Logan Corner Restaurant

Logan Corner Restaurant

204-957-7288

257 Logan Ave

May 2012

If you ask any second generation Chinese person where to go for good Chinese food, they'll likely send you to the south end of the city.  The influx of Chinese students to the University of Manitoba has brought along the requisite fine Asian food to Pembina Highway.  If you ask a first generation Chinese person where to go for good Chinese food, they'll send you to Chinatown.  The previous generation did not believe that any respectable Chinese chef would work outside downtown.  Now if you ask for a specific location downtown, they'll point you towards one of three destinations:  Kum Koon Garden, Dim Sum Garden or Golden Terrace.  In fact, I don't think the old Chinese guard are aware of any other restaurants in the area, which probably explains why it took me all my life before walking through Logan Corner Restaurant's doors.

As with most Chinese restaurants, the menu houses well over 200 dishes; Logan features 269 plus specials.  Do you really need 200+ items on your menu?  As well, many Chinese restaurants have an "Asian version" as well as an "everyone else" version.  That is, if you sit down looking Asian, they'll prepare your dish differently than if you look like you come from anywhere else in the world.  Now you've just added another hundred dishes or so.  If any Chinese restaurant audits their menu, I bet that 70% of the dishes haven't been ordered in the past year.  Get rid of them!  Pare down your menu, empty out your freezer and open the kitchen for innovation! 

All right, I'm done ranting.  Most people don't bother with the menu tome and head straight for the buffet.  Logan's buffet isn't large but it'll likely have something to interest everyone, including most of the Chinese staples. 

For starters, the plump egg rolls look ready to burst, barely able to contain the ample vegetable stuffing.  Bean sprouts lead this army of vegetables, leaving the perfectly fried roll crunchy from the wrapper and the innards. 

The wonton soup comes with nicely seasoned broth, which is very important.  Experience tells me that most people fish out the meaty wontons and leave the empty broth behind.  The unaware will end up with a bowl of clear broth, not knowing any better.  If you happen to come by a wonton, you'd find them plump and pleasing, although a little fishy tasting (usually as a result of older, frozen shrimps).  The deep fried wontons lose the fishy taste, but they also lose the moisture of the wontons in broth.

If you have some broth leftover, you might consider ladling it onto some of the plain fried rice, which tastes very dry, to the point of rubbery.  Moreover, fried rice normally has an array of built-in ingredients to give flavour and body--this rice offers the occasional vegetable morsel for colour but that's it.  If you want to use the rice as a conduit for something else, fine, but if you like fried rice on its own, don't bother with this.

By contrast, the Shanghai noodles come nicely fried and not overcooked.  The body has nice flavour with an edge of sesame.  Don't overdo it though, as these hearty noodles take up stomach space like a baby stroller on a bus.

The Sichuan beef shares the same sauce with the sweet and sour pork.  You already know the sauce:  sweet, sour, sticky, gooey and acts as the backbone to most Canadianised Chinese dishes.  The Sichuan option has fair-sized chunks of beef but the pork is done to death and tastes like biting the leather off a biker's back. 

The chicken balls don't come with their own dedicated sauce but feel free to use the same ubiquitous sauce to moisten it up.  Give Logan credit for using big chunks of chicken breast to fry their balls but white meat gets dry easily and it needs a bit of juice to bring it back to life.  These are much better balls than those that only have a sliver of meat entombed in a mummy-wrap of batter.

The chicken wings also come with a batter, although this batter is slightly burnt.  Regardless, the meat within remains moist and juicy, which is no easy feat since these atrophied wings don't have a lot of meat to begin with. 

The Logan Corner Restaurant looks a little small and grungy (which is probably why the Chinese avoid it) but it's clean and well kept.  Even if you order the buffet, the service staff attends you well and ensures that you never have an empty glass.  The next time you visit Chinatown, and the standard three want you to wait, consider walking into the Logan--their buffet is just as good as any other buffet in the area.

*** /5

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