A friend and I were looking to catch up with some late night food and being in Calgary, this limits our choices on where we can go. I had completely forgotten that Sun Chiu Kee opened so late on a daily basis, but it came up on the list of options when browsing through zomato with the ‘open now’ option selected. Turns out they open till 1am on weekdays! The restaurant was about 70% full at 10pm when we got there, which is a pretty impressive feat. This is closer to a HK style cafe than it is a full fledged formal restaurant, providing a nice (but sometimes loud) casual environment. The food here is usually pretty good and served relatively quickly.
Chiu Chow Style Oyster Cake ($9.50)
Tonight we got the Chiu Chow Style Oyster Cake to start, which was crisp and savoury, although we found the sauce it came with to be too salty/concentrated. I found myself switching back and forth between dipping the sauce and then not, because on one hand it was too salty, but on the other hand the oyster cake needed something to go with it.
The Thai Style Fried Ho came in its own little wok, which I thought was kind of cute. It was tasty, but doesn’t stand out from any other one that I’ve had, but that should never be an expectation at a Chinese restaurant.
Thai Style Fried Ho ($11.95)
Red Bean Coconut Milkshake (left, $4.95) and Iced Milk Tea (right, $3.75)
I initially felt that my milk tea had too much ice (about 3/4 full of the stuff), but it turned out to be an acceptable amount as the drink was still flavourful towards the end. Or maybe I was just slow at drinking it tonight and thus the ice melted at an even pace.
The service here can be hit or miss sometimes. While there’s usually enough waitresses to serve the restaurant, they’re not always the most friendly nor service oriented and you need to grab their attention instead of them checking up on you or anticipating that you need your bill. This is typical of Chinese restaurants in Calgary; you are here to have decent food with your company (or alone haha), not for an amazing culinary experience and great service, which is fine by me. Now that I remember Sun’s is open late on a daily basis, I’ll probably come here more often instead of McDonald’s or Denny’s when I want some late night grub.
Sun Chiu Kee BBQ Restaurant
1423 Centre St NW – Calgary, AB
(403) 230-8890 | www.tasteofasiagroup.ca
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