Recently, I was invited to a tasting at Mott32 in downtown at the Trump International Hotel for their new summer menu. It was a great experience! The ambiance was great and the inside of the restaurant was very pretty and photogenic (aka #instaworthy).

Mott32 is quite an unusual name for a Chinese restaurant, isn’t it? It is named after a street in New York, 32 Mott Street because it was the site of NYC’s first Chinese convenience store. There are also Mott32 locations in Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Las Vegas.

Here are the new dishes for the summer. Each of these dishes took an unique and fancy spin on dim sum dishes. I love when restaurants are really creative with their dishes!

South Australian Scallop, Garoupa, Caviar & Gold Leaf, Egg White dumpling: We started with a steamed dumpling. I’ve never had such a fancy dumpling before. It was tasty and the egg white texture went well with the scallop and garoupa (type of fish).

King Prawn Garlic Spring Roll: This is my guilty pleasure at dim sum. The spring roll was very fresh and crunchy. The prawn inside had a nice snap to it too. No complaints!

Blue swimmer crab meat, conpoy, winter melon soup: An upscale twist on the fish maw soup. Instead of using fish maw, they used conpoy which is made from the abductor muscle of scallops. The soup had the same gelatin-like texture. There was also generous chunks of crab meat and thinly sliced winter melon. It was delicious.

Cold free range chicken, coriander, and black truffle: Another spin on your traditional cold chicken dish. This was truly unique as I never had Chinese cold free range chicken and black truffle together! They also added truffle oil so it was really aromatic. However, there wasn’t a lot of truffle oil taste.

White asparagus, crab meat, honey peas: Our veggie dish was white asparagus, which I thought was rice noodles when it first arrived. The asparagus was covered in a delicious sauce made up of egg, crab meat, and other veggies.

Crispy cod fish with golden garlic and chili: The cod fish was deep fried and then covered with lots of chili and garlic. For most of us, we found it to be very spicy! It doesn’t look too spicy, but it was! I dusted off a lot of the chili flakes which helped it to be less spicy. The batter of the cod fish was very fresh and crispy.

Kung po prawn, sweetcorn, and water chestnut cake: This dish was sooo unique and unlike anything I’ve had before. It was so delicious and I haven’t stopped thinking about it, and I want to try to find a way to re-create this at home.

The bottom layer was like a ‘pancake’ of chopped water chestnuts and corn which was lightly fried. I’ve never had water chestnuts in this way and thought it was so innovative! On the top, was stir fried prawns and cashews. Texture wise, it was so unique with the crunchy properties of water chestnut. Even when I tried to Google recipes similar to this to make again at home, I couldn’t find much on it which shows how innovative this dish is.

Alaskan crabmeat, egg white fried rice: In Chinese banquet style dinners, rice or noodles usually are the last to arrive after all the main courses. My own thoughts to this is because people can fill up on other things instead of carbs.

Anyways, the fried rice was delicious. It was a saucy type of fried rice. Some of us found it to be a bit too salty, but I thought it was good.

Guava, pomelo sweet soup with sago: Mmmm… another super unique dessert that I haven’t seen before! This was a blend of guava and pomelo into a smooth and rich smoothie…with sago in it. It was so refreshing and such a nice way to end the tasting. I’m a huge fan of guava so I absolutely loved this.

I really enjoyed all of the new summer dishes that Mott32 had to offer. This isn’t their whole menu of new summer dishes, there are also some new ones that we did not sample! All of Mott32’s dishes are made fresh daily and never frozen. They also do not use any MSG in the cooking, so I was not left parched and feeling gross afterwards!

With the uniqueness and quality of the food, along with the beautiful ambiance, dining at Mott32 is not cheap so I would save it for a special occasion. I was thinking that it would be nice to take my parents here since they haven’t had such an elevated dim sum dining experience before.

Yay!

While browsing Groupon in the fall, I came across a really good deal at Shang Noodle House! The Groupon came with two bowls of noodles, takoyaki, fried chicken, and two cans of pop for only $25! I purchased it right away and we went to go try it a few months after.

