Wah Wing

Alright, here goes another Dim Sum adventure out in the Tri-Cities area. Wait. This maybe one of the last "new" adventures since there aren't many Dim Sum joints around here. As I have mentioned on numerous occasions, there is a severe lack of Dim Sum options especially given the large Asian population. It really boggles the mind. Take Henderson Centre for instance. This ghost town of a mall looked good in theory; but for some reason or another, it is a fail on epic proportions. Where do all the Asians go to shop? Richmond??? Kinda far... and kinda bad for your car's safety too. So for the most recent Coquitlam Dim Sum foray, we found ourselves at Wah Wing. Now, this place is hardly new. In fact, it was here when I lived in Coquitlam a long time ago. However, we never ate at the place. Oh yeah, I know why. We would go to Richmond... Yikes. What am I sayin'? Now I have lost all credibility.

Okay, back to Wah Wing. The reason we came out here was to meet up with Rich Guy. Due to our busy schedules, I haven't been able to eat with him as much as I would've liked. Hey, he's only here for a little while, I need to take advantage of his eating companionship. In fact, he brought out his mom this time, so more people meant more food! To get things straight before we get to the food - Wah Wing is a Szechuan restaurant. Hence, Cantonese Dim Sum should not be their specialty. So I'll cut them a bit of slack. However, we did start with the Xiao Long Bao, which is a Shanghainese speciality. So I guess they are trying to be all things to everyone. That is usually a recipe for disaster. We'll just have to see right? Since this is not a Shanghainese restaurant, we weren't holding out much hope with the them. Even with our tempered expectations, they still turned out to be pretty sub par. With a dumpling skin that was too thick and doughy, these were not the excellent XLB's one would find in Richmond. I will give it to them that the filling was decently seasoned and there was soup. Too bad the soup was more oily than broth.

Now for some Cantonese items starting with the Haw Gow (Steamed Shrimp Dumplings). These were "okay". The shrimp filling was a mixture of whole shrimp and shrimp mousse. The flavour was pretty one-dimensional while the filling itself was the proper texture. We felt the dumpling skin could've been a bit less thick though. When the Sui Mai (Steamed Pork and Shrimp Dumpling) arrived, it sure looked promising. Yet, very much like Lindsay Lohan, it looked much better than it turned out to be. I give them kudos for using whole cold-water shrimp on top of the actual sui mai. However, it was not seasoned enough being bland. That would be the same for the rest of the dumpling as well. I found the pork to be a little soft. I much prefer a "bouncier" texture. Something that confused me a little was the Beef Meatballs. Normally we see it comprised of some or all of ground beef, green onions, cilantro and water chestnuts. But, there was white onion in these. I've never seen that before. And the reason why there is no white onion is due to its potency. The flavour of the onion was too much for the beef and I found it to be detracting. If we didn't focus on the white onion, the beef meatballs were pretty decent. The texture had the desired bounce and the meat itself was well-seasoned.

For our first bowls of noodles, we got the Tan Tan Noodles. It turned out to be pretty good. The noodles were al dente; but curiously the wrong type of noodles? The texture was a bit weird being slimy. What made these noodles was the excellent spicy peanut broth. It was very flavourful and balance. Nice consistency too. As for the Potstickers, they were fried up nicely with a pleasing colour. The filling was not bad. The meat was not gritty and did taste pretty good. It's really too bad that the dumpling skin was far too thick. So much so, it was a bit difficult to bite all the way through. On the other hand, the Black Bean Spareribs turned out to be quite good. Consisting of mostly edible meat rather than cartilage or fat, it was slightly more on the chewier side. We didn't mind that. It's a whole lot better than being over-tenderized. As you can see, there was plenty of garlic and enough black beans for flavour. As expected, I ended up eating the Honeycomb Tripe a la Eric Carmen - all by myself. Seems like there is no "love" for the stomach lining of a cow. No matter, I got "hungry eyes" and enjoyed every strip of tender; yet slightly chewy tripe. I particularly liked the generous use of minced garlic. It added a lot of flavour without being salty.

