Congee Noodle House — Restaurant in Vancouver

Late this morning, I decided to try this restaurant out hoping they served Chow Fun. After being seated, I was given hot tea which was nice. As I looked over the menu, I was reminded from my experience eating a number of time in San Francisco and Honolulu's Chinatown that traditional Chinese restaurant menus are usually lengthy. I narrowed my selection to two dishes and asked the water to explain a little bit about them. I decided to order something different, a rice noodle dish with beef and eggs. This was the first time I had heard of this dish and it was good, plus the amount of food served was quite large. By the time I finished eating 3/4th of the dish, I was full. By then, the restaurant started to get more and more customers as it was lunch hour. I waited for my ticket for a while. I scrolled the internet on my phone to kill time. I finally got up and assumed that the bill was with the cashier, but an elder female waiter rushed over to give me my ticket. I went to pay for it, and the lady at the cash register told me they don't accept credit cards, just Debit Cards or cash. So, I tried using my debit card and it was declined. She saw the Visa logo on my debit card and said that's why it doesn't work. I told her that I didn't have cash on me. She said I needed to use the ATM at a nearby store. Mind you, she was not at all courteous and seemed to force herself to be friendly. So, I went back to my friend's place a couple of blocks away instead of using the ATM machine at the nearby store. I had a 100 Canadian dollar bill there. I grabbed my wallet and walked to the nearby Scotia Bank to break the 100 dollar bill. I didn't want to go back to the restaurant with the $100 bill as the lady that was helping me would probably not accepted it saying they don't have enough cash. After getting my 100 dollar bill broken down, I headed back to the restaurant to pay. A kinder woman asked how she could help me and I told her I'm there to pay my bill. The other lady that was originally helping me spoke to the nicer lady in Chinese and the kinder woman then helped me pay my bill. I didn't leave a tip as I did not feel all the fuss over me not being able to use a debit card from the United States which forced me to obtain cash, was warranted. In the four previous times I visited this city, this is the first negative experience I've had...

Haven't been to Broadway for a while. This Resturant has closed down during pandemic, and today got a chance to have lunch there. According to their name, they should be favour in Noodle and Congee.

Sui Gow Noodle in soup The noodle is hard like steel. And supposed the Hong Kong style Wonton Noodle should have a bit of Alkaline taste. This bowl has no alkaline smell at all. The Sui Gow are huge, like a big Ping pong ball. However, when you bite on it, it is very very tough, like you're chewing a meat ball. I can't taste any shrimp even you can see it inside. Anyway, the taste is not good. Also, I found a hair on the Sui Gow. (See the picture) Score 1/5.

Beef tendon with thick noodles The Beef Tendon is soft and taste good. However, the thick noodle has very strong alkaline taste. You must add acid to balance it. But even this, you won't feel like to finish the whole dish. (the alkaline taste is way too strong and it makes me sick). Score: 2/5.

Kale with Oyster Sauce The vegetable stem is bigger than my thumb. You can imagine what is feeling when you bite on it. Very old, very hard, like you are chewing a tree. Score: 1/5.

Salt and pepper deep flied Rice Fish This is probably the best dish of this meal. No surprise and no disappointment. Feel normal. Score: 4/5.

Drinks Normal, at least no hair was found. Score: 4/5.

Overall experience and Summary: I feel like I went to a Chinese restaurant somewhere out of town, in the country side. The only difference is very crowded and busy during the lunch hours. However, the environment is very poor, not clean and has bad smell.

Food is below average in the Greater Vancouver area. You can easily find a better Chinese Restaurant than this. Strong MSG after-taste and I feel very thirsty after the meal.

Free Parking at the back is like hell, especially during busy hours. You can see people fighting and yelling to each others because of parking. Therefore, I rather to pay the parking on the street.

Chance for me to revisit is close to zero. If you just want to have a meal and have no expectation, it is fine. But the price is still not cheap. The Cost-effectiveness ratio is low.  As mentioned before, there are many better choices in Greater Vancouver. I am not sure why some people giving them 5 stars....

Congee Noodle House was closed for a long time. They recently reopened and we were so happy to finally be able to dine at this old favourite of ours.

Wonton Noodle Soup Sliced Fish Congee Salted Chinese Doughnut

Wonton Noodle soup came with 5 pieces of wonton.The wonton dumplings were big, with lots of big chunks of prawn inside. There was more prawn than pork inside these dumplings, which @soldbytimtham loved. Soup broth was quite standard in terms of flavor but still very tasty.

Sliced Fish Congee had a nice, smooth texture. As warm, hearty and tasty as we remembered it, and the Chinese Doughnut paired very nicely with it.

They've revamped their menu. While it has the old classics on it, it has some fancier new additions to it as well. For example, there's a page in the menu for Peking Duck, and also one page dedicated to Vegetarian items. The one thing I really wish they would add is a Vegetarian Congee. It's great that they have Vegetarian offerings but with a name like Congee Noodle House, I find it surprising that they don't have a Vegetarian option for the main food their restaurant is known for!

Service: Good Parking: Limited free parking at the back of the restaurant. Otherwise, it's paid parking on the street. Location: 141 East Broadway,...