VIP Dining

Good morning,

It was just a splendid weekend wasn’t it? 

I entertained friends from out of town, feeding them with delicious things from my garden and from a forest not too far from here. 

We also made a day trip into Quebec and it became the basis for a lead-off story of short day trips you’ll enjoy in the weeks ahead.

Today, we look in on Ottawa’s newest dim sum restaurant, occupying the space that once housed a notorious McDonald’s.

Grab a drink and let’s begin.

Ralf Joneikies, food and drink editor. [email protected]

CHINESE

Special VIP dining?

Dim Sum is one of the nicest and most convivial forms of dining. You get to share your food and you enjoy a large selection of tastes. So for those of us who love it, the closing of Yangtze and Hung Sum Dim Sum made hearts sink.

Now our long wait is over and the much-anticipated 99 VIP Seafood Restaurant is now open to fill the void that’s been left.

It’s occupying the space left by the notorious McDonald’s on Ridea,u and what an eyecatching room it is.

It’s a warm and inviting space outfitted with quality furnishings and beautiful bone china that immediately has you feeling just a little special. It has you anticipating something more elevated, something a bit out of the ordinary and looking at the pricing on the dim sum menu, that notion is only reinforced.

I started out well with a wonton soup nicely presented in a bowl with a stand that held a candle for warming. 

The chicken broth was light and flavourful and the broccoli brilliant green and perfectly cooked. Five shrimp wontons added a gorgeous pink contrast and they were also seasoned and cooked to perfection. At first, I had wondered about the price but at $10.2,5 this was a fair value.

Presented in a wine glass the shrimp spring rolls were equally nice, simply prepared but served without a plum sauce or any other form of sauce for dipping. A good value for five dollars.

Pork ribs steamed with black bean sauce are a dim sum staple for me and at $12,  I was set up to anticipate something extra special. 

Instead I received run-of-the-mill ribs with too much fat still attached and tasting of the fridge. This is a phenomenon I encounter too often and I get it — in my line of work I’ll encounter it more often than the average person. 

Nothing ever served to you should taste of the fridge. It means that either the base product is old or the dish has been prepared in advance, cold-stored, and then reheated. Another possibility is that there’s something off about the ventilation in the walk-in cooler. Any of those scenarios is fixable.

The abalone shiu mai were a first for me and so I decided to give them a go. I was expecting something other than what I was presented: four pork shiu mai topped with pieces of abalone.

At $18 the price was getting into thin air territory and while it was a properly good shiu mai, the overall effect didn’t justify the price. I was actually expecting this dumpling to be made of abalone.

Abalone is often delicately briny and, when cooked properly, has only a slight chew but offers more of a buttery consistency. There was nothing wrong here other than it tasted a little thin and watery without much character. Sometimes that flavour is a result of a canned product which can be common in western markets.

Misrepresentation of dishes by both the menu and servers was a common theme during this lunch. In fact it was a good thing that I asked as many questions as I did and I would advise any prospective diner to do the same.

“Five-spice crispy dragon beard rolls” are actually squid tentacles. Under the category of blanched vegetables, the “Beef brisket bamboo noodles” is actually a large soup of bamboo-flavoured broth.

Chaozhou dumplings are often described as having a “crystal wrapper” made of tapioca starch and then filled with minced pork, dried shrimp, peanuts, water chestnut and garlic chives. I detected neither chives nor shrimp, but plenty of fridge taste minced pork.

In fact it was a server who expressly stated that this was a “shrimp dumpling”. Unfortuantely, the whole “fridge taste” thing was wearing on me, and I was fatigued by the generally confused service.

I wasn’t the only one. There was a fellow sitting opposite me who couldn’t get the attention of a server for the longest time. He was fairly livid as he received a steamed bun that was cold in the middle, another in a long line of mishaps. He finally got up and came close to walking into the kitchen before he was intercepted by Sarah, the manager.

I was in the mood for the claypot rice with duck. As some may know, it's the baked-on rice at the bottom of the pot that’s the prize. It’s a little crunchy, roasted and packed with savoury goodness. 

The rice itself was perfect and of superior quality. Whether rice or noodles, when the starch in a dish is of significant quality, the entire thing is elevated.

That was the case here, except it wasn’t sufficient to mask the taste of the duck. The rice was hot, but the duck lukewarm. The skin appeared crisp as the fat had been rendered, but it was chewy, and the meat was dry. Yes, this too tasted strongly of the fridge, leading me to the conclusion that this had been made the day before.

I’ve known a number of serious food writers over the years, and not one of them has ever wished for a business to fail. It’s not in the blood.

Instead, we wish for any criticism to work, not just for the general public but for the restaurants as well. This is especially true of restaurants that have an abundance of potential, like this one. 

I’ve spared you the chaos of the service, which was ongoing and exhausting. After 90 minutes, I still hadn’t received my shrimp shiu mai, and I twice had to remind them — over a 15-minute period — that I hadn’t received this dish. 

What happened next was new to me. One of the servers came by with my original order sheet and took an inventory of my table. After she left, two other servers came by to ask if I was missing anything. Yes, that happened.

When they arrived, they were simply fine. At $14 I was expecting something special and I couldn’t help but think that I had more food with the shrimp dumpling soup for almost four dollars less.

It’s important to remember that when I had lunch at VIP, the restaurant had been open for three weeks. It’s not enough to iron out all the wrinkles of running such a business, but the service, at the very least, should be competent. 

The food coming out of the kitchen was also not consistent. The restaurant was only 20% full, but confusion reigned as if there were line-ups down the street.

The chef/owner has more than 30 years of experience, and he’s created an attractive destination that promises much to those who walk through the door. He also has talent, and I want to try more of his food, but his menu is too ambitious. 

With more than 80 items on the menu, it’s a daunting menu for any pace to execute on. My suggestion would be to reduce the menu and put the staff through rigorous training. 

To the reader, I suggest giving them another two months to iron out the issues impacting them at the moment. 

In the end, impressing with high prices and an attractive interior is not enough. Eye candy may be appealing, but like all candy, it’s never fully satisfying.

Quick bites

• “Ottawa food banks sounding the alarm” is becoming too common as this story demonstrates. [Yahoo News]

• Nine Starbucks locations are set to close in Ottawa. [CBC]

• Restaurants Canada 2025 report shows that Canadians are eating at restaurants less often than pre-pandemic. [CTV]

• Here’s a simple recipe for making your own Ha Moon vermicelli dish. [YouTube]

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