Tangerine Asian Cuisine

Date Visited: Dinner on Friday Jan 3, 2014

Company: Early CNY dinner with +Stanley, +Kelvin, and company

Tangerine was recommended to me by my Tamil friend who said it was an awesome Hakka restaurant in the Whitby/Oshawa area. For those who don't know, Hakka is a style of cuisine from China that the Hakka people cook. They have traditional dishes but they're popular for their Indian style Hakka food which combines Chinese dishes with Indian spices. My dad is Hakka so I've had my share of the traditional dishes but don't get to try the Indian style ones very much unless we go to a restaurant. Some Asian friends of mine were going to be in town/convinced to come and wanted to go for some Chinese so I thought it was a great opportunity to try it. I actually don't know any good primarily Chinese restaurants near me so I really had high hopes for this place!

+Stanley and I arrived first and got a table for five. It was pretty full and we just waited a few minutes as they cleared a table for us. The restaurant is about small-medium sized with a hall upon entering that spans the length of the dining area taking you to to the waiters in the back with a small waiting area there. There weren't any Asian customers but I guess that isn't very surprising as it is in the Durham Region. As we waited, we checked out the menu and saw that a pot of Chinese Tea was $2, which usually should be free. +Stanley also wasn't impressed that they didn't have chopsticks on the table, only forks and knives but I expected that. They had a lengthy and wide-range of Asian cuisine from Thai to Indian and dishes were reasonably priced as if they would be in a typical restaurant in Scarborough/Markham.


After everyone arrived, we ordered a soup and four dishes from the waiter that took our order. He also assumed that we wanted White Rice and we weren't sure if he was going to charge us but it was actually free! We started off with a Large Seafood Hot & Sour Soup for the five of us. We served ourselves and waited a bit for the soup to cool down! I was impressed on how much seafood they actually packed in this soup. It included the regular items you would see in hot and sour soup like tofu, bamboo, and wood ear, but also had shrimp, imitation crab, scallops etc. (ie. the seafood part) It was a great addition the soup and added nicely to the flavour. The hot part was spot on but I thought it could have been a bit more sour.


To pick what dishes to order, I actually looked on Foursquare recommendations and literally everyone said to order the Mango Chicken or the Bombay Chicken (both which were also on the Chef Recommendations part of the menu). We of course, got both. The Mango Chicken ended up being my favourite dish of the night and I'm actually still craving for some now. The sauce was sweet and packed with flavour but it wasn't overbearing and thick. The chicken was crispy and the mango was ripe. I couldn't get enough of it! The Bombay Chicken was a dry dish and had a lot of spices added to the chicken. It was also tossed with some onions which were cooked perfectly. This dish had more Indian spices and flavours to it but I didn't find it spicy at all.

We also wanted to order calamari and were debating between the appetizer dish and a main, but we ended up getting the Spicy Deep Fried Calamari main dish. I found this one pretty greasy (deep fried of course) but the calamari itself wasn't bad. I found that certain pieces were saltier than others but the overall flavour with the onions, pepper, and garlic was great. 

Our last dish was a Seafood Hakka Noodle which was in a huge bowl and was the only one we were too full to finish and had to take home. The noodles were cooked nicely though and there was a nice mix of vegetables and seafood in the dish. I thought the flavour was a bit bland and probably could have done without this one.

I was very impressed with Tangerine overall, the food came timely after we ordered and being in a group, our food was pretty cheap after we split everything. It's probably the best you'll get in the Durham Region hands down. Usually you see many small, sketchy take-out Chinese restaurants but this place is actually legitimate and presentable.

Food: 4.5/5 - Delicious flavour, huge portions and reasonably priced.
Decor: 3/5 - Clean but very standard and simple.
Service: 3/5 - Nothing spectacular but servers were attentive.
Willingness to go back: 4.5/5 - Yes, totally taking anyone who wants to go for Chinese in the area there!
Overall: 4/5

Website: http://www.tangerineasiancuisine.com/ 

Kama

Date Visited: Late dinner on Thursday Jul 25, 2013
Company: Post-TIFF stuff meal with +Lilian

+Lilian and I were in the King West area looking for a place to eat after my TIFF volunteer session and her work shift. After a while of wandering and not stumbling upon any restaurants that gauged our interest, we settled on an Indian place on the corner of King and University. It was located on the lower level of the streets, a bit hidden amongst other restaurants. It advertised a buffet, but we weren't feeling hungry enough for AYCE. We still decided to check out the a-la-carte menu and since it wasn't out of our price range, we decided to grab a table. 

