Regal Mansion (Dinner Service)

So for all the times we've been to Regal Mansion for Dim Sum, we have never gone there for dinner.  As I've stated over and over again, the Dim Sum chef and dinner chef at a Chinese restaurant are usually mutually exclusive.  Hence, a Dim Sum service can be wildly different than a dinner service due to this.  Therefore, we finally made it out there for dinner to see if it stacks up to their consistently good Dim Sum.

We started off things with one of the Chef's Specials in the Dungeness Crab with Salted Egg Yolk (also added sliced rice cake to go with this).  I believe this is an absolute steal at $58.00.  The crab was of a good size and was meaty.  It was coated in a deliciously nutty salted egg yolk "sauce" that wasn't overly salty.  Rather, it was aromatic and had all the best elements of salted egg yolk.  The accompanying rice cakes were tender yet still retained their appealing chewiness.

Another Chef's Special was the Ling Cod in 2 Courses for $68.00.  I felt this was another well-priced item(s) where the first course was the Yau Choy with Ling Cod Filets.  Fresh and vibrant, the stalks of yau choy were still crunchy despite being cooked all-the-way-through.  They were the right ripeness where they had a crunch to them but were not chewy nor stringy.  There was plenty of tender flaky slices of ling cod to go with the vegetable.  The dish was mildly-seasoned, so the natural flavours came through.

The second course consisted of the Ling Cod Hot Pot featuring the head, belly and fin meat along with roast garlic and fried tofu.  I found that the batter for the fish was somewhat heavy, which meant that it became a touch gummy once it soaked up the sauce.  However, the fish itself was delicate and there was plenty of it.  Sure, we had to watch for the bones, but these pieces are some of the most tender parts of the fish.  Loved the fried tofu as it was tender and took on all of the savoury sauce.

Our last Chef's Special dish was the XO Vermicelli Hot Pot with Seafood.  I thought the preparation of the vermicelli was quite good as it was completely hydrated, but not to the point it lost its chewy texture.  It was fully separated and not clumpy while not greasy.  It had taken on the XO where it was briny and a bit spicy.  The one thing I didn't like about this dish was the lack of seafood.  When we did find some shrimp and scallops, there were super tiny.  Would've liked some prawns instead.

To keep up the meat quotient, we got yet another Chef's Special in the Wagyu Beef with Shimeji Mushrooms.  If there was any doubt this was Wagyu beef, one bite and we knew this was legit.  The butteriness of the meat as well as the beefy flavour was quite evident.  It had been wok-fried just enough that it was cooked to medium with all of the fats activated.  Seasoning was on point too with a mildly peppery savouriness.  Not merely a garnish, the mushrooms underneath were texturally appealing.

As much as it is a defaultish dish, we got the Sweet & Sour Pork as we always do.  This one was quite good with medium-size chunks of pork.  They were somewhat fatty, but not to the point where pieces were inedible.  I found the texture to be perfectly bouncy and tender with just enough batter on the outside.  The sauce was tangy with just the right amount of sweetness.  Loved the addition of lychee to the usual pineapple, onions and peppers.  This was also a large portion for the price ($26.88).

For our carbs, we got the Fried Rice with Scallop and Dried Scallop.  The good thing about this rice was the large scallops placed predominantly on top.  They were tender and sweet.  However, the rice itself had too much moisture.  So even with a good wok-fry, the rice was not able to be caramelized and nutty.  Furthermore, the rice could've used a bit more salt.  However, all of the other dishes were quite good and well-portioned.  Therefore, the dinner as a whole was quite solid and we would have no problem returning in the future.

The Good:
- Generous portions
- Generally well-executed
- Attentive service

The Bad:
- Fried rice was not dry enough