Sure, there’s tonnes of selection between Cambie and Oak on Broadway – but how do you know which is worth spending your money on and what is something you can pass on? There is always the simple way of trial and error – then there is the more informed way, which is probably the reason why you are reading this now – you do the research. However, it seems that sometimes review sites tend to either crucify a place or help it become one of the most popular – there really is no in between. I was thinking about this for a bit and came to the conclusion that people are passionate when it comes to writing reviews on sites. They’ll either share a terrible experience or an absolutely wonderful experience because if it was just a mediocre experience, what would inspire you to write a review on it?

Anyway, enough of my thoughts and back to the review. Red Ginger which is located just off Oak street on Broadway seems to fit this ‘stereotype’. I was initially wary since review sites were giving it bad reviews, but my parents had gone before me and enjoyed it. So yes, I did end up going twice (actually 3 times, but I didn’t document the third time) – once for lunch and once for dinner.

During lunch time, they have lunch specials for $7.50 – one of the cheaper meals down this neck of the woods. My first meal (a lunch with my parents) included egg drop soup – a nice, warm addition to our meal.

I apologize for these lunch photos, they’re a little grainy and red since I wasn’t expecting to be sitting down for a meal and didn’t bring my proper camera!

We started off with Nasi Goreng (Malaysian fried rice with green Chili with beef – $7.50). The fried rice was good and wasn’t spicy like I thought it would be. It was quite mild and pleasant. The portion was very big for three people.

Next was Chicken with Green Beans – delicious and sautéed with garlic, yum. The chicken was good – tender.

Our last dish was my favourite and also my dad’s favourite – house chow mein (on the regular menu, I think it was approximately $10). The noodles were crispy, just the way we like em and there was a good balance of veggies and meat.

When I came back again with Brian for dinner, we tried different dishes. After 5pm, your first 2 entrees are buy one get one free. Our first dish was the Crispy Ginger Beef which is one of the more popular dishes. I can see why, the beef is deep fried and served with a sweet honey ginger sauce. So good! I could literally eat this by myself (but restrained myself, since my husband was with me)!

Our next dish was the Curry Chicken – made less mild for my spicy-hatin’ husband. I enjoyed this dish as well, there was a lot of meat and vegetables compared to many other places that have the same kind of curry. The curry was fragrant and was even more delicious the next day.

Our last dish was Mee Goreng. To be honest, I’m not a fan of Thai or Malaysian food made with ketchup, as I prefer Tamarind. This dish was big but it was a little on the sweet side (from the ketchup) and didn’t really pair with the food that we had ordered.

Other than that, our meal was good. Kam is a very nice guy and he even remembered me. The restaurant is decorated with such great flair, you can tell that they really love what they do. It seems like this is a family-run affair and it’s doing pretty well!

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Red Ginger on Urbanspoon