A La Kitchen boasts itself as one of the best Shanghai restaurants in the Markham area. Located in a newer plaza just behind First Markham Mall, this restaurant offers a variety of Shangahi's best dishes. Two of our friends joined my family of three to this establishment to check it out and see what it was all about. We didn't really have any reservations at all going into the place on a Saturday evening but were very fortunate to be given a seat right away. The restaurant has about 25 to 30 tables and each and every table were occupied. Minutes after our arrival, there was a lineup heading out the door. After checking out their menu, we decided that about four to six dishes would do the trick in feeding the five of us.
The first item we ordered which was really one of our appetizers was the Vegetarian Goose ($5.99). This was basically bean curd wrapped around bamboo shoots and tofu. Many vegetarians love this dish because of its purity and simpleness. Personally, I'm not a vegetarian myself and found myself neither really liking or hating this tasteless dish. There really was not any taste to it at all. There was very little salt, if any, to this dish and I was told that this was one of the more healthier items to have.
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| Vegetarian Goose |
The next dish to arrive was probably the absolute complete opposite of the first dish that we had in terms of purity and healthiness. The Braised Pork Belly ($10.99) is about as fatty and salty as one could ever have this meal. It is probably one of the those dishes that you have once and a while if healthy and never if you are present with high cholesterol, high blood pressure or with heart disease. Having said that, many people still love to order this dish. The four pieces of pork bellies were all richly fat and well seasoned. There were some baby bok choys on the side but the focus was all on the pork bellies. Each piece of pork skin was nice and thick and all four pieces were all equal in size. It was absolutely delicious but once again, it's not one of those type of dishes that everyone will completely enjoy.
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| Braised Pork Belly |
The Crab Pork Dumpling ($6.25) arrived next and there were four dumplings to each dish. The dumplings were well placed and were pretty big. Inside each dumpling were some pork and crab meat. With some of my previous postings of this same dish, it is recommended that you proceed eating this dish with extreme caution. The broth or liquid inside these dumplings are often extremely hot and often squirt right out so caution is advised when eating this dish. The dumplings on this occasion were satisfactory at best. The pork was a little fatty but the crab meat was barely registering on this particular evening. One could also dip the dumplings into a bowl of vinegar sauce to give it that extra taste. Unfortunately, the lack of crab taste in the dumplings robs one of the feeling of eating a crab pork dumpling.
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| Crab Pork Dumpling |
The Fried Bread ($4.25), also known as Man Tou arrived soon afterwards and it was exactly as advertised. One really could not complain about the fried bread because truthfully how could one really screw up on something so simple as this. However, after placing the dish on our table, we were puzzled because there was no condensed milk that came with it which usually accompanies this dish. After a couple of minutes, we notified one of the waitresses who appeared a little confused that it was not there and proceeded to the back to get us the condensed milk.
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| Fried Bread |
The next dish to arrive at our table was the Egg White with Scallop ($13.99). The dish basically contained steam broccoli on the bottom covered with egg white and an egg yolk on the centre of the dish. The dish was suppose to come with scallops but as one could see there was very few that could be seen. There were a few pieces but the pieces were relatively small and too few to count. For the price that one was charging, one would think that there would be multiple and rather large pieces of scallops in the dish. Unfortunately, this too was not the case. I was told that the overall dish was not very salty or seasoned at all. Despite the egg and the scallops that were present, it was somewhat surprising that this dish did not give up more taste.
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| Egg White with Scallop |
The final dish to arrive was the Braised Shredded Eel ($18.99). The eel, although well seasoned and marinated, was mixed with some green onions, garlic and bean sprouts. The eel was pretty tasty although I have to admit I wish the eel in this dish was more bigger and not shredded. By shredding the eel, the primary focus of this dish is reduced to some bits and pieces. I personally think the eels should have been left to its regular sizes which may have made the dish more presentable. The shredding makes the dish more "smaller" and makes the dish less "appealing" in one's eyes. Again for the price one pays, one would expect a more grandeur experience. The eel itself was decent but again larger pieces of fish would have been more welcoming.
Overall, the dishes were all either a little too fatty or a little bland. We also order a Vegetable Fish Soup ($12.99) to go with all of our dishes since we were not planning to order any white rice that evening. Personally all the dishes were satisfactory although I question whether the prices truly reflect the quality of the food. The food did have a Shanghai feel to it although better seasoning and taste may help to enrich many of the foods that were present. It was a decent experience however an improvement in the quality certain would not hurt. One of the other things one has to worry about is that a greyhound bus stops in front of the restaurant which could make the restaurant go from empty to super full all within a few minutes. Overall I give my experience a 3.25 out of 5.
A La Kitchen
Unit 18, 11 Fairburn Dr, Markham, ON L6G 0A5
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