Ottawa Foodies

My friend's birthday dinner was scheduled for last Sunday (the night of the snow storm), and the restaurant we had planned to go to called to say they had problems in their kitchen and wouldn't be opening. After calling about 10 restaurants to try to rebook, we discovered that the Yangtze was open and decided to get take out. I was a little dubious about what the quality of the food would be like but ended up being pleasantly surprised. We had Buddha's Delight, Snow Pea Tips with garlic, Eggplant with black bean sauce, Bean Cake with Seasonal Vegetable, Vegetarian spring rolls, Chicken with pineapple and pickle, Sliced Tender Chicken with Snow Pea, and Sliced Beef with Seasonal Vegetables. I didn't try the last three (meat) dishes, but the others all great flavours. The spring rolls were a bit greasy on the bottom but nice and crispy on top. I was told that the meat dishes were all tasty as well.

The woman on the phone was very helpful and able to make a few changes to the dishes to meet our preferences. The food was ready and waiting for us when we got there and still hot when we finally made it to our destination.

Prices have gone up quite a bit and the food is sometimes of variable quality but it's hard to beat a place where the servers say, "We haven't seen you for a while -- have you been busy with the kids?" :-)

Tables were about 3/4 full even on a Tuesday night, so they're still doing OK.

My kids love Crab Meat and Sea Foam soup! I always hoped they would.

The food here is always so tasty! In the photo we have Garlic Butter Prawns in Hotpot, Vegetable Fried Noodles, and Choy Sum stir-fried with garlic. The latter two dishes are not on their menu -- we just asked them if they could do a fried noodle dish with vegetables and if we could have some choy sum stir fried with garlic. These are just variations on things they have on the menu already, so they don't mind.

Also, if the season is right, you can't get a more delicious veggie choice than "Snowpea Tips Stir-Fried with Garlic".

The Crab Meat and Sea Foam soup is so good I can't stop eating it! Sea Foam is actually fish maw (swim bladder) -- it has no flavour, only texture.

My friend always told me that there are few dishes that Yangtze is very good at. Yangtze's Fried Lobster with Ginger & Shallots is one of the MUST ORDER dishes. Seasonal price. Be reminded that the order of two lobsters in one dish is pricy (around $50+).

This was the Stir-fried baby bok choi with mushroom slices. I don't know the name of this mushroom (this kind of mushroom is very popular within Chinese community). But they really look like abalone.

Can't remember the name for this dish, shrimps stir-fried with cashew nuts in tomato sauce. The dish can definitely increase your appetitie. Try this.

Fried Duck Stuffed with Mashed Taro is another Yangtze's specialty. However, I was surprised and disappointed that Yangtze used platstic plate for this dish! Don't appreciate the portion considering the price they charged.

This is the deep-fried tofu (the tofu in a tube and not the square shaped one). A little bit spicy and taste was good.

Note: My friend warned me not to order the Deep Fried Mashed Bean Curd at Yangtze. So, we ordered something different instead.