Nine Dishes 九道

All You Can Eat? Nine Dishes? What kind of restaurant or buffet is this? These are some of the thoughts that run through my mind whenever I pass by the restaurant. When we entered, we were pointed towards a seat and a sheet of paper along with a pen were plopped on the table. We assumed the obvious and wrote down our order before proceeding to the counter, where we handed the sheet in. After the first dish arrived, we waited a while and noticed other tables with drinks, so we assumed we were supposed to order drinks at the counter and brought them back to our table.

Nine Dishes is one restaurant where service is truly non-existent, but at least the gentleman did not look miserable. He was not friendly either, just indifferent. As for the interior, the restaurant is really cold! I wanted to keep my jacket on but because it is a runway piece, I did not want it touching the table so placed it on a chair while hesitating at the same time because the furniture is not the cleanest. The cold temperature made sense throughout dinner however because every table ordered a Szechuan hot pot.

S&W Pepper House 西南風

Unintentionally spending an unproductive day from grabbing a breakfast snack at Mancakes (which was good), then going for mediocre dim sum in Richmond at Red Star but having to rush back to Vancouver, followed by a scare of Xu's Wonton House permanently closing which resulted in us trying North Meixi for a couple of unpleasant dim sum dishes, to walking around Crystal Mall afterwards because we needed to kill time before eating dinner. After all this, I just wanted to go home! I hate unproductive days and it was pretty much having to come back to Vancouver that caused the hiccup in our plans, sigh.

The good news is, killing time by walking around Crystal Mall was not so bad because it was worth it in the end to have dinner at S&W Pepper House. We did not even have to circle around for parking this time too! S&W Pepper House offers authentic Szechuan cuisine and the restaurant uses dried chilli peppers as well as Szechuan peppercorns, therefore no BS chilli oil and soy sauce only!

Walking in, the restaurant looks very simple and there is no decor, however the place is fairly clean. There is a nice chilli oil and dried chilli pepper aroma, but in a good way and not "greasy" whatsoever. As for the seating arrangements, there is one table suitable for large parties and booth seating arrangements along the wall. The owner and staff were also friendly and inviting!

Lucky Star Chinese Restaurant 辣子紅南北私房菜

Lucky Star is located in North Burnaby and the restaurant serves Cantonese style Chinese cuisine as well as Szechuan. The interior of the restaurant looks better than the exterior and there are comfortable seating arrangements. In addition, there are a few chandeliers, a large television screen, and all the furnishings appear to be custom made and imported from China. The seats are fairly comfortable too because of the padding.

As for the food, the restaurant offers a variety of dishes and the menu is not limited at all. There are choices from dim sum, soup, congee, prawns, chicken, duck, beef, lamb, scallops, pork, sizzling hot pots, chow mein, handmade noodles and rice. But the thing is, there are more than only a few choices under each category! For example, the restaurant has five kinds of scallop dishes. Lucky Star also has a few frog dishes, but we passed because I am way too picky when it comes to that.

Legend House

Legend House is a fairly new Northern China cuisine restaurant in Coquitlam. The restaurant makes their own dumplings along with hand stretched noodles, and offers a variety of Szechuan dishes.

Walking in, there is an open window kitchen concept and the interior is very nice. The restaurant has a rustic modern interior; unfinished wooden floors along the walls, bricks, a high ceiling and nice chandeliers. In addition, the restaurant is fairly big!

There are comfortable booth seating arrangements and plenty of tables. Asides from being one of the larger Chinese restaurants in Coquitlam, Legend House is definitely one of the better looking ones. As for the staff, everyone was friendly. Our waitress double checked our order on her tablet and a few other waitresses came by to see if we needed more drinks.

Szechuan Chongqing 重慶大飯店 : Commercial Drive location

Yeah… not going to bother taking another photo of the restaurant's exterior LOL, this photo is good enough. Around 9:00pm on a Sunday, where is there to go for Chinese food? Other than the usual late night restaurants on Kingsway, Fraser or Main Street, apparently Szechuan Chongqing is open until 10:30pm (not really late night but it was useful in my situation)!

I have been trying to come here for a while now and well, I just do not bother. Possibly because my family has never been here, or family friends… or hey, even my own friends! Meaning, there must be a reason right? Plus, when I tried visiting the location in Burnaby, their seafood was $5.00/lb higher than Kirin! As for the interior, the restaurant looks quite nice. The interior follows a neutral color scheme, has a high ceiling, chandeliers, and is fairy big as well as spacious.

Private Home Chinese Cuisine 一點心意

Is it sad having to check Instagram to remember the restaurants that I visited during the week? When I started my post, I forgot the reason for visiting Private Home Chinese. I remember wanting to try something different and was in the mood for Chinese; however, don't I usually eat Chinese? So why am I craving for it? 

After checking IG, I noticed that it has actually been days since I have had Chinese food! Asides from hot pot a few nights ago. So, either my memory needs some improvement or I need to start visiting more memorable restaurants! Private Home Chinese is a family owned restaurant that opened their second location on Kingsway Street, in Burnaby. The restaurant serves Northern China and Szechuan cuisine. Also, seafood is available but requires preordering which is somewhat a disappointment for impulse diners. 

The restaurant is newly renovated and has two sides for different seating arrangements. One side has a few tables for larger parties of more than six, and the other has plenty of booth seating arrangements and tables in the centre. The interior has a black and red scheme and there are red plastic booth seats which are easy to clean, as well as black coloured tables and chairs. Furthermore, the restaurant has a relaxing atmosphere and a couple of TVs tuned to the mandarin channel, which gives the impression that customers will never be rushed. 

On a Saturday evening, the restaurant was fairly empty and we were greeted by a friendly waitress. 

New Szechuan Restaurant 新四川飯店

New Szechuan resembles what one would find at a small local town village in China, straight down from the decor to service. The cream coloured walls with four paintings on the wall, sanitary disposable tablecloths (which I prefer), and two staff members sitting at the counter staring at you without offering a table; only happens at the smallest village in China.