Po Kong

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 at-a-Chinese-restaurant discomfort.

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.