justthegeneral

[justthegeneral]

Golden House Restaurant

1280 Yonge St

A small restaurant located just off of the subway line, I hit up Golden House for a quick fix on my way home one day, and inevitably checked out the chicken.

The sauce was on the smoky/spicy side of the flavour triangle, without a hint of sweetness. The spicy was relatively mild, and despite the smoky, slightly barbecue-y flavour, there wasn’t a hint of the dreaded ketchup scent. The sauce was also quite generously applied, perfect for soaking chicken pieces and pouring over rice. 

The vegetable mix was a standard green pepper, onion, and carrot mix, but I came through rather underwhelming. The vegetables weren’t particularly fresh, nor flavourful. There were also, frankly, far too many of them for the flavour they brought to the table. While vegetables bring much to the dish, not just any vegetables are needed. 

The chicken itself was coated in thick, very crunchy breading, which made for an enjoyably novel texture. However, the breading was thick to the point of covering for chicken which was, in places, rather small or stringy. 

The chicken is not available in any sort of combo, so side dishes are a must.

Overall, I was a touch underwhelmed. Between the lackluster vegetables and novel, but low quality meat, I found the meal to be less than I’d hoped. However, I do not rule out Golden House entirely; I finished my meal and did enjoy it, but it sits firmly on the lower end of mid-tier chicken offerings. 

3/5 

[justthegeneral]

Hong Shing Chinese Restaurant

195 Dundas St W

Hong Shing came recommended especially to me and characterized as something of a Toronto institution, as well as being my first chance for a proper trip into Toronto’s Chinatown area, so I came to the table with high but cautious expectations. I was pleased to see the General Tao’s chicken not hidden away in the menu but noted as Hong Shing’s General Tao’s Chicken, given special pride of place. Signs pointed to a good meal, and though not floored, I was quite pleased.  

The sauce lies almost at the direct centre of the spicy-smoky-sweet triangle of General Tao flavours, with the thick consistency of a more barbecue based sauce. My first impression was a touch more towards the smoky-sweet end of things, though a touch of spice crept in as I went. The sauce was generously applied and excellent on the rice. 

he chicken itself came in large pieces, with something of a chewy texture, which I consider to be a good thing. The breading was light, and given the amount of sauce, quite saturated. 

Aside from a small garnish of carrots  and parsley, there were no vegetables involved, which I do consider a mark against the dish, as no vegetables were present to cut the texture and flavour of the chicken. 

The General Tao’s chicken was not advertised as a combination meal, coming only in a full plate, though a bowl of steamed rice was a nominal fee at most and the extras, a Wonton soup and spring roll, were both excellent. 

Overall, I was quite pleased with Hong Shing, the only thing holding it back was a lack of vegetables and perhaps a slightly more distinct profile to the flavour. I must confess though that I was pleased with the recommendation. 

4/5

[justthegeneral]

Sea Spray Restaurant

Mysteriously lacking in any sort of online presence, such that I wonder if it was all a fever dream, there’s the Sea Spray. After a lovely time at my previous choice, I allowed myself to expect Toronto to consistently deliver a high quality of Chinese food, and walked into Sea Spray's sleepy storefront with this in mind. There's a certain kind of Chinese restaurant which we've all come across, where you'll walk in and find yourself look at a deserted dining area, wondering if the bored looking gentleman in the corner actually works there, and having your question answered when he reluctantly brings you a menu. While these kinds of establishments are not, in and of themselves, bad, and Sea Spray had a truly charming Garfield the Cat wall clock, my hopes were, in short, dashed.

My meal arrived hot and fresh, but a single whiff of it confirmed the dread spectre of ketchup, a sure sign of subpar sauce. The sauce proved to be of the barbecue flavoured variety, thick, and none too pleasing.

The chicken itself came in large to medium pieces coated in thick, squishy breading, saturated with the unpleasant sauce.

There were no vegetables to be had, by now another indicator of a lacking meal, aside from the broccoli, cooked separately from the chicken and unsauced, which proved to be a lacking accompaniment.

The meal did come as part of a "Chef's special" combination plate with a modest helping of steamed rice for a decent price.

