Ken's Chinese Restaurant 南軒中西美食

My Kingsway confession - every time I pass Kingsway, I always take a peek into Star Anise to see how busy the restaurant is. BF calls it the little person's move, but honestly I do it out of curiosity. I remember our dim sum visit at Star Anise, the restaurant had a good amount of 3-5 seated tables. I guess as people learned that their food does not taste so great, no revisits happened. Every time I pass Star Anise including weekends, there is really only one or two seated tables (dinner time)! Hopefully no one ordered their chinese pepper and hot water ginseng soup like us. Anyways, continuing with the interest of finding "meh" kind of Chinese restaurants, BF suggests Ken's Kitchen. Chinese BBQ? YUMM, delicious fatty meats!

Huh? Ken's Chinese? Thought we were going to Ken's Kitchen… I guess there was a slight confusion on my part.

Ken's Chinese Restaurant serves Hong Kong style cafe cuisine as well as the usual Chinese dishes, and seafood. The restaurant is pretty clean, spacious, has comfortable booth seating, the usual seating, and a good amount (5-6?) of tables for parties of eight or more.

3 1/4LB CRAB WITH GARLIC AND SPICY XO SAUCE, RANCH CHICKEN WITH GINGER SAUCE, DRIED BOK CHOY SOUP, SHRIMP WITH SPICY SALT, DRY SCALLOPS AND DRIED SHRIMP WITH BABY BOK CHOY IN BROTH, SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH DRIED TURNIP AND GOLDEN CHIVES, STEWED OX TAIL AND DAIKON HOT POT, TAPIOCA SOUP, AND SLICED FISH WITH PORK CONGEE.

DRIED BOK CHOY SOUP (COMPLIMENTARY SOUP OF THE DAY.. I think complimentary?).   The soup has a pork neck bone broth taste with dry bok choy, carrots, and pieces of beef. The beef tastes extremely tender, and the carrots have the natural sweet taste. I am a sucker for slow cooked soups that taste homemade.

3 1/4LB CRAB WITH GARLIC AND SPICY XO SAUCE ($13.00/LB). The crab seasoning has a nice blend of xo sauce, garlic, chilli, and baby shrimp. The seasoning does not taste overwhelming and the natural crab taste is there. The crab tastes fresh, and not overcooked or over battered. We originally wanted to try the spicy salt chilli crab since we have the cream and butter sauce all the time, but the waitress recommended the spicy xo sauce and I like it. I thought the XO sauce would make the crab a bit damp, but nope, the crab tastes crisp and dry. The crab tastes extremely flavourful, the xo sauce, the seasoning, the mild to medium spiciness, I love it.

SHRIMP WITH SPICY SALT ($6.50). The prawns are nicely battered and deep fried, tastes slightly spicy, and has a chilli sea salt taste. I forgot what kind of prawns these are but they taste less crunchy than the usual kind. 

RANGE CHICKEN WITH GINGER SAUCE ($13.50). The chicken tastes extremely tender and has a rich chicken broth taste with a slight hint of ginger. The chicken also tastes very juicy because of the sauce. The skin tastes slightly salty (seasoning salt) and I wonder if it is baked before steaming to make it so tender. The chicken pretty much wins me over, I would come back if I was craving for chicken.

SLICED FISH WITH PORK CONGEE ($5.95). The congee has peanuts as well as green onions which is usual, but the last few times I had congee elsewhere has always been forgotten. The congee tastes a wee bit too watery, semi creamy, and somewhat tasty. Even though the congee does not have the flavourful bland white congee taste I like, it still tastes average and not bad (there are a lot worst out there). The portion of the congee is very generous and large.

STEWED OX TAIL AND DAIKON HOT POT ($13.80). The broth has a tomatoey vegetable broth taste, and slightly slightly resembles ketchup. The carrots taste soft, not mushy, and has the natural sweet taste. The daikon tastes soft and not mushy as well. For the oxtail, the oxtail tastes tender and there is a decent amount in the hot pot. The hot pot also has slices of celery which tastes soft with a slight crunch. I previously wrote that the broth tastes extremely overwhelming and very similar to ketchup, sorry, that was by accident! I got the notes for Come Along mixed up. The hot pot at Ken's Chinese definitely tasted a lot better than Come Along's. The stew has a nice thickened consistency with a very subtle taste like ketchup, not heavy at all. The broth is also tastier than Come Along's and has a vegetable (carrot, celery) taste. The oxtail hot pot tastes properly made.

DRY SCALLOPS AND DRIED SHRIMP WITH BABY BOK CHOY IN BROTH ($8.25). I did not notice the dish was supposed to be bok choy until the owner mentioned that they gave us pea tips by accident when we paid for the bill, plus it worked for me anyways. The pea tips are cooked perfectly and tastes fresh. The broth has a dry scallop and shrimp taste and tastes flavourful as well as clear, not salty at all. I am a sucker for healthier vegetable dishes, my favourite is probably still Fortune City's.

SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH DRIED TURNIP AND GOLDEN CHIVES ($12.95). ON THE LEFT is the first dish before we asked them to cook the eggs longer. The scrambled eggs tasted a bit too wet and had a soft crunchy dry turnip taste. ON THE RIGHT are the eggs after they were recooked. The eggs are perfectly scrambled, soft, fluffy, and not overcooked with the taste of a soft crunch from the dry turnip.

COMPLIMENTARY TAPIOCA SOUP. The tapioca soup is not as thick as other restaurants, and has a faint milky coconut taste.

POSITIVES

- Most likely one of my regular late night Chinese restaurants now

- Restaurant is cleaner than Kwan Luck, Sing Kee, and Rose Garden

- Friendly staff and manager/owner

- Late night restaurant

NEGATIVES

- Stewed oxtail and daikon hot pot resembles ketchup too much (personal preference)

LITTLE THINGS

- I rather come here than Dai Tung across the street

- I will come back for the crab and chicken!

Food: 3/5

Service: 3/5