Long's Noodle House

I discovered this restaurant today as Kweepo and I were deciding where to go for lunch. We try to explore some new restaurants every week, and on the weekends I particularly like to explore Chinese and other Asian restaurants, because there are so many out there. You can try a different restaurant every day in Vancouver and never run out.

I ran across this one in a nice Vancouver food blog I just discovered called Chow Times whose writer (also named Ben like me) seems to share with me a passion for Chinese food. His blog entries are wonderfully presented, with lots of tantalizing photos, and the descriptions and photos in his entry for Long's were too much to resist.

It turned out to be a good decision. Despite being innocuous and located way out in the middle of nowhere, Long's is one of the best Chinese restaurants I've been to in Vancouver. You would never know just walking past it how good it actually is. It looks as ordinary as the many mediocre Chinese restaurants that litter the city. We ordered five separate dishes at lunch today, and we weren't disappointed by anything. Everything was delicious, and there was great variety between the dishes, and there is still a lot more I want to go back to explore.

Long's serves Shanghainese food. I've had lots of other kinds of Chinese food, but it wasn't until I came to Vancouver that I found restaurants serving Shanghainese food. So I'm not too familiar with the cuisine, and eager to learn. I've had not too good luck at other places in the past when I tried to sample some Shanghainese specialties, but this time I feel like I got a feeling for what true Shanghainese food is like. It feels particular to the region without being excessively weird.

I'm pleased to report that the first thing they did when we sat down was to serve us a glass of hot tea. I couldn't identify the tea, but it had a floral smell. Kweepo hazarded it might be Osmanthus, but I don't know as I've never had Osmanthus tea. Anyway, it was delicious, and a good accompaniment. And, of course, complimentary, as it should be.

As other reviews have noted, the service was friendly and fast. The restaurant is quite small, the decor nonexistent. It's good Chinese food, to the point, without frippery. When we arrived, every table was full except for the biggest one. Luckily a small table was leaving right as we arrived, so we got to sit fairly quickly. Orders came out quickly at an interval of a few minutes. The atmosphere is convivial without being harried or noisy.

Gong Cai Shanghai Style - $4.50

This was a delicious if slightly salty vegetable appetizer featuring some obscure Asian vegetable called Gong Cai that's like a limp cucumber. It was spicy and flavorful and crunchy. The flavor is quite pungent, so it made a good side-dish to nibble on between bites of the other dishes. Excellent. Like nothing I've had elsewhere. Why do I love Chinese food? Because they never cease to bring out some obscure vegetable or item like this that I've never even heard of but that's truly amazing and like nothing else I've ever had.

Wine Chicken - $5.95

One of the restaurant's signature dishes, the Wine Chicken did not disappoint! This is a must try. It's served cold, but it's delicious and uniquely Shanghai in taste. A true authentic regional staple. Also affordable, as the portion is fairly generous. The rice wine in which the chicken pieces are folded gives the chicken a great flavor like nothing else out there - sweet in a rice wine kind of way with a hint of alcohol to make things exciting.

Beef Rolls - $4.95

Very good beef rolls. The been inside is preserved, you can taste the cilantro, and there isn't an excessive amount of hoisin sauce. Very finely balanced and light beef roll. Peaceful on Broadway serves a killer beef roll that honestly is a little better than this one, but this one is drier - more like a wrap - which I prefer, as the one at Peaceful can be a bit greasy.

Shanghai Spring Rolls - $4.95

At first glimpse these might look like ordinary spring rolls, and indeed the wrapping itself is unremarkable, but the filling is surprising. It's mostly cabbage and other vegetables, but it has a great flavor that's like no other spring rolls.

Shredded Pork Wrapped With Sticky Rice - $3.95

My favorite discovery of the meal was this fascinating example of an authentic Shanghai staple. It's hard to tell from the photo, but inside is actually a Chinese donut, some preserved vegetables and the pork. It has an exquisite texture when bitten - a bit crunch, a bit flaky, a bit chewy. It all meshes perfectly together.

In addition, we ordered a glass of warm soy milk, and I recommend doing the same if you want to have that true Chinese meal experience. It goes really well with the food and it's only $1.50 for a big glass.

This is the kind of meal I like - rather than two big, expensive dishes, a lot of small, inexpensive dishes, to make for a meal of tremendous variety that doesn't hurt you in the wallet. After all of this food, we were stuffed, and still had most of the beef rolls left - and it all came out to just a bit over $30 with tax included. Truly a good deal, and we'll be back to sample the other items on the menu. There were many other items that sound interesting.

Important note: This place is CASH ONLY. I had to run out and get some cash at a corner store after we finished eating because I didn't notice the tiny sign saying "cash only" at the counter.