Overall, I would not recommend Sea Spray. The chicken was really quite bad, and as its freshness faded the lack of quality became more and more clear, until I hardly wanted to finish my meal.

1/5

[justthegeneral]

Sandy’s Restaurant

2093 Danforth Ave

For my inaugural meal in Toronto I hit up Sandy’s Restaurant, a blandly named but conveniently located and well appointed spot. I was, overall, quite pleased with what I found. This is classic General Tao's chicken, unremarkable, but not without its charms.

The sauce was something of a smoky sweet, not particularly spicy, but flavourful and good. The chicken was well coated, and when eaten from a takeout container, the sauce soaked into the rice in a pleasing way.

The chicken was also good, somewhat smaller pieces, but with a nice, crunchy breading on it.

It comes with the normal assortment of vegetables: onions, carrots, and green peppers, plus diced cucumber, which added nothing discernible to the meal but certainly didn't detract from it.

The chicken was available in a modestly priced combination plate with vegetable fried rice rather than the usual chicken fried rice, and made a well sized meal.

Overall I would say that Sandy's General Tao is nothing to write home about, but that is not necessarily a mark against it. This is rock solid Chinese food, not the top recommendation for someone you're looking to impress, but damn good as a place you can return to regularly.

3/5

[justthegeneral]

Look Ho Ho Restaurant

6420 Bayers Rd

In the last hours of my last day in Halifax there was only one thing to do: go to the last place on my list of mainline Halifax Chinese restaurants and try their chicken. That meant it was time to hit Look Ho Ho, possibly the oldest Chinese restaurant in Halifax, so you'd really think it would be considered more of an institution, but such are the problems of not having a trendy downtown location. Given where I was, I expected some pretty traditional North American Chinese fare, and the meal lived up to my expectations.

The vegetables, frankly, left something to be desired. There was the normal assortment of onions, carrots, and green peppers, but as you can tell at a glance, the balanceheavily favoured onions, to the near exclusion of all else. The vegetables are actually an integral part of raising the quality of a General Tao dish, so these were rather disappointing.The sauce was strongly on the sweet end of the spectrum, though not entirely unspicy. The spice was a bit of a slow build, only really noticeable once I was a few pieces into the meal. There was quite a lot of it too.

As for the chicken itself, it was mostly thinner pieces, a little chewy, not in an entirely unappetizing way to be sure. The breading mainly added to the chewiness of the chicken, being saturated with sauce.The General Tao's chicken is not available as a combination plate and so can only be ordered as a large sharing portion. I got mine with some steamed rice and a rather good eggroll, but it was not a small order in the end.

Overall, I wouldn't condemn Look Ho Ho's offering, but I would not really endorse it. It is somewhat nice in how much of a break from the usual it's very sweet sauce is, but the lackluster vegetable mix and chicken make this not the best in Halifax.

2/5

[justthegeneral]

VH General Tao Stir-Fry Sauce

Stir fry sauces are a great way for a totally amateur cook to look and feel like they have the faintest clue of what they're doing in the kitchen. I love them. Anyway, one of them was General Tao themed, so I had to eat it.

All things considered, not bad at all. I'd say it was more of a savoury, barbecue taste than anything else, faint spice, no noticeable sweetness. From the opening of the package and a whim of the pungent aroma I knew this wasn't quite going to be my ideal kind of General Tao, but it was more than serviceable. 

I made rather a large portion, but with a smaller serving and thus more extra sauce I think it would come a little closer to approximating the restaurant dish. Overall I was pretty pleased with the whole thing, obviously a lot of that comes down to my own contribution to the meal, but I thought that the sauce was actually one of the better stir fry mixes that I've tried.

3/5

[justthegeneral]

Fong Sing

278 Lacewood Dr

Fong Sing is among my final stops in Halifax proper, a true strip mall style restaurant, a classic destination. It is primarily a Pho restaurant, so going in I was aware that the General Tao's chicken would likely not be their strongest dish. Nonetheless I found a solid meal.

The sauce has barbecue taste and a lingering, subtle spice that built up one I'd had a few pieces. I hada slight whiff of tomato in when I started eating, but it was not an overpowering flavor.

