Congee Queen

Date: December 30, 2012
Location: Don Mills/Steeles, Markham
Website: http://www.congeequeen.com/
Cuisine: Chinese
Meal: dinner

My thoughts:
I came here with my family around 7:30 and had to wait for about 1 hour! The restaurant was at full capacity, but it was sure worth the wait. We shared the following:


FRIED CHILI TURNIP PATTIES ($5.25) - My sister's recommendation, and a very good one indeed. Turnip patties are a traditional Cantonese dish made of ground turnip and have a soft chewy texture. It is very unique (in a good way!) and flavourful. They are also often spicy, as was the case here. If you are not Chinese and are guilty of only ordering fried rice and wontons every time you go to a Chinese restaurant, I'm telling you, you have to try this. It's very good!

CANADIAN SMOKED SALMON FRIED RICE ($11.25) - Continuing from my last point, if you DO decide to order fried rice, order this one! Haha. Very good and different (again, in a good way).

CONPOY CONGEE ($2.50) - Conpoy is dried scallop and congee is basically a savoury rice porridge. The conpoy gives the congee a lot of flavour.

SLICED BEEF CONGEE ($4.75) - If you have never tried congee, this is a good place to start (unless you can't eat beef, that is). I don't know what it is that restaurants do, but the beef in beef congee is always very tender. A great thing to have in the dead of winter to warm up you right up!

FRIED RICE NOODLE WITH SHRIMP AND SCRAMBLED EGG SAUCE ($9.25) - This is one of my sister's favourite noodle dish, so we ordered it. While everything else came within 5 minutes of us ordering, this one took quite some time and as such, we were pretty full and couldn't finish this. We took it home. This dish does not reheat well, as the noodles absorb most of the sauce.

My verdict:
This is an excellent Chinese restaurant with a wide selection of traditional and non-traditional Chinese dishes. I couldn't help but notice that there were also quite a few non-Chinese patrons. My dad made this observation too, and he thinks it is because of the central location (just off the DVP), the offerings, and the fact that the menu is supplemented with lots of pictures. The service was very quick (with the exception of the rice noodle) and all the employees speak fluent English, but most of all, the food was EXCELLENT! We were all thoroughly impressed.