Updated 19th Nov 2014; This restaurant is closed according to Urbanspoon.com.
It is very hard not to get excited about this place.
Like everyone else, we get excited over food that is good. The excitement doubles when it is cheap too. Actually, the excitement triples when it is also unexpectedly and ridiculously cheap.
LotusRapper emailed us alerting us to this place called the East Fusion Food with a link to Cheap Appetite where Tana had a bowl of wonton noodles for just $2.99. That was about 6 months ago. When we saw that, we immediately dropped our weekend lunch plans and head to this place.
East Fusion Food is located on the ground floor of the International Village or better known as Tinseltown for the cinemas it has. The shopping mall at the edge of Chinatown is rather dead and has low occupancy. It took us a while to locate East Fusion Food because we thought it would be on the second floor where the restaurants and food courts are.
Let not the East Fusion Food name fool you because I cannot see where the fusion is on their offerings. It is as Chinese as it gets.
The place is very busy but the turn around is quick. We were there last Saturday at 12:30PM which is right about the peak lunch time and we had to wait for about 5 minutes for a table.
The place is not very big. They are setup for small parties of 2-4 people normally. So you don’t expect big tables for an extended family dine out. With just about seatings for 40, 50 people max, this is very much a place for a quick meal.
It is very busy. The service is rushed — not rude but they have little patience. Not easy for many people I know, but look past that you are OK. The moment we sat down we already had the drinks and menu landing right in front of our face.
It is not a big menu.
In our usual slow pace, we read every single item on the menu. Within a minute, the waitress was already at our table asking if we are ready to order. We said we are still looking at the menu and before I even finished my sentence she was already turning away headed to the next table. To some this is rude but it was not a problem with us. I wanted to let you know so that you don’t go to this place on the account of this posting and felt slighted by this sort of things. LOL!
Our waitress was like a super women or something. She did not even write down what we wanted and remembered everything we said. We ordered six items in total and some of them were in noodle type/soup type/meat type combination. We were so afraid she will mess up our order but she repeated it back to us 100% correct. Amazing.
The one thing we wanted to check out was the $2.99 wonton noodles.
Well, the wonton noodles is no longer $2.99. The price had since risen to $3.88. I thought it is still cheap even the price had risen 30% since Tana had it 6 months ago.
It came in a big bowl with five pieces of shrimp wontons. The shrimp wonton are quite big. While I had much better shrimp wontons, this is really good considering the price.
I initially thought that there are very little noodles in it. I could not see to the bottom because of the cloudy broth …
… but it has more noodles than we expected. We thought the thin wire’ly egg noodles were done very well.
I am quite certain a number of people will like the wonton noodles at East Fusion Food and then will get excited and tell the world that it is just $3.88 — like us.
We actually thought that the servings in East Fusion Food will be small considering their prices. So, I went ahead to order two additional side dishes which they call “Starters and Appetizers”. All their Appetizers costs $6. Check the menu above … there are 24 types. All $6. I like that simplicity.
The boiled Gai Lan (Chinese Brocolli) was excellent. The thick stem and the leafy part were cut and arranged in a nice manner. I simply like the way it is cut to short, uniform and manageable sizes that you could easily pick up with chopsticks. I was asking Suanne why we could not get the ones we prepare at home to this level of texture — she doesn’t know.
The Deep Fried Oyster is also $6. There are four large pieces. The size took us by surprise …
… but it was mostly batter. They served this with spice salt for flavouring. This was just OK … nothing to rave about.
The House Special Fried Rice Noodle was what Nanzaro had. This is $9.
This reminded us of the Cantonese Fried Noodles very common in Malaysia. I have not come across anyone referring to this as Cantonese Fried Noodles anywhere else. This is very good … highly recommended.
They were not stingy with the ingredients. On the plate was good sized scallop, prawns, squid, pork, bok choy and mushrooms.
Nanzaro was feeling generous and allow mum and dad a small bowl of his noodles but only if we used clean utensils and not before he starts eating. We love it. I just don’t know how to explain it. Each ingredient, from the noodles, the gravy and the stuff I just mentioned had its own distinct flavour.
Mummy Suanne had Ramen. Ooops, this is not Ramen.
They correctly called this Japanese Style Noodle in Soup. LOL!
