Doesn’t TaZte Like Chicken

Location: Kirin Seafood Restaurant   
350 Gifford Street, New Westminster
604-528-8833

Author: My Husband

Kirin on Alberni and Kirin @ Starlight are our favorite Cantonese restaurants in metro Vancouver. Usually, picking a favorite restaurant (ok, two restaurants in our case) is like picking a favorite child – it is (nearly ) impossible to do…

Through the 1990s, the market for haute Chinese cuisine in Vancouver was split between the Kirin group and the Sun Sui Wah family of restaurants – arguably the heaviest hitters in terms of Cantonese food in the city. The captains knew you by name, the wait staff was friendly, and the food could always be counted on to be tasty. When Christina and I were dating, we were perfectly happy to eat at both chains.

In the early part of this decade, Christina took a job as well as an apartment downtown. And because of that, we found ourselves eating at Kirin on Alberni more often. It didn’t hurt that Christina’s neighbour was a captain at the restaurant, and that every time we went, we were comp’ed certain dishes. The convenience, the “extra” service, and the fact that we found Sun Sui Wah’s standards to have slipped, meant that we pretty much ate exclusively at Kirin on Alberni through the 2000s. Sure, we tried the Shiang Gardens, the Sea Harbours, and the Fisherman’s Terraces occasionally, but Kirin on Alberni remained our standby. It was the place where we hosted out-of-town guests, the spot we picked for Chinese New Year dinners, the… well, you get the idea.

Then Christina and I got married and we settled in Richmond. And suddenly, Kirin on Alberni wasn’t quite as convenient anymore. To avoid driving across town, we thought we’d give the Kirin on 3 Road in Richmond a try; we found the kitchen staff to be competent, but the magic that was in the dishes @ Kirin on Alberni was missing. Somehow, the little extra oomph that made us like the food at the downtown Kirin so much did not exist in the plates that came out of the Kirin Richmond kitchen. As a result, whenever we felt like Chinese fine dining, we would make our way to Alberni Street and accepted the inconvenience that entailed with good humour. The things we do for food…

So imagine our delight when our friend the captain told us about the opening of a new Kirin in New Westminster. He said the ownership group was really paying attention to the details for the new place, and that the food should be as good, if not better, than Kirin on Alberni. Happily, he would also be working at the new place several days of the week. When the new Kirin opened earlier this year, we dutifully went to try it out and came away impressed. The food was comparable to the Alberni location, but the ambience of the new place really blew the rest of the Kirin restaurants out the water.

Kirin @ Starlight is one of the few restaurants in Vancouver that has a comfortable waiting area. The main dining room has an open feel and is blessed with lots of natural light flowing through the floor-to-ceiling windows. The secondary dining room is darker, with lots of wood and red/gold fabrics that lends it the feel of a set on a Zhang Yimou film…

Two weeks ago, Christina and I visited Kirin @ Starlight for a light dim sum, and here’s what we had.

“Pineapple” bun with a charsiew (BBQ pork) filling. The crumbly “pineapple” top contrasted texturally with the sweet charsiew insides – one of the better examples of this dim sum dish we’ve had.

Beef brisket and tendon cheong fun (rice noodles). The brisket and tendon were stewed in gravy spiced with star anise and szechuan peppercorn, and the resultant meat was extremely tender and flavorful. The tendon, of which I’m a fan, was just slightly firmer than jello – a wonderful texture. We thought this dish was lip-smackingly good.

Chicken and shark-fin buns. Predictably, it was mostly chicken with a few slivers of shark-fin. There was a little too much dough for our liking, but at least the chicken filling was flavorful. Overall, not bad.

Finally, Ma lai (steamed) cake. It has a strong buttery flavour, but it didn’t have the fluffiness or lightness that a good ma lai cake should have. It was probably the least successful dim sum that day.

Our friend wasn’t working day we visited, but we were well taken care of nonetheless. Eating at Kirin never fails to put smiles on our faces or warm feelings in our stomachs – we’ll be back soon enough.