Just the other day when the Queen was visiting Halifax (you can see a ton of photos of that day here) my husband and I drove down to China Town Restaurant to see the ships from all over the world come to be inspected by the Queen in Bedford Basin. As you can see we were not the only ones! Their parking lot was packed, I think we found the last spot, thank goodness. It was a chilly day and I was dressed inappropriately in shorts and froze my butt off so we went inside for some food after the Queen sailed away.
The hot and sour soup was wonderful, the perfect way to warm up and defrost. There was no tofu which was a little surprising but the soup was tasty and spicy but not too hot. My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed it as we sat by the window and looked over the water.
My husband ordered the chicken with black bean sauce and I got the shrimp lo mein. It is always a risk for us to go to a Chinese restaurant, my husband is sensitive to MSG, but we were starving and he was in a daring mood. My meal with perfect, exactly what I wanted and he loved his and had no problems with the food. This is not to say their food is 100% MSG free, just that we got lucky.
We had not been to a Chinese restaurant in five years, the last place we went to was with his kung fu school in Vancouver, BC. How wonderful it was for us to be eating Chinese food out again. When we lived in BC you would never use a fork, you would had to ask for one. Here, we had to ask for chopsticks! Our waitress was surprised we know how to use them. You could not have found a nicer waitress. When I asked if they had a pay phone she looked all worried and said that she was not sure if it worked and took out her iPhone and gave it to me so I could call our friends downtown. I couldn’t believe it!
The decor of China Town Restaurant is not contemporary, a black and gold bar with some kind of Tiki room in the back (which I actually thought was very cool), but the food was great and you can not beat the view. I have no idea how many times we have driven passed this restaurant on the Bedford Highway, wondering what it was like inside and how the food is. Now I know. And I am going back. Soon!
aliceinparis says
Suzie, the pictures of the dim sum feast I have had on my blog were taken at ChinaTown! I have not tried the hot and sour soup.
When I was a little girl it used to be the Rockingham Yacht Club! A small marina and lots of boats were here. I took sailing lessons one summer.
Debra She Who Seeks says
How wonderful to find a Chinese restaurant that both of you can enjoy!
AvaDJ says
Awesome find Suzie, glad the hubby was able to enjoy as well, must have been a relief. The food looks great and sounds like a lovely place.
buttercupdays says
I am guilty of always vacationing outside of Canada, but recently I have been craving seeing some of our beautiful country. Nova Scotia is one of the places I’d love to visit (along with BC, PEI and Newfoundland) Hope your trip is great!
Susie Zinck says
My family and I and our extended family and friends always go to Chinatown when we have a lot of people to eat. We were just there and had the most horrible experience with our server. There were 14 people here and we should have had 2 servers. She mixed up most of the orders and when we asked for plates to eat our food on she gave us saucers. I had to take one of the used plates from the next table so I could eat my meal which, by the way, came at about 20 minute intervals so we had our chicken balls first and about 20 minutes later the rice came, and about 15 minutes later the egg rolls. The chow mein was one of our last dishes and by the time that came we had finished our chicken balls and rice. Much later we got our final dish which was Singapore noodles. Needless to say we ended up taking it home and my daughter had to go and get take out containers and bags. My family and I will never go there again except for one of my daughters Jody Zinck and her fiance Bryan Allen. Terrible service.