Hai Shang Restaurant

Hai Shang Restaurant

Newdale Plaza - 2991 Pembina Hwy

204-505-1887

October, 2022

I've said for a long time that if you want good Chinese food, south Pembina is the place to go.  Thanks to all the "immigration" of Chinese students from China and Hong Kong, the quality of the food in Fort Garry has been forced to rise considerably.  The people from the homeland demand the quality of food they had at home, and the typical Canadianised schlock they serve at Marigold isn't going to go very far with that crowd.

Hai Shang sits on the west side of Pembina Highway, right in the heart of where students want to go eat.  I have high expectations for this place.

Translated, Hai Shang is a village in Southern China.  This is the same village where my parents were born; some translate it as Tai Shan, which may be a bit more familiar to the audience.  Consequently, I'm very familiar with the type of food they serve and I hope does the region justice.

As you can see from the photo, they have an austere dining room with few fancy adornments.  You may see in some of the mom-and-pop kind of places that they're not big on dining room presentation, and the boxes stacked in the back and to the side confirms this.  It's a shame because it does not take a lot to rid the clutter from the atmosphere and make it a lot more inviting.  Part of the reason is that the Chinese in general, like to reuse; thus, the empty cartons in back eventually get reused as storage or shipping containers.  Often, the reasoning is not due to environmental consciousness, but due to frugality.  That's fine; whatever your reason, if it helps the environment, perfect.

Super-friendly staff greets us at the door.  If there's any doubt about how quirky and fun the staff are, one look at our napkins should tell the story.   

Today is Thanksgiving Day--from the second we walk in the door, the server tells us that it's Thanksgiving Day, "what are we doing here?  Go home and have turkey with your family!"  Uh okay.  

The other server is just as quirkly and friendly as she flits from table to table.

Appetisers start with spring rolls; they offer both Chinese and Vietnamese spring rolls.  The Chinese rolls, pictured here, are the larger ones; the Vietnames rolls are thinner and denser.

Some people prefer the Vietnamese rolls because there's more wrapper to stuffing ratio, meaning that it's a crunchier rolls with less veggies.  I like the complements of the crunchy roll wrapper with the crunchiness of the slivered carrots and cabbage, so I prefer the Chinese version.  As usual, the rolls come heavy on vegetables and light on meat.  

Usually, spring rolls come with a sweetish sauce, something like a plum sauce or other sweet and sour sauce.  This sauce?  It has absolutely no flavour.  There's no sweet body and not a hint of sour or spicy note.  Just skip the sauce or ask for a rice vinegar sauce instead.  The chilli oil dip, usually VERY spicy, is only just a mild ting here.  This is consistent with the Taishanese culture where they do not tolerate spicy.

I'm a bit disappointed with the Chicken Fried Rice.  Vegetables here include the standard frozen bag of carrots and peas.  It means so much more to the dish when you have "real" pieces of vegetables that have been cut to bite-size.  Even the colour of sliced carrots adds to the appearance and presentation of the dish.  Maybe some celery, green peppers or gai lan would add greenery.  One of my favourite vegetables to put in any and all stir-fry is bean sprouts, which add great texture.

Now for the chicken:  look closely at the fried rice.  Can you see any chicken?  Me neither.  Despite the paucity of ingredients, the rice tastes rich and full.  

Now here's the Cantonese Chow Mein.  Look at all the wonderful pieces of chicken here, as well as the burst of colour from the lovely vegetables.  The vegetables also taste perfectly al dente, with a nice crunch to each bite.  "Cantonese" on this menu means that this dish comes with chicken, slices of barbecued pork, and nice size shrimps.  Even though there are only three, the 10-15 count shrimp adds a dimension to the dish.  I always prefer to have fewer, larger shrimps, to more, tiny shrimps.  The smaller they are, the quicker they overcook and dry out.

The sauce has lots of flavour and coats the velvety soft noodles beautifully.  Delicious!

The Chicken with Vegetables is essentially the same dish as the Cantonese chow mein, without the chow mein.  The addition of water chestnut adds a crunch to the bite.  Too bad they use canned water chestnut.  If you've ever tasted fresh water chestnut, you would never go back to canned.  

The sauce here complements the rice just as nicely as it does the noodles.

The Singapore Style Vermicelli advertises "spicy" on the menu.  Curry provides the source of the heat.  It's a simple curry derived from everyday curry powder but it adds umami to the dish.  "Spicy" isn't very spicy, again consistent with Cantonese cuisine.

This dish also comes with the trio of proteins consisting of shrimps, barbecued pork and chicken.  Curiously, you see the barbecued pork pieces are tiny shreds; the shrimps are babies, and the chicken is once again invisible.

Why?!  

Why does one dish get the deliciously ample meats and vegetables, and another dish gets the scrimping treatment?

The Egg Foo Yung here has tons of sauce--so much that you would not be able to tell that this is an egg dish without poking into it.  

The perfect foo yung has a seared, crunchy outside and a deliciously velvety inside.  The outside wasn't cooked on high enough heat to have the crunch, and the inside is just a tad overcooked, so it's not as smooth on the inside as it should be.  All the flavour is there, so there's nothing missing on the taste side.  All that extra sauce soaks up nicely into rice.

Lots of hits and a few misses here at Hai Shang.  Generally, the food tastes lovely.  I would up the ingredients a bit in some of the offerings.  The service is attentive and friendly.  The dining room could use some orderly neatening.  In all, you should have a fine dining experience here.

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As usual, thanks for reading and good food to you!

Ray Yuen, Pit Master / Grill Master
Certified Kansas City Barbecue Society Judge – Badge #97736
Certified Steak Cook-off Association Judge – Badge #7788
Canadian Barbecue Society Member