Po Kong — Restaurant in Vancouver

DINNER SERVICE REVIEW I was really interested in Po Kong as a vegetarian restaurant, but it turned out to also be great for my parents who are not as familiar with Chinese food because the menu has a balance of "authentic" Chinese and Western dishes. I actually took my parents here in hopes of getting them to try dim sum, but didn't realize they don't serve the dim sum menu at dinner time. No problem, we ordered dishes off the main menu to share. Staff was very accommodating from the beginning: we originally made a reservation for 6 and then asked to move it 5, and they had no problem changing it (we ended up not needing it as they were almost empty at 5, but it got busy very suddenly around 6:30 as we were leaving). Everyone was attentive during our meal and happy to answer our questions. We shared a Hot & Sour Thick Soup, Sweet & Sour Pineapple Delight, Taro & Gluten in Coconut Sauce Hot Pot, and Colourful Vegetarian Chop Suey. We each also got a single order of rice for ourselves. Each dish was delicious! I felt the preparation of each dish, even the Pineapple Delight with the fried tofu, was very refined and brought out the subtle flavours of the food. I liked that all of the dishes featured some prominent vegetable component. My choice was the taro & gluten hot pot so it was no surprise that this was my favourite, but I ended up enjoying the other dishes so much that it was a close call. Even the chop suey was a delight despite not being the kind of thing I usually go for since I gravitate towards the bold and unusual, but the simplicity of the chopped veggies and vegan ham in a light sauce was refreshing. My non-vegetarian parents also really enjoyed everything and were impressed by the creativity of the food. Everything came out in a timely manner. The portions are huge and great value for the price. We expected to have some leftovers but not as much as we did (two complete meals), and we ate until we were full. We had been hoping to try dessert but were so full we had to decline when the time came, but they brought us complimentary biscuits to finish off which was a nice touch and for me, a good compromise. Would definitely recommend them for tasty vegetarian food and a unique take on Chinese food whether or not you're vegetarian.

DIM SUM REVIEW Returned for dim sum with a group of 6. Many of the dim sum dishes are portioned in 3's so this was the perfect group size. I was the only veg-inclined person in the group and didn't realize some of the others didn't know the place was fully vegetarian before arriving, but it didn't seem like anyone was disappointed with the vegetarian offerings. We tried a large variety of dishes, and I won't list all of them because I don't think I'd even remember everything. My favourites were the walnut custard buns, the pea tips rice sheet roll, and the new tapioca pudding (I'd never tried this kind of baked tapioca pudding before and I loved the texture). They also brought out fresh baked barbeque buns which were nice and soft. Others really liked the vegetarian chicken nuggets and black truffle mushroom dumplings, so I think it's safe to say everything is pretty good. I felt like I ate a lot, but at the end, after they split the bill 6 ways, everyone only paid $22 (before tip). So if you go with a big group you can try lots of things at a pretty good price. Service was pretty good. They did try to push some dishes on us, but I think they were just trying to be helpful with most of us not being familiar with how to order for dim sum, and their patience was...

Service was okay, and food came out relatively quickly aside from one or two items. Food all came out hot, and portions were large just like with Sun Bo Kong across the road. Definitely good value for money in my opinion, at a little over $100 for five people. I've since been here multiple times, and have had good experiences every time.

The XO eggplant and beancurd is a must get dish, as is the deep fried taro and soy milk combo. The eggplant was soft but not mushy. The sauce was super flavourful, and not too spicy. The fried tofu skin was so crispy and crunchy, and went perfectly with the eggplant. The taro and soy milk are perfectly fried and both are slightly sweet so they can be counted as dessert. A very unique dish that is a must-try. Note that the XO eggplant is only available at yum cha.

The Deep Fried Turnip Cake was alright. It wasn't as flavourful as I expected, but there was a generous amount of shredded radish inside. I prefer the ones at Sun Bo Kong.The Deep Fried Taro Puffs were decent but I didn't like the filling as the crunchy vegetables didn't go well with the taro exterior. Not too oily either, which was great.

The Assorted Vegetables and Mushroom Ballls on Curry Sauce was nice. The vegetables were fresh, tasty, and cooked nicely. The mushroom balls were interesting (quite chewy), but I enjoyed them. The curry sauce didn't taste like anything because it was so diluted, but other than that I have no complaints. The XLB wasn't great - no broth and the wrapper was very thick. The drumsticks were okay but nothing special.

The Lucky Dumpling in Soup was decent as well, as were the spring rolls. The Deep Fried Seaweed Roll with Enoki Mushrooms was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The sauce it was served with was pretty good as well. The enoki mushrooms provided a nice chewiness, although there was something in the sauce it was sautéed with that tasted a little strange to me. The Deep Fried Seaweed with Soft Curd was kind of like the roll with enoki mushrooms, but instead of mushrooms it was soft bean curd. Definitely a unique dish.

The red bean paste pancake for dessert was great, though a bit more red bean filling would be nice. Slight mochi texture and not too sweet - a great way...

The vegetarian folk in our family suggested eating at Po Kong. Before then, I hadn't set foot in this place for eons, after being zapped by extreme MSG years ago. Naturally, I was more than a bit reluctant to repeat the MSG experience. We were there for dinner. There was five of us and we ordered 6 dishes – we each wanted to select our favourite dish: deep fried spring rolls, Bean Curd Skin Roll with Black Beans, Sticky Fried Rice, Braised Tofu, Fresh Vegetables on Deep Fried Noodles, Sweet & Sour Delight. We didn't finish everything, and they were all very enjoyable. I was surprised that I could request no MSG for all the items on our order. Now that I've adopted a vegan diet, we've been going back every other week. I read another Google review complaining about the fried noodles being egg noodles – interesting – because now that I discovered my egg allergy, the fried noodles explained why I had a reaction to a simple tofu and mixed vegetable dish. I am guessing that there could be cross contamination from other tables ordering fried noodles around the same time our tofu dish was made. This restaurant is not gluten-free as they use gluten as meat substitutes. Their solution for gluten-free is not to use soy sauce – as they don't even bother to carry wheat-free soy. They also use the same deep frying oil for everything, which is how cross contamination can happen with egg noodles. A lot of the dishes has some form of gluten 'meat'. For example the D9 tofu hot put contains gluten balls. The Colourful Vegetarian Chop Suey in Bird Nest contains gluten ham. G7 Pan-fried Sticky Rice contains gluren BBQ pork. A good way to enjoy the best of Po Kong is really to treat your friends to a meal. With a table of 5, we can order my favourite Bean Curd Skin Roll in Black Bean Sauce, D9 Tofu Hotpot, and even some sticky rice. We've been noticing that after eating at Po Kong, our stomachs feel good even though we might over ate. We no longer experience the usual I've-just-eaten...