Tai Hing Congee & Noodle House

*Restaurant is permanently closed*

On our way to Chill's house for his annual hockey pool (yes, this was several months ago), Costanza, Vandelay and I decided to grab some quick eats along the way.  Along the way meant we would have to meet up in Richmond...  during rush hour...  Nice, this is what we do for food???  Well, Costanza was smart because he wasn't driving.  Wait, why did he make me drive???  Either he is a complete jerk or the smartest person of the bunch.  To make it real quick, we stopped by Tai Hing Congee & Noodle House near Richmond Centre.

We got the Fisherman's Congee first consisting of julienned fish cake, pork rinds, dried squid, peanuts and lettuce.  The broth was sufficiently thick and moderately seasoned.  It remained thick until the last spoonful, but we were thinking there was some thickening agent involved. As shown in the picture, there was enough ingredients where every spoonful had something.  I wasn't a huge fan of the wontons in the Wonton Noodle since they were small and featured chewy dry pork.  The small amount of shrimp was cold-water crunchy though. But that wasn't enough to save them.  I guess it is a personal bias of mine as I am more fond of the modern wontons where there is more shrimp.  As for the noodles, they were a touch soft and eggy, but okay nonetheless.  The soup was also quite light with only minor hints of salt.

We also got the Lo Mein with Brisket (Dry Noodles) that featured a good amount of sufficiently moist and fatty beef.  Taste-wise, we found the brisket to be lightly seasoned while the noodles were indeed dry and chewy.  On the side, we had some plain Steamed Rice Noodle Rolls and Gai Lan with oyster sauce.  The rolls were bordering between soft and stiff.  Hence, they were not overly dense nor buttery as a result.  In the end, they did the trick.  We liked the gai lan as the stalks remained crunchy while the colour was a vibrant dark green.  They cooked this just right.  As you can ascertain, the food at Tai Hing is neither complex nor sexy.  But it does do the job at very reasonable prices in a typical mom n' pop fashion.

The Good:
- Inexpensive
- Food is okay for what it is

The Bad:
- Ol' skool eats, don't expect refinement
- Really small tables