Legend House: It's like they dropped a salt bomb!

Annnd I'm back! Wasn't very busy today, but I guess it's because there's no lunch special and less people working around here on a Saturday =P

Restaurant: Legend House (visit their website here)

Location: 140-1169 Pacific Street, Coquitlam
Cuisine: Chinese, Northern Chinese, Sichuan
Price range: <$10 for lunch special



Date of visit: May 30, 2015
Atmosphere: 2/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 5/5
Food quality: 1/5
Buck worthy? 2/5

They were very nice in seating us, one waitress brought us some water because she saw my grandma had some medication to take (without us asking for it), so thoughtful =) Went straight in to order my usual Shanghai "XiaoLongBao" Soup Dumplings ($7.50 for 8 pieces). But to our surprise today... it was super salty! I'm not kidding, it was as if they had added two to three times the normal amount that it stung our throats going down! Flagged someone down but all she could do was give us sympathetic looks =/

Hoping for better, I tried something new today, Xi'an Cold Steamed Noodles ($6.95) less spicy. It looked really good when it arrived, but oh gosh. This was super salty AND super spicy. Shaking my head, I couldn't feel my mouth anymore. Super disappointed that less spicy turned into extra spicy. At least the noodles were very chewy!

Again, we ordered Shanghai Wontons ($6.95) for my grandma. Lo and behold these were salty as well. Super salty. We told a waitress that everything was far too salty, and she asked me if I'd had them before. Wow. Really? Why yes, I was just here two times this past week, ordering the same two dishes. No solution to our salty problem, we poured all the soup into our bowls and asked them for cups of hot water to hopefully rinse out the salt. But when the meat is overseasoned-- it's hard to take out of wontons. Either way, eventually ate these with many rinses of water.

The only decent dish was the Mu-Shu Stir Fried Noodles ($11.95) with dragging noodles. It had pork, wood ear, onions and celery. This was on the salty side, but not as disastrous as the other dishes. Noodles were chewy and al dente.

Definitely going to be a little while before I come back here again. One of the waitresses eventually remembered how often we were here and apologized that our meal had a super dose of salt and that they'll work on it and how sorry she was. Also gave us 10% off for all our troubles of rinsing our food with water =/ Usually I just let it go, but my grandma really can't handle too much salt in her diet for obvious reasons. *sigh* Another good place down the hatch. I just wish they could've stayed amazing, but all things come to an end...

Legend House: Juicy and Delicious XLB!!

Getting bored of going to the same dim sum place lately, so we came here for some variety! Super busy at lunch time, looking good!

Restaurant: Legend House (visit their website here)

Location: 140-1169 Pacific Street, Coquitlam
Cuisine: Chinese, Northern Chinese, Sichuan
Price range: <$10 for lunch special



Date of visit: May 27, 2015
Atmosphere: 2/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 5/5
Food quality: 4.5/5
Buck worthy? 5/5

Came here with family, so we were able to order a bit more variety! We like ordering their Prawns and Tofu with Dragging Noodles ($7.50) from the lunch special menu (Mon-Fri). It comes with soup of the day. Today the portion was a lot smaller than usual, but the flavors were great, fresh shrimp and the noodles were al dente. There's also tofu, snow peas, and carrots!

Next, my favorite here, their Shanghai "XiaoLongBao" Soup Dumplings ($7.50 for 8 pieces). They came piping hot, wrapping was thin, meat was fresh and there was a lot of juice in there! I like it because it's not too oily nor salty.

We also enjoy getting their Shanghai Wontons ($6.95) because it's easy for my grandma to eat. The soup is extraordinary because they put in little shrimps, veggies, and tastes amazing! The flavors compliment the dumplings well, as the wrapping is smooth and chewy with the meat inside being just the right amount.

This time, we thought we'd try their Pan-Fried Pork Buns ($6.95) as well. These were less spectacular and rather disappointing. Juice was spilling out of them, although perfectly golden at the bottom. The bun itself was too soggy but the meat tasted good.

Finally, we got an order of Legend Beef Rolls ($6.95). These guys are so photogenic! The pancake part was very crispy and chewy, nice and moist! However I found there to be too much hoisin sauce that overwhelmed the flavors of the beef.

Overall it was a good meal, but the restaurant was pretty smokey inside and made the air quality poor. I could see the smoke just hang around, but otherwise the service is great, they're really nice and attentive.