Chinese in Winnipeg

[Pam R]

I grew up eating Chinese food at the Shangri-La and Shanghai restaurants. Over the years places have come and gone and my family has tried all of them. Dim sum places downtown, Chinese restaurant in Transcona. Wherever necessary, we've gone.

I don't know if my tastes have changed, or if it's the restaurants that changed - but I'm always on the lookout for a good Chinese restaurant.

Last night's pre-Oscar dinner (tradition!) was dinner from Dalat. I had been to the original downtown restaurant occasionally - and tried the new one (on Taylor) a few times since it opened. It's been hit and miss. Dinner last night was excellent - things were fresh with lots of flavour - and not swimming in oil.

Another family favorite is Victoria Seafood - though I prefer their dimsum, while the rest of my family likes the rest of the menu more than I do. I love the Spicy Noodle House - but it seems to be closed whenever I want to eat there.

There are a couple of places on Pembina (South) that I've heard good things about and are on my list to try.

What other places should be on my list?

[cwyc]

I like North Garden on University Crescent off of Pembina Highway. It seems like it's been there forever, but looks like they may have renovated. Regardless, food is solid.

[prasantrin]

Agree on North Garden. They expanded into the space next door, so they're quite a bit larger now. If you can translate the Chinese-only menu, they have some really wonderful things on there. If you tell them what you're looking for (flavours, etc.), some of the waitstaff will go through the Chinese-only menu, trying to find dishes that might suit you. But that might not apply to all wait staff, and they seem to be a lot busier now than when we were originally offered that service.

Even some staff from other (fairly good) Chinese restaurants prefer to eat at North Garden. Their green onion pancakes, though, were a disappointment. They weren't bad, but not was I was expecting (deep-fried, not with flakey layers).

[brokentelephone]

My only suggestion is to move to Vancouver....! On a side note, do Winnipeg Jews eat Chinese food on Christmas like we do in Vancouver? And then goto the movies?

[amandasmom971]

My only suggestion is to move to Vancouver....!  On a side note, do Winnipeg Jews eat Chinese food on Christmas like we do in Vancouver? And then goto the movies?

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Our Chinese food in Winnipeg is THE best!

[Pam R]

My only suggestion is to move to Vancouver....!  On a side note, do Winnipeg Jews eat Chinese food on Christmas like we do in Vancouver? And then goto the movies?

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We really do have good Chinese food here - I've moved across town, and things change. So I'd like to find some new places to enjoy.

And yes, the tradition is very popular here. Chinese food and a movie on Christmas.

[prasantrin]

My only suggestion is to move to Vancouver....!  On a side note, do Winnipeg Jews eat Chinese food on Christmas like we do in Vancouver? And then goto the movies?

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Prior to the influx of HK-Chinese into Vancouver and the Toronto area, Winnipeg was *the* place to get good Cantonese-style Chinese food. It still has many of the same restaurants, and the quality is just as good as it was back then. Vancouver may have more variety, but with just a few exceptions, it doesn't necessarily have better food.

[prasantrin]

Adding to my dim sum quest, we went on a quest for two dishes--the perfect s&s pork, and the best salted pepper shrimp. We only got to three places, but here goes...

On my first night in Winnipeg, we always go directly from the airport to a Chinese place. The past two years, we went to North Garden, but this time we went to Sun Fortune. Both are in my 'hood, so we frequent both of them quite often.

Sun Fortune Our opinion of SF has gone up and down over the years. When we first started going there, it was awesome. I don't think there was a bad dish in any we ever ordered, and they were great with special orders (like poached/steamed chicken with ginger and scallions). But a couple of years ago, the flavours were just not the same. Even their ever-present Chinese student university crowd had vanished, and one of their own waitstaff told us she preferred to dine at North Garden. Though we only had a total of 5 dishes over two visits, I'm happy to say I think the situation there was reversed itself, and they have now returned to their former glory.