One of the more confounding dishes was the Szechuan Beef Noodles. For a restaurant that specializes in Szechuan cuisine, this was the least authentic version I've seen for some time. Now, the noodles themselves were fine being al dente. The beef was passable as well since it was tender and not too fatty. However, it is the starch-thickened sauce that was all wrong. Usually, the beef is braised in a spicy broth that is thin and is mixed into the soup base to create the signature Szechuan beef noodles. But what we had here was a clear soup base with a goupy sauce floating on top. WTH? Ultimately, it wasn't terrible; but really... We also added an order of the Four Seasons Beans which included rice and Hot and Sour Soup. The soup had a aesthetically-pleasing dark colour and there was certainly enough ingredients. Furthermore, the soup had a nice silky consistency buoyed by the proper amount of starch used to thicken it up. However, the predominant flavour was that of tartness. Not much depth in terms of meat flavour nor was there enough spice in the form of chili oil. I guess we could've asked for more chili oil, so that is not such a big deal. As for the Four Seasons Beans, they were prepared the restaurant way, which is being oil blanched before stir-frying. In terms of the cooking of the dish, the execution was fine. The beans were still slightly crunchy while being cooked all the way through and there was no absence of flavouring ingredients, except for one. The one ingredient that was lacking would be salt. The beans had a good initial flavour; yet as we chewed, it was bland.

For us, this was a good indication of one thing - the food is alright; but there is definitely better nearby. It was actually disappointing considering that Wah Wing does have its faithful clientele. Maybe we were expecting more? Of course to be fair, it is a Szechuan restaurant. So the Cantonese Dim Sum and Shanghainese dishes would not be their specialty. However, the Szechuan Beef Noodle was sub-par. Seeing how this dish is pretty much a standard for Szechuan cuisine, it is quite disturbing that they would prepare it the way they did. It's really too bad. The restaurant decor is nice and the staff are super-friendly and efficient. I just hope the food somehow catches up someday.

The Good:
- Excellent service
- Place is modern and clean
- Prices are okay

The Bad:
- Overall, the food is not up to standard

Roundel Cafe

*Restaurant is closed*

A few months ago, our hockey team tried to eat at Bo Laksa's Bubbles and Bits to no avail. They had decided to close early and we were left with a dark restaurant and locked door. Undeterred, we tried again and well, another epic fail. Okay, lemme do this the right way: Tried to eat @BoLaksaKing #epicfail. You see, the place is small and trying to find a table for 6 on a Friday night was not in the cards. Fine. Maybe the next time we'll be 3rd time lucky? Probably not. Anyways, we left in search for other eats. Originally, we were going to stroll down one block to Tentatsu when suddenly, we spotted Roundel Cafe across the street. Hey, let's go there instead! We could do Japanese any other time; but a diner? Heck ya! In fact, an ol' skool counter with stationary stools and booth seating welcomed us as we walked in. This is a diner alright.

So what does one order in a diner? Milkshakes of course! From the bottom clockwise, we have English Toffee, Choco-Mint and Strawberry. I gave Milhouse's Choco-Mint a try and it was pretty good. I didn't get much in the way of mint but the shake was creamy and not overly sweet. Since it was served straight out of the metal mixing cup, there was a lot of it. I liked that there was a large selection of flavours too. In order to maximize my food options, Sweet Tooth and I decided to share 2 items staring with the Chicken Burrito. The darn thing was really substantial in size and stuffed with tender chicken, black beans, brown rice, red cabbage and cheese in a whole wheat tortilla topped with more cheese and salsa. Now, I'm not a huge fan of burritos and this one didn't necessarily change my mind; yet it was solid. Lots of good quality ingredients and it was filling. Personally, I would've liked more flavour and spice; but that's just me.

