Dim Sum @ Kirin (Starlight Casino)

Bringing your car in for servicing is a necessary evil. Unless you don't care about the warranty or you can actually fix it yourself, you are at the mercy of the service advisor, who's main goal is to bleed you dry of your hard-earned money. It still brings back bad memories of when we brought our Nissan into Southside in Vancouver. They charged us $1000.00 for a service once. My cousin used to be a service advisor and told me I got ripped off. Suffice to say, I never went back to that dealership. To ease the pain of this generally boring and costly necessity, Rich Guy picked me up from the dealership. We headed off to Kirin at the Starlight Casino for some Dim Sum. The actual location of the restaurant seemed a bit odd to me at first; but seeing how the large proportion of Asian clientele, it looks as if Kirin is in the right place.

I've been to every location of Kirin in the GVRD including Downtown, City Square, Richmond and Coquitlam. Despite being a chain restaurant, not all locations are created equal. My favourite location in terms of both food quality and service would be City Square; however, it is the least comfortable due to it's cramped seating arrangements. In terms of service alone, the Coquitlam location impresses; yet the food lags behind the others. In terms of decor, the Starlight Casino location was impressive with its high ceiling and open dining space. There's even a small garden outside the restaurant itself. It's interesting how busy this location was for Dim Sum since there is little in the way of walk-up traffic other than the casino. In fact, they were so busy, it took forever to put in our order. However, once the order was placed, the food came out very quickly. Too bad they didn't have any Ja Leun (Fried Chinese Donut wrapped in Rice Noodle) left, it's Rich Guy's favourite.

We started off with the Vegetarian Goose, which is essentially marinated shitake mushrooms encased in fried bean curd skin. This may not sound very appealing, but trust me, it's very good. The one here at Kirin was bursting with big juicy pieces of shitake. Unfortunately, we found the Shrimp Dumplings a bit average. They were rather small and the shrimp were in little pieces.
One dish we usually order are the Fried Chicken Knees. Yes, another strange dish to those who have never had it. But trust me, it's very good. Combining the crunch from the cartilage and the softness of the meat, it is a texture contrast encapsulated in one bite. Most of the bites were good here; but residing on the bottom were really small bits that were not appealing. On that note, the Scallop & Shrimp Dumplings didn't look all that appealing either. Maybe I was expecting the standard dumpling with the whole scallop on top; instead, we got these small little clumps instead. They tasted alright and the dumpling skin was very thin; but it was a very poor value.

We also ended up getting a pot of Fish & Vegetable Congee. Normally, that would not be the food of choice in July; but yet again, it wasn't exactly a warm day. The pot of congee wasn't particularly big, although it was packed full of fresh slices of fish. Dim Sum is not complete without a pork dish; thus we got the Black Bean Spareribs. Pretty straightforward approach to this dish, it was the right texture (not too much baking soda) and was not over seasoned. Just like the time we went to the Coquitlam Kirin, we got the exact same desserts - Mango Pudding and Thousand Layer Cake. Arriving with the pudding was a side of evaporated milk. I like how they didn't already pour it on top since I'm not really a big fan of the evaporated milk thing. Unlike many other places, at Kirin, there are real bits of mango in the pudding. Consequently it actually tastes like mango pudding. I swear, some versions of mango pudding resemble mango in colour only.
The layer cake was fabulous. Nestled in between the thin rice flour sheets was a generous helping of sweet salted egg yolk and coconut. Despite this, the cake was not overly sweet; rather it was well-balanced because of the salted egg yolks.

Upon finishing our meal, I sat silently contemplating. No, I wasn't having a zen-like moment; rather, it took a long time to settle the bill. Thus, I was left with some time to ponder. The result? Well, the food was pretty good, as expected. A few issues, but nothing that would make me cringe. The restaurant itself was beautifully decorated with plenty of natural light from big floor to ceiling windows. Service was a bit slow and the managers seemed to be a bit overworked. I assume this because they didn't smile much and did everything in a rush. So, not the best Kirin location; yet not the worst. Solid Dim Sum if you are ever in the neighbourhood or have a sudden urge to gamble.

The Good:
- Spacious and well-lit dining space
- Plenty of free parking
- Solid Dim Sum

The Bad:
- Service was a bit slow
- Managers seemed a bit flustered and not friendly