Just some random restaurant...

“Can we please just go to some random place?”

It was with these words that my dad decided to park in front of some random Chinese restaurant, and of course with my luck, the busiest one. (Great. Definitely not getting my food anytime soon.) Located near the “downtown” of Surrey was Lee Yuen Seafood Restaurant. From the outside, it looked puny, but judging by the mass of cars taking up every single existing parking space, I guess you could say it was a tad busy. Skeptical about what was to come, we were seated rather quickly by a very bubbly man who spat out a variety of recommended dishes – smoothly putting in a couple of jokes here and there – as soon as we had sat down. We ended up ordering hot and sour soup, beef lettuce wrap, sweet and sour pork, and beef gai-lan. (Might I first point out that Chinese restaurants are AMAZING for their ability to quickly make and distribute the food; we received ours with lightening speed! ) True to our waiter’s words, his recommended meals were absolutely fantastic.

With the hot and sour soup, your taste buds will first notice the definite spiciness, but then Mr. Sour comes along and sneaks up behind that spiciness, giving you a surprising, yet refreshing taste; it was like a match made in Heaven.

Next was the beef lettuce wrap. Now, you have a choice between chicken and beef, but we chose the beef; it gives it more texture! What this is, is a melange of vegetables and beef (the filling) which you wrap with a fresh, crisp leaf of lettuce, topped by a small dollop of Hoisin sauce. This was and is still my favourite dish, by far. Having the filling by itself is rather salty and quite oily, but the lettuce just smoothens out that oiliness while adding another level of crispy texture for you to enjoy. And just when you thought you had everything, the Hoisin sauce majestically reveals itself, making the meal just that much better.

Third: the sweet and sour pork. The name basically describes it all, it’s sweet and sour. The pork, which is breaded, is covered with a red sauce and also has chunky slices of pineapples. It’s the pineapples, in my opinion, that serve a big role in this because they are both sweet and sour! (The sauce probably has something to do with it too, but who knows.) A rather simple dish presents amazing flavours in your palette.

And last, but certainly not least, is the beef gai lan . This is the simplest dish out of all, but it is definitely not in the last place. Gia lan is a long green vegetable that is very crunchy; it almost resembles the rigid structure without the potent smell of a celery. The gai lan itself, when eaten alone, is a tad bitter, but with the sauce (I'm assuming it's a mix of oyster sauce and something else...) it works quite well and it tastes very good. The sauce does not make the gai lan soft or soggy in any sort of way, so the crunchiness of the gai lan is existent and the beef slices are also very tender.

Overall, the entire experience was absolutely fantastic and I had absolutely no complaints at all. The food came out quick, the waiters were absolutely awesome people, and with all this food for a price ranging from the high 40s-50, I am definitely not complaining.

So Lee Yuen's Seafood Restaurant this weekend, anyone?