Canton Cafe
477 New North Road, Kingsland (pretty close to the train station)
I can't count the number of times I've been here. I have no recollection of my first visit either...maybe it was eight years ago or so? Meh, I don't know. I went out to celebrate my First Class Honours (whoop!) with my parents, my brothers, my sister-in-law, and my brother's girlfriend (too lazy to think of suitable pseudonyms for them).* I probably come to Canton about three or four times a year with my parents, mainly due to the fact that my parents are extremely picky about eating out, so Canton's kind of an automatic choice. When we first ate here, the food was pretty cheap and the portions were large. But prices have gone up since then, and now it's verging on a fine line between reasonable and not (despite the large portions).
Let me tell you a few things....or seven.
- Do not go to Canton if you're on a date. Wrong atmosphere for that, people. Also, don't bring children along. It gets pretty crowded...every night. It is best if you go with a group of people (but not too large).
- When going out with a group, don't order individual dishes. Order a bunch of dishes to share with each other, along with rice ($1 per bowl). The dishes are huge, and it doesn't really feel right eating a whole plate of prawns by yourself, you know?
- It's BYO. Corkage fee is pretty reasonable in comparison to most restaurants in Auckland (it used to be free).
- While the food comes out to your table pretty quickly, service is only good if you've been eating there for eight years. (Translation: It's not going to be the best service you're gonna get).
- If you don't like loud noises, then don't go to Canton. Or if you really do want to go, then ask to go upstairs. But they're busy all the time, so it might not be possible. (Correction: Are you a lucky person? No? Well then, that's too bad).
- On the day that you're planning to go to Canton, don't wash your hair. I went to get a haircut in town on the day we went, and I foolishly forgot about Canton. Your hair smells as a result of the sizzling dishes, and um yeah. Wash it once you go back home.
- Don't order the standard noodle or rice dishes. Please.
My camera died, so the photos below are thanks to my brother (not the same brother that took the photos from the previous blog entry). Thanks brother!
Sizzling Beef with Black Pepper ($22). There's also a chicken version and a venison version available on the menu. I actually prefer the venison dish, partly because I never really get the opportunity to eat venison that much.
Stir fried snow peas with garlic. On the menu you can order it with either beef or chicken ($22 for either option), but we asked for it to be without meat. The dish also had chinese mushrooms and celery in it, but I'm pretty sure that they aren't included if you order the snow peas with beef/chicken. Also, sometimes they don't have snow peas available and use sugar snaps instead. Both are pretty good. Yum!
Sweet & Sour Pork ($22). There's also a sweet and sour chicken or hapuka (fish) version available as well. The hapuka is $1 more though. I really don't like eating sweet and sour. I don't even like my mother's. But Canton's sweet and sour is the exception to the rule. Somehow the batter seems to retain its crunch, and that's the main reason as to why I enjoy it so much. More often than not you'll have a lot of food leftover, and you can doggy bagall of it for free. This dish isn't quite the same the next day. The pork ends up being soggy (eventually) and it feels like you've just ordered it from a food hall.
My brother forgot to take a photo of it at the beginning. So we (or he) did some improvisation. Oh yeah, this is supposed to be the Peking Duck course with the pancakes, hoisin sauce, spring onions and cucumbers (1/2 duck, one course, $26). I specifically ordered this dish since peking duck is my favourite (although Empress Garden does it better).
Hot and Spicy King Prawns - Shell Off ($28). There is the option for shell on, but that just seems weird. It's not really that hot...or spicy, but there is an adequate amount of heat involved, and it is really tasty. They do a lot of hot & spicy dishes, and this one is personally my favourite. We also ordered the hot and spicy hapuka ($23), but no photo was taken (whoops). Sometime we order the hot and spicy squid instead of the hapuka, but all of them are pretty good regardless.
Eggplant Hot Pot. This wasn't on the menu. I also don't know how much it cost. I'm pretty sure there was pork in the hot pot (correct me if I'm wrong, family), but someone told me there was salted fish and I couldn't taste any of that at all. So I'm pretty confused. I personally find this dish a bit slimy on my palette, and it doesn't help that I'm not a big fan of eggplant as well. Meh.
The decor isn't great, and a lot of the tables are covered with material that's similar to plastic bags (I don't really know the proper name for it so who cares). But it is the type of restaurant where you know you shouldn't expect that, if that makes sense.
Next blog: I don't knoooooooow.
* I was thinking about using the character names from Twilight since I'm watching the movie, but nah. Who's going to be Edward?
No comments:
Post a Comment