Huangpu River Restaurant, Tasty Chinese

During the transition from Urbanspoon to Zomato, there was a number of headaches associated with my earlier posts, trying to safely and securely transfer them over to the new website. Squabbles aside, it gave me an opportunity to read and reflect on my previous posts and see where and if I could improve on them. Furthermore, there does seem to be some fairly large shifts in the restaurant scene in Winnipeg with many a fellow foodie reporting a completely different dining experience than the one I had blogged about. And certainly there is an element of your mileage may vary, but I have the wonder if there was an inherent change to those same spots. And so I vowed to try some of my old favourites again, starting with Huangpu River.

Huangpu River Restaurant holds a special place in my heart as the first introduction to Chinese in Winnipeg. I remembered it as solid, tasty but nothing extraordinary. And so I returned on a cold fall day to its location on south Pembina. The restaurant itself has not changed with the large red banner covered with fancy and attractive lettering. The inside is pedestrian in comparison with plain wooden tables and bland plastic tablecloth covering them. Decor is also uniformly bland with a few sparse pieces of art dotting the fairly empty walls.

The menu has not changed much either. Large and cavernous, it offers diners a visit to every corner of China and covers a wide breadst of cuisines. Thankfully Huangpu divides the menu nicely and has made it fairly easy for customers to find their dishes of choice. I would have appreciated more of a seafood focus, but alas they are missing any fresh fish or seafood options.

Beef Brisket & Radish Hot Pot is a classic dish that I mark most of my Chinese restaurants against, and Huangpu River scores highly with theirs. Large pieces of tender brisket that has completely soaked in with the salty and strong cho hou based sauce. The kicker here are the soft and delicious bursts of daikon which add a slightly bitter undertone to the dish while giving it some color and texture. Marvelous.

A classic, Three Sauce Chicken marinates and stews chicken in a cup of soy sauce, a cup of Chinese hot sauce and a cup of wine. I was impressed by the flavours created here in this dish with a strong aroma of the three sauces combined with ginger and star anise. Unfortunately the pieces of drumstick and thigh were cut far too small and were far too boney that they failed to take in all the sauce and were obstructive and borderline bothersome to eat.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed by the amount of meat I ordered a Szechuan Green Beans to compliment the protein options. I quite enjoyed the balance of large green beans with bits of fried garlic and fresh red chilis. The entire dish played a nice balance of spicy and salty with each mouthful. A shame that it was far too greasy and oily though.

Huangpu River Restaurant thankfully has not changed from its previous quality of Chinese cuisine. While certainly not the best in Winnipeg, it does offer enough variety and quality food at reasonable costs to warrant a trip.