Kirin Restaurant – Vancouver (City Square) – Desserts

Restaurant: Kirin Seafood Restaurant
Cuisine: Chinese
Last visited: March 7, 2010
Location: Multiple – Vancouver, BC (Fairview)
Address: 555 W 12th Ave (Inside City Square mall)
Price Range: $30-50

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5 (for Kirin locations overall, but 3 for his location/occasion)
Service: 1.5 (had a rude server)
Ambiance: 4
Overall: 5 (for Kirin locations overall)
Additional comments:

• Multiple locations in Vancouver
• Since 1987
• Executive Chef Allen Liu
• Considered the fine dining of Chinese cuisine in Vancouver
• Extensive menu
• Famous for fresh local seafood
• Large selection of seafood
• Some exotic meats
• Big portions, dine with 4+
• Winner of numerous Chinese dining awards
• Set menus/Group menus available
• Open for dim sum in the morning
• Private rooms available
• Brunch/Lunch/Dinner service
• Dim sum available – brunch
• Reservations recommended
• Closes Mon-Sun 2:30pm-5pm

**Recommendations: Almost any seafood will be good here: Garlic steamed Alaskan King Crab legs, Peking Duck Crepes, Duck Lettuce Wraps, Pumpkin and fish (I don’t know what the exact name of the dish is called, but they’ll know what you’re talking about), Coconut Tapioca dessert…the menu is too big I could give lots more.

This review is for the dessert portion of my 13 course Chinese New Year dinner at Kirin Seafood Restaurant. I find the desserts at Kirin are better than most other Chinese restaurants. They also have more selection.

First 10 courses:

1. Kirin Special Platter with Whole Roasted Pig
2. Braised Dried Oyster, Pork Tongue & Black Moss
3. Sautéed Chicken, Prawn & Scallop
4. Snake Meat, Abalone & Dried Seafood Thick Soup
5. Live Lobster & Crab w/Ginger & Onion Sauce
6. Beef Tenderloin Cube & Fish w/Black Pepper & Basil
7. Crispy Skin Free Range Chicken
8. Baby Bok Choy & Bean Curd in Consommé
9. Scallop & Chinese Mushroom Lo Mein
10. Special Fried Rice in Lotus Leaf

Chinese New Year Brunch #1 & #2

Chinese New Year Dinner at Shun Feng – Kirin was better.

Chinese banquet dinner at Imperial Chinese Seafood Restaurant – Kirin was definitely better.

On the table:

2 Kinds of Dim Sum Dessert

Almond Cookies – 5/6

• I love these cookies, one of the few Chinese desserts I enjoy…probably because it’s more Western.
• It’s a crispy cookie that’s quite nutty in flavour with a walnut on top.
• They’re very buttery and eggy, it’s not like shortbread or those Danish butter cookies though. It’s more crumbly than those and nuttier.
• These were very fresh, not necessarily crunchy – but crispy with a soft crumb.

Taro Jelly with Coconut – 4/6

• Another Chinese dessert I actually like! It’s actually not that sweet, it was very light in flavour. I could have used more sugar.
• The taro jello is made with taro powder, sugar and coconut milk. There are no taro chunks in it. It’s almost like coconut jello.
• I loved how they roll it in dried coconut flakes.

Barley & Bean Curd Sweetened Soup – 2.5/6

• With black sesame paste rice roll
• This is a horrible description for what it actually is.

• The best part was the “black sesame paste rice roll” which is actually a mochi (sticky/chewy pastry made with rice flour) with black sesame paste inside. If you like these then this dessert will be a 4/6. I just don’t like Chinese desserts in general very much.
• The barley and bean curd soup was basically taro soup with what seemed like red rice in it. I guess that’s the “barley” part?
• The soup wasn’t that sweet and it reminded me of less starchy/chalky red bean soup. I hate that stuff. This one wasn’t as thick as the red bean one.

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