The second dish was the Mango Brie Quesadilla. As the name suggests, it is mango and brie within a corn tortilla topped with red and green onions. Yogurt dip was served on the side. I wanted to like this dish; yet in the end, it didn't really deliver. First, the tortilla was too dry and chewy. Second, there was just not enough flavour. The mango was quite mild and I really didn't get a lot of brie flavour. If this was a dessert, it might've worked better. And on the topic of dessert, Gadget Girl's daughter had the homemade Apple Strawberry Pie. For a little girl, it was quite a substantial pie for her to eat, so I helped myself to some... It was tart and thick (?), not sure if that was the right adjective. Hence, the entire thing was a bit dense including the crust. There was a lack of strawberry taste; but we could all see it. With that in mind, the pie was still pretty decent and we appreciated that they made it in-house. It probably could've been better a la mode.

As for Gadget Girl herself, she inexplicably ordered the Tofu Burger. Never being the vegetarian, that was quite odd. Well, I guess it was never going to be a good fit because she was quite "meh" about the burger. The patty was a bit crumbly and dry; but hey, we are biased. The good thing about it was the price, it was only $6.00 being the daily special. Now Polka King finally joined us for a meal after a long absence. Maybe Polka Dot actually allowed him to get out of the house for once. Being such, he ordered a Beef Burger. Yah, he's a man, at least for tonight. I can hear Polka Dot crack that whip already... Much like the tofu burger, it came with a whole wheat bun (which is a good thing) and all the accompaniments were fresh and vibrant. The burger patty was a tad dry; yet not oily. Polka King remarked it was a typical burger. He did like the price though (which is a trend with all the items on the menu).

Milhouse didn't have a salad this time and it was truly surprising. After all, he's been trying to look after his girlish figure. Deviating from his diet, he had the Slow Cooked Chili Chicken Burger. In reality, it was more of a pulled chicken sandwich than a burger. The spicy chili tomato sauce was quite flavourful while the chicken was surprisingly moist. A good amount of thick-cut crunchy coleslaw added a nice textural contrast. Before ordering the burrito, I had my eye on the Ham Hock Mac 'n Cheese; but since Emilicious decided on the Vegetarian Mac 'n Cheese, I decided not to do a duplicate. Now it wasn't exactly mac 'n cheese in the literal sense. Rather it was fusili and cheese. No matter, unless they are using rigatoni, any other pasta should work. As you can see, it was very cheesy. Indeed it was cheesy; yet curiously not creamy. The noodles were cooked nicely though. Not a bad attempt, I'm sure the ham hock version would be much more flavourful.

So there was pretty much a consensus regarding Roundel Cafe - "okay" food at a great price. Nothing will necessarily blow your socks off; but you won't go away feeling hungry, ripped-off or sad. The place is quaint with honest food and service. In fact, they try to use as much organic locally-sourced ingredients as possible. Word is, breakfast is the real draw here, so that probably means I'll be back to see what that is all about. I just won't be doing any tofu hash...

The Good:
- Inexpensive
- Honest food
- Honest people

The Bad:
- Food is pretty average

Kalvin's Restaurant

Alright, enough has been said about Kim's parting post, so I'm not about to debate about it any further. What needed to be said has been said. Despite the apparent division of opinions, the one thing that cannot be disputed is the commonality of food. For me, food is about bringing people together, not about tearing them apart. Hence, with all the negativity and anger from a few weeks ago, it is nice to see that something positive came of it. You see, it was suggested we have a chowdown of sorts. As a community of food bloggers, it has been a long time since a large group has come together. With the shear number of food blogs in Vancouver, it is practically impossible to organize an event with is inclusive. But for some of us, we felt the need to break bread and focus on our passion rather than our differences. Thus, Kevin was gracious enough to organize a dinner at Kalvin's Restaurant. On its front awning, it advertises itself to be Szechaun restaurant; however, it is more Taiwanese with elements of Szechuan. The people in attendance were Ben & Suanne, Ed, Angie, Karl, Jessica, Anita, Russell and Diana. I must admit. Despite our differences, we still were able to come together for a meal. Life's short. Let's enjoy, not hate.

