Plans Are Meant To Be Broken - The Epic Adventure

Well, Saturday night I went out with a friend. The plan was to go to Smoke's Poutinerie for dinner, however as the oh so clever title suggests this was not to be the case(I will make it there). Parking in downtown Winnipeg sucks, there was a jazz festival in the area and parking was just non existent! We drove around for almost an hour before deciding to give up, where to now? We still need to eat, but what is open?

At this point we have no destination and are driving south on Pembina Highway. It is about 10:30pm and we are both hungry so we pull off into a strip mall to decide where to eat. Oh look, a Chinese restaurant and they are open until midnight! I believe this place is fairly new, it used to be something else.

We walked in, the decor was nothing special but somehow I sensed greatness in this place so after reading the menu, we sat down. Neither of us had been here before, or knew it existed for that matter.

We ordered and our food came shortly after, the dishes were simple:

Starting off with Mooshi, the filling was delicious! Tender strips of beef in a delicious sauce with garlic, tender mushroom and crunchy cabbage. The pancakes were authentic, and big! We could have made ourselves burritos with these. They held in the sauce, were soft and tasted great. That's a bonus in my books!

Chicken Fried Rice, always a staple of mine and they did it well! There was so much flavor without all the grease. Simple ingredients, large pieces of chicken with peas, green onions and egg. I could easily have eaten this whole plate, but that probably would not have been a great idea so I refrained!

Shrimp with Spicy Salt is quickly becoming a favorite dish of mine and it was exceptional here. The shrimp were plump, tender and juicy! Deep fried and then seasoned with Szechuan Salt they were delicious and went quickly!

On to the last dish, but certainly not least. Another winner, the Cantonese Chow Mein was full of wonderful colors, textures and flavors! There were crunchy vegetables, and lots of them and a combination of wonderfully smoky BBQ pork, shrimp and chicken. The noodles were wonderful, with some bits of crunchy noodle from being grilled, awesome! The sauce was just delicious and brought it all together.

So, things did not go as originally planned...but we both had a great time. We found a great new restaurant. The menu is large, the service is quick, the portions are great! The prices made this a great value and an even better find. Sometimes, the best plans are not planned at all.

Huang Pu River
2-1875 Pembina Highway
Winnipeg, MB Canada
204-261-4407