Chan's Personal Blog

Intro

Well, 'food' is a new category that I have added in my blog. Those who know me probably know that food is one of those things I'm passionately interested in. It's probably why I hail the food network as the best channel on TV these days. In either case, lets get down to it.

So today was my mom's birthday, and I decided to treat her to dinner along with some of her close friends. My boss had went to this new Chinese restaurant in Sidney called Maple Palace, and she recommended that I try it. So, that is where we went for dinner tonight. From the description my boss gave, the restaurant didn't sound like a low-end Canadian style Chinese restaurant because they served things like quail and peking duck. These delicacies are usually reserved for higher end restaurants.

Atmosphere

We arrived to the restaurant, and from the outside, it didn't look too impressive. I was pleasently suprised when we went inside though. The decor and look was very elaborate. They tried to replicate a very traditional Chinese look, and they did a very good job of it. There were lots of paintings and poetry that reflected ancient Chinese history. They focused on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms era. Hands down, this was probably one of the best looking Chinese restaurant there is Greater Victoria. Looks aren't everything for a restaurant, but it was definitely a nice touch.

Pricing

A quick glance at the menu reveals that this was a higher end Chinese restaurant. The prices per dish was probably around $15 on average, which is on par with the other high end restaurants like Don Mee or Golden City.

Service

One thing that I did notice was that all the servers were caucasian women which you don't normally see at a Chinese restaurant. This is fine by me, but my parents being more traditional Chinese people prefer to order food in their native Chinese tongue. Usually in Chinese restaurants, there are things that don't appear on the regular menu and you pretty much have to explicitly order them using Chinese ... so it's not quite the same. Some dishes can't be translated into English too easily. Why is there this secret unwritten Chinese menu you ask? Well, lets just say some of the things you can get probably won't be too appealing to Canadians unless you're feeling adventurous. Actually, I've probably said too much about this secret menu ... I'm probably already in trouble. In either case, the service was very good regardless of race .

Food

Now comes the most important part, the food itself. We ordered wonton soup, beef lettuce wrap, sweet and sour pork, halibut in black bean sauce, shrimp bird's nest, beef and brocolli stir fry, chicken chow main, crispy chicken, and quintessential rice. The presentation and plating of the food was very nice. They also made subtle changes to some of the recipes which made it a refreshing change. The food wasn't greasy or heavy at all which is a definite plus. My favourite was probably the beef lettuce wrap. They substituted the traditional fried rice noodles with deep fried wonton wrappers which made it really good. The sweet and sour pork however didn't work out, it tasted kinda funky, so that's one strike against them. We did go on a weekday, so maybe they're not shooting a perfect score. Usually with Chinese restaurants, their best chefs are reserved for weekend patrons.

We ended the evening with a slice of mandarin cheesecake which was suprisingly very good. I've never had that flavour before, but it worked very well.

Conclusion

All in all, Maple Palace receives my certification that it serves authentic Chinese food. My parents being more traditional says it's borderline authentic and westernized. The food quality and price is right for a higher end Chinese restaurant. The renovations they did to this place is amazing, and their artwork is equally impressive.

I probably have to go a few more times to get an accurate reading on this restaurant (to see if they're consistently good or not), but so far, I give them two thumbs up. I would highly recommend this restaurant. How good is it you ask? It's probably on my top 3 Chinese restaurants that I like in Greater Victoria list. Why do I keep eluding to best Chinese restaurants in Greater Victoria? Because the Chinese restaurants in Vancouver are far better and are in a league of their own compared to the ones here in Victoria. (Queue Hongcouver jokes from Dave now.)

I haven't come up with a standarized way of rating restaurants yet, so I'm just using thumbs up and down for now. Stay tuned for more reviews.