Famous Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Alberta

It didn’t earn its namesake for no reason.

Famous Chinese Restaurant (haha) is by far the best Chinese food that I’ve had in Canmore/Banff. After a slew of restaurants that were a tad disappointing, this place was eye (and mouth) opening. I come from Toronto, and I frequently visit restaurants that serve Chinese cuisine. This place has earned its spot in my personal Asian restaurant hall of fame. Let me tell you why.

The portion sizes were ENORMOUS. For prices that lowball many other Asian restaurants in the area, Famous Chinese Restaurant serves extremely generous plates. For example, I ordered a ~$16 plate of ginger beef and there were probably 2 pounds of food on the plate. Do not eat here if you have a small stomach (or are alone) since your leftovers will cover your meals for the next day (or two, depending on how many different foods you purchase). But, this is probably a good thing, especially due to the remarkably high prices at most of the establishments in Canmore and Banff.

The flavour was chefs kiss nothing short of delicious. The flavour profiles of the seven dishes that my family ordered were all great. A generous mix of seasoning leads to an orchestra of saltiness, savouriness, umami, spice, and a trillion other flavours that you may have previously never had before. Word of warning to the unseasoned; this place will blow your socks (and tongue) off.

I’ll talk about some of the dishes that we got, and I’ll rate them all on a scale of 1-10 taking into account flavour, portion size, and affordability. As a penny pincher myself, the last guideline is important!

Szechuan-style Fried Rice (11/10) Yang Chow Fried Rice (11/10) Mapo Tofu (10/10) Ginger Beef (11/10)

Wait, why didn’t the Mapo tofu get 11/10? Oh yeah, that’s because I wish they served me another pound of it on my plate because I practically inhaled it! So good.

If you love great Chinese food, complex seasoning profiles, and good bang for your buck, definitely come eat here. I’d recommend getting the Yangchow Fried Rice (comes with chicken, shrimp, and veggies mixed into rice) and then a side of ginger beef (the Calgary special). These two dishes compliment one another so well, that I was practically blushing while taking bites.

I will definitely be coming here to eat again whenever I find myself in...

After reading the reviews I wondered if we picked the wrong place. I tend to look at the negative reviews and see what people are complaining about.

My partner is Chinese. Not Chinese ancestry. She is a Chinese citizen living in China for over 50 years. This food is definitely Chinese.

They did give us a fork and spoon. I asked for chopsticks and they brought them right away. When we didn't order drinks they asked if we wanted ice water. I asked if we could have warm water. Not a problem.

We ordered the Hot & Sour Soup. It was very tasty. It could have been a little more spicy but looking around the restaurant, I think really spicy isn't what the people of Canmore like. Safer to give them slightly spicy. Great flavour though.

After the soup we have the Beef With Two Kinds of Mushrooms. it was really good and a nice balance of mushrooms and beef. Not spicy but it wasn't supposed to me spicy according to the menu.

For last dish, we had the Black Bean Sauce with Fish Fillet. Not the level of spice I'm used to but spicy. The fish was tender and perfectly cooked. The chunks of peppers were bigger than I'm used but still properly cooked. There were two pieces of carrot in the dish. I love carrot. Wish there was more. Even without the carrot, it was delicious. Loads of fermented black beans.

I think the only complain I have is that this was a lot of food for two people.

Finally, the prices seemed inline with other places I have been eating at around Canmore and Banff. Higher than I would pay back in Ontario but on par with other restaurants in Canmore. The restaurants in the more touristy areas are actually notably more expensive and ocassionally double the price.

We are in Canmore for another week and will definitely have dinner here a...

Made reservations at noon for 7pm time. When we arrived at 7pm we waited at the front desk, and were pointed towards the table we would be seated at. We noticed other people seated at the restaurant were agitated, as some waited over an hour to get their food. We waited 45 mins, and no server even acknowledged we were there, and brought no water to the table. One of us kindly asked a person at the front desk how long the wait would be. They replied it would be an additional 45 minutes ! They seemed to be trying to take care of their take out orders first, and they were clearly short staffed. We called Patrinos to see if they could accommodate 10 people on a reservation. They took us right away. The tables were clean, the water was brought right away, and the order was taken within 10 mins.

To be fair, it was New Years day. However, it was also New Years day for Patrinos as well. Unfortunately Famous Chinese Restaurant does not fair that well this time for their service. We didn't stick around beyond 45 mins to try the food as the wait was too much for the group. We hope they correct the issue by having more staff , and manage their take out orders better so their walk in customers don't suffer. Had they told us at the time we made the reservation that it could take longer, that would...