After we paid for street parking, we went inside the restaurant and found out that they had free reserved spots -_- so a heads up to all of you driving there, save yourself some money! The restaurant was completely full and it looked like most people also had the Groupon based on the food everyone ordered. I mean, Asian people usually do not buy canned pop at restaurants… we all know it’s really overpriced!

Takoyaki: The takoyaki came out piping out and fresh. The outside was crispy while the inside had a good amount of stuffing and a piece of octopus. It was pretty good!

Chicken wings: The chicken wings also came out piping out and fresh. I really liked them because they had the flavour of chicken karaage. They were also very crunchy and crispy.

Prawn, scallop, chicken, and bbq pork ramen in pork broth: I chose this one since I like my prawn and chicken. The pork broth was yummy and flavourful, with a strong white pepper flavour. The ramen was different than the usual type of ramen. I would describe the noodles to be more like egg noodles actually.

Pork katsu udon in bonito shoyu: The pork katsu came on the side, and it was quite a big portion. Definitely worth the full price of $10.90! Just like the other fried stuff, the pork katsu was very crunchy and fresh. The bonito shoyu broth was tasty as well.

The Groupon was a great deal because the portions here are really filling and delicious. Even without a Groupon, I would definitely come back. If they do another Groupon deal, I’m definitely going to re-purchase it!

While doing research for this review, I found out that this place is owned under the Kirin Restaurant Group. Even more bonus points because Kirin is quite notable for Chinese fine dining.

Yay!

I normally don’t tend to write revisit posts even if I visit the restaurant multiple times after, but I felt like I should make an exception with Angel Cafe. Or maybe I should write revist posts more often? I’m open to feedback and suggestions 🙂

Anyways, the reason why I decided on writing a revisit was that my original post was singing praise about only one combo dish in particular. The boyfriend and I go to Angel regularly but order the same combo dish that I reviewed, until our last visit.

We decided to get some new things and seeing how my old review focused only on the combo dish, I thought I would share some other menu items that they offered!
French toast: Funny story, the boyfriend and I wanted to order a main dish but turns out I only had $25 cash, which wasn’t enough LOLOL. So, we decided to order the french toast which was cheaper. It was our first time having the french toast here.

I absolutely love Asian french toast, and this was done perfectly. It was slightly fried due to the egg batter on the outside. But the inside was soft and full of custard goodness.
Garlic fried rice: The boyfriend and I were introduced to this dish over a year ago when we came with my cousins. This is their go-to, and for good reason! Over a year later, we decided to order it again. It comes with a TON of fried garlic on the top that you mix in with the rest of the rice. You have to remember to mix the fried garlic or else the bottom of the bowl won’t be garlicky.

With the stone bowl rice, parts of the rice become hardened which is actually a type of Chinese dish (‘fan jew’ in Cantonese). It’s a pretty big bowl and one person definitely can not finish it. With the french toast and garlic fried rice, we were both really full and satisfied.

Angel has not disappointed us thus far and we will continue to come here for our HK style cravings. Perhaps stay tuned for a part 3 when we venture out of our go-to dish again?! =P

Yay!

When Mr. Chili popped up in the area last year, I was quite excited to try it because I looooove noodles. However, the initial reviews online weren’t that good so my excitement died down. For the past few months, they have been on Groupon so I decided it was time to try it.

I didn’t realize I bought two Groupons for this place on two separate occasions so I went twice… but once was probably enough as it was meh.

I feel like many people don’t know that this place exists. I’ve told my parents, boyfriends, and a few friends about it and they’re all like ??? despite frequenting this area. It’s one of those places that you just pass by without a second glance.

Both Groupons were essentially 50% off the bill. If you’d like to be specific, the first Groupon was $10 for $20 worth of food, while the second Groupon was $20 for $40 worth of food. Again, I don’t remember why I bought two Groupons… must have been really tired the first time and forgot that the Groupon existed…

One thing I’ll give Mr. Chili is their interior design and decor. In fact, I loved their design more than I loved the food.

It’s also very clean and spotless in here (maybe because no one ever comes? LOL ok I’ll stop being so harsh...)