For me, I was just happy to be there for the food. So we let Kevin do the ordering and we started with the Fondue Spicy Pork with Organ Stew. Alright, lemme get this out of the way... The menu names for these dishes have a lot to be desired. This dish was not a fondue. Rather, it was a heated hot pot of sorts with pig's blood and pig intestine. Due to these ingredients, the whole thing ended up to be quite gamy. For me, I grew up with offal and it ended up to be pretty good. I'm not sure everyone else had the same sentiment since it was one of the last dishes to be finished. Next up was the Pork & Ton Choy in BBQ Sauce. At first, I thought that there must've been some form of XO sauce used in the dish since it was a bit fishy and spicy. After checking with Kevin, it turned out to be satay sauce, which has some of the same ingredients as XO sauce, namely dried shrimp or sometimes, brill fish. For me, it was a truly different flavour with ton choy. I'm more familiar with the use of fermented tofu and garlic as a flavouring agent. As for the vegetable itself, it was cooked properly where it retained a nice crunch.

After this, we got a Shanghainese dish being the 5 Spice Beef in Onion Pancake. I thought that the beef itself was adequately seasoned where I could actually taste it. Usually, one complaint about this dish is that the beef gets lost. Not here. Furthermore, the amount of hoisin was just enough to add some sweetness. The onion pancake itself was also balanced in that the onions were not overwhelming. However, I would've liked to see it slightly thinner. I wasn't a big fan of the next dish which happened to be the Shredded Fish with Yellow Chives. I've had this before and I do realize it is intended to be mild. After all, flowering chives are not exactly a flavour explosion. Rather, it is all about the aromatics and texture. With that being said, I found the entire dish to be bland. Sure, I could taste the natural sweetness of the fish; yet little else. A dash more of salt would've done wonders.

Whenever we dabble in Taiwanese food, there is sure to be offal. Case in point, the first hot pot consisting of intestine and blood. For our next dish, it was the classic Spicy Pig's Ear. This is mostly a textural item. When prepared correctly, it should be chewy while not too chewy. Think jellyfish. And much like jellyfish, there is no real inherent flavour (after rinsing and cooking) so the marinade is very important. This one was moderately spicy with a nice balance of sugar and soy. The flowering chives added another layer of texture and flavour. Hands down, the Red Fermented Pork Chops was my favourite dish. Just to note, the picture represents 3 orders. This is normally an appetizer; but since we had so many people, we needed much more than one order. Essentially boneless pork chops marinated in "nam yew" or fermented red tofu, this was a distinctively flavourful dish. Normally, regular fermented tofu has a sharp saltiness which is enough to seasoned anything. The red version adds another layer of flavour which is typically sweeter and some spice. If you can imagine deep-frying this, it can only intensify the flavours even more. I really could literally keep eating this. It was that good.

Coming from such a impactful dish, it was almost a letdown with the Shredded Beef with Green Onion. Nothing particularly wrong with it other than its normalcy. This is a typical combination found in Chinese cooking where the caramelized ingredients create a aromatic sweetness. The beef was so tender (from marinating) that I initially mistakened it for pork. This was well-executed, if not quite standard. Arriving in a big hot pot, the 3 Spice Chicken looked absolutely delicious. Sometimes known as 3 Cup Chicken, it named as such because there is usually 3 cups of main ingredients (such as rice wine, soy and sesame oil). A common menu item at Taiwanese restaurants, I usually find it oily and unsatisfying due to the lack of chicken meat. Not here though. The pieces of chicken were meaty, tender and freakin' tasty. All the flavours had melded together and penetrated each piece of meat. There was a good balance between tart, salty, sweet and aromatic. Furthermore, it was not as greasy as other versions I've come across. Very well done.

Normally, there are very few Chinese dishes that confuse me anymore since I've practically tried everything. However, when the Cold Bamboo Shoots with Japanese Mayo arrived, I didn't know what to think. I've never seen it prepared in this fashion. Now if you think of bamboo shoots, the first thing that comes to mind is funky vegetable gaminess. Relax, it was actually very bland. This dish was more about texture (think of really large white asparagus) than anything else since the mayo was very mild and sweet. Going from something that had some bite to a mostly mushy dish was the Eggplant with Shredded Pork. Another mildly flavoured offering, the eggplant was predictably soft. Yet, we could still discern individual pieces other than the middle of the plate. It was somewhat sweet with some savoury elements. Solid, if not unremarkable. Up until this point of the meal, we didn't really get a truly "Szechuan"-type dish. The Diced Chicken & Peanuts with Chili Peppers took care of that issue. Visually appealing and even more so taste-wise, this needed rice. The chicken was tender despite the small dice while the chili peppers added the necessary heat. Loved the peanuts, it added a nice crunch and nuttiness. Good wok heat as well since the flavours were intense and properly caramelized.

