2012-01-19 Dinner @ Venice Garden Seafood Restaurant 海皇美食

#262 - 2800 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver, BC

604-876-8828

Since we're shopping at T&T Supermarket, we offered to drive our friend home.  It was only 9:30pm and he's scheduled till 10:20pm, so Buddha Boy and I went and had a late dinner upstairs.

We've attempted to dine at this restaurant three times and each time we left after sitting around for ten to fifteen minutes with either no menu, no tea, or no service.  Finally, this time, we were lucky enough for them to spot the fat couple sitting right in the middle of the restaurant...and surprisingly, we received an above par service.

For $3.80/each, Buddha Boy ordered one Deep Fried Crab Claw 百花釀蟹鉗.  Okay shrimp quality with a light coat of breading, not bad for the price.  This picture was taken when the original claw was served but Buddha Boy had to sent it back because it was still frozen in the middle.  Yes, the original had no sign of the "claw", but the new one did.

Buddha Boy and I enjoyed this simple yet tasty dish of Cashew Nut w Diced Chicken 腰果雞丁.  It sometimes amazes me how a simple dish like this can go wrong at many Chinese restaurants, such as rancid vegetables or overcooked chicken.

The meat used in Shredded Chicken with Sesame Seeds 涼拌手撕雞 was free-ranged, a surprise to us yet not uncommon.  Why waste any leftover unused/unsold chicken?  The jellyfish was a bit soft for me, I prefer crunchy jellyfish.  The chicken had a light saltiness but the overall dish was not.  Very minimal sesame seeds, next to none.

Lately, Pineapple Sweet & Sour Pork 菠蘿咕嚕肉 has been our "fad item".  The meat was well marinated and maintained a moist crunch, but the batter was thick.  The sweet and sour sauce lacked that hawthorn kick and needed to be thicken up a little.

The Shanghai Style Pan-Fried Thick Noodle 上海粗炒麵 had ample amount of meat and a good wok-hei 鑊氣 (or 火候 in Mandarin), unfortunately the dish was over-salted.

I went with a $6.99 mix & match noodle soup combo.  I had Udon 烏冬 (yes, I love udon) in Original Fish Soup 原味魚湯 with Sliced Pork 肉片 and Pork Intestine 鹵水大腸.  Noodles and pork slices were pretty standard.  The pork bung was cleaned thoroughly.  Now...the soup base...WOW!!!  Don't get me wrong, it's not a superb soup, but what shocked us was that a place like this has a fish soup base that's comparable to Deer Garden Signatures 鹿園魚湯米線 (one of the better choices, but still not the greatest).  We detected a strong presence of fish fragrance without that fishiness.  The bad?  The soup was a bit salty.

The cheap side of Buddha Girl did not order any sides because it's $2 each...yup, I'm cheap...LOL!!!  So I just stuck with a combo noodle soup with an accompanied drink of choice.  I opted for Almond Milk 杏仁霜, pretty standard.