Wen Xin Chinese Restaurant

A solid neighbourhood Chinese cafe. I'd wondered about Wen Xin Restaurant many times, when driving by on Rumble St, and my wife and I had the chance to try it tonight.

The menu is a combination of a number of Shanghai style dishes, along with a mixture of some Sichuan and Northern Chinese dishes as well.

We tried the shredded pork with plum sauce, the prawns with chilis and peanuts, and hot and sour soup.

The winner of the meal was definitely the prawns. Lots of flavourful dried spices, just the right amount of oil, and blisteringly spicy. We both like spicy food, but had to make sure not to swallow too many of the dried chilis after a while.

The plum sauce pork was also good, likely glazed in a slightly salty and sour, not too sweet, plum sauce (almost like Japanese umeboshi), and served over fresh french-cut green onions. It made a nice contrast to the prawns.

The hot and sour soup was good (especially on a chilly night) but not the best I've had, and was not as vinegary as I personally like it, but the ingredients were fresh, and I'd certainly order it again.

The menu (and specials on the wall, but those were in Chinese only), and other diners' tables, were all full of enticing temptations for next time: smoked duck, hot pot, garlic sauce eggplant, salt and pepper squid or chicken.

We'll definitely be back to try some of the other goodies.

Overall, this place seems to have plenty of choices on the menu. And more variety of ingredients than the usual run-of-the-mill North Americanized Chinese restaurant.