[Review] Oriental Gourmet, a Chiu Chow restaurant in Markham

Website: n/a, Zomato link
Address: 5328 Highway 7, Markham, ON
When I went: August 2015, 5 people, dinner
Rating: $$, 4

Oriental Gourmet is located in the same plaza as the busy Congee Queen near McCowan Rd. and Highway 7. Based on the name of the restaurant, it was not clear that they specialized in Chiu Chow cuisine, which is cuisine from regions east of the Guangdong province. From what I recall of Chiu Chow cuisine, I enjoy the way their duck is prepared but not a fan of the congee, where it is typically very watery and the grains of rice are cooked down until it almost disintegrates.

My mom had more experience with ordering at other Chiu Chow restaurants, so we left her with the ordering. We ended up having the following:

The House Special Wintermelon Soup. I enjoyed the large pieces of sea conch which brought sweetness and depth to the soup.

The Fried Fish (“Jook Cheem Yue” in Cantonese). Fried fish is not a dish I would normally order or see on a menu, but recalled this dish to be less than $12 and was worth it. It was easy to remove the spine from the fish, and many of the small bones were edible as the fish was deep fried.

The Fried Oyster in a clay pot was really delicious with large oysters cooked with yellow and green onions. A great dish to eat with rice.

And last, we ordered the Chiu Chow styled duck with a side of tofu. It came with a side of vinegar for dipping. I did find the duck slightly tough compared to the regular roast duck but the marinated duck was flavourful and did not need additional sauce for dipping the duck.

Overall:

Great first impression as they have a large selection on their menu of Chiu Chow cuisine. The duck did seem a bit overcooked to me, but all other dishes were done really well.