For vegetables it came with only onions and carrots, nothing to write home about. The chicken was rather good, not tough or chewy at all. The breading was actually somewhat light but it held the sauce very well and had a nice crispness to it.

While the General Tao is not listed on the menu as part of a combination plate, when I asked about getting rice with my order the server was nice enough to let me get the General Tao in a combo plate, which while relatively small was also fairly cheap, and certainly a good size for a quick lunch.

Overall I was pleased with Fong Sing, while more pedestrian Chinese food isn't there main attraction and I plan on heading back to sample some of their other items, the General Tao's chicken was more than up to snuff.

3/5

[justthegeneral]

Thai Express

Food courts everywhere

Food court Chinese food is still Chinese food, even when it's from a Thai place. So I got the General Thai as they call it. Obviously it's not exactly the specialty of a more or less dedicated pad thai chain, but for the sake of completion I had to try it, and went in with low expectations.

The sauce was more sweet than spicy, drowned out somewhat by the flavor of the sauce on the noodles. There wasn't a ton of it, just enough to saturate the chicken pieces themselves, leaving the rice noodles tasting like standard pad thai.

The vegetables are a bit outside the ordinary. There's the standard green pepper, onion and carrots, but there was also tomato and, of all things, pineapple. It all came together well enough, though the pineapple and the onion were the only two with any real flavor to them, the rest were more there for texture.

The chicken wasn't great, honestly. It was very bready and quite chewy. The chicken pieces were saturated with sauce but they weren't soggy and did still actually hold a bit of crunch to them, which was nice.

The standard General Thai meal comes with steam rice, for which I swapped out rice noodles, since it is a noodle chain, and in terms of price it comes to about the standard that you'll pay for a combination plate at an actual sit down Chinese restaurant, though the portion is smaller. Not a terrible deal, but not great.

Overall, speaking strictly in terms of the General Thai chicken, I wasn't terribly impressed. It wasn't bad, still better than the worst restaurants I've eaten at and anything frozen, but it's really not very good.

2/5

[justthegeneral]

New Asia

1252 Hollis St

New Asia was the last of the downtown Halifax restaurants I’d planned to visit, and having had a wide range now I went in with few expectations. The establishment was quiet and I think informal would be the least prejudicial way of putting it, but the food was up to snuff.

The sauce was a touch savory rather than sweet, and just a bit smoky. It had a mildly spicy aftertaste which wasn’t overbearing. 

The vegetables were the standard, carrots, peppers, and onions, all chopped fairly large, and there were a lot of them. In particular, there were a lot of onions. Like, a lot of them. Frankly, more onions than I cared to eat. 

The chicken was chewy, with little crunch to the breading and just a little toughness to the meat. Not bad, certainly, but a tad underwhelming. 

The General Tao’s chicken is not available in a combination place unfortunately, so I had it with a small bowl of steamed rice and an egg roll. The egg roll was rather good. 

Overall, I didn’t love it, but it was a solid middle of the road choice where I got my food relatively quickly, which counts for something. 

3/5

[justthegeneral]

Loong 7 Chinese Restaurant

3559 Robie Street

Loong 7 is not what I'd call an easily accessible restaurant, so going in I knew I was either looking at an overlooked gem or a hidden shame. I was immediately impressed by the interior and the quiet, pleasant atmosphere, and am pleased to report that Loong 7 is in fact the hidden gem I'd hoped it to be. In fact, it's some of the best Chinese food I've had so far.

The sauce is just a little bit more towards the sweet end of the spectrum, with ample ginger flavour and a pleasing mild spice. The sauce was generously applied but not so much so as too be messy or unduly seep into the sides I ordered with it. I am generally a big fan of spicy takes on General Tao, but I loved this sweeter sauce.

The vegetables were the normal assortment of green peppers, onions, and carrots, chopped relatively fine. There were not many of them to be found, but they were flavourful and pleasingly crunchy.

The chicken itself was excellent. Crispy, crunchy breading, coated but not soaked with sauce, and the meat was fantastic. There's always the danger of finding inferior meat in a dish like this, but I am pleased to say that the meal I had was full of only good quality meat, not too chewy and with no gristle to be found. The pieces were varied in size and shape and generously portioned out.

