Au Wing Kee - Burnaby

Restaurant: Au Wing Kee

Cuisine: Chinese
Last visited: March 4, 2010
Area: Burnaby, BC (Burnaby South)
5226 Kingsway
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4.5
Service: 2

Ambiance: 1.5

Overall: 4

Additional comments:

• 2 locations: Burnaby/Vancouver
• Congee & Noodle house
• Hole in the wall, but popular
• A bit/quite dirty
  
• Quick & cheap eats
• The No. 9 of Burnaby, but better
• Very familiar to Chinese locals
• Traditional Cantonese cuisine
• Famous for congee
• Extensive menu
• Lunch combos 11am-5:30pm
• Great for snacks/late night snacks (9pm-1am)
• Late night
• Open Mon-Sun 11am – 1am
• Cash only
• Dine in/Take-out
• Parking at rear

**Recommendation: Congee, Wonton noodles (they’re popular here although I haven’t tried it yet)

This place has been around for ages! It’s a totally hole in the wall dive that is very familiar to Chinese people. It’s pretty much the No. 9 of Burnaby, but much better. I don’t even mind No. 9 actually, you have to lower your standards for cheap late night, open 24 hour eats...you have to admit the place is packed with Chinese people all the time! It's like Hon's Won Ton Noodle House.

Au Wing Kee specializes in congee and noodles, but they offer everything from chow mien, hot pot, seafood, to late night snacks. They even have a tank filled with live seafood like crab and lobster. The food is fresh, made upon order – not gourmet, but a quick, casual bite that is very easy on the wallet.

This is more or less a tribute review to those suffering from the stomach flu, cold or virus. Too many of us have been hit. I think I was first to catch the stomach flu out of the food bloggers in Vancouver, and since then it has spread like wild fire. Everything we ordered is more or less what older generation traditional Chinese people order when they’re not feeling well. In particular the 2 types of congee we ordered are really high in nutrition and have tons of calcium, protein, and iron.

On the table:

Dried Fillet with Peanut & Spare Ribs Congee 3.5/6

• $4.50
  

• It’s not really for the Western tastes buds, but it is very traditional Chinese food. It would be probably rated higher for Chinese people.
  

• The spare ribs aren’t the Western type of spare ribs that are really meaty. They’re really small and boney and the bones are what they use to flavour the congee.
  

• The meat it does have is pretty chewy and the type of meat is a cheap kind. I’m not a fan, but again it is authentic and for $4.50 you’re not going to get high quality spare ribs.
  

• I loved the dried fillet. Throughout the congee there are pieces of dried fish or “fillet”. It tastes like dried scallops and it’s almost jerky like. It’s salty and has a preserved fishy taste that I like.
• The peanuts are whole peanuts and they’re really soft. It gives the congee a little nuttiness.
• The congee itself is really delicious and creamy. They do a great job with that here. It’s really infused with all the flavours of the ingredients used.
  

Dace Fish Ball & Watercress Congee 2/6

• $4.95 – rating would be much higher for Chinese people
• This isn’t for the Western taste buds either. However for Chinese taste buds, they do a pretty good job with this congee.
• I was not a fan of this type of congee.

• It’s loaded with 8 dace fish balls are very fresh and made in house. It’s a mixture of fish paste, dried orange peel, scallions and white pepper. Very nutritious...but for me not delicious. What I hated was that the fish bones are pureed into the mixture and I could taste and bite into them. It was like scales. However for Chinese people that’s a good thing because it means it’s freshly ground up fish. The orange peel was very strong, but not bitter…but it’s just not for me.

• At the bottom of the bowl is the watercress. It’s thrown in raw, but cooks with the hot congee poured on top.
• The congee base is great. It’s lighter in taste than the spare rib congee, but still nice and creamy.

Sautéed Lettuce in Slice Pepper w/ Preserved Bean Curd Sauce 5/6

• This is again for Chinese taste buds – I really like this dish. It’s acquired though. I just love it as a side dish with congee.
• The myth or truth...is that spicy is good because it kills germs...also it makes you sweat so you sweat out the bad stuff. Chinese and I think Indian also believe that ginger kills germs...so again "sick people food". Spicy also makes you cough, so don't have it if you're coughing...and I don't think spicy is good for stomach flus either...it doesn't make sense to me...?
  
• It’s loaded with long strands of ginger (in photo) and round slices of green chili peppers. It has a preserved salty taste and it’s creamy, spicy (not too spicy) and very aromatic with lots of flavours.

