Hakka Masti

I woke up today with a splitting headache, but decided to go to work anyways (I must love my job that much). As the day progressed, I started to feel much worse, the thought of the GI virus that's been going around crept into my mind. However, I soldiered on and went out to eat lunch. Of course, being the smart person that I am, I had to choose something spicy (not a good idea). That spicy food happens to be Hakka Masti, which is a fusion restaurant that meshes Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, and Thai cuisines. It's very similar to another Chinese-Indian restaurant, Green Lettuce. You will find on the menu many familiar items that will probably not resemble the traditional dishes once you see it.

There are 2 types of lunch specials at Hakka Masti, one is $6.95 and the other is $7.95. The big difference is the $6.95 special is generally a noodle dish and the $7.95 special is an entree dish accompanied by rice. All specials include a choice of soup - Hot & Sour, Cream of Corn or Mushroom. To make sure I got a good variety, I ordered one of the $6.95 and $7.95 specials respectively. I chose the Pad Thai and the Schezwan Fish. For the soups, I chose Hot & Sour and Cream of Corn. The corn soup was pretty standard, something you could make at home by using canned cream of corn and diluting it with water and adding egg. The hot & sour soup was quite different than what I'm used to. First of all, there was a lot of cilantro. I can never understand why some restaurants use so much cilantro in their dishes. Cilantro is very pungent and using too much essentially kills any other flavours that exist in the dish. I'm not saying the soup was horrible, but the flavours were not balanced at all. In addition, I think they should have left the canned button mushrooms out, it didn't taste very good.

The Pad Thai was excellent, it didn't taste like any Pad Thai I've had before. It was spicy and savory, with the noodles being slightly chewy. Usually, the authentic Pad Thai is a bit sweeter and less spicy. The Schezwan Fish was not bad, being quite spicy. There are a lot of different spices at work in this dish such as scallions, garlic, ginger, and chilies. You'll easily finish the bowl of rice with this dish. I was surprised at the clean and well furnished dining room. I would have never known from the outside. Also, the service was very good despite the fact there was only one server. Unfortunately, I was not able to eat much of this meal, as my appetite was waning. The server was quite concerned that I hadn't finished anything and thought I didn't like the food. Well, I assured him it was good and I will be returning again to try more altered versions of my favourite Asian foods.

The Good:
- Unique versions of popular Asian dishes
- Comfortable dining room
- Friendly service

The Bad:
- Overuse of herbs/spices can overwhelm a dish (ie. Hot & Sour soup)

Hakka Masti
8851 120th Street
Delta, B.C.
778-218-1907
www.hakkamasti.com

Business Hours:
11:30am - 10:00pm (Sun - Thu)
11:30am - 11:00pm (Fri & Sat)