Empire Chinese Cuisine 金粵軒海鮮酒家 : Alaskan King Crab

ALASKAN KING CRAB POST AT TOP CANTONESE [HERE]

ALASKAN KING CRAB POST AT GOLDEN SWAN [HERE]

Empire Chinese Cuisine used to be one restaurant serving two types of cuisine, Cantonese Chinese and Hong Kong western style. The restaurant closed for a year or two due to lack of business and is now categorized as a middle class Chinese restaurant (pretty sure with same the owners). My family and family friends claim that the dishes at Empire Chinese are slightly cheaper than Kirin by $1.00 or so, and the quality is better. "So… why not king crab?", that is how the dinner started. 

Hearing from quite a few people (mainly parents and family friends), apparently Chinese restaurants advertise in the Chinese newspaper! We already arrived at Sun Sui Wah but thought why not save some money and take a look? Leaving to a gas station and spending $0.85 on the newspaper, we looked through the deals offered by a few restaurants. Most of the prices for king crab ranged from $14.99/lb to $23.95/lb and we chose the Empire ($19.80/lb) because it is a middle class restaurant. Plus, the price is cheaper than the $23.95/lb and it is more of a thrill when you get a better deal LOL. Also, most of the cheaper priced king crabs were at dive restaurants and I rather pay an extra $3.00/lb for a "nicer" restaurant. When I saw the Empire in the newspaper, I assumed it was the Empire Seafood on No. 3 and was quite excited to try their dinner since the dim sum is not so great there. However, the ad was for Empire Chinese on Alexandra and this would be my first visit.

Since Empire Chinese previously served two different styles of Chinese cuisine, the restaurant has two sides which look quite different. One side has wooden chairs with cushions, gold coloured drapes and nice chandeliers… while the other side has very cheap looking banquet chairs (resembles Sing Kee's LOL), no chandeliers (there is a dome roof though) and long plain red drapes. We got stuck on the uglier side.

SPICY ALASKAN KING CRAB KNUCKLES, STEAMED ALASKAN KING CRAB LEGS WITH GARLIC, BAKED ALASKAN KING CRAB FRIED RICE WITH PORTUGUESE CURRY SAUCE, DRIED SEAFOOD AND SHREDDED DUCK SOUP, SAUTEED CHINESE SAUSAGE WITH GAI LAN, RED BEAN SOUP, CHINESE ALMOND COOKIES AND CHINESE SESAME BALL COOKIES.

8.9LB ALASKAN KING CRAB ($19.80/LB).
I wanted to take a photo of the king crab since everrrryonneee seems to do that. However, since the manager was holding onto only one leg, the crab fell on the floor (kind of a LOL moment right?). Despite the awkwardness, I still wanted to take a photo. Sigh, why do I still feel embarrassed taking photos?! Alaskan king crab dinners usually consist of two, three, or four courses (three courses being the most popular). The three course dinner consists of steamed legs, deep fried knuckles and fried rice with the guts, brains, and sperm tomalley.

DRIED SEAFOOD AND SHREDDED DUCK SOUP ($16.80). 

The dried seafood and shredded duck soup has a nice variety of ingredients consisting of chinese mushroom, shredded duck meat, bamboo shoot and dry fish. The soup has a pleasant dry seafood duck soup base and the shredded meat tastes tender. This is one of the better duck soups that I ever had.

FIRST COURSE, 

STEAMED ALASKAN KING CRAB LEGS WITH MINCED GARLIC. 

The meat tastes firm, flaky and delicious. The crab legs are not overcooked (pretty hard to IMO but it happens) and has a sweet clear seafood taste with a slight saltiness from the minced garlic. I read a post a couple of weeks ago (forgot where) and the blogger mentioned that for such an expensive dish, you would assume that the restaurant would use fresh garlic rather than jarred. I never thought of that and agree, they make an interesting point eh?

SECOND COURSE, 

SPICY DEEP FRIED ALASKAN KING CRAB KNUCKLES. 

The knuckles are lightly battered and have a subtle peppery salt garlic taste, with no hint of spiciness. I personally think these taste somewhat on the lighter side as well as bland and I have had a lot tastier ones (even at Congee Noodle King!). However, I like the fair amount of deep fried garlic flakes. 

SAUTEED CHINESE SAUSAGE WITH GAI LAN ($15.89). 

The gai lan is cut perfectly thin and tastes crunchy as well as fresh. Also, despite tasting slightly oily, it is understandable and the gai lan does not taste greasy. As for the chinese sausage, the meat tastes fatty and not overly salty.

THIRD COURSE, 

BAKED ALASKAN KING CRAB FRIED RICE WITH PORTUGUESE CURRY SAUCE ($10.00). 

The fried rice is basically curry and tomalley (crab juice, guts, brains… can you say crab jus?), with a cheesy (no cheese added) as well as a creamy slight coconut taste. Also, the rice tastes extremely mushy and the tomalley tastes too overwhelming. Despite the damp/wet rice, there is also a stingy amount of diced prawns. However, the prawns taste perfectly soft with a nice bounce which is surprising considering the use of previously frozen and generic ones.

COMPLIMENTARY RED BEAN SOUP, 

COCONUT COOKIES AND CHINESE SESAME BALL COOKIES.

The red bean soup tastes slightly watery with a dry mandarin peel taste and does not taste rich. Next, the cookies are heated before serving and tastes warm. The coconut cookie has a slight coconut taste and a good amount of butter so it practically melts in the mouth. And last, the chinese sesame cookies taste slightly crunchy. Chinese sesame ball cookies are one of my favourites!… when not stale.

POSITIVES

- Above average eats and service

- Manager mentioned the king crab was 9lb and we were charged the exact 8.9lb (95% of Chinese restaurants always round up to the nearest 1/4lb, some even 1/2lb)

NEGATIVES

- What is with the banquet chairs?

LITTLE THINGS

- Dishes start at $15.80

- Oh man… after dinner, I read some reviews on Urbanspoon and it seems like there used to be some sort of king crab scam misunderstanding going on? I will emphasize that the price advertised on the newspaper was the price we paid for and the crab was charged right to the dot (not 9lb, but 8.9lb)

- Four out of five tables ordered a set menu dinner (the one out of five was only us LOL). Empire Chinese's set menus seem like such a good value and I will definitely go back to try it

- We finished everything in one sitting, except the fried rice. 9lb was not too hard to eat between two people haha

- AKC post at Top Cantonese [here]

- AKC post at Golden Swan [here]

Food: 3/5

Service: 3/5