Since it was a long weekend last week, we decided to travel a bit further for food. We ended up in Surrey’s Tasty Sweets and Restaurant, located on 12047, 80th Avenue. It’s one of those Indian restaurants that has a side counter where they sell all kinds of traditional Indian sweets.

We went for the Buffet Lunch which costs $8.99 per person. The spread was not a lot but it most certainly made up for the lack of quantity with quality. The main items on the buffet are:

• Butter Chicken
• Chicken Tandoori
• Chilli Paneer
• Palak Paneer
• Channa Masala
• Goat Masala

Not a lot right? But the quality certainly did not disappoint us at all. They use the best of spices and meat.

The naan were served hot off the clay oven. It was still hot when they come by every now and then asking if we needed more. They were one of the best naan we have ever tried — and it goes very well with the butter chicken and chilli paneer gravy. The naan were soft and fluffy.

For dessert, they had Gulab Jaman which is dried milk cream, deep fried and served warm with sugar syrup. This was really sweet.

We had a good meal although as always we ended stuffing ourselves so much we simply had to skip dinner again. If you happen to be in the neighborhood, I highly recommend this place.

© ben for Chow Times, 2006. | Permalink | 7 comments
Post tags: Buffet, Indian, Restaurant Review, Surrey

Today, we were invited by Bernie and his family to try out a Malaysian restaurant in Surrey. Bernie hails from the Pearl of the Orient, Penang. The restaurant we went to is called Malaysian Hut and is managed by Irene Chang, a baba-nyonya, from Sibu, Sawarak. Irene is a very friendly person who came out and chatted briefly with us. The restaurant has been operating at the 108th Avenue for more than five years. They have a mini website at http://www.malaysianhut.ca/ and was featured twice recently in The Province. Anyway, Irene is the tall one in the picture below.

We decided to order different types of dishes for sharing so that we all get the chance to try out varieties. So, we ordered Char Koay Teow, Hainanese Chicken Rice, Curry Laksa and Asam Laksa. The servings were pretty generous. Of all the dishes, the Char Koay Teow and the Hainanese Chicken Rice are the most popular. We ordered an extra serving of rice because there were more chicken leftover.

Arkensen and Nanzaro rated the Char Koay Teow a “five”. For me, I will rate the Char Koay Teow a little lower. It is because that dish does not have the two MOST important ingredients: crispy fried lard (gee yow jar) and cockles. Anyway, I have not come across Char Koay Teow so far in Vancouver that has these two ingredients. It is perhaps because Vancouverites are just plain afraid of Hepatitis and clogged arteries! :-) I will grudgingly give it a 4.5.

The best Char Koay Teow I have tasted was the stall behind the Selangor Emporium in Jalan TAR … I wonder if that stall is still around. Let me know your favourite place for Char Koay Teow, especially one that has “gee yow jar” and raw cockles!

The Curry Laksa is OK but I think it will be much better if it is spicier. Curry Laksa is supposed to be so spicy that you sweat eating it. I must say that the Asam Laksa is pretty disappointing. I guess it’s because the lai fun was substituted with thin vermicelli. Also, we normally expect Asam Laksa to have shredded cucumber, pineapple, onion, asam paste and sardines.

Thanks to Bernie, Janice, Ignatius and Cornelius for buying this lunch. It was great meeting up with you all again.

© ben for Chow Times, 2006. | Permalink | 4 comments
Post tags: Malaysian, Restaurant Review, Surrey