When the Prawns & Mayo with Pineapple arrived at the table, Karl gave me a look. He's not big fan of fried prawns and sweet mayo. Honestly, me neither. In actuality, I do enjoy it; but not beyond 2 pieces (I do like the one with walnuts more). After that, it gets heavy and kinda gross. In this case, the prawns were perfectly cold-water crunchy while the mayo was sweet to being with and became more sweet from the pineapples. As if we needed more food, it just kept coming with the String Beans with Minced Pork next. I found that the beans were slightly overfried which made them dry and slightly shriveled up. I did enjoy the plethora of garlic which added another flavour dimension to the slight spiciness. After this, we headed back towards another classic Taiwanese dish/snack in the Salty Peppery Chicken. These "chicken" nuggets are coated in salt and pepper then deep fried. I found them to be juicy on the inside while lightly crispy on the outside. In terms of flavour, it was more salty than peppery though. If they had added a bit more pepper, it would've been quite good.

We shifted gears once again towards Shanghainese food with the Xiao Long Bao. We went in with reasonable expectations on this one since this is not their specialty. As expected the dumpling skin was relatively thick, especially at the top where the dough twists. I found the meat inside to be tender in texture; yet slightly bland to the taste. More meat flavour and more seasoning was needed. There was a modest amount of soup inside and it could've benefited from more ginger. It was mostly one note in the flavour department. Again, it was decent for this type of restaurant. Despite what you think, this was not the end of the meal. Instead, there was a "soup" that was yet to arrive. Why were we getting a soup at the end of the meal? Well, the Chicken with Sesame Oil & Wine in Hot Pot apparently takes a while to prepare, so it ended up as our last item. If the pork chops was my favourite dish, then this was a close second. The broth was so intense and had so much depth, it would be hard to have more than one bowl. I could taste the natural sweetness of chicken, the aromatic essence of sesame oil and only a bit of the wine. Since the flavour was so intense, I can only speculate that there was MSG in this. No matter, I enjoyed it very much. To boot, the chicken was actually decently tender.

All throughout our meal, there was a large lineup outside waiting for tables in this tiny restaurant. I can see why. For the massive amount of dishes we did try, most were solid and some were fantastic. That is quite the feat when the restaurant was at capacity since the kitchen was probably nuts. Maintaining that level of quality and execution is challenging. I really enjoyed my meal and this has been one of the most Taiwanese/Szechuan meals I've had in a long time. It didn't hurt that I had good company too. I'm so glad I signed up for this dinner. It reaffirmed why I blog in the first place. Enjoying good food with like-minded individuals, despite any perceived differences. Life is too short to be petty.

The Good:
- The meal as a whole was solid
- Good value
- Lots of choices

The Bad:
- Super small restaurant, it gets packed
- Service is friendly; but it is limited due to space and being really busy

Three Lions Cafe

*Restaurant is now closed*

Do you know how hard it is to find a place to eat after hockey that is not Chinese? Well, honestly, it's not really that difficult; but when the venue is dependent on location, then it gets dicey. This is especially true when Gadget Girl vetoes every idea that is outside of Vancouver proper. What's with people being afraid of the burbs anyways? Hence we ended up looking at somewhere central in Vancouver. We settled on Three Lions Cafe, which is somewhat hidden on Broadway in between the endless supply of late night Asian joints. Since our game ended at a reasonable hour, the Canucks game was still in progress. Hence, that meant the Three Lions, much like an other pub, was packed. While driving there, I was listening to the game hoping it would end before we arrived. It did and people starting leaving as a result. Perfect! After a short wait, we were seated at a table without enough chairs for everyone. Milhouse and Lionel Hutz had to resort to bar stools until other chairs were vacated. Not a big deal really; however, the lack of food options was. You see, it was just after St. Patty's day and all their curry dishes, fish 'n chips, pie and Caesar salad were all sold out. This didn't sit well with some of our group; but we decided to stay anyways.

