Bowl Kee Restaurant — Restaurant in Markham

The restaurant was clean and not crowded. They were very careful with the Covid-19 restrictions. The hot pot rice was served hot and fresh because they prepared by order. We tried their pan-fried bean curd with mince meat. It was tasty. They offered complimentary soup and red bean cake dessert. They have discount for dine-in and take outs now. Its worth it!

They are still opened during lockdown. We tried their takeout set dinner a few times. We ordered a set dinner and tried different main courses each time. They included complimentary soup and red bean cakes as well. You can get a discount of 20% for take outs if you pay cash. The taste was as good as dine in and the portion was reasonable.

Recent Visit: We came here for early dinner (dine in) on a Sunday and felt lucky to get a table without a reservation. They got very busy after we were seated. The food came quickly and everything tasted quite good in general. Unfortunately, we didn’t get much service after it was full house. When people started to line up at their door, they even gave us pressure to pay & leave while some of us were still eating. This is the downside when we were dining here. I hope they can improved on this matter so we can be more happy to come...

Tightly squeezed tables filled with patrons and a line forming out the door -- these were the first indicators that we were in for a delicious meal! We ordered a clay pot rice for 6 people; the Szechuan fish fillets (a MUST try - they slightly sweet/sour and spicy sauce was so addictive and easily made it my favourite dish!); Sweet & sour pork; beef and taro hot pot; and spicy salt fried squid. Everything came blistering hot to the table and the flavours were out of this world. The squid was cooked perfectly and it was difficult to stop eating it. The sweet and sour pork was on par with any great Chinese restaurant. It seemed like they were understaffed but the waitress would explain she'd take the rest of our order once the clay pot rice cooked a bit longer (so all the food arrived at once) - and she was friendly and attentive as she zoomed to and fro. Highly recommend for the clay pot experience (but would suggest getting the pot for less people than you actually have so you can try all the other...

For a place specializing in casserole/clay pot rice, I was really expecting more.

They have these casserole rice dishes that are meant to serve 2/3/4 people and they're meant to be a good deal at what equates to about $10/person. However, they really aren't that big. Our 2 person rice could have been eaten by about 1.5 average eaters. It was also rather bland, even after adding their soy sauce. The ribs were bland. The soy sauce was watery. The rice crust wasn't crispy enough.

We also got a few other entree dishes that aren't really worth noting other than that they were quite expensive for what we were given.

Dessert was red bean in coconut milk jello. It isn't the prettiest thing ever. It tasted alright.

All in all, I wouldn't rush to come back.

Funny story: I know service at Chinese restaurants is spotty sometimes, and brisk and efficient is the aim of the game, but I can't remember the last time I heard one server yell halfway across the restaurant to another...