This one come in a combination of your choice.
- For soup, you can have either Miso Soup, Pork Bone Soup or Shoyu.
- For noodles, you can have either Ramen or Udon.
- For meat on the side, you can have either Chicken Fillet, Pork Chop or BBQ Pork.
All this for $7.
This is quite decent. We can’t help but comparing this to say Ramen in G-Men but one just cannot do so.
This is like comfort food … nice hot thick pork bone broth with slurpy noodles. Suanne likes this.
The pork chop was kind of too dry and does not look particularly appetizing though. Perhaps the BBQ pork would be a better choice for the side.
Arkensen said the fried rice is good. We thought it looked great and even has a nice aroma to it too. This is $9.
This is well done in every sense. The rice has the right fluffiness and not too dry. The big prawns is a delight to the eyes. The BBQ pork adds a different dimension to the color and taste. The scallions and eggs were in sufficient amount to make a difference.
One could get a very cheap meal here. Although this adds up to over $40 for the four of us, it is still cheap considering we also had side dishes.
It is hard not to get excited with East Fusion Food. It is worth checking out.
We had way too much food and asked for boxes to take away.
There are a lot of parking in the basement of the International Village. Remember to ask the restaurant to give you a stamp on your parking card. It is free parking for 2 hours with a stamp.
😀
Now I need to go back for more fried rice. I had their Singapore Vermicelli which was also very good, as is their Beef Stir Fried Rice Noodles.
One of the best things about East Fusion is its open-ness and access to the mall corridor, which allows our Tot-in-Dine to roam around freely, safely and away from the elements if he’s not able to remain seated throughout dinner. That plus the quality of the food and the great value is an unbeatable combination compared to many other “mall restaurants” like White Spot, food courts or some of the higher end Chinese restaurants in Lansdowne Mall, Richmond Centre, Oakridge, etc.
Hi Suanne and Ben:
The food looks delicious. Can you tell if the noodles (especially the wonton noodle soup) were handmade or store-bought?
Hi MoneySmile:
I don’t know actually if the noodles were handmade or what. Interesting you should ask. The texture of it is unlike the usual ones we bought from T&T for instance. They are thinner and I describe it as “wire’y” if you know what I mean. For that price, I think you will be pleasantly surprise.
Ben
Are there many restaurants that make their own wonton noodles ? Handmade northern Chinese noodles are now trendy, but I must say I’ve never seen wonton noodles handmade, or marketed.
Michigan in Richmond. You can buy their noodles pre-packaged to cook at home as well.
I often call in my lunch order to East Fusion – the lunch rush can be crazy – and can vouch that the wonton noodles are good, particularly considering the only other viable alternative downtown (not including Chinatown) is Hon’s. The congee’s pretty good too.
There’s an open window into the kitchen area, so I’ll try and see if the noodles are store bought the next time around, assuming they leave packaging lying around.
On the same note, Michigan in Richmond, which definitely makes their own noodles, is still my hands-down fave.
Interesting there seems to be a rash of modern Chinese/HK cafe named after US cities. I forget them, but know at Crystal Mall in Burnaby, there’s the Pittsburg Restaurant. I’m sure there are many others similar to it. Why the names ?
A few names comes to mind … California Cafe in Lansdowne Mall and Boston Steakhouse on Alexandra. There is a Honolulu Cafe on Kingsway. I also remember a Hollywood Cafe a long time ago … not sure if they are still open.
i’m curious what makes the noodles cantonese style. i heard that the chinese food i know in hawai’i is mostly all cantonese. is it the shape of the noodle? or the sauce?
Hi Robyn: When I reference Cantonese style noodles, I really think that it only a regional dish that was served in Malaysia. I have never heard of that name used anywhere else in the world. Not that this is unique to Malaysia but it is the reference to the name. In Malaysia, Cantonese fried noodles (gong foo chow), is the combination of flat rice noodles and the sauce.
Ben
Good and Cheap it’s so rare nowadays. But everything looks except for the over batter oyster, how sad.
How good are the noodles? I think that kind of noodles need a bit of crunch and chew in the texture. $3.88 is a pretty good deal.
The noodles are pretty good, Ed. They are made just the way I like it … not soggy but is “wire’y”.
Ben