The restaurant was very big and stretched very far back. I didn't expect it to get as much traffic as it seems it does with its size, most restaurants in the area (even buffets) seem to be smaller. The place was pretty empty as it was an hour to closing so we got a roomy corner booth table. They didn't really have any outstanding decor and everything was pretty yellow but it was very nicely lit.
We decided on getting the Butter Chicken and Saag Paneer after a bit of discussion between us about what things were and what we were feeling. We asked the waiter if rice was included in the dishes but the he advised it wasn't. We then ordered Naan which comes with 6 pieces but he advised that we'd need more so we went with two orders of the plain. 

The wait wasn't too bad, but it's how long I'd expect to wait during prime hours. They brought out gas-light candles to keep the dishes warm just before they served them which was a nice indication the food was coming. The Butter Chicken was very different than any other butter chicken I had had before. It was quite sweet and had a strong tomato paste taste. It was tasty but reminded me of the Chef Boyardee beefaroni or ravioli sauce. The actual chicken was very juicy and tender with large pieces. The Saag Paneer had a good portion of cheese to sauce but we added some salt because it was lacking significantly. I enjoyed the thick texture though as it made it easier to dip. The Naan was warm when we got it but after sitting on the table during eating, it quickly got hard and cold. By the end of our meal, it was very hard to bite off pieces from it. We tried to finish the chicken but left the paneer to take home. 

Food: 1.5/5 - Our dishes weren't the best, there was something off about all of them.
Service: 2.5/5 - Service was decent, friendly waiters.
Decor: 2.5/5 - Extremely spacious, but lacking anything else.
Willingness to go back: 3.5/5 - I'd definitely try the buffet to see what that's like in comparison.
Overall: 2.5/5
Website: http://www.kamaindia.com/

Jaipur Grille

Visited: Winterlicious Dinner on Wednesday Feb 6, 2013
Company: Party of 5

Winterlicious was around the corner and going through the large list of participating restaurants, my friends and I wanted to try to something less safe for our second season of -licious. We planned a little too last minute and ended up getting a reservation at Jaipur Grille near Yonge and Eg. I was pretty excited anyway because I absolutely adore Indian food. My dad was born in India so he has a few recipes that he always does but I'm always itching for new tastes. That's why I'm always down for Indian buffets, as I tend to stick to what I know at traditional restaurants. Jaipur Grille seemed to offer a lot of interesting options though for their fixe price menu.

+Stephanie Szebenyi and I were running late to dinner so when we arrived, our group was seated right in front of the window which would be a great view during the day as the place is on Yonge. It was quite spacious with all the tables along the perimeter of the restaurant, half our table was facing the window which is unusual as you would think they'd have our sides face the window so they can fit more tables. There were many lights but the place was still dim. We were given these spice chips (forgive my ignorance of the names of many things) to nibble on prior to our meals. They were very flavourful but did not do anything to ease our appetites and made us drink a lot of water (you can see them in the top right corner of the first photo).

I started off with Samosa Chaat which I have never had before. I love samosas and I saw this added a lot of extra sauces I enjoy already on it so I assumed that I would be good. I was definitely right, this was an explosion of flavours that went with the veg samosa so well. There was mint, yogurt and other things I don't know but tasted amazing! I enjoyed how colourful the dish was too. Great appetizer, filled you up quite a bit.

For my main dish, I had the Pahadi Chicken. This was definitely the safe choice as it was the only chicken option. All dishes came with Saag Paneer, Rice, Naan and Raita. The portion amount was perfect, I like to mix things up and I was able to finish everything and not have too much leftover of anything. I'm always worried that the chicken is too dry in dishes like these but this wasn't bad. The pahadi flavour wasn't too overpowering and was very mild. The raita and paneer were great additions as I love both of those things. I love extra cucumber in the raita and didn't think there was enough, the yogurt flavour was also very mild. The naan came fresh and warm to the table but it wasn't the best naan I've had, it was on the hard side. I was extremely full at the end of the meal though.

For dessert, I had the mango mousse which was possibly the best mango mousse I've ever had. It was so rich in mango flavour but didn't feel heavy. But I also only ate half which might have been why (some friends didn't enjoy their first time trying gulab jamun and wanted the mousse).

Food: 4/5 - Delicious indian food

Decor: 3.5/5 - Very chill, not too busy

Service: 2/5 - Extremely slow to bring out dishes but friendly waiters

Likeliness to come back: 3.5/5 - Regular menu looks rather good and decent prices.

Overall: 3.5/5

Website: http://www.jaipurgrille.com/