• The green chili peppers aren’t really spicy though. They’re quite mild and I could eat them whole.
  
• It’s a super soupy/saucy dish, but it’s not too oily and I really enjoyed it. There's no actual pieces of bean curd in it, it's just preserved/fermented bean curd sauce - so the flavour is infused in the sauce.
  
• The taste is very pungent. I had the dish at No. 9 and it’s done a bit differently. I liked the one at Au Wing Kee better.

Rainflower Restaurant - Review 2

Restaurant: Rainflower Restaurant - Review 2
Cuisine: Dim Sum/Chinese/Asian
Last visited: November 11, 09
Area: Richmond, BC
3600 No 3 Road
Price Range: $10-20

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very Good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4.5 (gone up because I've tried more dishes now)
Service: 3
Ambiance: 4.5
Overall: 4.5
Additional comments:

• Considered a higher end dim sum restaurant
• Traditional and creative dim sum dishes
• Discount if you arrive before 11am
• Some hit and miss dishes, most are hits
• Ordering form service
• Busy, but plenty of seating
• Spacious, fancy set up
• Serves dim sum and dinner
• Private rooms/banquets available

**Recommendation: Rainflower shrimp dumpling aka "har gow", Pan fried prawn with basil, fried spicy leatherjacket fish, items with prawns are pretty good

So I've now had dim sum at Rainflower Restaurant on numerous occasions. It is quickly approaching as our go-to dim sum restaurant. The more I try at the restaurant the better my recommendations get because I'm working my way throughout their menu. By giving a 2nd review I'm also able to notify diners when the quality of a dish has changed since restaurants can change recipes/menus/chefs/cooks often.

For my 1st review on Rainflower Restaurant

On the table:

• **Pan Fried Prawn with Basil 6/6
• 10 huge prawns pan fried with fresh sweet basil and green onions $7.80

• Wow! These are amazing! My first time ordering and now it's going to be a staple dish on the table whenever I go back.
• There's a few basil leaves and a mix of onions and green onions. They're not caramelized, but nice and crunchy. You get 10 prawns and they're really really big. Besides the prawns the sauce really makes this dish. It's so flavourful you almost want to eat the shells too.
• It's a honey soy based sauce, but it's not thick and it tastes amazing! It's sweet, salty, tangy, spicy and the prawns are perfectly tender. It's spicy because there's lots of freshly cracked pepper cooked into the sauce. It's not that reduced, which is ok because the flavour is so intense and aromatic at the same time.

• Marinated Conch in Japanese Style 3.5/6
• Marinated conch, masago and red and green seaweed.

• I didn't name it, but that's the name it's under on the menu.
• This dish is not traditional Chinese so I don't think it's a very popular item for people to order. It's definitely a fusion dish you would expect to see at an Izakaya place rather than a dim sum place.
• It was more like a conch salad to me. It's served cold and there's not that many ingredients, but it's very fresh in ingredients and flavours.
• It doesn't have a fishy taste besides the masago, which they give you tons of.
  
• The conch is almost like squid but it's more tender and maybe even more chewy. It's sliced into bite sizes and mixed with a generous about of yellow masago (cod roe) and crunchy fresh green and red seaweed.
• The dish is nice and salty and has a variety of textures, from crunchy to chewy, and even a little slippery.
• I liked it because it was different and interesting to try, but I wouldn't order it again unless there were more people who wanted to try it. It's pretty big too.
  
• 

• Shredded Chicken in Sesame Sauce 3/6
• Some other places will use jellyfish in the recipe. Instead of jellyfish, Rainflower makes it crunchy by using pickled vegetables, celery, cucumber, and wonton crisps. Served chilled $.650.

• The wonton crisps got soggy though because rather than using them as a garnish they mixed them with all the other wet ingredients.
• There was also almost no sesame sauce. The dish is usually drizzled with sesame sauce you can see. It was very lightly marinated and the flavour came from the natural juices of the ingredients used. It was salty and tangy and still good, but much better with sesame sauce...which is expected for this dish. It's in the name of it right?
• Barbeque Pork & Golden Corn Rice Roll 1/6
• Pieces of Chinese barbecue pork and corn wrapped in a rice roll $4.68

• This was the most disappointing dish I've ever ordered here. It is way better at other places.
• The stuffing in these rice rolls were clumpy, which is a good indication that they weren't fresh. The barbeque pork pieces were very fatty and not fresh. The quality was very poor and you can see it in the picture. The pieces were so fatty they were white and not even red. The corn kernels were frozen, which is ok, but they overcooked them and they got soggy.
• Seafood Bean Curd Skin Roll 2/6
• Fish/seafood paste wrapped in bean curd and steamed in a clear seafood broth/sauce.