When we did finally get down to ordering, I went for some pretty basic items starting with the Curry Wings (at least one curry item was still available). These were fried too long in my opinion. The meat was dry and stringy. I did like the curry flavouring though. It was very pungent, littering the whole table with aroma. For me, it wasn't too spicy and provided enough curry kick. For my next item, I got the Egg and Chips. As the name suggests, there was a pile of fresh cut fries topped with a fried egg. It included a sausage and a side of baked beans. Although the fries were starchy and only slightly crisp, I still liked them for some reason. Maybe because I was just hungry? The fried egg was a fried egg and the beans were your typical sweet molasses baked beans. The sausage was not bad, quite meaty and not too fatty. Sweet Tooth, as her nickname suggests loves desserts; but they only had a bread pudding available, so she ended up passing on that and settled on a Beet Salad. Now for $13.00 (!), she was expecting a decently-sized dish. How wrong she was. Consisting of orange scented beets with grilled asparagus and crumbled goats cheese, the salad was plated nicely. Too bad it looked more like a work of art than actual food. She gobbled this up in 3 bites. Despite being quite nice in texture and flavour, the meager amount left a bad taste in her mouth.

The small portions didn't end there. Boss Woman decided to try their Daily Pizza which was spinach and goat cheese. Unfortunately, it looked more like a flatbread appetizer. To be fair, it was not that expensive, compared to the beet salad. She thought the crust was not bad being crisp and thin. However the pizza itself was bland, needing something else to bring the mild ingredients to life. Gordo decided on the most expensive item on the menu hoping for something more substantial - the Organic Hanger Steak and Chips. As stated on the menu, it is marinated in herbed extra virgin olive oil, grilled to medium rare (clearly it wasn't) and served with house made chips. Again, it was smallish in size and the steak was not of a pleasing colour. It really need more charring. Despite the great sounding marinade, the steak was not all that flavourful, from the herbs or meat taste. Since there was a lack of choices, Emilicious, Gadget Girl and Lionel Hutz all had the Three Lions Burger. Yikes, three of the same thing! The horror! The consensus from everyone was that the burger patty ended up to be a little dry despite being quite thick. The dry, crumbly bun didn't help things either. With that being said, the meat was not oily (hence the dryness), and did have good flavour.

Finally, the very last dish happened to appear to be the best value of the bunch. Milhouse, having visited Three Lions before, ordered his favourite - Bangers and Mash. Consisting of Cumberland sausage served with buttermilk mash, onion gravy and Yorkshire pudding, this was a sight to behold. With Yorkshire pudding that looked more like a parachute, it was the only dish that wasn't completely finished by the end of the meal. The sausages were very meaty and went well with the rich flavourful gravy. That was probably the best dish of the meal because everything else was just "alright". Of course we didn't get to try some of their other items since they were out. However, we all generally felt that the portion size (bangers & mash withstanding) was too small for the price. I've heard great things about their brunch and maybe I have to do a revisit to get a more complete picture of the place.

The Good:
- Interesting items on the menu (too bad most were sold out)
- Lively atmosphere at night

The Bad:
- Portion-to-price ratio was not particularly good
- Very tight arrangements inside

New Szechuan Restaurant

*Restaurant is closed*

Dives and Rich Guy. They go together like a Charlie Sheen and good taste. You see, Rich Guy doesn't prefer restaurants that are "unclassy". He'd rather drive around in the Crystal Mall parking lot for hours rather than eating at a place like Burger Burger. That is indeed a real commitment to avoid places that Guy Fieri deems as "money". Call it what you want, but I'm sure he's #winning, much like Charlie Sheen (well, that's a bad example, scratch that...). So imagine my utter amazement and confusion when he recommended a place that is not only a dive, it's totally hidden from plain view as well. So let's get this straight. Rich Guy wants me to try this restaurant that has no ambiance whatsoever which employs disposable plastic table coverings as it's only decor. I never thought I would see the day. What's next? A trip down to Prime Time Chicken???

