Manna Kitchen 瑪娜廚房 — Restaurant in Markham

After a sat afternoon badminton session, I along w/ my gf and friends were gonna have a chill dinner at Blue Ocean Cafe in the same plaza (New Kennedy Square).

When we parked, we noticed that Blue Ocean was absolutely packed so we walked around the plaza and noticed that this resto had replaced Chef Papa Tea & Noodle Bar.

Curious, we decided to try it. The interior has remained unchanged. No decor, lighting or layout changes.

The food is completely different though. Chef Papa, the predecessor in this unit was a Deer Garden copycat resto. This new resto is very much an HK cafe serving up some fusion dishes as well.

Most of us got rice dishes. One of my friends' gf got chicken yakisoba which was just ok. If you come here for dinner I would HIGHLY recommend ordering a rice dish.

Red wine braised beef brisket omurice: The brisket was tender, the potatoes were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, the egg was the perfect runniness and they give you a GOOD amount of sauce.

Curry beef brisket omurice: The curry was tasty and flavourful. The brisket was, again, very tender. Potatoes crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

Baked portuguese chicken rice: The chicken was tender and the sauce was interesting. My friend said he wished they topped him off w/ some cheese but usually that's extra so it's fine.

Hainanese chicken rice: My friends and I thought this chicken rice was just slightly above avg. For some reason, a lot of ppl I know (outside of my friend group) love to use Phoenix Restaurant as a barometer for good hainanese chicken rice. I highly disagree w/ the notion that their chicken rice is good but if I go along and use them as the measuring stick for avg, I would say this chicken rice is above avg. The rice was properly cooked in the chicken oil but it definitely could've used even more aromatics. I know the community is divided on whether or not the chicken should be boneless for this dish. My friends and I happen to rate it higher when the chicken comes boneless. This one came bone-in so it already didnt go into the top-tier off that factor alone.

Pork chop in gravy w/ rice: My friend who ordered this said the pork chop was juicy and not overcooked. He also thought the gravy was better than your typical HK cafe gravy sauce.

Fried wings: Yea, the batter was a little too thick and there wasn't enough seasoning on them. But they were juicy and the wings were plump and meaty.

Like I said above, the yakisoba was ordinary and not something you should try for a first time. Some other caveats I'd like to point out. The portions are MASSIVE. Part of the reason I'm giving 5 stars is the bang for buck value. For $14.50 or $15.50 (current avg price for a rice dish, at the time of this review), you get a giant rice dish and the quality is strong. The egg for the omurice is also cooked just right and not overdone. The seasoning was on point and food comes out fast as well. I've got a big appetite and even I felt satisfied after eating.

I was reading Philip L's review and he mentioned that this spot is actually opened by the same owner of Blue Ocean Cafe (right across the plaza) which is a pleasant coincidence. Imo, this spot totally smokes Blue Ocean out of the water. I awarded Blue Ocean a 3 star rating because there is literally nothing special about it from food to value.

One thing they did kinda mess up was our drink orders but that's fine (I ordered a milk tea w/ zero sugar and it came w/ sugar even tho the cup said "no sugar" lol, my friend also didn't order a coke but they brought him one).

I will definitely be back. This HK cafe is now on my repeat visit list due to the...

“ MANA KITCHEN, Hwy#7 / Kennedy, Markham “ - If ‘Hong Kong Cafe Style Food’ is your thing, then this hidden gem is a ‘must-try‘ for you!

We came to this relatively new-kid-on-the-block with one special dish in mind and man!...am I glad we did!

Confirming verdicts from a few fellow foodies preceding my visit…..Yes! Mana Kitchen does indeed offer one of the best if not THE BEST tasting Singaporean style Hainanese Chicken Rice in town! Their rendition, composing a generous portion of exemplary prepared, silky smooth and flavourful free-range chicken paired with well seasoned and fragrant coconut / chicken fat infused rice plus a duo of delicious dipping sauces is undeniably a gratifying culinary piece of art......and that bowl of ' umami loaded ' chicken, winter melon soup! So complex, dense and out-of-this-world good! Wow!!😋😋

To the above, we also augmented it with a few of the following note-worthy house specials:

an authentic tasting, baked Macau style Portuguese Chicken Rice Casserole a greaseless, super-size and super-crispy fried Japanese Tonkatsu Pork Cutlet paired with spicy Sichuan Dan-Dan ‘pea-nutty’ soup ramen noodles a Boeuf Bourguignon look alike Asian influenced Red Wine Braised Beef Short-Ribs a jumbo size Taiwanese Fried Chicken Leg…..

During the ordering process, a whole slew of popular Pan-Asian street food favorites, elevated to ‘foodie approval level‘ and incorporating some interesting twists also caught our eyes…….may be next time?!

The spectrum of food and beverage coverage spread over multiple well-presented and illustrated Menus. A full page was dedicated to some intriguing and tasty drink selections……eg.,The burnt brown sugar Caramel Bubble Milk Tea was exceptionally delicious, most importantly, not overly sweet! The exotic Mango and Pomelo drink with Coconut jello, another.

Overall, the wide selection of delectable, well executed and well priced food, will for sure surprise and satisfy most palates!

For my next visit, I have already singled out for ordering, the following tier of house specials to try :- Baked duo of Meat Ragu and Fried Pork-Chop in Cheese and Tomato Sauce Rice Casserole; Rare sliced beef and instant noodle, Satay Broth Hot Pot; an elaborate looking, fully dressed, multi-decker Club Sandwich; Southern Fried Chicken and Waffle……to name a few!

Be warned! If making an impromptu visit on a weekend, be prepared to wait! The wait-line that extended from the reception area onto the pavement, at around 7.00 pm, when we left, was at least 2 score people long!.....Why these patrons did not make advanced reservations on a busy weekend really...

Our 1st time dining here at Manna Kitchen, we decided to try it's "Afternoon Tea" menu. We ordered the fish ball fish cake soup noodle and a bowl of grilled steak instant soup noods. Both came with a hot beverage (cold beverage add $1.00 CDN).

The fish ball fish cake soup noods came at hot temperature, which is great, fish balls was ok, typical fish balls. We like the thickness of the fish cakes with ingredients of fishes. The broth was creamy and you could tell it was prepared with fish bones or fishes in there, that's a nice touch. However, we think the portion was ok but enough for afternoon tea.

The grilled steak was pre-sliced which is good for this soup noods style. Broth was ok and the steak is nicely grilled with decent quality.

ONLY thing though, at $11.75 for the afternoon tea menu for a bowl of soup noods of some sort, I don't think it's any deal or special since many other places offer soup noods afternon tea at $8.99 to $9.99, so we don't think we will order afternoon tea next time. They do offer fried chicken or pineapple bun with fried pork cutlet or sandwiches but those aren't really our cup of tea.

But we will come back to try its lunch or dinner menu as they currently is doing a skillet sizzling steak or mixed meat special at 15% off. So, every of those items, you get 15% off.

We also wanted to try its Hainanese chicken or oven baked tomato pork chops fried rice to give it a second chance.

I do have to say, the service by the staff were excellent. Very hardworking, courteous and competent. I was amazed with one particular lady who didn't have to write anything down but took orders for a table of 7 people and then took our order, yet, everything was on point with no...