King's Corner

King's Corner

245 King Street

204-615-8038

October 2018

Back in my childhood, the Chinese community of Winnipeg branded the three big restaurants in Winnipeg THE places to eat for the best Chinese food in the city.  They comprised the heart of Chinatown and if you weren't part of Chinatown, you were either non-authentic, or not very good.  Perhaps the leader of the big three for most of those years, Marigold dominated the scene.

As the Silent Generation (and the early Boomers) aged and died out, Chinatown's prominence in Chinese food dwindled continuously.  Add the influx of Chinese immigrants here to attend university and today's de facto Chinatown sits on South Pembina Highway.  All that's left of downtown Chinatown are a stragglers, hanging on by the buffets drawing the office lunch crowd.  Even the lunch crowd shrinks, faced with cuts to City Hall, the departure of the police Public Safety Building, and the emergence of the eateries in the nearby Exchange District.  

Marigold long perished and the iteration that sits in the formerly grand throne bears the name King's Corner, named after its location at the Corner of King Street and Alexander Avenue.  During Marigold's busiest run, you would not find a table open in the evenings, especially on a weekend evening.  You put your name in and come back or you sit in the lounge to wait, often up to an hour.  Most of the round tables held 10 or 12 diners, traditional with Chinese dining--and each of those large tables were always full.  As a couple, you might luck into one of the few tiny tables for two, tucked away in the corners.

Walking into King's Corner this Friday night, we find a ghost two.  We are literally the only people here, although two other tables appeared through our visit.  I hope the home delivery service keeps them afloat because there is no way this is a viable business judging by the looks, although the overlook looks quite low based on the only two employees I witness.

If you search for authentic Chinese cuisine, you're in luck as they hold the line on most traditional Southern Chinese dishes.  Hand-in-hand though, there is some serious communication issues here.  Ordering off the menu poses no problem as they can read the numbers easily off the menu.  If you want something outside of the menu, you encounter some formidable language barriers.  

I don't stray far from the menu; in fact, I remain deeply embedded in the menu, trying to order a glass of wine.  Several requests for white wine still presents me with red.  I point at my dining companion's glass of red wine and try to elucidate yes, but white instead--to no avail.  Obtaining a second glass proves almost insurmountable. 

I might be a bit of a jerk, since I speak fluent Taishanese and I'm certain I could get points across easily in the cousin Cantonese--but I want to live the full experience of my readership, as I assume most of you would maintain English as the communicative method.

As for the menu, you find the 200-or-so dishes you normally encounter on Chinese menus, with the added bonus of dim sum.  Upon seating, you receive a notebook-like sheet and soon enough, you figure out that you're supposed to write the numbers of your dishes on the slip.

The dishes arrive in enormous volumes.  We normally order three dishes for two people but two dishes for three people seems more appropriate here.

The shrimp with vegetables features delicious vegetables, cooked perfectly, al dente with good crunch and lots of texture.  The shrimps also come well-made, just done and firm but not hard.  The vegetables have nice seasoning but the shrimps could use a bit of salt and pepper.  As you can see by the glisten in the picture, there a bit of oil here but it doesn't taste greasy at all.

The ginger beef has a sheen to it as well but this time, it does have some greasiness on the taste (witness the glob on the white onion slice on the left).  That's not the main trouble with this dish though--the main problem comes with the chunks of beef, which barely has any beef at all.  It's a thick composition of breading with nary a sliver of beef to be found.  The thicker chunks that have strips are so over-fried that they taste more like jerky then fried beef.

Here's a cross-section of the beef--note the end where I bisected the sliver.  There's a cave at the end where it seems like someone sucked out the beef and left the breaded casing--odd.

All of the fried rice, the white rice and the plain noodles (chow mein) are well-made, tasting rich but not too bold, balancing their jobs as conduits to the main dishes.

For dim sum, the turnip cake comes radically different that what I normally expect.

The usual turnip cake uses turnip puree, moulded with chunks of Chinese sausage and friend.  The turnip cake here uses turnip slivers, much like what you see in potato latkes.  You find no meat in this dish but it's augmented with a sprinkling of sesame seeds.  I'm not sure that I'm a fan of this version, tasting a bit starchier than the traditional version.  I love sesame seeds but I miss the complement of the meat.  There's quite a bit of grease here too but that normally comes from the pan-frying process.

The Chinese pierogies come excellently made, perfectly fried to a crisp on the outside with the dough remaining moist.  There's plenty of juicy and delicious meat and crunchy vegetable in the stuffing.  This is textbook on how these dumplings should be made.

By contrast, the beef balls fall well short of what I expect.  First, let's get past the appearance.  Hard, isn't it?  Is there anything about these balls that look appetising to you?  Don't these beef balls look like they've been freshly excised from a charging bull?

The taste itself has an odd tinge to it.  Most beef balls have a vinegary edge, attributed to the taste of Worcestershire sauce.  This tastes like it's a bit off--like something's been in the refrigerator a tad too long.  The texture's a bit too fine, meaning the grinder should have used a coarser setting to give more texture (and a better appearance).

The pork dumplings taste delicious.  They put in just the right combination of pork with pork fat and shrimps to balance flavour and taste.  They are a tad greasy but pork dumplings are supposed to be inherently fatty or they wouldn't taste right.  

Normally one of my favourite dim sum items, the shark fin contains loads too much fungus, completely overwhelming the dish.  Normally, a strand or two of the black fungus adds a touch of ocean taste and gads of crunchiness--too much and it completely takes over the taste buds.

As well, the dumpling fins taste hard and dry, meaning that they were made and left out in the open too long before entering the steamer.  Aside:  these dumplings are named "shark fin" because of the "fin" shape of the edges.  There is neither shark nor fin used from disgusting harvesting rituals in this dish.

The staple shrimp dumplings also taste wonderfully done.  These dumplings either come with shrimp hash encased by the rice noodle, or whole baby shrimps, as they are here.  They include a sliver of bamboo shoot, which provides the crunchy texture, and just enough sesame to add depth.

There are some problems here but generally, the food from King's Corner tastes superb and true to its Chinese heritage.  Our beleaguered Chinatown needs its core restaurants to flourish to remain alive.  Once the flagship to the Marigold chain, now the establishment is a mom and pop establishment trying to find its way.  I wish them well and hope that they can round out some of those edges to produce superior food. 

This is an unbiased, free public service that I am happy to provide.  If you enjoy these reviews, please consider clicking on the accompanying ads.  This is the only compensation I receive. 

For continuous updates, please follow me on Facebook @Ray Yuen's Winnipeg Restaurant Reviews or Twitter @food_winnipeg.  As usual, thanks for reading and good food to you!

Ray Yuen, Pit Master

Certified Kansas City Barbecue Society Judge - Badge #97736

Canadian Barbecue Society Member