[CRA 2010 Signature Dish] Chicken Fenpi Salad ???? and Eight Treasure Sweet Rice ??? from Lin Chinese Cuisine

There is something about Lin Chinese Cuisine that the CRA folks like about.

Judging from looks and the customers they have, it is not surprising that many would not consider Lin for a prestigious award like that from the CRA.

We had been to Lin before. That was just 6 months ago when we went to check out their award winning Xiao Long Bao.

I guess one of the thing that works out well for Lin is the location. It is situated by the busy intersection of Broadway and Granville.

Last year (2009), Lin won the award for the best Northern Dim Sum for their Xiao Long Bao.

This year they snagged three awards. They came in second place for the best Northern Chinese restaurant category. They also won two gold awards in the Signature Dishes category. Quite a feat, huh?

I remembered that meal (the above is the food we ordered back then). Not only was the dishes we order very well executed, the prices were quite cheap too.

Lin is undoubtedly a very Shanghainese restaurant as you can see from some of the dishes.

This is how Lin’s inside looked like at 11AM before the lunch time crowd started to come in. This place is packed with customers everyday during lunch and dinner sittings. Often there is a wait for a table.

So one can expect that service could be a challenge in such situations. When we were there early, service was excellent. The same lady attended to us this time. Some of you who had been to Lin would know who I mean when I say she is thin. An awesome person and very friendly. She entertains all sorts of questions from us and I can see that she is a people person … that is until when the place starts to fill that you will find it hard to catch her attention.

For a restaurant that had won so many awards from the CRA, you might be surprised to learn that many (even most) of their customers are non-Chinese … at least during that day we were there, the non-Chinese customers outnumbered the Chinese customers.

That is something that many restaurant can learn from Lin … how a Chinese restaurant can remain authentic and yet at the same time able to draw such a diverse customer base.

Maybe the reason is that they made their menu so simple. I can’t read Chinese but the English names are just very simple description of the dish (eg. curry beef, honey beef, sizzling beef, etc).

Their prices all ends in .99 if you notice that (click on the above to display a larger image). They are rather cheap too don’t you think?

We were here to only try two dishes … the two award winning dishes.

Chinese Restaurant Award 2010 ? WINNER in the NORTHERN DIM SUM Category ? Chicken Fenpi Salad ????

This is another CRA dish that we could not find in the menu. It is again a translation issue.

It is a good thing our waitress was not too busy that we could nail down the right dish. On the CRA award list, this is called the Chicken Fenpi Salad but in Lin’s simplified English menu, this is called … More after the jump. Click to read the rest of [CRA 2010 Signature Dish]
Chicken Fenpi Salad ???? and
Eight Treasure Sweet Rice ???
from Lin Chinese Cuisine (494 words)

© ben for Chow Times, 2010. |
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Post tags: Chinese, Shanghai, Vancouver