Hello my foodie friends! Last weekend we went to the Deluxe Chinese Restaurant and it has become my newest restaurant discovery. The Deluxe Chinese restaurant is located across from Aberdeen mall and there is a relatively large parking lot beside it which makes it accessible to diners.
They have a large dining area for guests to enjoy their food in as well as private rooms for functions. We were in a private room for this particular dinner because we were celebrating a birthday.
Appetizers
To start our meal, we received a variety of appetizers including two towers of pickled daikon and a bowl of pickled cucumber with peanuts. Even though there were chili peppers on top, they weren’t spicy. For those who are not a fan of the taste of vinegar, these taste more like soy sauce than anything.
Something I haven’t had in a while was the shredded chicken and cucumber salad. I’ve had jellyfish salad before but the jellyfish in this instance was round similar to a piece of corn on the cob. It was definitely interesting to try this version of it.
Salmon sashimi with mixed vegetables
This dish was the most unexpected out of everything we had because we didn’t think we would be having salmon sashimi at a Chinese restaurant. The salmon pieces were cut thick and it was mixed with ginger, bell peppers, onions, sesame seeds, and wakame seaweed. Our server mixed a soy based sauce into it which tied everything together nicely. Brother deer doesn’t eat salmon so he ate some of the mixed veggies afterwards. He said “hmm it’s pretty good” and continued to finish the rest of the veggies.
Short neck clams and scallops with mushroom
This is usually a salty dish in my opinion but it wasn’t like that this time. The mushrooms were sautéed nicely so they were smoky, the scallops were big and the short neck clams were good. Everything was lightly seasoned and the veggies stayed crisp.
Soup with chicken, lean pork, and cordyceps flowers
One of the best chicken broths I’ve had at a restaurant. It was a clear and light broth but packed with chicken flavour.
2 lobsters in supreme sauce with E-Fu noodles
Brother deer said that this was one of the easiest to eat lobsters he’s ever had. The pieces were cut conveniently so that they are easy to remove from the shells. There wasn’t a lot of noodles to go around but that was okay because there was more than enough lobster to share.
Baked porkchop with black vinegar
This wasn’t very heavy in vinegar flavour but you did get the feeling of having something that was sweet and sour. It was a nice combination of flavours. While it tasted good, there were a lot of pieces that didn’t have eat on it and was pure fat.
Deep fried crispy skin chicken with truffle
I’m not a fan of truffle and I’m not a fan of fried chicken so it was a huge surprise to me when I ended up enjoying this dish. Since the chicken was deep fried quickly, it stayed nice and juicy on the inside. The chicken itself didn’t have much truffle flavour since most of it was on the mushrooms since they were probably sautéed in truffle oil. It was an interesting change to your typical chicken.
Sea cucumber, dried fish maw and greens
This is a dish that’s commonly eaten at special occasions because of it’s high collagen content from the fish maw and sea cucumber. The sea cucumber wasn’t of good quality and wasn’t cleaned very well because it was still sandy on the inside. Blech, just thinking about it makes me feel uncomfortable. The fish maw on the otherhand was soft and almost jelly-like in texture.
Steamed rock cod
I never knew that rock cod was so big but it took up the entire plate! The fish flaked off easily and was tender. The fish itself doesn’t have much flavour since it’s not a fatty fish so the light soy sauce on top was a nice touch.
Healthy multi-grain fried rice
Usually I’m no longer interested in the food or hungry by the time we are 8 courses into a meal but this was an exception. I didn’t expect the fried rice to come with multi-grain rice and pinenuts! This was probably one of the healthiest fried rice dishes I’ve ever seen. It didn’t have much impact in terms of taste and flavour but it was nice to end the meal off with something healthier.
Handmade pork wonton with veggies
I didn’t expect this to come after the fried rice because usually the rice and noodle dishes are the last courses before dessert. The wontons were interesting in the sense that there were sesame seeds on the inside in addition to the pork. We’ve never had anything like this before and weren’t sure if we liked the textural contrast or not in this case.
Steamed creamy beetroot buns
These were so cute! I’ve had my share of steamed buns but one made with beetroot was one I have yet to try. The buns were soft and plush on the outside with a gooey custard flavoured filling on the inside.
Black sesame balls in soup
These are glutinous rice dumplings filled with a liquid black sesame filling on the inside. They were cooked just enough so that they remained chewy in texture. The sweet soup it came in was ginger based and added spice to balance out the sweetness of the filling. It was certainly a delight to eat.