J&J's was the venue chosen for our last dinner/dining experience during a recent stay in Victoria. With the restaurant closed on Sundays and Mondays, this was our first opportunity to get there, and we were looking forward to it.
The restaurant is located in a neighbourhood just outside of the downtown core, in a block (of Fort Street) just beyond what tourist maps indicate as "Antique Row". An easy find, and interesting area. The restaurant opens at 4:30pm - we arrived a touch early, parked, and did a short walkabout before it opened. We were not the only ones arriving early - when it opened, four tables worth of diners, and a couple of people coming for take-out orders, entered the place! Glad we came early.
It's a small, and very unassuming-looking place (especially so from its outside appearance), but offers more seating inside than one might expect from seeing it outside. There is certainly nothing fancy in decorations and the like inside - from what I saw, it's mostly dark, bare walls, and rather dimly-lit lighting. The most lighted spot is at back, the kitchen, which is visible through a full-size, glass window, enabling diners to view the cooks doing their thing. Our first impression -- I think we've found "our kind of Chinese restaurant"!
What we (threesome) ordered and shared:
.... all the servings were large, well-prepared and presented, and served piping hot to our table. The ginger beef and prawns were prepared Szechuan style, "hot & spicy" - when the server was taking our orders, we agreed on 'medium'.
-- crispy, spicy, ginger fried beef - dark, quite large pieces of beef, with a fairly-crispy outside, and tender inside, w/some green onion. It was hot, it was spicy, and it was very tasty! A portion was left to take back to our hotel, and it was enjoyed as a snack the next day on our balcony back home!
-- stir-fried prawn w/black bean sauce - shelled prawns, tender and juicy, and good assortment of veggies. Everything cooked perfectly. Yum! a very flavourful and tasty dish.
- stir-fried squid w/hot, ginger garlic sauce - squid rings, tasty and tender, and nice assortment of veggies (including some good-size mushrooms). The squid was tender, the veggies cooked perfectly, and the sauce hot & spicy (a touch too!). But guess we enjoyed it, as there was nothing was left on the plate!!
- house special chow mein - a nice assortment of meat, chicken, noodles, and veggies. It looked good, and tasted the same. The plate was cleaned!
We enjoyed our total dining experience at J&J's, the food was exceptional, the service good, and we left 'full & happy', and very pleased we had chosen to dine there for our last dinner in Victoria.
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