Double One Chinese Restaurant 美味閣

Driving from Burnaby to Vancouver along Hastings street which is literally only ten minutes, there is a large variety of restaurants. Competition wise, it is very competitive as most restaurants step up their promotions or quality of food; whether it be a lunch special or promotional prices regarding live seafood. However, at some restaurants, the quality of food along with the service is a total fail (IPOH Asian House).

When I heard the sentence "lets go for Chinese on Hastings Street", I could not think of which restaurant BF was talking about. Pelican? Um… we only go for late night. James on Hasting? Isn't that another late night restaurant? Golden Lake? The food was not good enough for a revisit after trying them out twice. Tung Sing Chin? NO. What else is there? Double One? Where is that? By Burgers Etc? Huh?

After doing the usual when we pull up to a restaurant that I am not interested in trying but yet, have nowhere else in mind, "oh… is that what you really want? Are you sure? No… I do not care what we eat. Really? Chinese? You sure? How about sushi? No… really, whatever you want it is fine… Italian? Oh Chinese? So Chinese right? You sure?" LOL. We headed to Double One and decided to check out the menu first. After seeing scallops on the menu, yup, let's do it and we took our seat. Well, more like stood at the front for a while until a friendly owner (the husband) came up to seat us.

The interior is very simple and there is nothing fancy. Double One appears to be family operated with the husband along with the son, working at the front of the house.

HOUSE SPECIAL WAR WONTON SOUP, SMALL ($8.95).

Ever since we started ordering, the dinner was off to a bad start. When we asked how big a size small portion of soup was, the waitress responded "I don't know" in an annoyed rude way like it was a dumb question to ask. How does a waitstaff not know? I do not get it. At practically every Chinese restaurant we have been to including the crappiest ones with rude staff, every waitstaff has always used a hand gesture to show us the portion size, or let us know how many bowls we could get out of it. After asking if she could guess the portion, she rolled her eyes and was more annoyed, then responded "good enough of two".

Yeah… not awkward and uncomfortable at all. I do not think she understands how much we love soup. If the portion is not good enough for us meaning at least six bowls, then it is not good enough for US two people. As for the taste, the wontons are a very traditional style which means they are cooked with a light orange color on the inside. Furthermore, the meat tastes moist and there is a bit of shrimp. As for the broth, there is a mild chicken taste with a bit of soy sauce, and does not taste too salty. In addition, I like the broccoli along with the barbecue pork.

3 1/2LB SPICY SALT CHILLI CRAB ($15.98/LB).

The crab is nicely fried and not heavily battered. On top of that, the crab tastes meaty (since it is at least 3lb) and has a light peppery salt seasoning flavour. If anything, the seasoning could have been stronger and have a mild spiciness.

LAMB MEAT IN HOT POT, BONE IN ($13.95).

The lamb tastes fairly tender and there is not much of a gamey taste (which I would have sort of hoped for). As for the bean curd sticks, they absorb the sauce like usual and taste juicy. In addition, the soy based sauce has a nice consistency which is not too thick or watery. If anything, there was a small strand of hair in the hot pot.

HOUSE SPECIAL CHOW MEIN ($9.95).

The chow mein is very generic and comes with bok choy, barbecue pork, squid, prawns and a bit of beef along with chicken. Although most of the ingredients do not taste too chewy, this is probably the least favourite dish throughout dinner because it tastes meh. There is nothing wrong with the chow mein, it is just, the sauce was not very tasty or bad.

SWEET AND SOUR PORK WITH PINEAPPLE ($10.50).

At a restaurant with plenty of non-Asian clientele, we assumed the sweet and sour pork must be good, as well as fresh. And it was! The sweet and sour pork is freshly made, properly deep fried and has a light crisp batter. On top of that, the meat tastes moist as well as juicy, and the sauce is almost perfect. The sweetness along with the sourness is well blended, and not one taste overwhelms the other. Furthermore, only a couple of the cuts of meat were pure fat. Most cuts were quite meaty.

COMPLIMENTARY TAPIOCA DESSERT SOUP.

The dessert soup is served hot and has a slight sweetness. Actually, we were surprised to receive this over the generic red bean soup, considering the type of Chinese restaurant along with the area.

TOTAL: $105.00 + $7.00 = $112.00.

The reason we chose to have dinner at Double One is because after taking a look at the menu, we thought the scallop dishes were reasonably priced at $16.00. However, since they were not available and the waitress responded "no scallop, don't have" and walked away while we were ordering, we were a bit puzzled on what to order as well as why she left. Furthermore, with no scallops and an extremely unfriendly as well as rude waitress, we really wanted to leave.

But, you never know until you try, and Double One is not bad. Actually, the restaurant is one of the better ones in Burnaby along Hastings Street. If it was not for the unfriendly waitress, we would probably consider revisiting to try more dishes based on convenience or if we were craving for sweet and sour pork. But, there are really too many mediocre restaurants to deal with rude staff. Furthermore, it is such a shame because the husband and son seemed very friendly and tried to please their customers. Although to be fair, the waitress was friendly to larger tables which can be expected; larger table, more food, bigger tip… which is kind of stupid because we ordered the same amount of food if not more, than the tables of four and five.

POSITIVES

- Food is not bad for the area

- Sweet and sour pork is pretty good (3.5/5)

- Husband and son were friendly and genuine toward the other tables

NEGATIVES

- Cutlery is dirty

- Rude waitress

- Small strand of hair in the hot pot

LITTLE THINGS

- Love supporting family businesses. But, if I want rude service, I might as well go to a larger Chinese restaurant that serves better food with cheaper seafood prices. Although to be fair, she probably thought we would only order a couple of dishes and did not want to bother with us. Either way, no business should ever think like that

- Food is better than Peking Restaurant which is also in Burnaby along Hastings Street

Food: 2.5/5
Service: 1.5/5 (husband and son 2.5/5)