Congee Wong — Restaurant in Toronto

The restaurant is at the corner of a busy plaza, so parking is tight on holiday. It is a recarnation of the similar congee and noodle theme establishment on the same site but under new management. The menu looks exactly the same as their sister restaurants. Though the place was full with families, couples, big groups of friends, the line up is much shorter. We were happy about that. Staff were super efficient. We got seated as soon as the table became free. Having had numerous meals at their other places, we needed no time to decide what to order. And they were just as quick to bring out the dishes. Unfortunately, the first ominous sign came on the top of the first bowl of congee, shreds of dark brown lettuce 😬. The lettuce is supposed to be the fresh green crunch to contrast the white and soft congee under. Dark brown is not just a big blamish on the look, also questionable standard. In reality, lettuce once cut, the eadges turns brown easily. No one expects them to throw it away. However, all it takes is a quick chop off the brown bits. Apparantly, no one cares enough to do that one cut with a knife. The next surprise came quickly, the congee itself. It has the texture of gravy from a tin can, thick, gooey, completely void of any trace of rice grains. Granted, good congee is supposed to be soft and smooth. This concoction seems like a foreign immitation. I can only venture to guess it is a roux made from rice flour. Someone came up with the great idea of a quick fix!? I believe in efficiency but this short cut to cook congee is a travesty! How ironic that the restaurant is named King of Congee. This the first time I have ever had a congee like that in all their other related restaurants. Why only this location have such disregard for their signature product?? Good thing no more surprises for the rest of the dishes. The noodle has nice texture though all the toppings were just average. Still, chinese restaurant are usually good value. Congee Wong offers value. Only if they could do it with little more heart and a bit more pride, it could be a nice place for a quick meal. One can hope they will catch up with their sister...

The food was good, service average, but the issue came when we were paying the bill and having our leftovers packed to take home. I had noticed throughout the night while we were there, the manager comes to pack away any leftover food. We had just under half of a "super bowl" of the seafood congee left, and perhaps just over half of a plate of seafood chow mein. We were given a small bowl of congee and a side portion size of the chow mein to leave with, roughly half of what was left on our dishes. The congee bowl still had several large pieces of squid, salmon, and several scallops left, and the chow mein plate had a fair amount of squid and chinese broccoli (among other things) left as well. Our "take home" portions were less than half of what was left on our dishes, including not having any squid, salmon, or scallops whatsoever (a couple pieces of white fish though) in the congee container, and again no squid and two pieces of chinese broccoli (of the over 5pcs left on the platter) in the take-home container from the chow mein platter.

I'm assuming (as this was done out of my own eyesight) the remains were taken back to the kitchen, though if you're paying for a plate of food, receiving only half of it is not only poor business, but stealing from your guests (should they ask to take it home). If it wasn't thrown away in the back (though I'm not sure why you would take only the "good" parts from a guest only to throw it away), then I shudder to think if it was added back to a pot, or given to someone else to eat. Either way, I'd put my own personal bowl of congee back into the larger bowl when I couldn't finish, and my partner had put some of the chow mein back, as we assumed it was coming back with us...

Fair warning to anyone who eats there, you may be eating someone else's...

We went to Congee Wong as a group of 11, 5 adults, 7 teens. We ordered:

E26 - Assorted Shredded Meat Chow Mein

E27 - Chicken w/ Vegetable Chow Mein

E34 - Fried Rice Noodle w/ Sliced Beef & Soya Sauce

H11 - Chicken with Pineapple Fried Rice

P11 - Garoupa & Fried Bean Curd in Hot Pot

P21 - Snow Pea Leaves with Garlic Sauce

P72 - Vegetable with Oyster Sauce

L7 - Chicken & Preserved Sausage with Rice in Hot Pot

F3 - Beef with Ginger & Green Onion Lo Mein

My Chinese friends did the ordering and I thought their ordering was excellent. The only dish not ordered by them was F3 which my son ordered and which turned out not to be a crowd pleaser. 😄

The Korean adults in the group thought the food was excellent. It reminded me of the good Chinese food I grew up with in Toronto thanks to these Chinese friends.

My Chinese friends though were less than enthused.

"The chicken that came with several of the dishes was not fresh, the chow fun had mostly onions with little fun and meat and the last dish with the chicken and sausage was not how I remembered it."

The biggest win for this restaurant was how cheap it was. The cost was 50% - 60% of what I expected.

Note that this restaurant gives a 10% discount if you pay in cash. Upon further reflection I wonder if this was so they can avoid paying taxes and that maybe I shouldn't have participated in their scheming. It was already cheap without the 10%...