• This was one of their monthly specials at the time...but it was nothing special...
• It was basically fish paste, the same thing they use for fish balls, but rolled into logs and wrapped in sheets of bean curd. It came with this "sauce" that was thicker than a broth, but thinner than an actual "sauce". It was savoury but very light tasting and one dimensional in flavour.
• Baked BBQ Pork Buns 2.5/6
• This is my 2nd review for this dish. They changed the recipe and they improved the filling, but not the topping. I gave it .5 higher because nothing really improved, but I would eat these ones before the original ones.

• They have a lot more filling than they use to so there's a better ratio of filling to bun.
• They changed the topping from a "Pineapple Bun" topping to a "Mexican Bun" topping. (These are just what the translations are, but there' not pineapple/Mexican ingredients used). The pineapple bun topping is more crumbly and crunchier, while the Mexican topping is softer and crumbly. However they didn't make a good Mexican topping here because it wasn't crumbly. It looked really fake. Maxim's, the Chinese bakery, does a much better job with this topping.
• To see the original version with the "Pineapple" topping: (scroll to Baked BBQ Pork Buns)
  

• 
• Steamed Black chicken Wrapped in Lotus Leaf 2/6
  
• Steamed black chicken marinated and cooked with Chinese herbs and Gogi berries $5.80

• I'm not a fan of this dish, but the older generations usually are. So for me it was a 2/6, but for them it was a 3/6. It has a very Chinese herbal flavour and tastes like chicken cooked in tea.
• Black chickens are also a lot bonier and there's not much meat on them, but a lot of skin...that isn't crispy. So overall this dish had flavours, textures, and appearance that didn't suit me.

For my 1st review on Rainflower Restaurant

#9 Restaurant

BBQ Pork (#9 Specialty)

Restaurant: #9 Restaurant

Cuisine: Chinese/Asian
Last visited: Sept. 19, 09
Area: Richmond, BC
#812-5300 Lansdowne Shopping Centre, No.3 Road
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 2.5 (but 3.5 on this occasion...we ordered well)
Service: 2
Ambiance: 1

Overall: 2.5
Additional comments:

• Traditional Hong Kong/Cantonese restaurant
• Serves traditional Canton dishes as well as Western dishes
• Comparable to Hon's, but for me it's better
  
• Extensive menu (Includes names and pictures of all noodles)
  
• Big portions
  
• Very casual, quick and cheap eatery
• Busy/crowded/line-ups at peak hours
• Famous for bbq pork, bbq duck, wontons
  
• All day breakfast menu available
• Bubble tea and desserts available
• Popular to locals and Chinese families
• Open 24 hours & holidays
• Cash only

** Recommendation: Chili pork tossed noodles, bbq pork (also known for bbq duck and wontons, which are not discussed on this review)

I have to give my review based on what it is: a 24 hour Hong Kong style diner, you can't come with high expectations. With that being said, you'll leave feeling full as well as satisfied that you got a cheap meal. The food is good, but not the best Chinese food by all means. It's your "I don't want to think, just pick a place...that's cheap" diner. It's McDonald's of Chinese food - and there's nothing wrong with that if you can accept it as just that. For what you're paying and for what it is I think it does the job fine. It's comparable to Hon's, but I prefer #9 to Hon's. This place tastes even better when you come at 3am in the morning, but for me it's more than an AM restaurant. It's busy, crowded and you can guarantee a line-up during dinner hours. It's perfect for an inexpensive quick and filling meal or for take-out.

If you want to eat like a true typical Chinese family - order what we did. Classic everyday type dishes (except for the Chili pork tossed noodle, but this is one of my favourites here).

