Thursday, February 05, 2009

Hon's Wun-Tun House


Sorry, no pictures from our meal.  Hubbs and I live close to a Hon's location, and decided one night a few months ago that we needed (well, *I* needed) to have some Chinese food.  We figured that even without a reservation, an informal quick-eats sort of place like Hon's would have room for us.  I was right.

We were seated almost immediately, at a table that was uncomfortably close to another group of diners.  The good part about this was that I was able to check out their food as it was being served.  Maybe my tastes are too picky from my many favourable dining experiences in authentic Chinese hole-in-the-walls in Hong Kong, or maybe I'm just spoiled because my dad is a Chinese chef with mad culinary skillz, but I wasn't impressed with what we got.

Hubbs and I ordered some potstickers, a "medley of seafood" in a potato bird's nest, and curried beef brisket with rice.  The curried beef brisket was okay but I didn't think the meat was tender enough, and I would've tried it without the curry had Hubbs been agreeable to that.  The seafood "medley" was generic and not very seafood-laden, but the folks there gave us an abundance of broccoli lining the bottom of the nest.  There was no way that the two of us could have consumed that much broccoli even if we were starving! Honestly, it was a total waste of veggies.  The potstickers were okay, but a bit flat in shape; I was expecting nice thick 3-D pan-fried dumplings but these were sort of flat and not super meaty.  Overall, the presentation of the food sucked.  

The food came out ridiculously fast though, owing to the fact that the restaurant has several food stations set up, and each station has their designated cooking tasks (eg. the potsticker station, the veggie station, etc.).  The food was also very very affordable.  The servers were efficient, bordering on rude, but not intentionally.  They were just your typical abrupt Chinese servers who didn't feel the need to assauge their patrons.

My conclusion: go to Hon's if you want semi-real (meaning non-Westernized) Chinese for cheaper prices and quick service.  I'll probably give them one more chance just because I have yet to taste their congee (rice soup), homemade noodles, and sweet & sour pork (my litmus of a truly "good" Chinese place).  If you want tasty authentic Chinese food with any semblence of presentation, you will need to look elsewhere.

Service: 3 / 5
Food: 2.5 / 5


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