Happy Lunar New Year! Wishing you tons of delicious eats during the Year of the Sheep!
For some new year eats, we headed to Kirin Seafood Restaurant located on the second level of City Square mall on Cambie. I have been a regular customer of this Kirin location for many years and enjoy the quality and selection of Chinese food offered.
We arrived near the end of lunch service, so the restaurant was not as busy. I would recommend getting reservations if you decide to dine here as it gets busy particularly during weekends and holidays.
Kirin is a slightly more upscale Chinese restaurant, with dim sum costing about $5 each tray. They also have views of Downtown Vancouver which provide a lovely backdrop.
You get a complimentary chair cover when dining here as well.
A teapot of Pu’erh to start…
Warm hand towels were provided during our meal.
We had the barbeque pork pastry – one of our usual orders. It is served warm, tastes a bit sweet and sour and has a great flakiness texture.
We also had the deep fried chicken cartilage, which was crunchy but a bit too greasy.
We ordered the full Peking Duck which comes in two courses: the first course was the duck skin with crepe and the second course was minced duck with lettuce wrap.
The Chinese crepes came separately in their own tray…
Chinese crepe + Peking duck skin + sweet and sour sauce + onion = awesome! I could do without the onion, however. The chips and duck skin could have been crispier, but it was still good as is.
The minced duck in lettuce wrap is one of my favorite Chinese dishes.
The lettuce leaves were nicely washed and prepared.
Eh voilà, a delicious lettuce wrap!
When our bill came, there was an ad inside it for The Empire at QE development. The staff person explained to me that if we go downstairs to check out the presentation centre, we would receive a $20 gift card which can be used at any Kirin location. This offer is limited and ends on February 22, 2015. It seemed easy to get the gift card so we went to the presentation centre. The girl at the front told me to register my information on a form, handed me an information package, and asked me to have a look at the model units. She told me that I would receive the gift card at the end of the visit. After walking around the presentation centre for about 10 minutes, I went back to the girl and she provided me the gift card. It was a pretty trouble free experience.
We go to Kirin for the food, but the service is consistently so-so. We usually need to call someone to take our order and no one really checks on us during the meal. A lot of times, we do not want to wait so we pay at the front. The food is decent, however, if you understand that you will not be getting top-notch service. In all, the dining experience was good but the best part was getting the $20 gift card for visiting the presentation centre, even though I had to register.