ottawa foodies

Closure confirmed!

They still have menus up and everything but there's a big FOR LEASE sign in the window. Too bad! :(

Rumor has it that this restaurant is closed again. If you go to Chinatown, please check it out and confirm if this is true.

Many of our friends have told us that they now go to New Great Wall for dinner and Dim-Sum. So, we tried their mid-night snacks and decided to try out their dinner menu.

We booked a table for 5 at 6:30 PM. When we arrived, the place was full. We waited for about 10 minutes before we got our table. (It was nice to see those fishes in the entrance. According to Feng Shui, gold fishes will bring luck and fortune to business.)

In addition to traditional menu that they normally give to customers, they also have group/family menu. For 5 of us, we picked any 5 dishes out of about 30 (may be more, I can't really remember) dishes for $56.25+tax. Chicken with Corn Soup and rice are included in the price. Sweet red bean soups are also included.

So, we ordered 5 dishes (see the photos below).

Overall comment: Good value and good food! Service was alright (they may need to get few more servers though).

P.S. I think the group menu is only available in Chinese. I am afraid that they may not give you those Chinese menu when you are seated.

Do you ever feel hungry after the NAC concert? (Well, if we are rushing for 8:00 PM concert, we got to finish our dinner by 7:00 PM so that we got enough time to drive to downtown. So, this always means a rush dinner. Sometimes, I don't like to go to a restaurant prior to NAC just in case the service is slow.)

After the NAC concert, we normally feel hungry. We went to Great Wall for the night-time snacks. Here is how it works. Each snack plate costs $4. You can order different dishes from their menu. I normally like to order "fried tofu", fried noodles and stuffed green pepper.

Great Wall has improved a lot. I think they have changed hands as well and I have changed my rating accordingly.

Very tasty food. Mostly ethnic east Asian clientele, which is always a good sign. Here is the "Sauteed Crystal Shrimp" -- not bad, but not the best I've had by any means.

Haha.. this is great! If you click on the Location link, you'll see that Google thinks of this "Great Wall" restaurant as the "Grade Wool" restaurant. At least they seem to have gotten the address/location right.
Anyway, thanks for the tip, CharityCase!

Yes I've tried Beijing and it's great.

Stay tuned folks...I have something in the works that you will all find interesting :0

Have you tried "Beijing Tian Run" on Bank Street? If you think Great Wall is good, then the Dim Sum at Beijing Tian Run will far exceed your expectation! Try it out. Their egg tarts are the best in Ottawa. But for dinner, I would avoid this place. Too greasy food and I am told this is the way it should be for traditional Beijing dishes. Maybe it is just me not used to greasy food. But anyway, their DimSum is the best in Ottawa! NO Kidding.

I'd heard good things about them on a thread at egullet: forums.egullet.org

The quality overall was a step up from many of the familiar chinatown dim sum restos. Better quality, and more interesting options to be had. My only thought was that the service was slow at times with only two carts circulating in a packed house on Sunday afternoon.

Haha.. true, but it didn't taste awful! It is one of the least "Chinese" G.Tsos I've had (no vinegar but at least it wasn't sickly sweet). I agree with your advice though. I've tried this dish at Fortune Express and it's very similar to the one at the Yangtze -- very good! (We ended up at Great Wall because the Yangtze had a 45 minute lineup -- otherwise I would have had pictures of their G.Tsos instead!)

Mark, the dish looks very awful! I think you may want to try out Fortune Express or Rideau in Kanata and you will see the difference. The shrimp also does not look good. We tried Great Wall once and didn't go back for long time. Your pictures just tell me I should not return. Thanks.

It was very tasty but the batter wasn't uniformly applied and the thick chunks of onion and green pepper were unusual. Still.. not bad at all.

Yes. I ordered this Bean Curd with Assorted Vegetables dish tonight as well. This taste was okay. Good portion with lots of big Chinese mushrooms. But next time we will probaby order "Assorted Meat and Bean Curd in Hot Pot", or "Deep Fried Marinated Bean Curd with Shrimp & Pork".

The "Bean Curd with Vegetables" was really yummy. Order this one again!

This was the BBQ chicken (half) we ordered. The chicken meat was too dry. I will not order this dish next time.

This dish was not bad. Generous portion and we still have some leftover for take-out. Next time will try the "sweet & sour pork cubes".

If you go to Great Wall for dinner, don't forget to order this dish unless you can't eat spicy food. The size of the shrimps were big with good number of shrimps (photo taken after everyone has eaten few shrimps already). Bravo to the chef for this dish!

This was the Stir Fried Four Seasons Bean (4 seasons bean = green beans). The beans were stir-fried with some minced pork and few spicy veggie strips (for taste enhancement). This is another dish that I recommend to you when you go to this place for dinner.