Dragon Pearl Restaurant?

[Rhettzky]

Originally Posted by fotze

What about Chinese in the southwest area, such as Richmond, Killarney altadore region. And state your race if you are recommending.

...or maybe just the dishes you tend to order. Also, your height to weight ratio expressed in South African Rands.

[SarichFan]

Choices Oriental in Coach Hill is my favorite delivery (Except the owners are half insane). Ordered from Signature Palace for like 15 years prior to that place.

Except their beef and black bean sauce is terrible.

But really, real Dim Sum downtown is the stuff, all the steamed dumplings, and noodles.. ahhhhhhhh yeah

[Sample00]

Originally Posted by STeeLy

Me being Chinese as well, may be able to give you some sort of idea. Normally, if they place has a buffet, thats what non-chinese poeple USUALLY go for... now, if there isn't... it will be likely that they order...

Hot and Sour Soup
Wonton Soup
Spring Rolls
Fried Dumplings
Some sort of Fried Rice
Ginger Beef
Sweet and sour Chicken/pork

Now, I'm not saying that ALL non-Chinese people will order those, for anyone with fairly good knowledge of Chinese Cuisine would most likely order something other than the things mentioned... mind you though, to me, some of that stuff actually tastes really good... Now I find myself longing for some hot and sour soup... and too bad I haven't found a place that is good enough in Ottawa.

ok, so you listed the kinda stuff my family orders.
what I would like to know is, what do the Chinese order when they go to a Chinese restaurant?

[tvp2003]

Some random musings from an Asian guy who grew up in Canada (and thus has experienced the spectrum of Chinese fare):

- Not all "authentic" chinese food is good

- Not all "western" chinese food is bad

- Ginger beef, when done right, is fan-freaking-tastic

- If you're looking for an "authentic" chinese restaurant, it'll be the one that Asian people are eating at

- Hanging slabs of meat in the window = good

- Hong Kong style restaurants are vastly underrated

- Hot Pot (chinese fondue) is overrated

- T.Pot gets an average rating from me... their menu seems to be catered to seafood lovers. In the NE, I prefer the "cafeteria" side (I call it the cheap side) of Forbidden City (I forget the name of it)

- Dim Sum in Victoria sucks (even if it has Ralph's picture displayed)... Victoria chinese food in general is average at best, but they do have a couple of good buffets over there

- Ignorance is bliss when it comes to sanitary conditions for chinese food preparation

I suppose I should recommend a place as well... one of my family's favorites is Harbour City, which is on Centre Street in Chinatown (on the corner)... we went recently and ordered the following:

Fish "mah" soup (don't ask what "mah" is )
Beef on Sizzling Rice
Salt and Pepper pork chops
Crispy Chicken
And the old standby: Satay beef and Gai Lan

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Sample00

ok, so you listed the kinda stuff my family orders.
what I would like to know is, what do the Chinese order when they go to a Chinese restaurant?

That's really complicated to describe and I'm not even going to attempt very much because to be honest, growing up eating "real" Chinese food all the time, I'm not very agreeable to it and I like western food myself (and cooking myself). The long and short is that if you see in in a buffet, it's probably not food any Chinese family would ever order.

Basically, if a restaurant has much more asian people in proportion it's a good sign of "real" chinese food, see what they have on their tables. There's basically a whole other menu besides the one the restaurant is probably supplying in english...and that menu probably has hundreds and hundreds of items and if you don't know what you are doing (I certainly don't), you can end up with a horrible meal. Growing up, I remember many agonizing family dinners at bustling chinese restaurants when I would see fellow restaurant goers try to order from the real menu and end up with an unappetizing combination of strange dishes that that left both them (and myself, I am a very emphathetic eater, I only enjoy eating when I see others enjoying themselves) very miserable.

Chinese food is all about combining the right dishes in the right order. But if you know what you are doing, you can actually eat very well and eat a large variety of seafoods (fresh lobster, crab, oysters, etc.) in a big meal much, much, much cheaper than you would at a western restaurant. The biggest key though, is that "real" chinese dinners are designed to be shared by a lot of people, hence 11-12 courses. Going with a family of 4 is not going to be a good experience at all because you'll end up with maybe 3 plates of stuff that is terrible together.

