Thursday, April 9, 2009

dan shing restaurant - edmonton, ab

dan shing restaurant
15912 stony plain road
780.483.1143 or 780.944.0394

Recently my friend Sherri and I were discussing lunch plans and decided we were both in the mood for some won ton soup. In the past we had gone to Good Buddy and were pleased, so we decided to head back for another round. We made a last minute decision to see if your friend Kevin, who happens to live on the other side of the city, would come as well. With Kevin now coming along Good Buddy was out so Sherri and I headed to the west end. Not having a clue about Chinese food on the west side, we both left the decision in Kevin's hands. He mentioned a greasy spoon/hole-in-the-wall restaurant he used to visit back in high school. So ladies and gentleman - dan shing restaurant.

Arriving just after 1PM, the restaurant was surprisingly busy and stayed that way through out our visit. Kevin's greasy spoon description was bang on. Dan Shing serves a huge menu, the take-out sheet goes to 400 items, with most being typical western styled Chinese fare. This massive list of dishes is available under the following categories - soup and noodles, lo-mein, congee, steamed rice roll, rice dishes, fried rice dishes, chow fan or mein, fried spaghetti, chef's choice, hot pot, and snacks. I know about chow mein, but can anyone tell me about chow fan? Oh yeah, the picture below is a condiment pick in honor of KimHo.

A last minute addition of Kevin's brother and his girlfriend brought our group to five, so we decided to order family style. We decided on;

chicken fried rice - it was bland and non de-script, almost no reason to eat it.

fried beef with gai lan - probably the best choice, as it was a good mix.

deep fried squid with spiced salt - nicely battered and perfectly cooked, too bad there was no spicy heat; so much for the menu warning.

ma poa tofu (my choice) - I was hoping for a spicy, mouth numbing szechuan dish with this order but like the squid, there was no heat to be found.


I think overall the experience was average. The restaurant interior is nothing to write home about and the service is quick. After our order was placed, the dishes started to arrive in typical speedy fashion, and that was the last attention we got until clean up. All of the plates, besides the rice, were off the chef's choice section which easily held the more traditional options. With that said, I really was looking forward to our spicy choices, so I was bummed to discover the dishes anything but spicy. With so many options on the menu, I wonder if they have a handful that really shine, because if you are looking for Chinese food I wouldn't say there is any reason to go out of your way to visit dan shing.

8 comments:

KimHo said...

Thanks for the plug!

Chow fan or sometimes chow fun is stir fried rice noodles. They come in blocks and are cut into strips before cooking - usually between 1 to 1.5cm, though if they wanted to, it could be cut into something wider. The best visual description/analogy I can think of would be something similar to the rice noodle used in pad thai.

Based on the pictures, the squid looks good. Too bad the looks did not match the taste. Otherwise... Oh, well. I guess that's why it was referred to a greasy spoon... or "you get what you pay for".

Anonymous said...

Did it say chow fan or fun? Fun are rice noodles like KimHo says, but fan is rice, as in fried rice.

KimHo said...

Ah, the joys of transliteration!

To make things "clear as mud", let's try again: Rice in Cantonese is "fàn" (for a sound sample, check here), while flour is "faan" (in Cantonese, by "default" would be rice flour) is (sound sample, here). In my case, since there is a rice dishes section (where, in my experience, that's where fried rice would be) and fried rice was already ordered, I automatically thought of the stir fried rice noodles for chow "fun"/"fan".

Chris said...

Thanks for the information you two. I find it hard to discover through Google what so many Chinese based dishes are (if there is even a definitive answer with such diversity in the cuisine). I can punch in one word and get images and results that contradict each other.

It definitely says chow fan on the menu and takeaway card.

Don't get me wrong KimHo, the squid was absolutely perfect and something I think that many chain restaurants could learn a thing or two. I, however, was hoping for the 'spice and heat' that we were warned about.

Oh and yeah, I love clear mud! :)

Anonymous said...

Ditto what KimHo said. :)

Next time, try Chin Kee if you want something on Stony Plain.

Chris said...

Aye aye. I'll mark it down.

Anonymous said...

I love Dan Shing! I go there often and love the fried noodles (sometimes with chicken, but mostly with beef). As for the chicken fried rice, you really should try it with salted fish (known in cantonese as "ham yue gai fan") as it is pretty tasty.

ps: you seem like a pretty cool guy with good tastebuds. now you better be single...and straight! :)

Chris said...

Thanks for stopping by Anonymous - I don't know if I'll be stopping by Dan Shing anytime soon, but I'll be sure to note your suggestion down. Thanks for the compliment!

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