Central kitchen

I had a chance to attend a unique session of food tasting at Central Kitchen.  This opportunity came about as my sister in law will be getting married this summer and will be having their food catered to their location.  The place we went to is not actually a restaurant but a place that had three tables where you can do taste testing on the food that they will be serving.  They run through your meal on that evening and you get to dictate as to how you want your food served on the day of your event.  Before I go any further, I just want to give my sister in law her future husband a special thank you for taking us for dinner on this evening. 

As a typical 10 course Chinese wedding meal, the first meal to arrive was the Crispy Roast Pork.  They prepared this dish by lining up three rows of crispy pork.  Presentation wise it was indeed very nice.  The pork itself was tasty and crispy.  There was not a lot of fat in the pork.  Afterwards we were told that one could have an entire pig instead. 

Crispy Roast Pork

Crab Claws

Bean dish with Scallops and Shrimp

Shark Fin Soup

The next dish was the crab claw.  Again presentation was very nice.  They shut the lights off so that they could light a fire in the centre of the dish.  As for the crab claw, the meat was fairly soft and a strong taste of crab was certainly evident.  With a little vinegar, it certainly made it a nice dish to have. 

The next dish to arrive was a bean dish with scallops and shrimp.  The seafood was nice steamed and tender.  The scallops and shrimp were indeed very fresh. 

The next to arrive was the shark fin soup.  Now as most of you shark fin soup is banned in Toronto…but not till September.  However although there was plenty of shark fin in the soup, the soup itself was not as good.  The chicken stock was not strong enough and as a result it was actually quite bland.  They said one can add vinegar or pepper to spice it up however personally this is one dish that should be a stand alone and taste well on its own.    

The pea sprouts and king mushrooms arrived next.  I was actually looking forward to the vegetarian dish since if one is familiar with these ten course meals, they usually have a lot of seafood and meat in them and the vegetables are a welcome treat.  The pea shoots were done with garlic and tasted very good.  The mushrooms were nicely cooked and blended very well with the pea shoots.  Not to mention, the manager again reiterated that this dish contained no MSG in it.

We went next with the tilapia fish steamed with green onions.  After taking my first couple of bytes of it, one can easily not mistaken the strong “ground” taste to it.  The manager told us that most Chinese people don’t like this type of fish because they swim in the deep sea and sometimes have that “deep sea” taste to it.  Unfortunately a bass fish was not served so we had nothing to compare it to.  The manager said we would have a choice between the two however without even tasting the bass, I would select the bass by default. 

The lobster was good but not extraordinary.  It was made with garlic and green onion however the dish was no different than any other lobster dish that I had tasted in the past. 

Pea Sprouts and king Mushrooms

Fish

Lobster

Crispy Chicken

Outside of the rice and noodles, the last dish to arrive was the crispy chicken and shrimp chips.  The skin was pretty crispy and there was plenty of white meat.  However as good as was this dish, there really wasn’t anything different with this dish compared to other crispy chicken meals. 

Overall it was a descent meal however as stated in a few times in this session, there really wasn’t anything spectacular about the food.  This company caters to a lot of weddings and special events but to be honest with you, there really wasn’t any wow factor in the food that would make you want to drastically change the way they make it. It wasn’t spectacular, it wasn’t bad, it was simply ordinary.  For that, I give them a 3 out of 5. 

Central Kitchen
50 Weybright Court Units 7&8
Scarborough, M1S 5A8