That is however, basically for dinners and banquets that is the case. "Real" chinese food is generally absolutely delcious if you go for the breakfast/lunch/snack type things because the dishes are much simpler and easy to combine. Great congee, some good noodles, I'm happy.

Sit me down for 6 hours with a table full of old relatives and whiny cousins forced to dine on expensive abalone, shark fin soup, crab in cream sauce (the brain is supposedly the best part), steamed oysters with soy sauce and leeks, birds nest with mixed vegetables, steamed whole fish (head included, the eyes are supposedly the best part), drunken chicken (chicken marinated in like 80 proof chinese cooking wine for hours until the gelatin comes out, head also included, even the rooster's Cockscomb)...strangely not very enjoyable for me. Honestly, a lot of "real" Chinese food is exotic and probably not palatable to the western palate. It is already not palatable to me.

In any case, the best Chinese food, if not simply THE BEST food in the world comes from a chain of fast-food WOK takeaway places in Continental Europe. If I had the money, I would open a franchise in Canada right away. I couldn't believe how good it was and everybody else agreed. That's all I ate in Amsterdam for like 3 days.

[STeeLy]

Originally Posted by Sample00

ok, so you listed the kinda stuff my family orders.
what I would like to know is, what do the Chinese order when they go to a Chinese restaurant?

Ya... thats what the non-Chinese people order...

I can't tell you exactly what we order because I have no idea what the names are in English.

I think T.Pot is pretty terrible... I don't like it there. The entire restaurant chain owned by the same owner is pretty overrated.

[Fobby]

Funny story,

Golden Princess on center by 64 ave is an excellent chinese food place for lunch. One day, my co-workers walked in first (2 white guys), while I was outside talking on the phone, they sat down, and they were literally given a WHITE colored menu. I walked in, started speaking chinese, and after that, they handed me a YELLOW colored menu. The yellow menu is what chinese ppl would order, while the white one has the pot stickers and ginger beef.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Fobby

Funny story,

Golden Princess on center by 64 ave is an excellent chinese food place for lunch. One day, my co-workers walked in first (2 white guys), while I was outside talking on the phone, they sat down, and they were literally given a WHITE colored menu. I walked in, started speaking chinese, and after that, they handed me a YELLOW colored menu. The yellow menu is what chinese ppl would order, while the white one has the pot stickers and ginger beef.

Hahaha! That's hilarious. It's not meant in any racist way, it's just how it delineated. Often than not the "white" menu will be a thinner laminated menu and the "yellow" menu will be a very thick album inside hardcover. A lot of the real menu stuff would throw people off who aren't used to seeing it. There's just the name of the dish (it'll be like number 098 of 500). No descriptions, no pictures, nothing to help you (and waiters won't be very helpful, I don't know why this is, but they aren't trained to do this) so it's hard to order if you don't know what you are doing.

[HelloHockeyFans]

Originally Posted by STeeLy

Me being Chinese as well, may be able to give you some sort of idea. Normally, if they place has a buffet, thats what non-chinese poeple USUALLY go for... now, if there isn't... it will be likely that they order...

Hot and Sour Soup
Wonton Soup
Spring Rolls
Fried Dumplings
Some sort of Fried Rice
Ginger Beef
Sweet and sour Chicken/pork

Now, I'm not saying that ALL non-Chinese people will order those, for anyone with fairly good knowledge of Chinese Cuisine would most likely order something other than the things mentioned... mind you though, to me, some of that stuff actually tastes really good... Now I find myself longing for some hot and sour soup... and too bad I haven't found a place that is good enough in Ottawa.

I spent 4 years in Ottawa for university so I've pretty much sampled all of the decent enough Chinese restaurants there (not too many), but here's a short list of ones worth checking out (sorta):

1. Lychee View - 1499 Merivale Road

- Late night meals are great here when everything is super cheap. Served in smaller dishes, but it's crazy cheap. The chefs there moved over from Chu Sing in Chinatown after the fallout a few years ago. Chu Sing now sucks.

