Minoo organised a presentation by the Canadian Cancer Society at one of the meeting at the Caring Place Community Kitchen. The emphasis of the presentation is on prevention. Eat well and be active are the key notes. In eat well, we were told to eat 5 to 10 servings of vegetables and fruit daily, go for high fiber foods, choose healthy fats like omega 3 fat, limit consumption of alcohol, use less salt and sugar and cook and prepare food with care. This was an informational presentation.
After the presentation, Lorna and I went for a bite. Lorna recommended Deer Garden Signatures on Alexandra Road. When we were there I just realized that the location was where Zen originally located.
It was almost 1 pm and the place was packed. There was a small line up for tables. We were fortunate to have arrived just in the nick of time to get a table without having to wait. However, our table was tucked in the far corner that it is hard to get the attention of the server.
You may click on the menu to get a larger view.
The specialty of Deer Garden Signatures is their build-your-own-noodle. This type of serving seems to be getting more popular in many restaurants these days. We had such at Cattle Cafe, also on Alexandra Road and Celsius Cafe on No. 3 Road.
Their black and red cutleries are simple.
We went for the noodles combos of our choice where we get to pick the soup base, the noodle and two types of toppings. It came with a choice of beverage — coffee or tea like most Hong Kong style cafe. The combo is only $7.50.
Our first order is Gingko and Pepper Fish Soup with Vietnamese rice noodle. My choice of toppings are beef tendon and beef tongue.
I have not try beef tongue before and if you did not tell me …that it is beef tongue, I would have mistaken it as just beef. The texture of the beef tongue was just like beef.
The beef tendon was very tender.
I like the peppery taste of the soup. The serving of the combo was big. I could not finish it by myself. We have the leftover to go.
Our second order was the Rice in Tomatoes and Pumpkins Fish Soup. For this, we had sliced pumpkin, enoki mushroom and homemade cuttlefish ball for the toppings. A third topping cost $1 extra.
We noticed that all the soup base comes with fresh bean curd skin. For this Tomatoes and Pumpkins Fish base, there are also button mushroom and suey choy and is sweeter than the Gingko and Pepper Fish Soup.
The homemade cuttle fish ball had a bouncy texture.
The bill came to a total of $16.80 before tips. This restaurant accepts cash only. I enjoyed the company with Lorna.
The location of the restaurant is not ideal. It is located upstairs and many people does not even realize that there is a restaurant here.
Business Hour
7 days a week
11:00 am to 11:00 pm
Deer Garden is actually owned by Cattle Cafe thats why there are similarities in their menus.
I did not know that Deer Garden is owned by Cattle Cafe. Yesterday when we were dining in Alexandra Rd, we saw signs that says that both Cattle Cafe and Cattle Hot Pot are owned by the same company. With Deer Garden also in the fray, they have three restaurants along Alexandra. Interesting. The Cattle Cafe was really busy with people milling outside waiting for a table.
Ben
Actually, I went to Deer Garden recently. When I saw their menu, I saw a lot of similarities between them and Cattle Cafe. I asked if they were both owned by the same person, and the staff there denied this, so I don’t think that both restaurants are owned by the same person. In my opinion, Cattle Cafe is way better than Deer Garden. The noodles and drinks are better. I ordered coke with lemon with my order. The drink was ridicously small, with lots of ice and only one slice of lemon! At Cattle Cafe, the drink size is much larger and more slices of lemon. They actually give you the whole pop can to pour into their glasses. For about the same amount of money, I would go to Cattle Cafe, no doubt about it.
Last time when I lined up in Deer Garden, I saw the bartender squeezed the fresh lemon juice to make the iced lemon tea and drinks. I think that’s the reason why only 1 slice of lemon found in the drink. Besides, my friend ordered the iced honey green bubble tea with combo and she said the the size is really big. We enjoy the service and atomsphere there. Food quality is not bad too.
I think it’s funny that you followed up that presentation by partaking in a meal with almost no fiber, a low proportion of omega 3 fats, lots of salt, and few if any servings of fruits and vegetables. It must have been a convincing presentation!
hahahahahaa! funny comment, well said!
That made me laugh out loud! I love the irony.
The noodle is not as good as the ones downstairs, Cattle Cafe. And the owner of Deer Garden was previously the co-owner of Cattle Cafe, so you might find they are quite the same.
If you go there at 3 pm onwards, they have afternoon dishes, and my favorite is the japanese styled eel on rice. It’s really good and comes with a fried egg.
Deer Garden is actually NOT owned by the same owner. What happened was, the cook that now owns deer garden used to be the head chef at cattle cafe and they had a fight then the chef went to open one RIGHT UPSTAIRS. Hence the similar menu and similar taste in soup base
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