Wong’s Palace Tavern Restaurant

Have been here only once and got take-​out. To be honest it was not great unfortunately. We ended up throwing away about a third of it because it was bland and soggy and just generally not worth eating. Probably won’t be back.

When I found out, while planning a recent trip to Ottawa, that the the city is known for its über-​meaty open-​ended egg rolls, I got all Veruca Salt about it as in «I want it and I want it now!» In other words, I was determined to get my hands on one.
I had a short list that included this place, along with Ruby Inn, and Golden Palace – which seemed to be the best known of the bunch. For whatever reason, I liked the sound of this place. So off we went, driving completely out our of our way, but I am happy to report it was worth it. We’d decided to pick up a few egg rolls to try as an «appetizer» before dinner somewhere else…
There is a separate space for takeout only, so ordering was easy enough. And the friendly woman at the register, was more than happy to chat with us as we waited, and soon enough, another customer joined the conversation, adding to the whole experience for us.
As for the egg rolls, they were indeed intensely meaty, and open-​ended. And while I am not sure what they were supposed to taste like, we loved how different they were from the cabbagey closed rendition we’re used to. They could have been a bit crisper, but were otherwise full of flavor and hinted of grease, but in a good way. My only regret is that we only ordered one a piece. We were less enamored of the ground chicken egg roll — with a different wrapper – that we ordered just to try. Not yummy at all. Stick with the pork-​filled egg rolls at this place and you won’t go wrong.

Having grown up nearby I have been around Wong’s Palace many times but to be truthful never ate there a lot. I stopped for some beef fried rice in my quest to see if I can find something better than my current favourite in the Ottawa area. They have a special takeout area, so I used the few minutes before placing my order to take as much in as I can. I was told the restaurant has been operating for 38 years, and there were many letters of appreciating dating back to the 70s. Apparently the restaurant did much to build bridges between the city and the Chinese community, and there was even a photo of former PM Brian Mulroney on the wall. My order arrived swiftly, and as I was leaving I inquired about MSG in their food. I was told that being that they made the fried rice in large batches, it was not possible to have it without MSG. Unfortunate but oh well. I found the pricing for the container a little high at $ 9.90 as a price in the 7 – 8 dollar range seems more average in the city. Anyhow I took the container down to the beach and dug in. The beef on the top was plentiful but grew dramatically less common as I got further in. It was perfectly edible, but I didn’t detect a lot of spicing and the green onion was very sparse. In fact almost non existent in my portion. All in all it was quite average and didn’t tingle my taste buds much despite the presence of the MSG. I’ll probably try something else another time!