Hi-Ball Restaurant

Since it was New Years Day and a lot of places were closed we thought we’d try this out. We ordered the braised eggplant, pepper chicken, & chicken fried rice. We asked for our order to be spicy but it was bland and everything was breaded and deep fried to our surprise and you couldn’t even tell there was eggplant or chicken in the dish. The dishes are big but the food was not very flavorful and since it was deep friend masked the true food. Service provided was great though.

Very basic fare, reasonably priced and good service. Have come back here often for lunch. Busy with university and hospital near by. Interior looks flash-​frozen in 1970. But I’m there for the food and I’ll be back.

A stalwart of the Stadium Shopping Centre, this Canadian Chinese restaurant serves up all your standards (e.g. Hot plates, Ginger Beef, Shanghai noodles, Almond Gai Ding), at a standard price and with standard quality. The best item is the salt and pepper squid, which has a good texture, a very crispy light batter, and a fair amount of dry hot chilies tossed with it.
The only other noteworthy item is the Wor Wonton Soup, which is well-​priced, quite sizable, and tasty. The best time to go is definitely for the $ 10.25 lunch buffet of 15 items or so, which includes wonton soup and, if you are patient enough, the aforementioned squid that ravenous hoards descend upon immediately after it appears.

This place is a family favorite of ours. While the interior needs some serious updating (the green paint is noticeably dated), we have found the food to be consistenly decent.
Unlike some of the other reviewers, we have never been there for the lunch buffet. We always go for dinner and order off the menu. Ginger chicken is one of our favorites.
The service is good and the food arrives fast.
This is not a fancy place and it’s probably not going to win any awards, but you get good value for what you order at this family-​style Chinese restaurant.

The chief saving grace at lunch (I’ve never tried dinner) is the salt and pepper squid, which in my experience has never been overcooked. If you don’t arrive early (around 1130−1145AM) you may find the buffet has already been picked through; it’s close to the Foothills Medical Centre, so it can get busy at lunchtime.

I don’t know why I did it, I just somehow couldn’t resist.
I’ve been to Hi-​Ball many times for their lunch buffet. Which at just under $ 10 is quick, fast and relatively tasty. But what I didn’t realize was the the buffet was only a lunch time thing and at night you had to order off the menu, which to me always means «things we have left over from the buffett.»
Now I’m not saying that that is what it was, but the ginger beef, rice and spring rolls didn’t exactly taste like it was made fresh. It really was the equivalent of McDonalds but with Chinese food. Mmmmm Sesame Chicken.
And let’s be honest, I knew we were in trouble when… how do I say this… the clientele wasn’t exactly the clientele that you would hope to find in an asian-​themed restaurant. What’s that saying: locals know.
All that being said, the food and the service was very fast. They were very friendly and certainly did the best with what they had to work with!
But like an intervention, this trip to Hi-​Ball reminded me I need to find somewhere else!
Bonus tip: They don’t accept debit so make sure you pick up some cash, use your CC or run like hell.

First time we ordered pick-​up from there, found a hair in the rice. Ordered sweet and sour chicken balls which I didn’t really care for. The palace style chicken was quite good, but not hot like the menu said.
The second time we ordered the chicken fried rice, the chicken pieces were large but not very appetizing, I gave away each piece to my dog because I couldnt bring myself to eat them. There seemed to be more fat than chicken meat. We also ordered the ginger beef which was extremely disappointing. Tasted very old, one piece took me about 3 minutes to chew enough to swallow as it was so hard and dry. Not very flavourful either. My bf says the dry ribs were good.