Alvin Garden 湘緣湖南食府

Pretty much having tried most of the Chinese restaurants on Kingsway Street in Burnaby and Vancouver, I started looking for something new and different. This is where Alvin Garden comes in. If it was not for Urbanspoon, I would not even know of this restaurant.

Located near Metrotown on Imperial Street, Alvin Garden is known to the locals and by word of mouth or simply, known to those who drive pass which I never. The restaurant serves Hunan cuisine which is different from Sichuan, rather than the tongue numbing sensation from sichuan peppercorns, Hunan dishes use chilli oil for spiciness. The only other Hunan cuisine restaurant that I have visited in Vancouver would be Star Anise (according to the restaurant themselves...) which was not very… Hunan or good at all. So, I was quite excited for this visit. 

DAILY SOUP BOILED IN CROCK, PORK WITH DREID TEA MUSHROOM, CAULIFLOWER WITH HUNAN CHILLI AND PORK, HUNAN FRIED RICE, COUNTRY STYLE FRIED PORK WITH GREEN CHILLI, HUNAN STYLE BRAISED PORK, SMOKED BAMBOO SHOOTS WITH SMOKED PORK.

COUNTRY STYLE FRIED PORK WITH GREEN CHILLI ($12.98).

You know how some restaurants have a red chilli or flame symbol on the menu indicating that a dish is spicy? And the disappointment when there is not even a hint of spiciness? Well, at Alvin Garden, the spicy is actually spicy! When asked for which level of spiciness, we requested medium spicy and that is what we got! The thin slices of pork belly have a nice chewy snappy texture and the jalapeños are perfectly crisp. I also like that some of the pork is shredded so the meat absorbs more heat.

SMOKED BAMBOO SHOOTS WITH SMOKED PORK ($15.98).

Another requested medium spicy dish is the smoked bamboo shoots with smoked pork. The pork belly has a heavy marinaded as well as salted taste and again like the first dish, is thinly sliced with a pleasant snappy chewiness. For the bamboo shoot, the taste as well as texture resembles oyster mushrooms and has an overpowering salty marinade, it does not really taste like bamboo shoot. However, despite the salty marinade taste in the pork and bamboo shoot, the spiciness from the red chilli and chilli oil balances out the saltiness, in a way.

DAILY SOUP BOILED IN CROCK, PORK WITH DRIED TEA MUSHROOM ($9.98).
The pork with dried tea mushroom soup has a faint pork broth taste and tastes plain but meh, nothing to complain about since I believe slow cooked soups are healthier compared to other ones such as hot and sour or sweet corn. The soup has plenty of dried tea mushroom which have a pleasant chewiness, some tender tasting spareribs and a few pieces of pork which tastes a bit chewy.

CAULIFLOWER WITH HUNAN CHILLI AND PORK ($12.98).
The cauliflower with hunan chilli and pork seems to be quite a popular dish, almost every table ordered this! The vegetable tastes crunchy, not overcooked and very tasty. I like my vegetables boiled or steamed with no sauce, pretty much clean, however, this is quite tasty. The broth has a medium spiciness as requested, does not taste oily and again, has pork belly. We did not plan on ordering three dishes with pork belly LOL but I guess it turned out that way.

HUNAN STYLE BRAISED PORK ($13.98).
The hunan style braised pork is first braised then steamed, rather than only braised like in Cantonese cuisine. The pork is sliced in nice thin slices, tastes extremely tender as well as fatty and melts in the mouth, including the lean part of the meat. The meat is so tender that when picked up, the lean meat separates from the fatty portion! As for the sauce, it has a light preserved vegetable taste and does not taste overly greasy, oily or saucy which makes eating the meat without rice enjoyable.

HUNAN FRIED RICE WITH SAUSAGE, EGG AND MIXED VEGETABLES ($9.98).
Rather than the typical and safe order of yeung chow fried rice, we went with the hunan style. The fried rice has a damp texture since fresh rice is used rather than overnight and the ingredients are properly fused together. The hunan style fried rice has a stronger soy taste compared to generic fried rice.






POSITIVES
- Medium spicy is actually medium spicy with a good amount of heat
- Unique dishes (cauliflower with hunan chilli and pork is recommended)

NEGATIVES
- Staff is surprisingly not approachable or friendly (even for a typical Chinese restaurant)
- In a way, the food is nothing special (the restaurant just makes proper spicy dishes)

LITTLE THINGS
- Dim sum items (dumplings, green onion pancake…) is only available during dim sum
- Wanted to try the mouth watering chicken but they were sold out :(
- Live seafood requires preordering
- Yeah… I was too cheap to let BF order the prawns with scrambled eggs for $12.98 LOL

Food: 2.5/5
Service: 2.5/5