On the table:

• **2 Kinds of BBQ & Rice (BBQ Pork & Steamed Soy Chicken) 5/6
• This is huge. I think it's the biggest bang for your buck. It's your choice of 2 BBQ meats (not including duck) piled on top of a huge bed of steamed rice. You can have confidence knowing your barbecued meats are fresh because it's the first thing you see walking into the restaurant. I mean they are pre-marinated and pre-cooked, but when they do it here it's a positive thing - the flavours just get more intense. Don't be caught off guard when you see the bbq meats just sitting in a heated display case...this is how the Chinese do it. Anywhere serving Chinese style bbq meats will have this display set up. It's authentic.
• BBQ Pork 4.5/6
  
• You have to choose the bbq pork for at least one of your meats because this is what #9 is known for. Their bbq pork is really good. I like it because it's really lean and the honey glaze is not too sweet, but just perfect. Some places have really fatty bbq pork and while a lot of Chinese people would appreciate this (more flavour) - I don't. I'm almost certain we got around 20 pieces of bbq pork - the portion was so generous!
• Steamed soy chicken 3/6
  
• You get a variety of dark and white meat. It's chicken on the bone and it's very moist. The skin isn't crispy because it's steamed, so it's somewhat healthier. It's marinated in a sweet and savoury soy sauce so it's very flavourful throughout. You can eat it like that or with the ginger and onion oil they give you. I love that condiment.
• $9.50 (#181 on menu)
• **Chili pork tossed noodles (Canton style) 6/6
• This is really good if you like spicy. the pork they use is lean - almost tastes like the bbq pork meat, but it's not. The pork is mixed with slices of shiitake mushrooms too. I love the texture, the meat is somewhat dry (but it's supposed to be), then the mushrooms are plump and juicy. It's coated in this chili satay-type sauce that tastes like Asian style bbq sauce. It's spicy, sweet, and savoury at the same time.

• It's served on a bed of wonton noodles and a bowl of clear wonton soup on the side. Your supposed to mix the noodles and sauce together and then transfer some of it in another bowl and pour some wonton soup over it - I don't though. I eat it on it's own, without the soup - it's spicier and I like the sauce that much. It's the best here, can't even find better in Hong Kong.
  
• $6.95 (#85 on menu)
• Lettuce with Fu Yu 4/6 (For me - the taste is acquired!)
  
• If you're feeling somewhat adventurous, try this. I know it looks boring and it will probably sound unappetizing, but it is a common vegetarian side dish for Cantonese people. I really love it, you need to know what to expect or you probably won't like it.

• "Fu Yu" translated in English is "fermented soy bean cheese" or "fermented bean curd" - yes, it can sound totally gross if you're unfamiliar with the cuisine. The taste is accustomed. Let's get it straight; it's not a cheese, it just looks like it because it comes in cheese like cubes. It's more like pickled or fermented soy beans or bean curd (refers to the same thing in this case) compacted into cubes of "cheese".

• Fu Yu is very salty on its own, it's also spicy because it ferments in a chili liquid. At this restaurant they make these "cheese cubes" into a sauce - it's almost never served in it's original form.

• To eat this dish you dip a leaf of steamed lettuce into the sauce. Be aware that a LITTLE goes a long way. It is very salty so you don't need very much. It lingers a spicy taste. The texture is thick and creamy and a little starchy because it is made of soy beans. It is a salty pickled taste so don' t expect an alfredo or cream sauce (kind of looks like it) or you'll be totally caught off guard and won't like it at all.
• $4.95 (#295 on menu) We got charged $4.95, but the menu says $5.20...I think we had it on their specials menu so it's cheaper
  

  

• Soup of the Day 3/6
  
• Only typical Chinese families will order this. It does not look appetizing, but it is authentic. It's what Chinese mothers would make at home. Soups in general, and especially Chinese soups require the whole day to prepare in order to get that slow cooked flavour and nutritional benefits from all the dried/non-dried ingredients they use.
• The soup of the day is healthy and full of "good for you ingredients", that don't look good, but are quite tasty. The Chinese "soup of the day" at No9 is almost the same thing all the time. My parents really like this so it's always on the table when we come here.
• The soup is basically a pork stock. The flavour is ok, maybe a little more watered down than it should be, but it's not from the box or anything. Obviously it tastes better homemade, but this is a quick fix for the real deal. The picture above looks unappetizing and that's basically the ingredients used to brew the soup. They serve the ingredients on a separate dish. You can eat these ingredients with they soy sauce or other condiments they provide. What you see in the photo are pig parts and the brown logs that look like tree bark are lotus roots.
• I love lotus root. When cooked they are really tender and when you bite into them they have the texture of a potato, but not as starchy. It reminds me of a chestnut - it also has a lot of fibre and that's why it's so stringy.
• The lotus root and pork is what flavours the soup. Give this a try if you want a taste of "authentic" and traditional Chinese soup. I don't find the ingredients that exotic, but I could be biased. Give it a try!
  
• Small $4.75 (#104 on menu)