Tag Archives: chinese

Bashu Sichuan Restaurant

Bashu Sichuan Restaurant Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato I had a Social Shopper voucher for 4 people. Located on Broadway on the second level, it is quite spacious and nice, I was surprised of the lack of customers on a Friday evening at 7pm. The seats were golden and red clean seats, nice curtains and decor and overall very clean. The red neon lights that came on during our dinner was odd, but to me, it wasn’t that distracting.

idearabbit-bashu idearabbit-bashu11idearabbit-bashu2idearabbit-bashu7We ordered the Sweet & Sour Chicken $12.98 which was really crunchy and not soggy like the ones you get at food courts which could be sitting there for a long time.

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Kong Pao Chicken $13.98, unfortunately had peanuts in it (like whole chunks), so I had to avoid the dish altogether :(

 

idearabbit-bashu6Beef and Broccoli $12.98 had a good flavour that went really well with the bland fried rice.

idearabbit-bashu102 orders of dumplings $6.98 each, so 8 pieces in total were on the dry side, and my Chinese friend said that the skin was too thick. My Taiwanese friend on the other hand didn’t mind them.

idearabbit-bashu5Shrimp with Peas $16.98 had sooooooooooo many peas. It was little shrimps buried in a ball of greens. It was still good, but not worth $14 for mostly peas.

idearabbit-bashu8Fried Rice $8.98 was bland, but since the other dishes were salty, it was ok.

idearabbit-bashu4Noodles $8.98 were ordinary. Nothing special to note.

idearabbit-bashu9I actually didn’t know the prices of the dishes until blogging about it later on. When we arrived and told them we had a voucher, they brought a notebook (paper notebook – not the electronic notebook) that had lots of writing. Inside the cover, they had a paper stuck onto it with the available list of dishes we could choose from. It seemed worn. For a higher-end restaurant, this seemed so cheap. Perhaps I’m a designer that I take this into account, but if they printed out a sheet and can only keep in a notebook that is crumpled and used, how much more effort is it to print it out on one single letter-sized paper to present it like a real menu to the customers instead of trying to check in their notebooks with scribbles and notes inside?

The servers seems to be family members? Not too sure, but the two young girls seems to almost being forced to work there by their parents. They don’t really seem to care much about giving a pleasant service.

Now seeing the prices, they were definitely not worth the prices they were charging. The Shrimp and Peas is outrageously expensive for a can of green peas and a little bit of shrimp. Over all, everything was too expensive for the quality and delicious-ness.

It was filling and nice experience, but I would not go back for their food for regular prices.

For Lunch

My company took us out for lunch at Bashu. It was during the weekday, and though it was around 1pm, the restaurant was a little more than half full. We sat by the window.

idearabbit-bachusichuan_21Stir Fried Green Beans were quite salty, but would go really well with plain rice. Even one staff who had never gone to Dim Sum seemed to like this one the most.

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The Rice Rolls were the best I’ve had at any Chinese restaurant so far. It was quite flavourful. My company had asked for two servings of sauce, so it was tasty.

idearabbit-bachusichuan_20The Singapore Style Noodles $6.98 were quite spicy and since both of us weren’t too fond of spicy (actually, I love spicy food, my tummy on the other hand begs to differ…), so we decided to take-out for one of our other coworker who likes them.

idearabbit-bachusichuan_23Shrimp Dumplings were good. Hot and juicy.

idearabbit-bachusichuan_22Xiao Long Pao (dumplings), didn’t have much juice in them, but still tasted good.

Calamari Squid was hot (temp) and cripsy, but I thought it was too salty.

nut_allery_allery_icon_smallTan Tan Men $7.98 had to be stirred after the server brings it to your table. It was sprinkled with peanuts, so I had to pass.

Beef with rice patty was deep fried. It had a heavy sauce wrapped inside. It was pretty good.

 Take Out for Lunch

I had a take out order this time. I had their Chicken Chow Mein $8.95 which surprisingly came with a mini hot and sour soup and veggies, mostly cabbages. idearabbit_bashu-sichuan30

Chow mein: Too salty and greasy. Good portion.

Hot and sour soup: too spicy and heavy on the soy sauce. I usually love this soup, but theirs was too spicy for me. I didn’t finish it.

Veggie: It is a cold dish, which I didn’t mind. It had a good herbal taste, but the red chilli peppers made it spicy, leaving my tongue tingling.

Overall: Good price for portion, but the flavour isn’t to my liking.

 Taste: carrotcarrotcarrot    Price for Value: carrotcarrot

Atmosphere:  carrotcarrotcarrot   Service:  carrotcarrot
Location: carrotcarrotcarrot

Dragon Chinese Restaurant

Dragon Chinese Restaurant on UrbanspoonI and my friend went to Calgary for the long weekend, and she invited me to her family’s dim sum. Located on the second floor in a two-storey building in downtown, they said it opened less than an year ago. There aren’t any free parking (like in Vancouver) and prices are outrageously high. For the first hour, it’s $4, and any additional is $4.25.

