China City Restaurant

China City Restaurant & Lounge

1811 Portage Ave

204-415-1103

http://chinacitywinnipeg.com/

Winnipeg has no shortage of Chinese restaurants in St. James, or anywhere else in the city for that matter.  What St. James desperately needs is a dim sum palace and I am ecstatic to see the flip side of the menu feature most of the dim sum favourites.  As a note for China City, you need to adjust the tint of your print settings; there is an excess of green ink and trust me when I tell you that most people don’t want to eat moss coloured shrimp!

I hate to say it but the shrimp dumplings might as well be green.  China City makes the dumpling well and cooks it properly (not overcooked) but unfortunately, the shrimps are old and thus, they taste very fishy.  Chinese cooking uses a lot of shrimp; there’s no reason for shrimps to sit around in the fridge and get old. 

By contrast, the deluxe pork dumplings, made with a combination of pork and shrimps, taste much fresher.  This dumpling doesn’t have a lot of flavour but you shouldn’t find any trouble with it.  I much prefer the regular pork dumplings (no shrimp), which taste moist and rich.  Pork dumplings often come loaded with pork fat.  Although it doesn’t treat your heart very nicely, pork fat tastes wonderful, keeps the dish juicy, and adds an attractive sheen to the presentation.  The dumplings here aren’t overloaded with fat so you end up with a nice tasting morsel without hardening your arteries. 

Okay, who am I trying to kid?  No one comes to dim sum looking for a healthy retreat.  While a lot of Chinese food augments your health, dim sum—literally translated as “a touch of the heart” may as well be renamed “grasping your heart and squeezing!”  The Chinese pierogis, with their thick and spongy dough, soak up a ton of grease.  The stuffing consists of ground beef in gravy and it tastes great combined with the deep-fried dough.  Yup, Chinese pierogis are not much more than chilli wrapped in dough and deep fried.

A healthier alternative, the spring rolls come stuffed with shredded vegetables, rather than meat.  China City fries the spring rolls perfectly, which means the wrapper snaps crisply and grease-free, and the vegetables maintain their crunch.  This is a superior dish.

Also well made, the steamed barbecue pork buns have well-seasoned and moist pork as a stuffing.  The dough tastes sweet, light and fluffy.  I would like to see a bit more meat and sauce, and a bit less dough, but I’m a meat and vegetables type of person.  Starch fans will love these buns.

The pan fried pork dumpling is essentially another version of a Chinese pierogis (probably a closer relative to the European pierogis than its deep fried cousin).  The all-pork stuffing has delicious seasonings and the crunchy pan-fried wrapper acts as a wonderfully contrasting element.

The steamed shark fin dumpling has an equally satisfying crunch, but its crunch is attributed to the freshness of the vegetables, blended with pork and shrimps.  Don’t worry, there’s no shark fin in the shark fin dumpling.  Like most Chinese restaurants, China City’s complete menu houses over a hundred selections but shark fin is not among any of them.  If dim sum is not your thing, and you can’t find anything you like within the 135+ menu items, China City offers a small buffet from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm.

The China City dining experience includes prompt and friendly service (which is a rarity among Chinese restaurants).  The atmosphere looks slightly rustic yet somewhat elegant, which is in contrast to the common Chinese dining rooms, complete with cheesy decorations and garbage bag tablecloths. 

The food here isn’t perfect, but they do a lot of things right.  I’m glad to be able to find dim sum in the western end of the city and I hope that China City does well and stays around a long time.

*** /5

This is a free product that I'm happy to bring to you.  If you enjoyed reading this, please consider clicking on the accompanying ads.  This is the only payment I receive for offering this public service.  Thank you as always for reading.