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Tsui Hang is a Chinese restaurant downtown on Granville and Davie. It is a late night "after bar" destination and also has a side window located on Davie Street for take out. The side window features special $4.50 entree selections for take out only including pork on rice, chow mein, etc.
I know it's cheap and easy, but save your money. I ordered one of the $5.00 specials on the back of the menu as a buddy at work was going and I was hungry. I ordered the Chicken and Black Bean on Fried Rice. When I got the order I opened it up to see a mass of Onions and Chicken pieces. The Chicken was of good volume, but the sauce was a watered down version of Black bean and was bland, mostly cornstarch and water, perhaps 3 or 4 "Black beans". the "Fried" rice was really wet, mushy sloppy steamed rice with no flavor and a scant bit of frozen peas and carrots, I don't think it was ever "fried". I was not expecting much when I ordered because I have been in the West end for years and never heard a good thing about the place, frankly I didn't think it could be all that bad, well I was Soooo wrong. Next time I'll suggest HoHo's on Davie, even their "Fast Food" Steam table stuff is better than the slop from Tsui Hang Village.
I have been to the Tsui Hang on many occasions, almost exclusively late at night after leaving the bar when craving a late night snack. The food is average, the quality is generally soso and your experience will vary depending on how intoxicated you are (the drunker, the better).
A "well known" secret is that they serve "cold tea" (beer served in a tea pot) even after 2am. When ordering cold tea, they will ask how many and this indicates the number of beers (usually Heineken I think) that they will put in the teapot, up to 4. I think they put less in than they say they do and charge you for them.
They also have a side window with a 4.50 special menu with about a dozen different choices on it. The quality is low as you would expect for 4.50, the pork on rice is not bad though; a good deal considering how much pork you get.
Casually stumbling down Granville street...Alcohol induced hunger setting in, stomach growling like a bulimic tiger... this can't go on any longer this writer says to himself. Then the culinary gods align and bless us with what is known as "late night" chinese food, right in the heart of the city. Our group enters 8 deep at around 3am and are seated immediately. The atmosphere is electric with fellow (mostly intoxicated) city goers all stuffing their face in the MSG extravaganza. From the chicken balls, Sweet and Sour Pork, Corn and Chicken Soup....to the lukewarm tea, they all hit the spot. Additional entertainment was provided by a couple of numbskulls who decided that this was the right setting to settle their differences over what was probably who was gonna have to sleep on the bottom bunk that night... The staff quickly broke it up with a look of amusement on their face... I take it they are use to this sort of thing. Looking back, is there a better way to end your night other than at a table at 3am with close friends, stuffing your face with good chinese food while being obnoxiously loud? I think not.
Let me begin by saying that I have had the misfortune of treading into such a sham of a restaurant. I would like to give them negative stars if only it were available in the selection above.
Mother's Day 2010. My mother decided it was a good idea to try this horrid place. I had warned her that my gut feeling was not to even go near there, but she wouldn't listen. Our waiter approached the table without even a wince, let alone a smile.
That wasn't what bothered me. What did bother me was that 3 out of 5 bowls on the table were stained with dirt. After staring at the menu for a long time, we decided to order something from the "Chef's Special". Szechuan Chicken.
Altogether, we ordered 5 dishes. The soup came out all right, and slowly the horror began. The first few dishes were very home cooked. My grandmother could've been in that kitchen preparing better food. The presentation was disappointing compared to the atmosphere they suggest.
It made the chandelier in the centre of the ceiling look plastic. For all we know, it is. The worst of the worst has to be the Chef's Special: Szechuan Chicken. My little brother identified the sauce as Buffalo Wings sauce. As we all took a bite into it, we had to agree.
Naturally, we flag down a waiter to ask about the dish. Was Szechuan and Buffalo Wings sauce the same thing all along?! I do not think so.
The waiter arrived to say it has been modified for western taste buds. Next, the manager came along to explain that Szechuan sauce was too spicy for caucasians, so they took the iniative to change the sauce entirely but still call it Szechuan. When we disagreed with him, he simple said sorry and walked away.
Feeling a little ripped off, we decided to ask if we could switch the dish for something else. The next waiter who came along shot me with a very rude response. He said "There is NOTHING wrong with this dish. I can't change it for you." I corrected him "Yes, there isn't a thing wrong with this dish, there is about 5." To that he replied, we have modified the dish to suit western taste buds. As a matter of fact I think we added KETCHUP to it."
