Apr 07 2009
Restaurant Review: Mr Yang’s cafe, Dominion road (take 2)
This place has recently become one of the places that me and my family visits for lunch during weekdays, due to its flavorful (but not as oily as the other joints I’ve frequented) dishes and cheap price (but not at the expense of quality nor quantity). This time round we decided to try a few other slightly different dishes!
[Stir fried pork] $15~
This dish really accentuates the advantages of having a gas-powered wok - the spring onions and pork stir fried quickly over high heat provides a crispness that is very hard to rival on electric element stoves, which is what we have at home. The heavy flavors of sweet chili, black beans with the crunchy spring onions make rice a necessity at the table.
[sweet and sour cabbage] $13~
Despite the chilies visible on the dish, it’s barely spicy even for someone like me who doesn’t have a very high level of tolerance for spiciness. Its more sweet than sour but the cabbage is both thick and crisp, which makes for a substantial vegetable dish. I’d recommend some tea in between bites to get rid of the cooking oil that was used liberally in the creation of this dish!
[pan fried four season beans] $15~
One of the simpler and common dishes found in Chinese restaurants, the “dried four season beans” (literally translated) is meant to be slightly on the dry side, having been pan fried for a wee while, usually sitting amongst some nicely pan fried mince and pickles (pickles optional depending on eatery preference). We had a really nice variation of this here at Mr Yang’s cafe where the beans they served were still juicy - being ‘dried’ by name, we’ve experienced some variations where the beans were totally pan fried to the point of shriveling; it’s actually quite a common interpretation in some of the restaurants I dined in Taiwan back when I was young… but I do like this version too. The mince is quite salty so they didn’t add in much salt - as a result the beans provided a nice contrast to the heavily flavored pork (which this eatery does quite well), and overall adds to the urgency with which rice must be present on the table once this dish arrives!
[pan fried pancakes / bread boxes] $7~
The last time I tried the pan fried pancakes, it was pretty good so we ordered it again this time. Just like last time, very oily and suitably aromatic. Very filling if you’re having rice to compensate for the previous dishes!
[soy sauce fried rice] $13~
At the outset this may not look that appetizing… and it wasn’t all that flash to be honest. One would think that the color of the rice hints to the flavors in store for my eager tongue; however there wasn’t all that many flavor in this dish! I actually found this dish quite bland (perhaps a by-product of the heavy hitting dishes we ordered for lunch today) but the rice surprisingly moist for a fried rice dish. I wouldn’t order this dish again but it’d be interesting to ask the chef how it’s really supposed to taste like!
At the given prices, it was a really filling meal for four people! We’d definitely revisit this place again (I’ve eaten here more than twice, mind you. Just haven’t bothered to review this place every time we do dine here :P) and I’ll be blogging about any of the other tasty dishes that I come across!
Contact details:
248A Dominion Road,
Mt Eden
Auckland City
(09)638 6458
Hours:
(Unconfirmed) Lunch and dinner, 7 days.
