Spicy & Salty Prawns at Rideau Tavern
Foods from Rideau Tavern
Comments

2010 Nov 25
Yummy egg rolls. Consistently good takeout and not too expensive either. This place is on our takeout list and we call quite often. Much better take out than the other Chinese place around the corner in the Stonehaven plaza.

2008 Oct 11
I have eaten in here twice and done take out about a dozen times from this place and I have always been happy. They have a much more authentic Chinese style of items available which is what I prefer. The times I ate there it was very quiet so the service was fine as far as I was concerned. I had a nice conversation with the lady who served me about the different noodle dishes which I found helpful.
Overall I am very satisfied with this place.

2008 Jun 30
I don't know why I went back to this restaurant for lunch again. I think there were two reasons: (1) my friends told me that they tried their dinner few times lately and were quite pleased
(2) I wanted to give them another chance (I understand that restaurant has its good or bad day).

Well, after today's lunch, this restaurant has been taken off my list.

Service
We normally don't expect good service at Chinese restaurant. But the restaurant only has one server for the whole dining area. She didn't know the menu. She can't make any recommendation. She was rude and made us feel that we owed her money. She didn't refill our teaspot for hot water. We laughed when a Canadian customer got up to pick up the menu herself.

The food
The food was terribly tasteless and bland. We ordered the following dishes:
1. Fried Noodle with Shredded Pork, Chicken, Mushroom and Bean Sprout (三絲炒麵)
2. Fried Rice Noodle with Beef in Soya Sauce (干炒牛河)
3. Noodle in Soup with crab meats (鴻圖窩面)
4. Yang Chow Style Fried Rice (揚州炒飯)
5. Braised Deep Fried Noodles (干燒伊面)

I have to tell you that none of the dishes ordered were good. They tasted terrible! My sons told me that my food at home tasted better than each of the dishes and asked me why we came here to waste money.

The Fried flat rice noodle was lumped together (a good chef's #1 technique on this dish is to make sure that the flat noodle are completely separated). Don't know if the dishes were cooked by their appentice chef.

The shredded pork in #1 dish was like some leftover meat.

The Char-Siu in the fried rice was definitely some leftover cut from the edge. The owner really know how to cut cost.

The #3 noodle in soup was a real joke. I never know you can put some crab/corn/egg white/corn starch sauce mixture on top of a noodle soup. I can live with sauce on top of rice. But not on soup noodle. This was my first time to eat noodle soup like this! Worst, the broth for the noodle was clear water. (Chicken bones are cheap and the chef even didn't bother making any broth for soup noodles.) I do feel that the chef failed to deliver what Chinese food is about.

Anyway, most of the dishes we ordered were not consumed. However, I saw some of the non-noodle dishes ordered by other customers did look good. This led me to wonder if the noodle dishes were cooked by the appentice chef and not the chief chef.

2007 Nov 4
Ordered take-out last Friday for my kids to eat at home before we went out to the overrated Les Fougères in Chelsea for dinner.

I ordered the following 3 dishes:
- Deep-fried mashed tofu (Pei Pa tofu)
- Salty & Spicy pork chops
- Stir-fried sliced beef with ginger and green onion

The cost was $32 after tax and tips.

When I came home from dinner, I asked my boys how the takeout food was. They told me the food was very greasy and nothing special. They told me to order pizza next time instead. I checked out the fridge and there was significant amount of leftover. Hmmm.

Next day for lunch, I made some hot congee to go with the leftover food in the fridge. So, I tried the food myself to understand why the kids didn't like the food that much. What I can say is that the food was no longer the same taste I used to find at Rideau Tavern. The oil used to deep fry the mashed tofu was definitely not fresh since I can taste and smell the many days old oil (you know what I mean when the oil is not fresh and there is a smell associated with the oil). I threw the tofu away in the garbage. For the spicy pork chops, it was okay and edible. The beef slices were okay, but was extremely greasy as my boys said.

Well. I don't think I will order takeout from Rideau Tavern in the near future. My friends told me that this restaurant has evolved into a restaurant providing Canadian Chineese food. Good bye, Rideau Tavern!

2007 Jul 4
The food is going downhill. Did they change their cook?

2007 Feb 13
I ordered takeout tonight (kind of busy for my deliverable lately) and picked up the order on my way home from work.

I ordered Deep-fried mashed tofu (Pei Pa Tofu) and Salty and Spicy pork. Two dishes for $21 (I think).

When I went home, I cooked the rice myself (even though one bowl of rice was included). I also cooked stir-fried veggie (watercress).

With the takeout order and home-cooked stir-fried veggie, I had a simple and quick dinner. When you are busy and don't feel like going out to eat (to save time and $$), you can try what I did.

Rideau's deep-fried mashed tofu and Salty and Spicy pork are pretty good.

2006 Sep 24
We went to our friend's house for a gatherng. My friend who hosted the gathering ordered takeout from Rideau. We had the duck, fried chicken, fried noodle, spring rolls, tofu, stir-fried beef with green onion, stir-fried vegetable. The meal was good.

We went to Rideau to have dinner few times. The food quality is not consistent. It depends on which cook you got to prepare your food. One time we had a wonderful meal there. The other time wasn't impressed.

Recommended dishes:
- Crab Meat and Sea Foam Soup (very good here)
- Stir Fried Sliced Beef with Ginger & Green Onion
- Spicy and salty prawns



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2006 Nov 20
Yes. The spicy and salty prawns are pretty good at Rideau. The size of the prawns are big. (The photo was taken after we ate almost half of the prawns.)



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