Beef Noodle Soup, $9.50: This beef noodle soup was DEFINITELY not worth $9.50. The soup was very flat and flavourless. It tasted just like salt water. In addition, the brisket was quite tough and flavourless as well.

On the plus, I quite enjoyed the noodles. They had a denser texture to them and were cooked perfectly.

Chicken laksa, $8.95: On the first visit, the boyfriend decided to go with the laksa. It was a way better choice than mine because the laksa actually had flavour to it and was creamy. There was also a good amount of spice. Meanwhile, the chicken was tender.

---

Now, it’s time for the second visit!

Seafood laksa noodle soup, $8.95: Since the boyfriend’s chicken laksa soup was pretty good during our first visit, he and my mom decided to try the seafood version instead.

When it arrived, they were both pretty disappointed with the amount of “seafood” inside. It came with a measly 3 fish balls cut in half so it looked like more, a small piece of shrimp, dried shrimp flakes, and a mussel (which was very small).

The soup was still flavourful but the value didn’t seem worth it. Better off to get the chicken laksa instead.

Spicy pork intestine noodle soup, $8.50: My dad enjoyed the spicy pork intestine, which I found surprising because he can be very picky sometimes!

Tomato seafood noodle soup, $8.95: I decided to try this since the beef noodle soup was disappointing (see above). This was disappointing as well. The soup was very bland, with only a hint of tomato flavour.

All in all, Mr. Chili was quite meh. Would I recommend coming here without a Groupon (aka paying full price)? Definitely not.

Service was also very, very, very slow. On the second visit, my mom’s seafood laksa came first and she was almost done her bowl before the rest of ours came. In addition, the 2 servers seemed very frazzled, confused, and rushed all the time… but there were only 3 tables??? We think that there was only one kitchen staff because our food came out super slow and one at a time.

Honestly not too sure how this place will survive with how quiet it is. I really wanted to like this place so I had a close noodle joint to go to but there are a lot of better noodle options in the Lower Mainland.

Nay….

It was a special occasion, so my parents, boyfriend and I decided to try a different and more upscale Chinese restaurant for dim sum. Grand Dynasty is located in Grand Villa casino by BCIT. A good thing about this place is that there is lots of free parking! There is a designated parking lot beside the restaurant, but most people don’t see it because the casino is covering it.  I’m pretty sure you can also use the multi-level free casino parking lot, but I’ve never tried that… so if you get a ticket, it ain’t my fault!

We didn’t think that we needed reservations on a late Friday afternoon as dim sum peak hours were finished, so we were quite surprised when we were told there was a 30 minute wait! But we wanted to try this place, so we waited and looked at the menu. It actually ended up only being a 20 minute wait so yay!

Garlic shrimp spring rolls: The garlic shrimp spring rolls were so tasty! The shrimp inside was fresh, bouncy and plump. There was also a good amount of garlic inside. The spring roll shell itself was fresh and crunchy.

Shrimp dumpling: A classic dim sum dish. Again, the shrimp and veggies inside tasted fresh. However, we found it to be a bit smaller than average so that was a bit disappointing.

Sticky rice wrap: I’m used to seeing the sticky rice wrap served individually, so was a bit surprised when it came out in one big wrap to share! But I was told that this is the traditional way of serving it. I actually preferred it this way because sticky rice is always so filling. With this method, I can scoop less so I don’t end up feeling super stuffed. Anyways, moving on to the taste… it was tasty, no complaints. A good amount of meat inside as well.

BBQ pork buns: We really love Wah Lun‘s BBQ pork buns, so we wanted to see how it compared. Wah Lun’s was definitely better. Although the BBQ pork buns weren’t bad, we were all disappointed by the size of them.

Egg tart: The egg tarts were warm and delicious with a nice flaky shell. But as with the shrimp dumpling and BBQ pork buns, we all thought the size was small.

We ordered more dishes for the four of us, but I was too hungry and tired that day to remember to take more photos.

The food taste and quality of the food is there, but the sizes were a bit smaller than we were all used to. The prices are also a bit higher since it is more upscale. Grand Dynasty wouldn’t be our first choice for dim sum, but I don’t think we would mind coming back if a relative suggested it.