Victoria Chinese Restaurant Wedding Feast
Posted on 05/21/2011
Address: 1088 Melville St, Vancouver
The rain had just stopped on a rainy Saturday afternoon when family and a few friends gathered together to witness our civil marriage ceremony. The yellow tulips planted in a row near the Rose Garden Pavilion made a good setting for a few informal post-wedding photos. After everyone had their fill of photos, we all headed for Victoria Chinese Restaurant.
My inside track source to the best in Vancouver Asian-food dining takes his wife every year to Victoria Restaurant for their wedding anniversary. So I thought it would be a good idea to have my wedding banquet here. And yes indeed, it turned out to be a very good idea! I let everyone order a dish -- with six couples present that meant we would get to try twelve dishes.
Mr. and Mrs. Cory Roan.
The red table cloth wraps a large round table in VIP room of Victoria Restaurant.
Family and friends around the dining table.
Hot and Sour Seafood Soup $18.98
First course: hot and sour soup. I have tried this soup many times at various Chinese restaurants around town and abroad. I have to say that the quality of this soup is very good, and set the tone for the rest of the meal.
Roasted Peking Duck (2 Course) $38.98
Part I of this dish includes wheat-flower wrap with crispy duck skin, spring onions and gourmet hoisin sauce. I have only had this dish once before, believe it or not, at Northern Dynasty restaurant in Richmond (before my blogging days unfortunately, which means I have another restaurant to blog soon). The skin of this duck is tasty as expected. I imagine the only way to ruin this dish is to make the skin too hard or too soft. I once had a roast suckling pig in Hadyai Thailand where the skin was so hard, pieces of pork crackling were flying out of my mouth when I had to bite down at odd angles. But that is another story.
Peking Duck part II. Lettuce wrap with minced duck meat, veggies and crispy noodles.
Everyone was raving about this part of the dish. It was so nice to hear a table of predominantly 'white people' enjoying a Chinese dish so well! I think Caucasians really like the idea of the lettuce wrap. Anyways, it was actually very good, the minced duck meat mixed in nicely with the other ingredients.
Seafood and Chicken Chow Mien $15.98
This dish in my opinion is a 'must' for any Chinese feast. The 'long life noodles' need to be there even if just for the sake of token presence. This chow mien dish was good quality all around, except I prefer there be more crispy noodles on the outside of the 'nest', which in this case most of the noodles were doused in sauce before the plate came to me.
Sweet & Sour Pork w/ Pineapple and Bell Pepper $15.98
A Caucasian favorite, sweet and sour pork is probably the best known Chinese food among White People. And sure enough, someone who was having trouble ordering (they live in Mission) wanted me to order for them, but I insisted that everyone order a dish no matter what. So she suddenly saw sweet and sour pork and proclaimed in a loud voice this was her order, to the approval of the entire table.
Ginger Flavor Beef $15.98
Because there was already chicken, pork and seafood someone decided wisely to order a beef dish. This ginger beef is definitely not your usual caramelized, crispy, deep fried beef usually seen in Chinese fast food joints.
Spicy Eggplant Casserole $15.98
There were a few at the table who don't enjoy eggplant, but it is one of my favorites and being the groom decided to order the spicy version. Very good quality with soft braised eggplant slathered in delicious and not too sweet gravy.
Another dish I forgot to photo (seen next to the braised eggplant) separately is the spinach in garlic sauce, a Seasonal Vegetable menu item $12.98.
Honeymoon Fried Rice $16.98
My wife ordered this dish to the delight of the whole table, most of whom were unfamiliar with this yinyang swirled mixed rice platter. Ati says Shanghai River makes it much better and I would tend to agree even without having had it there only because Shanghai River makes most dishes better (than anyone else in town). Since everyone was full at this point, we took it to go and I had it for lunch the next day. Mmm good.
At the end of dinner, I noticed there were only nine dishes and asked around for others to order, but the consensus was they were too full. Advice I would pass on to another looking to do a Chinese feast where everyone orders a dish: go to a restaurant where the portions are smaller, or request smaller portions in order to facilitate the idea of one dish per person. Cheers.
My sweetheart decorating the Victoria Chinese Restaurant sign. All in all, a very good pick for a wedding feast. This is the type of restaurant that provides consistency in food quality, tending to a higher rather than a lower standard and so we all experienced good quality food and good service. I'll blog next year perhaps for our first wedding anniversary dinner...
Long live Victoria Chinese Restaurant!