Jumbo Restaurant

• Name + address: Jumbo Restaurant, 2672 B Innes Rd.

• Diet: Meat, seafood, vegetarian

• Appetizers: $2.20-$13.50

• Mains: $10.50-$21

• Wheelchair accessibility: Yes

• Licensed: No

• Website: www.jumbochinesefoods.com

It would be impossible to imagine life anywhere without access to Chinese take-out food. I don’t have statistics for this, but it has to be up there with pizza in popularity.

I remember visiting the Unesco World Heritage town of Quedlinburg in Germany and even there, I found one family slinging the wok for the locals. I had lunch there, and while it was Chinese food for western palates, it was fresh, colourful and good.

That’s one thing about Chinese takeaway: we don’t have incredibly high expectations, but we want it to be fresh, colourful and good.

I stopped by Jumbo Restaurant in Blackburn Hamlet and learned that they’ve been serving locals for seven years. Judging by the number of calls and delivery drivers that came in, it appears as if they’ll been with us for a while yet.

Once home with my dinner, I tackled both the shrimp rolls and the open-end egg rolls. I was hoping for a minced shrimp roll, but instead, two large whole shrimp were nestled inside amongst a melange of chopped and seasoned vegetables. It was a reasonable start.

The egg roll itself was less artfully constructed, with the centre portion lacking a consistent fill level leaving the thing a little floppy. The taste, however, was fine but didn’t set any new standards.

The wonton noodle soup was another mixed bag. The wontons themselves were delicious in their delicate wrappers, the chicken incredibly tender, the shrimp were sweet and the pork, while not true Char Siu (BBQ) style, was very fresh.

The broth, however, was overly salty and had clearly been made from a wonton soup powder (available at most Asian grocers), and the noodles were just tasteless and flabby.

When I was picking up my order I’d seen several posted notices advising customers that if they’d been given a credit, they would have 30 days to use it. Okay, nice customer service but a little unusual in my experience.

It became clear when I opened my beef with black pepper sauce what those notices might have been about. I’d been given a black pepper dish of only vegetables. I called Jumbo to let them know and was asked if I’d like a credit. I politely declined.

I enjoyed the fact that the veg had bite and was very fresh and that the sauce was loaded with black pepper and umami. Very satisfying and especially good with my noodles.

It’s common for me to order Singapore noodles as I’m always on the lookout for a show-stopping version but this time I went with the Tai Wan vermicelli.

The entire dish may as well have been Singapore noodles: every element, save for the seasoning sauce, was the same. It was however very nice and demonstrated that there was some skill and experience in that kitchen.

Jumbo Restaurant may take a few shortcuts as with the soup broth, but my experience showed me that they take care in their preparation and that they use fresh ingredients.