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It was around 11am on a Friday, so it was pretty empty. (though after reading some reviews, it seems it might always be like that…could be the expensive parking). From the outside it doesn’t look like much, but inside, it was nicely decorated, and fairly clean.

Since our family was invited to my friend’s family/relative’s dim sum, I didn’t get a chance to take photos of the food as I thought it was inappropriate of taking photos of what seemed to be around 20 dishes for 10 of us. We left most of the ordering up to them, which was good since they knew more about dim sum than us.

Some of the dishes that were ordered:
Seafood Congee (was very good – I think my mom really liked it)
many different types of dumplings
Steamed Pork Dumpling (Siu Mai)
Shrimp Dumpling (Ha Gao)
Eggplant stuffed with Shrimp Mousse
xiaolongbao (didn’t have the ‘juice’ that usually explodes which was a bit of disappointment)
vegetable noodle
Shanghai noodle
Deep Fried Taro Dumpling
BBQ Pork Rice Roll
Scallop and Shrimp Dumpling was beautifully presented. Looked like a jewel.
Shrimp Rice Roll
any many more!

We were all stuffed with lots of leftovers to take home. Despite having 10 of us, two were young kids who were more interested in playing games on their phones than eating, so hence the leftovers. The food wasn’t too salty or didn’t seem to be loaded with MSG and was served hot.

Overall, the service was good, the food was very tasty. I can’t really comment on how much it cost as our family was treated, but do recall seeing the noodles were $12.95 which is a bit higher than some of the other dim sum I’ve been to, especially since they were both without meat. I would like to come back again if I’m in Calgary in the future, though cost of parking is a problem. It would be best to carpool or take transit – which isn’t that great compared to Vancouver’s.

 Taste: carrotcarrotcarrotcarrot    Price for Value: carrotcarrotcarrot

Atmosphere:  carrotcarrotcarrot   Service:  carrotcarrotcarrot
Location: carrotcarrot

Fortune City Seafood Restaurant Special for Everyone

Fortune City Seafood Restaurant Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - ZomatoWow, I must say that the name already catches my attention. So long, yet so vague, it’s hilarious.

Our company went for lunch on a Friday. Tea is free on weekdays (80 cents per person on weekends) and you also get 10% off – so good incentives to go on a weekday!

The place is fairly large, but it was packed! We waited for about 10 minutes. When it was our turn, the hostess just pointed to the back of the restaurant and we wandered ourselves there to find two empty tables. One was for a larger group, so we took the smaller one for four of us. It was not set, and we wondered why we didn’t get seated at another small table that was already set.

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We pulled the table out a bit since the round table was right against the wall. My boss sat down first and the server came and pushed the table back, imprisoning my boss against her chair like a little child so they wouldn’t move. He clanked and threw the plates, cups and bowls around like he was furious. No wonder they make those things so thick. They’d have to be unbreakable.

We ordered 8 dishes.
Stir Fried Bean Tips $7.95: it had a garlic flavour, refreshing veggie and good amount of salt. I really liked this dish, but then again, I’m a huge veggie fan :P

idearabbit-fortuneseafood2Stir Fried Bean Tips $7.95 (on left) and Deep Fried Egg Tofu $6.25 (on right)

Deep Fried Egg Tofu $6.25: Hmm…deep fried….all those eggs…can’t be all too healthy…lol. It was my first time trying this dish, and I quite enjoyed it. It was interesting texture. Crispy on the outside, but super smooth inside. I’m not sure what was sprinkled on top of them. It looked nutty so I brushed them off. This dish must be consumed while it’s hot, otherwise, it’s not yummy.

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BBQ Duck Spaghetti $6.95: This was my least favourite dish. The noodles and soup were bland, and not the kind of noodles I like. Didn’t have much of the duck though I realize that is the star of the dish.

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Pork/Shrimp Crystal Noodle $12.80: Another first time trying such noodles. The flavour was good, though the shortness and oiliness of the noodles made it really difficult to eat with chopsticks hence could explain why there were so much of it left over. It was a good try, but I now know, I like my noodles to be long.

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We had two types of dumplings, Shrimp $4.50 (4 large pieces) pictured above and Pork $4.50 (4 large pieces). Both were steamy hot, really tasty and filling!

idearabbit-fortuneseafood6Fish Paste Rice Roll $4.50 was also very interesting with the different textures of the smooth rice roll, to the deep fried fish paste inside.

The four of us couldn’t finish all of it, but did a pretty good job. The rest, we had it to go.

The service wasn’t all the great. It was rude for the most part, and our male server was quite demanding like “Sit”, or “Wait” in a stern almost police like attitude. No smiles here.

Service gets no points, but the food was ok. I liked the Bean Tips and the Fried Egg was a new dish that was surprising. I think I still prefer Happy Valley instead.

 Taste: carrotcarrotcarrot    Price for Value: carrotcarrotcarrot

Atmosphere:  carrotcarrot   Service:  carrot
Location: carrotcarrot