2. Mandarin Ogilvie - Close to St. Laurent Centre near the autodealers.

- Pricey but decent. Dim sum is pretty good and their dinner dishes are prepared well.

Believe it or not, that's pretty much the only good Chinese food in Ottawa. Yangtze used to have all-you-can-eat hotpot on weeknights. Decent deal and hotpot is pretty much always awesome.

Originally Posted by Sample00

ok, so you listed the kinda stuff my family orders.
what I would like to know is, what do the Chinese order when they go to a Chinese restaurant?

While it's true a "real" Chinese dinner is served ideally to huge parties of people (10 people and up), this obviously isn't possible all the time since most families don't have that many people to begin with.

An easy way to sample a real Chinese dinner is to go to a legit Chinese restaurant and ask the waiter for a set meal. These meals usually come for 4 people, 6 people, 8 people, 10 people, etc. Ask specifically for the Chinese set meals and ask him to explain to you the dishes included in the meal. Normally, a 4 person set meal will start with a soup, and follow with 4-5 dishes (chicken/duck, seafood, vegetarian, beef/pork, etc.).

Chinese people definitely order different dishes than non-Chinese people, and personally, I think it tastes a hell of a lot better.

[LIP MAN]

Originally Posted by Rhettzky

I was really interested in trying this place out because I too live in the deep south and can't find a decent chinese food place to eat at. So we went there last night and it was absolutely terrible. We ordered some spring rolls (only good part of the meal), dumplings (first she brought out an order that was burnt, every one of them, and then acted shocked that we sent them back), a beef in black bean sauce hot plate (beef was very rubbery) and chicken/cashews in yellow bean sauce (the sauce was thick
like molases and tasted absolutely terrible). The restaurant itself was dirty and at dinner time there was one other table of people in the place (granted it was sunday but it was empty through-out the whole meal).

I would recommend that you avoid this place at all costs and comparing it to Dragon Pearl is a joke. The only similarity between this place and Dragon Pearl is that your meal comes with complimentary water, only at Jubilee restaurant the water is cloudy and comes in a dirty cup.

Did you try to order ANYTHING I told you to order on the menu? You were denied a healthy meal of a cantonese fried noodle, salt and pepper squid or anything I else I recommended?

[STeeLy]

Originally Posted by HelloHockeyFans

I spent 4 years in Ottawa for university so I've pretty much sampled all of the decent enough Chinese restaurants there (not too many), but here's a short list of ones worth checking out (sorta):

1. Lychee View - 1499 Merivale Road

- Late night meals are great here when everything is super cheap. Served in smaller dishes, but it's crazy cheap. The chefs there moved over from Chu Sing in Chinatown after the fallout a few years ago. Chu Sing now sucks.

2. Mandarin Ogilvie - Close to St. Laurent Centre near the autodealers.

- Pricey but decent. Dim sum is pretty good and their dinner dishes are prepared well.

Believe it or not, that's pretty much the only good Chinese food in Ottawa. Yangtze used to have all-you-can-eat hotpot on weeknights. Decent deal and hotpot is pretty much always awesome.

Thanks for the list! I think there's one DECENT Chinese restaurant on Bank and Hunt Club, my parents have gone with me there each time because its better than Chu Sing and Yangtze... I forgot what it was called though.

I do agree with that Chu Sing sucks and Yangtze isn't much better off.

An easy way to sample a real Chinese dinner is to go to a legit Chinese restaurant and ask the waiter for a set meal. These meals usually come for 4 people, 6 people, 8 people, 10 people, etc. Ask specifically for the Chinese set meals and ask him to explain to you the dishes included in the meal. Normally, a 4 person set meal will start with a soup, and follow with 4-5 dishes (chicken/duck, seafood, vegetarian, beef/pork, etc.).

That is usually really nice, but if its a "soup of the day" sort of thing you MAY NOT like the soup... but if the soup is written as part of the set meal, It should be prett good.

