Sherman's Food Adventures: On On Wonton House

On On Wonton House

How desperate was I tonight? Well, when looking for somewhere to eat after my son's ice skating and floor hockey sessions, we wanted something fast and cheap. How about going to On On Wonton House? What's wrong with that you may ask? Let's just say that I've never been here before despite it existing at it's location on Kingsway since I can remember. It looks the same on the outside and inside from the 70's. We walk in and... hmm... only a handful of Chinese customers in a sea of non-Chinese customers. Not a good sign. Alright, I guess sometimes we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover.

Whenever I visit a supposed "wonton house", I'm always a bit more picky. If they dare to put a food item in their restaurant name, it'd better be darn good. It's akin to calling themselves a steakhouse and having utility grade meat. Of course many of the "wonton houses" in the GVRD were leftovers from a different era. Now, wontons without shrimp or being completely comprised of pork are essentially seen as inferior wontons. Chalk this up to the influx of updated Cantonese cuisine from Hong Kong. Therefore, the wontons here at On On can be classified as mediocre. Comprised mainly of pork, these could pass for 1980's wontons. At least the soup wasn't half bad. Naturally, I ordered a congee. This time, I had the Liver and Kidney Congee. It was offal. LOL... Sorry, a poor attempt at humour. Honestly, it was pretty awful. First, it was a bit watery. Second, it was more bland than plain congee. Third, the liver and kidney were so horribly overcooked, it was like eating shoe leather. I guess for some people, that might be a good alternative to offal anyways.

The BBQ Pork & Shrimp Fried Rice was actually pretty good despite being bland as well. Lots of cold water shrimp and non-fatty pieces of BBQ pork were nestled in the firm rice. At this point I was wondering if they were conserving salt or assuming that the customers were going to douse their food with soy sauce. The blandness continued with the Beef & Vegetable with Flat Rice Noodles. There is colour in the sauce; but it was sorely lacking any type of flavour whatsoever. Furthermore, the beef was quite chewy, probably due to a lack of baking soda. The dish wasn't bad per se, it was just meh...

At least the very last dish was decent. The Tofu & Fish Hot Pot arrived sizzling hot. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the bubbling sauce. With no filler on the bottom (such as bak choy), there was plenty of crunchy; yet tender pieces of fish and soft tofu. Still not exactly salty, it had some resemblance of taste. I'm sure you have already guessed that I wasn't exactly thrilled with the food here. However, they still have their customers, which is probably due to their low prices. For me at least, I'm willing to pay more for better tasting food.

The Good:
- It's extremely cheap
- Portion sizes are good
- Staff was pretty friendly

The Bad:
- They don't like to use salt
- Decor is in a time-warp (if you care that is)
- Food is generally below average

On On Wonton House on Urbanspoon

5 comments:

Karl said...

Hey Sherman, sorry bout your luck! I would've warned you! Had me a miserable lunch there a few years back. At least they're consistent.

Pretty sure that place was Mr. Ho about 15 years ago...before the "fire".

Sherman Chan said...

Yah, I was pretty much desperate. Serves me right eh? Seems like a lot of "fires" lately. Interesting...

shokutsu said...

Maybe you should have went to Denny's across the street. :)

Sherman Chan said...

shokutsu... you won't believe it, but I have gone to Denny's recently... you'll read all about it!

Unknown said...

I drive 12 miles each way for their hot and sour soup. Also their ginger beef on rice and Szechuane bean and beef on rice are more than decent

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