17. Tang Bistro (I)

My Overall Score: 4/5

Polly’s Score: Coming Soon

Ida’s Score: Coming Soon

Ordered:

Mount Qi with soup (hot & sour) ($11.50)
Chinese hamburger ($7.50)
BBQ chicken wings ($4.50)
Hand-pulled noodles with meat sauce ($10.50)

Love the vibe and atmosphere this place gives off, lots of parking available too. This is definitely a place for people who love spices! You’ll find foods that you definitely don’t find in other Chinese restaurants in the city! Ah, comfort food for the winter~

Presentation: 4.3/5

What I love the most would be the kinds of ingredients they use to add colour and contrast that make it visually appetizing! I like how the chicken wings didn’t just come on a small plate, but instead came on the skewer. It sounds simple, but that step created more of an experience for the eater.

Health: 3.7/5

This place probably wouldn’t be the best for vegetarians. There some starters that are quite tasty, but not really any options for meals.

What’s nice is that they did have some veggies with some of the noodle soup dishes we had. My only thing is that some of the things we ordered was really salty. I’m not sure if it was done on purpose to balance out the light and thick noodles. (like the meat with the hand pulled noodles was really salty). So just heads up to not just put a spoonful of the meat into your mouth.

The appetizers wouldn’t be the healthiest but there are some nice, lighter dishes with less spices and more vegetables!

Atmosphere/location: 4.4/5

Luckily they have a lot of parking!! This place is actually really close to the U of A and next to Kyoto and Phobulous. I actually like the vibes this place gives off. Cozy and comfortable.

Cost: 4/5

I think the prices are good! Especially for the big bowl of noodles you get. Definitely very filling and almost everyone I’ve seen had leftovers like we did haha.

Taste: 3.7/5

Mount Qi with soup

I’m a big sucker for hot & sour soups, but this definitely isn’t like the traditional complex and flavourful hot and sour soups so I was kind of disappointed. This soup didn’t really have the sour component to it but it had a bit of spice. It was a bit too spicy for Henry, but if you’re used to eating a little bit of spice now and then, you’ll do fine 🙂

The brunoise (basically small cubes) pieces of vegetables have a bit of a crisp crunch to them. Though after a while my mouth got a bit tired of so much chewing ahaha (I’m lazy D:).

I loved the noodles, it reminds me of the thicker, homemade noodles we used to make at home. It absorbs the flavour of the broth well and has a pleasant chewiness to it.

BBQ chicken wings

OMGOSH, the wings. It reminds me of the amazing BBQ you get back in Asia. For me, i remember the late trips to the BBQ places in China, where they use five spice on everything!! Everything from meat to seafood to vegetables were grilled! When you bite into it the steam releases and it is very satisfying~

I like how they place it on these big, long skewers!

Chinese Hamburger

Ida said it was okay~ It wasn’t very hot or anything when it arrived either. And while I love the concept: simple street food kind of style, the flavours of what you imagine from the small street vendors aren’t really there.

Hand-pulled noodles with meat sauce

If you are to take a spoonful of meat in your mouth it may be quite salty, but it works well when mixed with the noodles in each bite. Quite yummy actually!!

LOOK at these hand-pulled noodles! Love the texture.

Service: 4/5

The servers were polite and kind, and they did well in putting up with my teasing and jokes haha. They were good in refilling our water etc and the service was average speed~