The cat is finally out of the bag. We were horrified. I suggested we leave the dish and hopefully they'd have the decency to take it off the bill. I was horribly mistaken.
Before we got our bill, they offered house dessert. By then we were begging them to serve us no more food from their rotten kitchen for fear of nausea.
The final curtain is always the best. After all, we save the best for last. We got an automatic 15% service charge on our bill along with the fraud Szechuan Chicken dish as well as an extra space for "Tip".
On our way out, the manager had his nose in the air. My mother looked over to say thank you but he turned away. The professionalism he displayed was most astounding, I must say. Barf.
In a nutshell, save your taste buds from possibly the worst counterfeit Chinese food as well as your fragile minds to foolish service and never visit this circus. I tell you this for free.
This is the kind of Chinese food we had to put up with in the 70's because there was nothing else. It's the kind that cops eat because it's free. The liquor laws aren't enforced here. Everybody knows about the teapots. It's really a boozecan with food.
On weekends the Tsui Hang transforms into a Vegas style shit show, replete with reality show dating candidates, post clubbing chauchis and their trollops, cops, and gangsters. The service staff is trained to remain calm and are unable to react in a negative fashion to obnoxious, ethanol-fuelled behavior. Most zen-like if you ask me. They serve up Whitey's favorite classic 'chinese' dishes. Sweet n' sour pork, lemon chicken, beef and broccoli. The pork is quite tasty actually...not breaded and the sauce will leave it sticking to your ribs just like grandma's oatmeal. Try the cold tea to get even more sloshed after a night out on the pish. It came in 2 varieties last time I checked. And you just gotta love how they ring it up on the bill: Tea (Hein) for Heineken and Tea (KOK) for Kokanee. If you're ever in a jam for a 6 pack late-night, roll by their side window and order the cold tea to go. Impresses the ladies every time.
I disagree is glop or bad food,hardly greasy.
Standard/Above Standard Chinese food,great Beef dishes,staff is the best in the city.They can control all sorts of mayhem that may occur from the drunk kiddies who stroll in from Granville Street nightclubs.
Most of the reviewee's come in at 2:00AM from the clubs to chow down after drinking too much cheap liquor. If you know what to order, and if you enjoy Asian style seafood, your gonna love this place! But it aint cheap .. leave that for the young -uns trying to get some late night tail along with with some sweet and sour pork. Lobster in butter sauce with home style noodles, Spicy wok-fried crab ( you heard that right), Any variation of the seafood soups, Most prawn and duck appies are great, and so is the Rock cod, veggie and scallops etc, etc,. I have been eating here for over 15 years and its still pretty damn good. and yes, i like the cops eating here. keeps the riff raff at mcdonalds where they belong. Cheers.
Okay...so I've read the other reviews people have posted on here, and although I do agree with some it....namely the tea pot thing...but like...WHO CARES! If you are there and drinkin out of one ya really can't be complaining!
Anyway, the point of a food review is to comment on that of course. SO...that said...if you've never tried their rock salt prawns shell removed, then you are missing out on one of the best prawn dishes ever! They are fantastic...and you can't find them anywhere else that even begin to hold a candle! The other dishe on the menu that is also awesome is Grandma's Spicy Bean Cake dish...to die for!!! So, do yourself a favour if you haven't already...go and try these two dishes! And for the record, although I've done the tea pot thing countless times myself, I also won't order any other chinese food when I'm sober...they are awesome!
Food came quick, good.
Other than that. The ratio of Price: food quality/Quantity would only seem normal to people drunk after a night on the town.
good thing there's plenty of pizza places nearby.
Ordered a Mongolian fried rice dish, a chow mien dish, and salted peppery cuttlefish. The cuttlefish was mediocre, and more of an appetizer serving. It was also the most expensive of the bunch. as for the Mongolian fried rice, I swear it was exactly the same as seafood fried rice. I've had better food for cheaper at Chinese cafes in Richmond.
I'm not sure how they expected me and my crew to eat the noodles and the rice, because after they first brought the cuttlefish, they took away our table's bowls. Then when I asked for some new bowls. they only brought back 1, when there was 5 of us at the table. My buddy had to jack 4 more from a table setting behind him.
Ambiance. classic stereotypical Chinese restaurant. with a bonus waiter that looks like a Chinese peter griffin.
I purposely signed up on DINEHERE to complain about this restaurant. I'll most likely not come back. But that's solely based on that one visits food quality/price and strange service.
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