Chinese people definitely order different dishes than non-Chinese people, and personally, I think it tastes a hell of a lot better.

That could be debatable... Some westernized Chinese food is pretty good (I always like Sweet and Sour Chicken/Pork)

[Rhettzky]

Originally Posted by LIP MAN

Did you try to order ANYTHING I told you to order on the menu? You were denied a healthy meal of a cantonese fried noodle, salt and pepper squid or anything I else I recommended?

No true enough. But for my tastes the place was not very good. I like salt and pepper squid but the rest of my family won't eat that. My main problem with the place is it was dirty and the food we ordered was poorly done.

[GreenTeaFrapp]

Originally Posted by STeeLy

Thanks for the list! I think there's one DECENT Chinese restaurant on Bank and Hunt Club, my parents have gone with me there each time because its better than Chu Sing and Yangtze... I forgot what it was called though.

When I was living in the area, I used to order from Kam Fung which was south of Hunt Club on Bank. There's also a buffet place in the plaza with Produce Depot. Could it be one of those places?

I'm as white as white can be but I recommend Craig Henry Chinese Food in Nepean. It's take out only but I'm addicted to their Beef with Flat Noodles.

[STeeLy]

Originally Posted by GreenTeaFrapp

When I was living in the area, I used to order from Kam Fung which was south of Hunt Club on Bank. There's also a buffet place in the plaza with Produce Depot. Could it be one of those places?

I'm as white as white can be but I recommend Craig Henry Chinese Food in Nepean. It's take out only but I'm addicted to their Beef with Flat Noodles.

Well, it is right on the corner of Hunt Club and Bank... it IS a buffet place but I will order from the menu most the time... The place is on the opposite corner of southway inn...

Ahaha... Nepean is kinda far, since I don't live anywhere CLOSE to there... but maybe one day.

[troutman]

Had lunch today for the first time at a place called Edgemont City (#209, 45 Edenwold Dr NW). Has it been mentioned yet?

I was the only honkey there, so that was a good sign. They have Dim Sum, and the combo platter I had was enormous - enough for three people, plus won ton soup and spring roll. I'd like to go with an expert and order off the other menu.

There is also a Sushi place attached to it (Tenka Sushi Shabu Shabu) - it all seems to be part of the same operation.

Quantity enormous. Quality good.

[Regulator75]

Originally Posted by troutman

Had lunch today for the first time at a place called Edgemont City (#209, 45 Edenwold Dr NW). Has it been mentioned yet?

I was the only honkey there, so that was a good sign. Quality good.

Keep in mind, it's located in Edgemont... Honkey is the minority.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by troutman

Had lunch today for the first time at a place called Edgemont City (#209, 45 Edenwold Dr NW). Has it been mentioned yet?

I was the only honkey there, so that was a good sign. They have Dim Sum, and the combo platter I had was enormous - enough for three people, plus won ton soup and spring roll. I'd like to go with an expert and order off the other menu.

There is also a Sushi place attached to it (Tenka Sushi Shabu Shabu) - it all seems to be part of the same operation.

Quantity enormous. Quality good.

It's really hard to get into dinner there, that place is always packed.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

It's really hard to get into dinner there, that place is always packed.

Ever since their relaunch about 4 months ago it has been great. Have not tried the sushi place yet though. If you go they have this chinese style bacon. Really fatty but soooo awesome. Double bonus. You can get cell phone reception there now. hehe

One place you guys should check out is the Fat Kee Noodle House in the NE. They make all their own noodles and they have lowest prices in Calgary. So good!! get the beef brisket rice. yummmmmmmm. Oh and their salt and pepper squid is awesome. I think it's only $8.95 too.

[HelloHockeyFans]

A tip for the non-Asians - any "combo" that comes with spring rolls and/or wonton soup can be considered as something Asian people would normally pass on.

[STeeLy]

Originally Posted by HelloHockeyFans

A tip for the non-Asians - any "combo" that comes with spring rolls and/or wonton soup can be considered as something Asian people would normally pass on.

could possibly Add Hot and Sour Soup, and dumplings on there as well.