Ottawa Foodies

We ordered Beijing pancakes, three kinds of dumplings, including a vegetarian one and two vegetarian dishes: golden mushrooms with bok choy and shrimp and tofu with bok choy.

The Beijing pancakes were pretty good, the dumplings were quite good too, particularly the vegetarian one. My daughter preferred the boiled ones to the pan fried ones. The shrimp and tofu with bok choy was excellent, but the portion was a little smaller than what most Chinese restaurants would serve for a dish. The golden mushrooms with bok choy was good too.

My wife is not a fan of dumplings (which are a lot like pirogies, which are actually a copy via central Asia). But my kids really liked them. They like pirogies too, and my wife doesn't like pirogies.

If you like pirogies give these a try!

p.s. the tables had tablecloths . . .

Dumplings here are very good. You can buy them frozen to take home, as well. There was a serious language barrier issue when I visited... I guess they don't get a lot of english speaking patrons. Anyway, I had their dumplings, excellent, their hot and sour soup was alright, the green onion pancake and beef rolls are awesome, and I had a tofu dish that contained a lot of white pepper, I think. Now, I'm not a huge fan of white pepper, I think it tastes awful and musty, so I wasn't a huge fan of this dish. I did have a mixed green and mushroom stirfry there as well, it was very good. This place has no atmosphere, don't expect tablecloths or anything.

i've been coming here for years and have found their dumplings to be consistantly excellent. they have 7-8 different types which you can have boiled, steamed or pan fried.

you get a free pot of tea first off. my favourite dishes include the spicy wantons (boiled wontons in spicy red oil with peanut sauce), steamed or panfried veggie dumplings and the absolute best, green onion pancakes. my husband likes the pork and dill dumplings while friends like the lamb dumplings. i usually go steamed, just to be healthier, but panfried are wonderful and not very greasy.

your dumplings and green onion pancakes come plain. on your table is a shaker of chinese vinegar, red chili oil with peppers and soya sauce. you take a small bowl and mix your own dipping sauce. you can ask for peanut sauce on the side if you like, but i have always been partial to just vinegar and chilis.

the green onion pancakes are the best i have had in the city. many places don't have them on the menu, but if you ask they will make them for you (and usually i get questioned, how do you know about green onion pancakes). they also have a green onion pancake rolled up with beef inside that my husband likes.

they have a very large menu and i must admit i stay away from most of it. there are always large groups of people who seem to have ordered 10 dishes or more. sometimes we have been the only patrons and have eaten dinner while the owners eat their dinner in the restaurant too.

i have never found the owners pushy! they are very sweet and accomodating and always remember my favourites when i come in. they have often given me a free dish to try.

if you haven't gone, please do try it. i find it a very homey restaurant where everyone seems to know one another. english is a bit of a challenge with the owners, but they really trying hard. their kids are often helping out or doing homework in the restaurant and they are fluent.

we took my father-in-law once and he asked for a fork (you only get chopsticks) and we had quite a hard time trying to explain. by the end it was very comical and we were all laughing (with our server) as we had a table of glasses, knives, spoons, extra bowls and water, but no fork.

This is the restaurant that was called Northern 2 and had the best dumplings outside of Toronto. The wife knew how to make these and they were selling the stuff frozen for take out.

Unfortunately this was their entire & only repertoire. With the sale of the restaurant last year, I assume the recipe passed on. I have subsequently been back, but found the new owners too pushy to sell the other Szechwan stuff that basically sucked… fool me once…fool me twice... now I just eat the dumplings in Toronto or at May’s Garden.

But one could try their dumplings, fried, boiled or steamed…..