garlic Archives - Curiously Carmen

Ken’s Chinese Restaurant

August 6, 2014

After my cousin’s high school graduation, we were all hungry and looking for a late restaurant to feed our hungry tummies. We were going to go to Congee Noodle House, but knew it would be busy since all the Chinese families that attended the graduation would probably go there. We drove a bit further into Burnaby, and went to Ken’s Chinese Restaurant. Funny, we went here a few years back for my high school graduation. We also sat at the same table this time as well! Ken’s serves authentic Chinese dishes, and satisfied my craving for late night Chinese food.
(Picture taken from Urbanspoon). Ken’s Chinese Restaurant is located in a small strip mall on Kingsway. There is plenty of free parking in the strip mall.
To start off our da lan, we got the standard plain congee, which came in a huge pot. The congee itself was good and was great quality. It wasn’t too runny and watery, and had a bit of a sweet taste to it. Very warm, and comforting. If your purchase is over a certain amount (my uncle told me this, I didn’t read their menu), you can get unlimited congee refills. We had two refills after this, and the quality and taste of the congee remained delicious. Some restaurants (like my visit to AYCE sushi at Toyotomi) diminish the quality of the orders, but this was not the case.
Stir fried broccoli with garlic. Unfortunately, I forgot the prices of each dish this time so they won’t be included. The broccoli was very crunchy and tasted fresh. There was a definite garlic taste to it, and the tips of the broccoli were smothered in garlic sauce. However, the garlic taste wasn’t unbearably strong, and not enough to give you horrid garlic breath afterwards.
Another late night classic! Clams in black bean sauce. This dish was very tasty as well. The sauce was very flavourful, and came with fresh green onions on top. The clams were also really juicy and there was a generous amount. I’ve been to some Chinese restaurants where they serve a plate of clam shells, where you have to scavenge for what little actual clam meat they have. This tastes really good when you add the shell, which is full of sauce, into the plain congee.
Deep fried tofu with spicy garlic salt. Another classic. Ken’s made this dish perfectly. There was a generous amount of peppers, and the tofu tasted really good with the garlic. The tofu was piping hot and crispy on the outside, while soft inside. I am definitely coming here again when I crave deep fried tofu.
Braised string beans with minced meat. We felt pretty gross after eating the deep fried tofu and clams because they were both such heavy (albeit delicious!) dishes, so we decided to order some veggies. The string beans were very crunchy and flavourful as well. However, this was a bit heavy on the oil so I’m not sure if ordering this dish was the best to “clear” our tummies with. But, it was delicious!

Late night Chinese snack is absolutely delicious, and Ken’s did not disappoint! The servers were also very nice as well. I would definitely come here again when craving late night snacks, but hopefully, that is not for a long time since it’s so unhealthy (minus the plain congee)!

-Carmen

Sushi California

June 4, 2014

I have heard many great things about this restaurant, but never went to try it because I’m not in that area. One night, I was craving sushi and decided to finally come here after hearing Cheese rave about this place. House special rolls for around $5? Count me in!

We went a bit later and since it was a Friday evening, we knew for sure it would be busy.
Sushi California is located inside a small strip mall right across from Lougheed Mall. There is a small parking lot, but some spots are reserved for other merchants in the strip mall. I would imagine that the small parking lot gets pretty crazy during peak hours.

Anyways, we found parking with no problem since we got there around 8:30pm. To our surprise, there was still a lineup inside the restaurant! I thought that the restaurant was more spacious than I expected.

It was a typical Japanese restaurant, nothing really special about the decoration or interior design. But the food, now that’s a different story…! The two of us ended up over-ordering and had to pack half our food to go. We weren’t sure how big their portions were because it was our first time!
This was their box sushi, which came with shrimp, smoked salmon, scallop, and more things that I can’t remember anymore ($4.95). The sushi rice was pressed very nicely, giving the rice a great texture. It tasted very refreshing due to the lemon.

For $4.95, it was an amazing deal! Also, I ordered a single tobiko and salmon nigiri as well, which tasted fresh. Since we decided to not order a sashimi plate, I wanted to sample their sashimi and thought that it tasted pretty sweet and fresh.
Deep fried california roll, or as they call it, the “crunch california roll”. It was lightly fried, and crispy. Overall, I thought it was okay due to the sauce, but the boyfriend preferred Sushi Mura’s because it was crunchier and there was also more sauce. But again, for $3.95, it was a good deal.
Up next were our smoked salmon garlic roll ($4.50), chopped scallop roll ($3.95), and double spicy roll ($3.95). My favourite was the smoked salmon garlic roll because I am a huge fan of shrimp and smoked salmon!

I actually thought this roll tasted better the next day, because the rice absorbed the garlic overnight giving it more flavour. Some of the garlic flakes were also rock hard. The chopped scallop roll was pretty average. The double spicy roll came with spicy sashimi on top and in the inside. It wasn’t too spicy for me and I enjoyed the spicy tuna sashimi, as well as the crunchy flakes on top.
Last but not least, our chicken karage ($3.95!!! WHAT SO CHEAP?!)! This was absolutely delicious. You think for $3.95, they would cheap out on small chicken wings but nope, these were the juicest and biggest chicken wings I’ve seen! They were super hot, the skin was crispy, and was perfectly seasoned. If I knew how good it tasted and how big the portion was for $3.95, I would have ordered this instead of one of the rolls!

