Queen's Cafe

The corner of Kingsway and Salisbury in Burnaby has to be one of those cursed locations.  There have been too many restaurants opening and closing to count.  Could it be the actual location or could it be that the restaurants just didn't attract enough customers?  Well, I tried nearly all of them and they weren't bad, but I guess they weren't great either.  The newest to give it a go is Queen's Cafe offering up what they call fusion cuisine.  I'm not really sure it is fusion in the true sense.  Rather, it is a mish-mash of Chinese food all in one menu.

We decided to try the Minced Beef and Egg on Rice served in a hot stone bowl.  When it arrived, the stone bowl was smoking hot.  The rice was sizzling away and once mixed, the egg was pretty much cooked.  There was no problem forming a rice crust where the bowl stayed hot for well over 20 minutes.  We found the rice to fluffy and the amount of sauce adequate.  It was on the bland-tasting side though and could've used more salt.  Next, the Seafood Tofu Hot Pot also arrived sizzling.  This sported nicely fried silken tofu with shrimp, squid, baby scallops and fish cake atop Napa cabbage.  This was an average dish with too much starch-thicken sauce that was a bit salty.  This could've used some fish and more depth.

The kiddies shared the Brisket Rice Noodle Soup which was a bit much for them.  Hence, we ended up eating most of it.  The noodles were plentiful and didn't become mushy from the soup.  About that soup, it wasn't very impactful though.  It tasted didn't taste any different than a salty MSG mix.  The plentiful brisket on top was fatty and generally tender while bathed in a meaty sauce.  I enjoyed the Curry Brisket with rice more so as the flavours were pretty impactful.  Without being salty nor too sweet, the rich curry had depth and was the right consistency.  The brisket was again fatty where most pieces were tender.

Our last dish was the Scrambled Shrimp and Eggs which featured fluffy and not-overdone eggs.  However, there was far too much corn starch as the texture of the eggs became a bit slimy and too thick.  It did taste okay though with mild-seasoning.  I found the shrimp to be cold-water crunchy but a bit bland.  Here we go again I guess, another average restaurant occupying the cursed corner.  It is still new, so let's see if they are able to refine their dishes.  But for now, I'm not aching to go back.

The Good:
- Okay pricing
- Fairly comfortable seating

The Bad:
- Hit and miss food
- Hard to flag down someone