Southland Restaurant (revisited)

Southland Restaurant
20 – 2855 Pembina Highway
204-261-3510

Revisited: please refer to January 2009 review for original comments.

January, 2011



A couple of years ago, I came to Southland and proudly declared it as one of the best Chinese restaurants in Winnipeg. At lunch, I gorged on shrimp dumplings because they were simply the best in the city. For dinner, I engulfed the fried seabass because, not meaning to sound repetitive, but they were simply the best in the city. Southland prepared every dish to perfection, ensuring that you found all hits and no misses.

Roll the clock forward and I’m stunned to find that the lunch time, dim sum trolleys are gone and the dim sum now appears side-by-side with the buffet items. Yikes! This augurs poorly. Normally, I eschew Chinese buffets but if that’s the only way I get dim sum, so be it. Since I have to visit buffet corner anyway, I should try some of the buffet items, rather than dart straight towards the shrimp dumplings, ignoring all else. It turns out that I don’t have a choice anyway since the batch of dim sum steamers disappear seconds after they come out.

The Chinese normally don’t consider fried rice a prime item; they fry rice when they have excess plain rice and it becomes leftovers. Leftovers or not, I love fried rice. I don’t love Southland’s fried rice. Just a little bit of meat goes a long way with fried rice, but a sprinkling of peas and carrots goes nowhere. I also love chow mein, which tastes crunchy and acts as a great conduit for the sauces. This chow mein tastes pretty much the same as the fried rice. Thankfully, the next batch of dim sum arrives and I don’t need to delve any further into the buffet table.

Having a pretty good memory. I pile my plate high with shrimp dumplings as soon as they come out. Sadly, these dumplings don’t taste nearly as good as what I remember. They’re large and full of shrimp, but they just don’t have much flavour. The fried, chive dumplings, which were another one of my past favourite items, provide me with another disappointment today. These dumplings are tough, hard and doughy. Fried lo-bok, another dim sum specialty, should taste crispy on the outside and moist and tender on the inside. Today’s lo-bok feel firm and bouncy—another colossal disappointment. Sadly, the four different kinds of tripe may be the best options for dim sum, although most of my readership would probably skip the tripe train.

Other dim sum favourites include pork dumplings, beef dumplings and rice rolls, none of which appear on the table today. Our company reports that the dessert items taste superb, but let’s face it, who goes to dim sum for dessert?

I miss the dim sum trolleys, but I can adapt to buffet dining. However, I can’t adapt to sub-standard food and unfortunately, Southland took a nosedive from Winnipeg’s best to below average. I hope their dinner selections maintain standard—as for their dim sum, I’ll search for other options.

**½ /5

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