and had seconds. They were very sweet and firm, and probably packed with way too much sugar, but awesomely delicious.

For $10.95, I wasn't expecting much, but given my memories of the good deluxe dinner I had here last year, i was expecting some better execution in their sushi. I normally don't like deep fried foods, but found theirs to be very well done. Despite this and the cheaper price tag than most comparable Japanese restaurants, I'm not sure I would choose to come back for Japanese AYCE lunch. Maybe if I wanted to stuff my face with fried foods only since the rolls/nigiri were really hit and miss here for me.

Nothing special to note about ambiance and service. Both were decent and satisfactory. The place was clean with Japanese-style decor, and our teapots were topped up regularly. Food was served promptly and plates were bused regularly and not allowed to pile up.

Pros:
-cheaper than most other AYCE lunch menus
-well-executed fried foods
-awesome jello!
-attentive service

Cons:
-low quality rolls
-use of what seemed like low quality and mystery meats
-very hard to find free street parking in the area

Notes: 
-open late with late night menu

Website:
http://www3.telus.net/ninkazu/