Mr. Chau and I stumbled upon Qin Ma Grill (秦媽吾家) on our way to Metropolis Comics and Toys on Kingsway across from Metrotown. We’ve never heard of this restaurant before but what caught my eyes were the serving vessels. Since we’re already here, we might as well give them a try right? Here’s what we ate for lunch.
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Grilled Items from Qin Ma Grill
We ordered a couple of beef and chicken gizzards ($1.29 ea). The flavours were pretty good, similar to Happy Tree House BBQ actually because I found the spices to be almost the same. However, the meats were a bit overcooked, especially the chicken gizzards. I love chicken gizzards but these ones were on the tough and dried side.
Noodles from Qin Ma Grill
Mr. Chau got the small Red-Roasted Pork Rice Noodle (红烧肉米线 – $7.99). It had 2 slices of roasted pork belly and a bunch of veggies. The pork belly slices were actually very good, tender and flavourful.
I got a small Pork Paste Rice Noodle (肉酱米线 – $7.99). The “Pork Paste” is basically minced pork sauce. It reminds me of the Taiwanese dish Lu Rou Fan (minced pork rice). I wasn’t sure how to eat minced pork with noodle soup. Wouldn’t the pork pieces just fall off the noodles?! It actually turned out alright and the flavour was better than expected. I guess it was a good idea to not read reviews before dining in.
Final Thoughts
The noodles came in small metal pots and had very flavourful broth which we both agree was the best part of this lunch. At the bottom of our noodle pots, we discovered a quail egg. No idea why it was there but it was cooked perfectly with the yolk just barely solidified. We paid extras to try their handmade noodles ($1.50) and they were not worth it. I read some reviews afterwards and a lot of people mentioned how sparse the toppings were for the noodles. While I agree that it would be awesome to have more toppings, it’s not entirely bad as I’m paying less than $10 per bowl of noodles (if you stick with rice noodles). We would probably come back to try their other noodles and maybe even the “hot pot” but likely won’t get the grilled items again as they were not as good as other BBQ places.
