ottawa foodies

My daughter had the wonton soup. Nice “homemade” style wontons with a bit of vegetables in a hot, flavourful broth.

A nice portion of light broth with some strips of leafy yellow cabbage and eight small shrimp dumplings. We shared it four ways (and were provided 4 little bowls and spoons unasked). I'm already dreaming of my next visit where I'll be tempted to feast on an entire bowl of this soup followed by the still-untried Crispy Seafood Noodle (Mi Xao) dish.

The 3. Pork Mushroom Big Wonton Dumpling Soup ($7.95) was incredibly affordable, hearty, and delicious, as I've come to expect from this tiny restaurant in a hallway. Wonderfully warming on a cold spring day!

The Marinated Chicken Leg ($2) was super tender and pleasantly soy-salty. Totally unnecessary with this meal of course! :-)

The #2. Pork Shepherd's Purse Wonton Dumpling Soup ($7.95) was a satisfying bowl of tasty broth and ten large meat-filled dumplings. The "Shepherd's Purse" refers to the musty herb typical of wontons in Shanghai. This was my first time eating it and I found it to be pleasant but not spectacular. Certainly interesting to try though!

Shrimp wontons and beef brisket on rice noodles. The wontons are big and taste really good. The kids love them. The beef brisket adds a nice flavour to the soup and rice noodles. I prefer egg noodles but the kids prefer the rice noodles and it works quite well.

When I want to eat wonton noodles (雲吞麵), this is the place in Ottawa. However, the wontons still can't be compared with Toronto's wonton places. Once I have tried the wonton noodles at Kenny’s Noodles (聯記麵家) in First Markham Place, Toronto, I don't remember the wonton taste at Cafe Orient anymore.

D1 is the Shrimp Wonton Noodle Soup and D18 is the Shrimp Wonton Soup. D18 costs $0.30 more than D1 -- no doubt for labour costs as the kitchen staff has to pick the noodles out. ;-)

Actually, it makes sense because the noodleless version has more broth and more vegetables, both of which should cost more than noodles. The wontons themselves seemed bigger than what we got with the D1 but that isn't necessarily a relevant observation since the soups were purchased on different visits. Anyways, it's a good bowl of soup!

We (and our kids) enjoyed this. I keep thinking how much I'd love to have a place like Jo Moon Ting near my workplace! I'd have this for lunch at least once a week...

I remember when Yangtze used to have nice pink and shrimpy wonton dumplings in their soup. After they went all pork (and I discovered fish maw soup) we stopped ordering it. Anyways, these dumplings were the shrimpiest I've ever seen -- with big chunks of chopped shrimp. The actual flavour was very mild (almost bland?) but tasting the shrimp isn't a bad thing! As you can see in Ashley's photo, the wrappers are more delicate and thin than most places.

This is the Shrimp Wonton Noodle Soup, #D1 on the menu ($4.95). There should be 5 wontons in total. I took the picture after I ate 3 and half of the bowl. This wonton noodle soup was way better than Cafe Orient.

The appetizer sized bowl of won ton soup ($3.75) makes a perfect meal for a small child. It features about 6 small wonton dumplings (unexceptional), a very mild broth, and some slice carrots and cabbage.

My kids shared a Won Ton Soup ($6.95). The broth is mild but spectacular! (A bit like white cake -- boring, but amazing when done right.) It contained quite a few bean sprouts, chopped scallions, and 8 or so smallish won tons. They were mild and kid-friendly, without the unique flavour (fungus?) that one often finds in Vietnamese won ton soups.

This would make a great appetizer for two adults!

S8. Shrimp wonton and BBQ pork with rice noodle
The Large was massive but most delicious. Tasty shrimpy wontons, plenty of pork, and loads of rice noodles. What's not to love here?