On our first visit, we ordered s&s pork, salted pepper shrimp (on the menu I think it's called "Fried Shrimp with spicy salt"), and gai lan in oyster sauce (gotta have vegetables somewhere, you know?). We had never ordered the salted pepper shrimp before, and were pleasantly surprised to see they served whole unshelled shrimp. My mother was even more pleased, because she got to eat the heads off my shrimp. This dish was outstanding. The coating they used was crispy, and did not overwhelm the shrimp. The dish was perfectly salted and perfectly spicy. We loved it. What was even better was the leftover shrimp I ate the next day were still crispy, and not overly greasy.

The s&s pork had a nice balance of sweet and sour, I thought. They use quite a lot of very tender pork without too much breading, and have very little filler in the dish. I liked it.

The gai lan in oyster sauce was also good. The gai lan wasn't overcooked, and there was a lot of it.

North Garden We followed up with a trip to NG a week or so later. I think we ordered the exact same dishes that we had ordered at SF.

The s&s pork here isn't as sweet as at SF. It has as much meat, and as little filler as SF, but the pork isn't as tender, I think. That may be because they use bigger chunks of pork. I think the s&s pork is about the same in ranking as SF's, but I prefer SF because it's just a little sweeter.

Shrimp in spicy salt is also served with heads on, unshelled. Again, very tasty, but I still preferred SF's. SF's were crispier, and I liked the flavour balance between the salt and the spiciness better.

Gai lan in oyster sauce--I didn't like it so much here. I thought they oversteamed the gai lan, so it was softer than I like. My mother liked it better, though.

Kim Sang is actually a Vietnamese place on St. Mary's Road, but most of the menu is more Chinese-Vietnamese than Vietnamese. We dined with my cousins and their partners, so we could order more dishes than we usually do. I don't remember all of them, but I think we had salted pepper shrimp, s&s pork, honey sesame chicken, some kind of soup with seafood, mixed vegetables, and fried rice. (My cousins' partners are both Manitoban, so while one of them is a bit more adventurous, the other is far from it, so we had to cater to her limited tastes.)

I don't really have anything good to say about the dishes at Kim Sang. The flavours were muted, the servings were skimpy, and they were definitely catering to the non-Chinese/Vietnamese population. We had asked about gai lan in oyster sauce, and were told that they "couldn't serve it because the people in the area won't eat it." OK.....Nevermind that my friend's Thai restaurant is not that far from Kim Sang, and they serve it in abundance...

The salted pepper shrimp was nice and crisp, though. They were small, shelled, and headless (maybe tail-less, too, I don't remember), but anything fried is good, especially if it's crispy.

Sun Fortune again...

Three days before I left, my mother and I got the shrimp dish to go, knowing that we already had plans to dine at SF the next night with a friend. This dish is even good as a take-out dish. When we arrived home it was still hot and crispy (though we're probably only about a 5 minute drive from SF, so it couldn't suffer too much in transportation), and tasted just as good as the first time we had it. I wanted to note, though, that my mother had an allergic reaction to the shrimp this time around. She usually gets this reaction with shrimp that isn't as fresh.

Finally, we went back the next night with a friend. This time we ordered fried squid in spicy salt (because our friend won't eat shrimp with eyes on them...), and seafood chow mein (Cantonese style). There were only two shrimp in our chow mein, but there was a lot of other seafood in it. And the chow mein wasn't too greasy, which is always good.

The squid in spicy salt was just as good as the shrimp. The squid was very tender, and perfectly cooked. I'd probably order it over the shrimp, only because it's easier to eat. I eat all of my shrimp (shells, legs, and tails) except the heads, but it gets tiring crunching through all that shell. I'm a lazy eater, and I want instant gratification. The fried squid in spicy salt gives me all the pleasure of fried food, saltiness, and spiciness, without the extra chewing work.

Next time, we'll try going out to Chinatown for dinner. Dim Sum Garden used to have the best steamed/poached chicken with scallions and ginger, and I wonder if they still do...

Edited September 8, 2007 by prasantrin (log)