Ottawa Foodies

Pretty inconsistent now.

Recent visit the food was great (ma po tofu, beef with black pepper, sizzling stuffed eggplant were favs) but the service was just terribly slow and disorganized. Offered specials twice. Had to flag server down to order. We had time to finish one dish before the next would even arrive. Soup was lukewarm at best. 15 min after sending it back it came out just hot enough. Servers were doing closing duties at 8pm on a weekend.
The atmosphere was so questionable that before the second dish arrived we actually considered walking out. The food saved them on this visit.

On a visit earlier this year the service was quick and attentive but the food was so bland I was embarrassed for recommending it (I had guests from overseas). It was a Monday so I'm a bit more forgiving of that visit (Monday typically being the "off night" for most places).

I'd now hesitate to suggest this place for anything other than a light or casual dinner.

2

I have to agree that something is amiss at this establishment. There was a notice posted at their entrance on our last visit that stated dim sum was unavailable until their new chef arrives in late October. We had dinner that night and the quality was noticeably 'off' from previous visits. Dishes were either too salty, overcooked, or under-seasoned. Even the ingredient composition of my personal favorite (the assorted meat in spicy chili oil hot pot) was missing its fire. It's unfortunate because the service here is top-notch. I could tell the owner himself was under a lot of stress due to the circumstances. I wish this place well and that it gets its situation ironed out. It would be a shame to see it slide down hill beyond the point of no return.

I find the quality at this restaurant to be highly dependent on how busy they are. The two times I went on the weekend the food was pretty standard and the service was chaotic.

Tuesday or Wednesday dinners for two or three are usually very satisfying though.

And I have to second the opinion that the service here is on a different level than most other Asia establishments.

1

Just wanted to let people know that if you are going to try this place that my previous recommendation no longer stands until I am able to gather the courage to give this place another try in the distant future.

We had a horrible experience on our last visit, to the extent 6 of the 10 people at our table will never go back to this restaurant again. We even approached the manager who just basically shrugged his shoulders, just wished he could've done something, anything really but I guess the issues were far too great for him to address. Even asked if they have a new chef(?) but alas no.

We always avoid certain dishes (see previous post) but that list has increased to include many of our favourite dishes at this place. Terrible shrimp roll (too greasy), chicken balls (way too much batter), spicy shrimp (not fresh and overcooked), and sesame crisp beef (tasted like the beef was stale). A few new dishes were tried with awful results...seafood trio (flavourless and mostly squid), sweet and sour crisp fish (almost all batter) and the list would go on.

Another curious note is that our shoes seem to "stick" to the carpet...a good thorough steam cleaning or perhaps new carpeting/flooring is in order.

The service was still excellent for a chinese restaurant but the food and management needs some serious attention.

Sea King is our standby but recent changes has us searching for another place to satisfy our cravings for chinese food.

I will actually give this place another chance in the distant future as I need to have the memory of this experience dissipate.

1

Chinese restaurants in this city are at best adequate for the most part. I'm always searching for a really good chinese restaurant in this town and this is not an easy task.

The best of the lot presently is Beijing Legend. I have only been a few times but do enjoy spicy food and this place does a marvelous job of that. I also appreciate that there is little, if any, to no MSG in their food unlike many of their other counterparts around town. Best service for a chinese restaurant I have ever experienced in Ottawa or anywhere else for that matter, there is not even a close second.

Good menu items sampled include their spicy chicken with sesame sauce and tea smoked duck, both apps. Spicy shrimp (best in town), crispy beef, lamb with red hot peppers and noodles served in a large pan (don't recall name of this dish but it's $18 and on one of their side menus), chicken balls, crisp shrimp w/ mayo, and lobster are all top notch for flavour. Note the lamb dish wasn't overly loaded with lamb but for the price and taste it was well worth it.

The bad: some portion sizes are small, bordering on ridiculously small but if it's really good then it almost doesn't matter. You'll need to order an extra dish or two to compensate. They do not do a good job of cooking chinese greens, water logged.

Some items that I did not enjoy due to lackluster flavour and portion size are the seafood stir fried noodle and the seafood with tofu clay pot. Both portion sizes were extemely small and contained sparse quantities of seafood. If they were as flavourful as some of there other menu items then I wouldn't have minded as much, such was not the case. And as previously mentioned, avoid ordering their chinese greens.

Again, it's nice that I don't have to down a gallon of water after eating here because they use little to no MSG.

My go to chinese restaurant presently as many others around town just aren't up to par.

1

We returned today again, and just at the very last minute I remembered I had promised to take pictures.
The items were so scrumptious we could hardly wait for the pictures to continue. A new item I had not even seen in Toronto (imagine!) was the deep fried lobster ball(5), absolutely delicious. We also had the Cheung fan(4), stuffed with shrimp, eggplant stuffed with shrimp(2), deep fried shrimp ball (3), and the Har Gow, (1) aka shrimp dumplings. We left hardly being able to walk from being so stuffed, and so pleasantly surprised that the bill only came to $16 and change, when there were two of us eating our faces off. :)
Of course we will be returning, the service is so great, the food is beyond delicious!

In total we tried four Dim Sum plates because we arrived just 5 minutes before 3 PM.
We enjoyed the Dim Sum plates so much we will definitely be back during Dim Sum hours next time.
Toronto quality shrimp based plates, very enjoyable, with a few new items we had not even seen at the Pacific Mall in all these years.
We highly recommend you try this restaurant out, either on a Saturday or Sunday, but get there at the latest by 2 PM. There is free parking, and a bus stop right in front.
Will take pictures of the dishes next time around.

1

Unfortunately, we took a little to long to get there on time and catch the Dim Sum, but we were still able to ask for whatever was still left in the kitchen. Our server was nice enough to bring over a tray with delicious plates, and of course we picked all our shrimp-based favourites. We enjoyed the Dim Sum plates so much we will definitely be back during Dim Sum hours.
We then ordered the Szechuan Shrimp and Eggplant, very enjoyable, easily portioned for 2, and also the Spicy Beef Slice Pot, and a bucket of white steamed rice. The portions are quite generous, we did not know this prior to ordering, but all the same we brought home the rest and had a nice lunch the next day.
More than happy to recommend this restaurant, especially after looking for certain of our favourites for 3 years after arriving from Toronto, and wondering if we would have to go back for good Dim Sum.

3

Beautifully presented inside a ring of tender-crisp broccoli, the flavour of this chicken fell short. The chicken itself was varied -- some pieces were tender while others were dry and chewy. The batter was soggy without crunch, and the sauce was sweeter than we like and had no heat at all. I commented to my wife that it tasted a bit like those microwaveable boxes of frozen General Tao's you can get at the grocery store.