Main Dining Room

Main Dining Room
833 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC

A lot of restaurant says their cooking is “homestyle”. But, what does homestyle mean? If you parent’s cooking meant a take-out from the closest KFC or similar fast-food restaurant does that mean homestyle? Or, if food is so bad, homestyle is a nightmare rather than pleasant memories? Or, likewise, what if cooking meant bringing out something from a box (either purchased from a supermarket or from a shop like Sliced Tomatoes, which will be closing/has closed its doors) and put it in the oven for 30 minutes at 350F/180C? I know these are really bad examples but, when there are shows like Jamie’s Ministry of Food, it tells you how things have gone in the last couple of decades. I think I am digressing here…

Now, back to the topic, of today’s post, Main Dining Room is a small Chinese restaurant in Denman street. It labels itself, as show in the picture below, “Homestyle Chinese Cuisine”. Of course, Chinese in this case most likely means Cantonese but, again, that is not the point. The question is rather, do they cook just like my mom?

Their menu (or, at least, their take out menu) would like similar to what you would find in larger operations like Hon’s. And, reality is, it is quite manageable if you realize that, a lot of the dishes, is exactly the same, except for the sauce or the meat. For example, what is the different between lemon chicken and honey garlic chicken? What is the difference between chicken fried rice and shrimp fried rice? Or beef congee and fish fillet congee? I ought to know this very well, since my parents used to run a restaurant similar to Main Dining Room in Panama (and that is where I learned a lot of a restaurant operations – something I am not that willing to re-live…). Again, I am digressing…

Just like my visit to Momo Sushi House and similar posts on the last two weeks or so, the day I went to Main Dining Room, I was in sort of a hurry to grab something and back to my office. I.e., not necessarily a meal I could sit down and eat. So, I ended up ordering from their lunch specials, which costs from $6.50 to $7.75. All of the items in this menu has “a choice of Hot & Sour soup or Wonton soup + Bowl Rice (sic)”. That lunch special section has around 20 items, from “Chicken with Mixed Vegetables (or Beef)”, to “Mongolian Beef (Hot)”, “Lemon Chicken”, “Shanghai Style Thick Noodles” and “Prawns and Vegetables”. For me? I ordered something basic: Special Curry Chicken.

Don’t ask me what is so “special” about the chicken (or the curry). If you have been to Kent’s Kitchen, it would be quite similar. However, unlike Kent’s Kitchen, and most probably closer to the Japanese version of a curry, the sauce was closer to being a gravy (i.e., it was relatively “thick”). But, as you can see from the picture, it was loaded with onions and green peppers, with some small pieces of potatoes. Feel free to call it a filler. And, as mentioned in the description of the menu, it comes with two options of soup – I went for Wonton, which comes with two small pieces.

So, here comes the question: Was it “homestyle” as it claim to be. I will have to admit, my mom used to make a curry similar to this (however, it did not use that much onion and pepper as fillers). Not necessarily the same taste; however, it did have *something* I don’t get from Hon’s or Kent’s Kitchen. The wonton soup was also quite decent: unlike a lot of restaurants where the pork in the wonton are grounded to the point of it being almost a paste, in this case, you could still “fell” they were minced. Whether they actually mince the pork, I can’t say; yet, it did not have the same feeling as the mass produced ones. Sure, they were really small, but. One nasty side effect, though, was that afterwards, I had that lingering aftertaste. I am sure people would say MSG, I am not 100% convinced it is. Still, it was a bit annoying/distracting.

Would I recommend this place? Actually, that is a tough one. Depending on the dish, I might come here rather than Hon’s or similar mass produce Chinese restaurants. However, it must admit I have certain bias, which might cause others to have an experience different to the one I had. At the end of the day, it is the question of whether you are willing to give it a try.

Tagged under: Chinese • Downtown • Vancouver • West End