So where is this place? Well, it used to be called Spring Chilli Szechuan; but it was bought out and now goes by the name of New Szechuan Restaurant. Yah, not very creative; however, it is Szechuan and "new". For a "secret" restaurant as Rich Guy put it, the place was packed when we arrived. I guess there are no secrets when it comes to food! I also made it no secret to my son that the food could be quite spicy - something that would ultimately bite my in the arse... So we started with the Hot & Sour Soup (which was really cheap for $6.95). In terms of depth, we thought it was a little weak; but there was sufficient tartness and spice. There was also plenty of ingredients which included a decent amount of shrimp. For me at least, I like my hot & sour soup with meat. It gives the soup more body. Overall, a decent hot & sour soup for the price.

According to Rich Guy, this restaurant does one dish really well which keeps him coming back over and over. Now, for him to make this claim, it really has to be good. The dish in question is the Chili Garlic Pork. Consisting of thinly sliced pork belly smothered by minced garlic, ginger and doused with chili oil, this was a veritable flavour explosion. Combined with the naturally melt-in-your-mouth pork, I absolutely agree that this is good. In fact, we could've ordered 4 of these; however, we had many more dishes coming. It's really too bad the next dish was a complete let-down. The Chili Green Beans were completely overcooked. Let me rephrase that, they were completely over-fried. Deep-frying the beans prior to stir-frying is a typical restaurant preparation for this dish. These were fried to the point that they lost all their colour and texture. They were dry and limp at the same time. The one saving-grace was the spicy savouriness of the flavouring agents.

Interestingly, the next dish to arrive was something we did not recognize. It turned out to be the Sliced Beef Shank and Tripe. Although we did not order this dish, I secretly wanted to since it is quite obvious I have this affinity for offal. Buried beneath the obscene amount of cilantro was thinly-sliced braised beef shank and honey comb tripe. Everything was tossed in a dressing of chili oil, vinegar, sugar and soy. Although it can be seen as a simple item, the flavours and textures worked. I enjoyed this dish very much (since nobody else really touched it). Another dish I enjoyed flavour-wise didn't really come through in overall execution. The Dry Szechuan Chicken had a nice chili oil kick (much like everything else); but was cut up into pieces which were far too small. Once fried, most of the pieces were too dry to actually eat. Combined with the bones, it became somewhat hazardous if you were not careful.

Since we didn't have a beef dish, we decided to try the Mongolian Beef. Again, this dish had a pool of chili oil at the bottom which naturally gave the meat a nice kick, albeit greasy. The strips of beef were bordering on being chewy while still easy enough to eat. This went well with plain rice. Remember when I mentioned to my son that the food would be spicy? Well, we ordered the Shanghai Fried Noodles for the kiddies specifically because it is not spicy. Well, call it psychological because he kept insisting that the noodles were spicy. I could only wish there were true since the noodles were kinda bland. Not a good attempt at this dish. I forgive them though, they are a Szechuan restaurant, not a Shanghainese one. After this, we had a relatively long wait for the Braised Pork Hock. When it arrived, we quickly realized why it took so long. It was freakin' huge! Must've taken that long to reheat the darn thing! The best thing about the hock was the skin. It was buttery soft with a nice rind which melted in our mouths. Very sinful indeed. However, most of the meat was slightly dry and not as tender as we expected. Furthermore, the dark, rich colour of the sauce did not translate into anything particularly flavourful. It was sightly sweet and not much else. This pretty much summed up the food here. It's quite decent; yet at the same time nothing to write home about. With that being said, I would return just to have 10 orders of that Chili Garlic Pork. I'm sure Rich Guy would gladly join me, despite the lack of ambiance...

The Good:
- Awesome Chili Garlic Pork
- Homey place with homey service
- Lots of parking! Yay!

The Bad:
- Food is alright, could be better
- Not expensive; but it can add up