However, out of Chinese face-saving respect, we decided not to argue their judgement, and parked our car in the sketchy lot beside the restaurant. We later discovered that there were customer parking stalls behind the building, but by then we were already inside and didn't care to move our vehicle. Anyway, en route into the building, we saw a homeless man sleeping in the grass beside the building, not more than 20 feet away from our car. Nice. We silently prayed that our car would still be there when we finished our meal.
When we got inside and were seated at our round table, I took a good look around. The restaurant has not changed much since its predecessor, Furama, set up shop nearly 2 decades ago. The carpet was worn, but old tile had been replaced by newer stone. The bathroom doors, which Vanilla Con noted, had been repainted a bright purple colour; the walls still looked stained and worn down. As well, there were new drapes over the windows. The old double-happiness wall, complete with faux gold dragon and phoenix figures hung in the same place as it always had. The table cloths looked worn and so did the chairs and tables. Generally, the atmosphere was sort of grungy and old, and not in a comfortable sort of way.
The restaurant was pretty empty, despite having dozens of large round tables on the floor. We didn't even glance at the menu, but my parents ordered the typical set meal for us. The dishes that came consisted of:
-Fish maw soup
-Stir-fry with mushrooms, chicken, and green beans
-Empress chicken
-Chili-fried prawns
-Crab fried with ginger and green onion
-Steamed halibut with green onion and ginger
-Ginger beef
The last dish was an add-on my parents decided to order when they saw the diminuitive size of our first two dishes; they quickly calculated that 7 hungry adults would not be sufficiently satisfied by dishes of those proportions. As well, they knew that a near-riot was about to occur because their childrens' favourite dish, sweet & sour pork, had not been ordered.
For the most part, the meal was pretty tasty. Though the soup and stir-fry and crab were pretty average-tasting, most of the other dishes were quite delicious. The prawns were spicy without being painfully so, and had a delicious crisp texture to them. The halibut was fresh, devoid of any "fishy" taste, and had such a delicate texture that it nearly melted in my mouth. The chicken was moist, tender, and cooked perfectly. Unfortunately, the ginger beef left much to be desired; though it had a crispy texture, this had been drowned out by an overly-thick, overly sweet & sour sauce that lacked any taste of ginger. It was, in actual fact, a dish of sweet & sour beef strips, and left my Hubbs (who hates sweet & sour-flavoured foods) very disappointed.
The service at Mirama was nearly as sketchy as the environment. Our server, a very smiley and polite lady, served us promptly and courteously. However, another man whom she worked with (and who we presumed to be the manager), was obnoxious and rude and incredibly loud. Shortly after we had arrived, he was screaming at our server for some reason unbeknownst to us; the poor lady had to grin and bear it and then return to our table to take our order. This man also spoke very unprofessionally towards other patrons at the restaurant. His unbearably loud, gruff voice permeated the restaurant because he didn't know when to shut up. By the time our order had been placed, Superstar Jo was ready to go over and put the guy in his place!
When I got home, I also got sick. As it turns out, Mirama either uses a type of oil that I have difficulty digesting, or I was having a reaction to the crab or shrimp that I had eaten. My IBS (irritated bowel syndrome) kicked into high gear shortly after dinner, and I was in agony for the next 10 hours.
As such, given the rather poor location and setting of the restaurant, the hit-and-miss fare, the small portions, and the poor service by some of their staff, I would NOT advise anyone to go to the Mirama for dim sum or dinner. Go, instead, to Good Buddy, or Dynasty, or Century Palace (the old Marco Polo Restaurant).
Rating: 4 / 10
2 comments:
Hmmmm, M & D told me YOU chose this locale Mrs L...they said you were sick of going to the "usual" places...
No, actually, I told them that they didn't *have* to go back to Good Buddy b/c it wasn't Hubbs' b-day anymore, but I definitely told them I was not so thrilled about Mirama. I would have chosen Century Palace or Spice Kitchen if it was up to me.
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