Sherman's Food Adventures: Ming Kee Kitchen

Ming Kee Kitchen

Call me crazy or whatever you want to call me... (I'm sure people do).  But I have this lingering hope that I will find good Chinese food at small little takeout joints.  That hope is quickly becoming more like a delusion than anything else.  Yet, I trek on, calling them to place my set meal dinner orders which include the veritable spring rolls, wonton soup and fortune cookies for a reasonable price.  This time around, it was Ming Kee Kitchen out on Canada Way.

The meal didn't start off well since they forgot to omit the green onions out of the Shrimp Fried Rice.  We were quite annoyed when picking out the little bits for the kids.  Other than that snafu, the rice itself was chewy and somewhat moist.  The wok heat was okay where there was some caramelization of flavours.  The large cold-water shrimp were a nice touch.  I tried my best to stay away from the set menus as they were loaded up with North American Chinese food, so I decided to try the Peking Pork Chops.  This was a poor attempt where the pork chops were chewy and not properly tenderized.  Furthermore, the batter slid off each piece becoming a clumpy mess.  As for the sauce, it was okay with the typical sweet & sour thing going on, but it was lacking overall impact.

The Braised Fish & Tofu was equally disappointing with thin and mushy pieces of fish.  I'm not exactly sure what type of fish they used as it was obliterated by the cooking process.  My best guess is sole, but if that was indeed true, that would be the wrong fish to use in this dish (because it is too delicate and thin).  Flavourwise, it was pretty bland due to the plethora of fresh veggies (which watered down everything).   The best dish of the meal was the Broccoli & Beef.  The broccoli was vibrant in colour and crunchy in texture while being well-seasoned.  Although the beef was the typical tenderized version you would find at most Chinese restaurants, it was still easy to chewy with a meatiness to it.

For my son, we had to get an order of the Fried Prawns.  These were pretty typical with a thick tempura batter.  It was too thick though since it was rather doughy inside and only slightly crispy outside.  The shrimp was of a decent size where it was more meaty than exhibiting snap.  I found them quite greasy, but the tangy sweet & sour sauce helped alleviate it.  Since I had spent $49.00, we got a bonus dish being the Honey Garlic Chicken. Er...  I should've refused this dish as it was not good at all.  The pathetically small pieces of chicken were dry and overly inundated with batter.  The sauce was a bit watery and was mostly sweet with very little garlic flavour. We didn't end up eating much of this dish. As you can probably guess, the food was pretty "meh", even for this type of joint.  Despite this, my search continues...

The Good:
- Okay pricing
- Pretty friendly over the phone (yah, I know I'm stretching here)

The Bad:
- Portions are modest
- Overall, food is "meh"
- Awkward location

Ming Kee Kitchen 明記外賣 on Urbanspoon

1 comments:

LotusRapper said...

What ever happened to the other "Kee" restaurants in town:

Ho Kee
Pu Kee
Yuk Kee
Woo Kee (a fave amongst Star Wars fans ....)


:-D

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