Monday 28 August 2017

Halal Chinese Lanzhou Hui Cuisine in Toronto | Orient Express


Orient Express / DFG Palace

One day while driving down the street in Scarborough, a quick glance to the passing shops yielded something shocking: a Chinese restaurant with the Halal symbol in the store sign! We quickly made a u-turn to find out what exactly this place was.

We were greeted and given a menu to look at, as they didn't have takeout menus in English. No problem, I told them. I took the Chinese menu and resolved to find out what was good.
The store manager spotted my hijabed self and assured me that they were one of the top Chinese halal restaurants. I was intrigued.

After consulting with a friend who helped me read some of the Chinese characters and pick out the most authentic dishes, we were ready to head back!

Note: We received verbal assurance about the restaurant's halal meat status. This restaurant does not serve alcohol.





The restaurant has a typically Chinese feel to it, same as what I'd expect when going to a restaurant in Hong Kong or Mainland China. It was pretty low key. We were seated at a table, which had a dispenser for soup spoons, a holder for chopsticks and napkins, and ready jugs with water, tea, and condiments on the side.

The restaurant seemed to have made a few changes since we were last here. There was a glossed menu in English with photos, and there was also a translated paper menu, where you used a pencil to tick off the dishes you wanted, similar to a dim sum restaurant.

We pulled out our handy-dandy (old) menu that was in Chinese and found the dishes we were recommended with little difficulty, except one was now not on the menu anymore. We chose one main dish each and one appetizer, and the food arrived within 10 minutes.


First up was this dish called House Soy Sauce Beef from the cold menu, which was cold slices of beef with a dipping sauce. This sounded pretty odd to me, being cold beef and all, but having been a childhood favourite of my husband's I agreed to give it a shot.

I'M SO GLAD I DID! This was a super great dish. The beef is like slices of easy bite, fall-apart roast beef dipped in a sauce composed of Chinese chili oil, garlic, black vinegar, and maybe soy sauce.
It really didn't look like much, but this was fantastic. Highly recommended!


Next up was a dish of fresh hand-pulled noodles called Dry Noodle Sauce Spicy Chicken (we chose for them to be flat and larger in width) with mildly spicy chicken and vegetables in a sauce. It came with a bowl of soup broth on the side, that you're supposed to sip in between bites of the dish. This was alright, but wasn't my favourite. The noodles were nice, but the chicken and sauce were a tad plain. I loved the broth, though.

To add a bit of a boost of flavour, I put some chili oil with the crushed chili from the condiment container on the table, which improved this dish 100%, in my opinion.

The portion size was huge, though. We ended up taking half home.


Next was a huge, massive bowl of hand-pulled noodles in a bowl of broth, radishes, and coriander and green onions on top, along with a spoon of chili oil called Traditional Lanzhou Beef Noodle. The beef was the same beef that we had as an appetizer, but it went very well with the soup, as it absorbed all the yummy flavours.

The broth is a beef broth that's really refreshing, and the hand-pulled noodles were great, although next time I think we'd choose noodles that were a bit smaller in width.

The portion size for this one was also huge, and we took half of it home.

These three dishes, plus two drinks and tip was about $38, tax included.

The Menu

Note: The sign outside says "Orient Express" however the menu says "DFG's Palace".












Location

Address: 4271 Sheppard Ave E, Scarborough, ON M1S 1T6
Phone Number: (416) 291-3630
Website: (Chinese only) www.dongfanggong.com.cn



Be sure to Like our Facebook page for more hidden halal gems in the Greater Toronto Area! :)

-Maryam

1 comment:

  1. I spoke to the employees regarding the halal, all they could confirm was that its halal. Has anyone found out their meat source? Thanks in advance...

    ReplyDelete