興記 Hing's Kitchen — Restaurant in Markham

· “ Hing’s Kitchen, Major Mac/Woodbine, Markham “ - Probably the most inconsistent and disappointing dinner of the year featuring some really bad dishes!

Nestle stealthily inside the ‘Canadian Tire Strip Plaza’ on Major Mackenzie, just east of the 404 exit. For a nominal amount of $60 per person and a minimum of 10 people per table, this self proclaimed ‘ Chiu-Chow Cuisine ‘ specialist will offer the patrons a pseudo-exclusive taste of the Hong Kong style ‘Private KItchen concept’ dining experience.

Usually pet projects of skilled chefs who set up ‘club members only like‘ shops inside residential units to cater for the dining requests of privileged patrons. Nowadays, this idea has morphed into specially dedicated, cordoned off areas within their restaurants. Inside a more exclusive, enclosed environment, options are provided for patrons to craft in advance, a set menu containing usually some of their favorite labor intensive special dishes using ‘market du jour’, exotic and exclusory ingredients. The other option being a ‘ trust the chef ‘, off-menu, Omakase option, which we decided on today.

Tonight’s chef’s offering consisted of the following ‘ ranging from great to bad ‘, innards heavy, EXOTIC, house specialty dishes:

Amuse Bouche - Preserved Pickled Chinese Mustard Greens; Deep Fried Fish Skin; Smoked Herbed Soy sauce ( Lo-Shui, 潮式滷水汁 ) Pig’s intestine Appetizer - Chinese style ‘Charcuterie‘ platter of Lo-Shui Marinated Beef Tripe, Duck Tongues and Beef Shank. Mains - ‘Chiu-Chow‘ style Cold Crabs ( Here, BC Dungeness Crabs were used instead of Oriental Flower Crabs ) Pig’s stomach, Chicken Feet, Pork Hock and Almond Soup Whole Smoked, Caramelized Sugar, Marinated Duck ‘Chiu-Chow’ style Cold Poached Fish ( Here, again due to availability, the normally used Grey Mullet (wu-tau 烏頭) were substituted using Green Sea Bass ) Stirred fry Pork-Neck meat, Conge Meat and Squid with Mixed Vegetables Braised Waxed Gourd, Goji Berries and Red Dates with Pig’s Liver Stirred Fry Choi-Sum with Fried Garlic Cloves and Deep Fried Pork Lard Braised Abalone and Chinese Shitake Mushroom on Yee-Mien Noodles Dessert - Creamy Taro Dessert Soup with Black Sesame Moch On paper, this was a most exotic and uncommon meal offering. Sadly, inconsistent and poor execution of some dishes ruined the majority part of the meal. Dinner started off with a few pretty high notes. Some notable and highly enjoyable dishes included the delectable and well seasoned amuse bouche, the dense and creamy Almond/Pig’s Stomach Soup and the super flavourful and aromatic Smoked Duck. Other dishes like the Cold Crab and Charcuterie platter ( containing some under-seasoned components ) were acceptable but nothing to write home about! Unfortunately, the quality and taste of the remainder of the meal plummeted off the cliff after the serving of the duck. The over-cooked poached sea bass was tough and bland. The stirred fry dish, one of the worst dishes I have ever encountered in a formal dinner. All proteins were once again, over-cooked and leathery. But worst of all, the dish was absolutely tasteless and totally void of any essential wok-hay. How the chef can even consider presenting this disaster of a dish to us is totally beyond my comprehension! Remaining of the few dishes did not fare any better. The under-seasoned and over-cooked Pig’s liver lacked flavor and crunchiness ( If ‘Very Good Congee’ impressive rendition is a 10, Hing’s version, IMO, only deserves a 3.…max! ), all vegetables were sadly prepared, bland, under-seasoned and without heart and soul!

If ‘The Terminator‘ happened to attend our dinner party yesterday. I’m sure after the meal, he would have said ‘ I WON’T...

We came here for dinner, we ordered a half duck Chiu Chow marinated duck, a plate of soy sauce marinated pork stomach and their Chef's Recommendation item (Oysters in soup rice).

The half duck is good portion with quite a number of duck pieces. The duck visually was marinated very well with the sauce, the duck is flavourful, however, we preferred the duck to be more tender than it's a bit overcooked, which is hard to chew when they serve with disposable wooden chopstix which doesn't offer much dexterity or sheared force.

The white vinegar and its homemade chili oil was very nice.

The pork stomach, we prefer it to be less overcooked and if the chef could knife it down into thinner pieces, then it would be better, but at $8.99 CDN + tax, it's good portion and very good price.

The oysters rice soup was on Chef's Recommendation item, so we gave it a try, they used fresh big oysters and chopped them into smaller pieces, it's fresh, meaty, the soup however didn't have enough "winter choy" and a bit blend. Rice in the soup was good though, not too raw and not too soggy, rice texture was very good. The size was a bit on the small size considering they charge $14.99 CDN.

Anyhow, I think this place is more suitable for lunch time as there is a limited options for dinner items. I think it's best to come lunch time when you have a smaller appetite where each person orders a bowl of soup noodles or a dish of meat with rice, coz there are hardly any dishes option to eat as a traditional dinner.

Originally during this visit, we really wanted to order a few bowl of rices and then ordered a few dishes for dinner but dishes are really limited that we forgone that dinner idea and just ordered a bunch stuff.

My dad was hoping there would be oyster stir fry omelette which is a traditional Chiu Chow dish but they don't offer it here. :(

All-in-all, it's a simple, no-frills semi-Chiu Chow restaurant offers simple soup noodles and soy marinated dishes and the prices compared to other restaurants in the area are on the fair and affordable prices, which is a major plus.

I don't mind coming back but most likely during lunch time, perhaps order a fish dumpling soup ho fun and a plate of half-duck Chiu Chow duck to share.

The staff here are friendly, courteous and hard working, they are...

One of my favorite restaurants to go to if I wanted to get a quick lunch that doesn't make me guilty afterwards ;) Wonton Chai on the weekends at lunch are normally pretty busy where you'd have to line up. Luckily though, the lineups don't last very long and I usually get a table within 5-10mins. Sometimes the servers would ask if you'd like to share a table with another group (which I don't mind since I'm just here to grab a quick meal). We already knew what we wanted to order; and the servers usually assume you know what you want right away (they ask what you'd like the moment you sit down haha).

My recommendation for food is to get their regular wonton noodle on soup as it is one of the classics, or if you're not feeling noodles, then try for the wonton in soup option instead. You'll be satisfied with every bite as it is very flavourful, and don't even mention how big the wontons are! Also, don't forget to slurp the soup too ;) The food comes very quickly (usually max 10 min wait) and you'd want to dive in right away.

You'll be full guarantee and will also have a happy tummy and feeling satisfied afterwards. Just don't expect this restaurant to be a place to relax and chit chat, it's literally a fast pace restaurant that's meant for a quick meal and go go go...