Overall, we really enjoyed our visit to Sushi California. There were many servers working, and they were all attentive and knowledgeable. The most amazing thing about this place is their PRICE though. For $4, you can get their house specialty rolls and the size is not compromised. We paid under $30 for our dinner and we were in disbelief at how cheap everything was. I love Sushi California because their food is delicious, and it is easy on our student budgets.

-Carmen

Sandy La Chinese Restaurant Review

February 19, 2014

My first impression of this place was not great, but I was willing to give it a second try. Lack of service and the amount of oil they put in some of their dishes was what tainted their reputation for me. The food at Sandy La is drenched in oil, to the point where on both occasions, I had a tummy ache.

They are also not properly staffed, and the few staff that they do have, are not properly trained. The owners of Sandy La try to cut corners to maximize their profit, but it clearly does not work. It’s unfortunate because once you strip away the service, restaurant layout, and oiliness, the taste of the food itself is pretty decent.

We made a reservation at the restaurant for 7pm. However, we were told that there wasn’t a table for us, which was frustrating because that is the point of reservations! There were two large tables open for bigger parties, but they did not want to give us those tables since we only had six people. When we finally talked to a server, she pointed at the table in the corner and said that we had to wait until they were done.

The wait was uncomfortable as well due to the small size of the restaurant and also the way that it is designed. When you first walk in, you open the door which leads you to a small area. There is a second door that you have to open to get into the restaurant. The purpose of this is to block out the cold air, which is trapped in the small area.

After almost 45 minutes of waiting for our “reservation”, we were finally seated! We quickly ordered because at this point, we didn’t want to wait anymore than we already did. In total, there were only three servers during peak which is why service was so slow. They could have used at least two more servers.

The server came by promptly with a bowl of soup, which was complimentary since we waited for a long time. It seemed pretty oily to me so I only had a few sips. The boyfriend’s brother noted that there was a really strong MSG flavour on it.

This was the pan fried spicy beans ($10.95). I understand that the beans are pan fried, but these ones are a lot more oily than the ones I have at other Chinese restaurants. The taste of these beans are good, once you get past the oil.

They were pretty crunchy and had the right amount of spice. They also are not stingy with the amount of meat that comes with this dish.

Up next was the beef and broccoli chow mein. Again, I did not each much of it because I was scared I would get a tummy ache again. I could already feel my tummy churning from the oiliness of the pan fried green beans.

This dish was pretty good though. There was a perfect crunch to the noodles, and the sauce/beef/broccoli are up to standard. In a city like Vancouver where it is filled with authentic Cantonese dishes like this, it is easy to tell right away which restaurants can compete and which can’t. I would like to order this dish again!

The boyfriend’s family brought the crab to the restaurant, and asked for them to make it a certain style. I’m not too sure what the English name is but it’s something similar to deep fried garlic flakes and spices. I thought this dish was delicious.

The batter of the crab was really fresh and crunchy, instead of soggy batter that you may find at other places. The seasoning of this dish was perfect as well.

This satisfied me very much and I would order it again. One thing though, it took us awhile to have the server bring us the clamp to break open the crab. But otherwise, YUM!
This dish is the only reason why the boyfriend’s family comes here as opposed to other restaurants. This is squab, otherwise known as pigeon but I was taught today that pigeon is the incorrect term for it?

Anyways, this dish, again, was delicious. Nothing to complain about with this dish. I didn’t try it because it was too oily for my liking, but everyone else enjoyed it thoroughly. If you are going to come here, definitely give this dish a try!

This was the beef and vegetable dish. I took a better picture of this dish but I can’t find it on my phone anymore so this will have to do. Anyways, this dish seemed very oily and was very shiny when you looked at it, which put me off.

I ended up eating it, but washed off the oil in hot water in my bowl. I would not order this dish due to the oiliness of it. The good thing was that there was a generous portion of beef and sauce. We also sound a styrofoam circle in the dish, if you look carefully, center-ish towards the bottom right. Not sure how it got there but oh well.

Lastly, came the traditional red bean dessert. Right off the bat, the boyfriend’s brother noted that their dessert was better than most Chinese restaurants. Theirs had a thicker texture to it, and was also not as watery in contrast to other places. It was also very sweet so it accomplished the goal of a dessert!

At the end, our server told us that they gave us a discount on the crab, which was nice of them since we had a lengthy wait. It was originally $7 a pound but they charged us at cost, which was $3.50-4 I believe, I can’t remember exactly.

My recommendation is to definitely try the squab and crab, but be wary of their vegetable dishes as they are super oily. I would also recommend coming here past prime dinner hours even on a weekday, since we made reservations but had to wait around 45 minutes. In conclusion, their food is pretty decent once you get past everything else.

When it all comes down to it, you go to a restaurant to eat and enjoy their food, which is we did enjoy the majority of our food. It’s just a shame that everything other than that was lacking, from their service, to long wait times despite reservation, and layout of the restaurant itself. Trying to be efficient is great and I applaud efficiency, but Sandy La cuts too many corners when it comes to hiring servers and seating space to the point where it’s not efficient anymore.