Koon Bo is one of those restaurants that if you don’t know about it, you would never think to go there. After all, the location pretty much sucks, the parking sucks, the decor sucks, the waiting area sucks, you get the drift. So why is it so popular? Of course it’s the food. It’s not the cheapest, but for some reason it is special enough to bring people back time and again.
Like I said, the place is CROWDED. The waiting area is just in the little pseudo-room right at the front door where they’ve put in an extra door to keep out the cold. It’s small. Sometimes, you would be standing right behind of seated people while they’re eating. But that’s normal for a popular authentic Chinese restaurant isn’t it?
As for the food, they have a few signature dishes that they do very well. We come back everytime and order the same thing everytime.
First up is the signature soup. This has to be pre-ordered. Now I’m not quite sure what fish it is, it could be Tilapia. It’s a Tilapia-2-ways. The soup is made with tofu and siu tong choi and boiled to a nice white color. This is the stuff that gets plated afterwards for you to nibble on. It’s great.
And this is the soup part. It’s very flavorful and rich. I think this cost something like $30-40.
Then it’s the appetizer, another signature dish. This is the Hand-shredded chicken and jellyfish “salad” with pickled cabbage (at least I think it’s cabbage, it’s mei choi 味菜). The pickled cabbage is sweet and sour and along with the jellyfish and deepfried wide egg noodles adds an interesting crunch. I only wished there were actually more chicken pieces though. Nonetheless and refreshing starter.
Next, what’s a good Chinese family dinner outing without the delicious Deep-fried Pigeon? My cousin from Washington didn’t believe that they were actually pigeons…they are aren’t they?
These were made just right. Crispy skin and super, super moist and juicy meat. I attribute that to the fact that it’s all dark meat. SO YUM that I don’t ever use the dipping sauce and salt, ever.
Now this is something new. It’s basically Deep-fried flavored tofu with Honey Garlic shortribs. Both are very good. The tofu is actually a dish called pei pa tofu for those of you that knows what that is. I think it’s silken tofu mixed with green onions and mushrooms and stuff.
This is also something we’ve never tried before, and has to be pre-ordered. It’s the 8-treasure Stuffed Duck. Now this was a disappointment. First of all, I swear for they made up this dish just to use up any leftover roasted duck from the previous day (another of their signature dish). It’s stuffed with a bunch of stuff like chestnuts and other stuff. Seriously I don’t know what’s in it. It also doesn’t look very appetizing to me. I’ll prefer the normal Roasted Duck over this any day.
Lastly it’s a dessert we get everytime, and I think it has to be pre-ordered also. It’s the Baked Tapioca Pudding with your choice of taro or red bean filling. We picked the taro. It’s really good. I like this version because the top forms a chewy, yummy skin. Some places make it so that the top is kinda like the top from a Pineapple bun, and I don’t get to eat the chewy top. This version is much preferred.
The following pictures are for my cousin. Hey B, you like this one?
Or maybe you like this one more?
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We had been meaning to try Koon Bo for a long time but at places like these, you really need a lot of people to make it worthwhile. The tapioca pudding is very much like the ones we had at Koon Lok, their sister (brother?) restaurant. And the pigeon (also called the squab, I think) looked absolutely marvelous.
Ben
“mei choy” is pickled mustard greens.
It’s not pigeon; it’s squab.
And I love baked tapioca pudding!
Hi Wendy, you are right, everything sucks except for the food. The shredded chicken salad is money. I thought Squab = Young Pigeon? Isn’t that the same? Yes, the tapioca pudding is delicious when baked. I personally like the sweet lotus paste filling!