The General Tao's Chicken is available in a number of combination plates which are not only extremely affordable, falling well on the low end of the usual Chinese food price range, but also very generously sized. I barely finished my meal as it was, and the accompanying fried rice, chicken chow mein, and egg roll were all excellent.Overall I loved what I found at Loong 7. The prices were fantastic, the food was excellent, and the establishment itself was positively charming. The only drawback is the location, buried deep in the North End of Halifax it is not particularly accessible, but it's well worth the minimum of extra effort to reach. A true hidden gem.

5/5

[justthegeneral]

Jean's Chinese Restaurant

5972 Spring Garden Road

I came to Jean's somewhat skeptical, having had no experience with it myself all I knew was that it's the go to for university students downtown. To me, this was not a ringing endorsement, as students have no taste to speak of. Nonetheless my food arrived fresh and hot and I found myself enjoying the meal.

The sauce itself was a bit puzzling. It wasn't distinctly spicy or ginger-y, or even smacking of barbecue or ketchup. It was savoury and certainly tasted like General Tao, but it wasn't really distinct. There was a lot it it though, very generously portioned out for the meal, for which I was grateful. 

The vegetable mix was the standard; onions, green peppers and carrots, chopped into rather large pieces. While they weren't notably fresh or particularly flavourful, they added a pleasing crunch to the whole meal.

The chicken itself was smaller pieces, not too chewy, all neat little bite sized pieces. While not quite uniform they were all very similar in size and texture. The breading was rather nice, arriving hot and with just a little bit of crunch to it that I enjoyed.

The General Tao at Jean's is available in a combination plate for around the usual price, and the portion I was served was quite large. I barely managed to finish the meal, so if you enjoy having your plate heaped high it definitely delivers.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about Jean's. The fare was better than my basement level expectations, but after the meal had cooled off a little and didn't have freshness working in its favour I found the whole thing to be a little indistinct. It's good and certainly worth the price, but I can't say that it's at all memorable. Ultimately Jean's General Tao is very standard, not bad but not great, hardly notable but satisfying all the same.

3/5

[justthegeneral]

Snakmandoo General Tao Bites

Any given frozen food section

After a brief interlude, I took another look at frozen bachelor chow and the variations of General Tao's chicken contained therein. This time I had occasion to try out Snakmandoo's General Tao bites. The black packaging assured me that though I did have to cook it myself, this is no way diminished my masculinity. Prepared with a little rice of my own, the General tao bites, while decidedly and consciously not the real deal, were actually fairly good.

The bites are these little breaded pockets, available in a wide variety of flavours, and are generally pretty good as these things go. The big advantage of the breaded pocket design seems to be that it allows the delivery of sauce without the usual problems attendant in frozen sauces, such as uneven application, weird plastic bags you have to thaw, off putting texture, and general messiness. 

The sauce itself was nice, not a perfect imitation of General Tao's flavour or the variations thereof, but it had a nice spice and a bit of a barbecue-y tang which was at the very least reminiscent of the real thing. The sauce was the main attraction here since it's not an an altogether substantial snack.

The breading on the whole thing was of course not the traditional stuff, but rather the pocket, and it was fairly nice, cooked with a bit of oil it came out crispy and satisfying. The contents aside from just the sauce were actually a surprisingly comprehensive miniaturized version of the full dish, with little diced chicken pieces and the classic accompaniment of carrots and green peppers. I'm pretty sure it was green peppers at least, at that scale it's hard to tell.

Overall, for what it is, I really can't fault the General Tao bites. They're a perfectly acceptable and even tasty addition to a quick and easy meal. For frozen food, that's about as much as you can hope for.

2/5

[justthegeneral]

Sheng's Chinese Restaurant

362 Lacewood Drive

Finishing up the Lacewood/Bayer's Lake area Chinese restaurants, I decided to try out Sheng's Chinese for delivery.  My food arrived quickly, very hot and very fresh.

The flavour of the sauce is spicy with a hint of ginger, with a very pleasant kick to it. There was not an overly generous amount of sauce to be had, but the chicken was well saturated with it and packed lots of flavour.

For the vegetables there was the standard assortment of onions and carrots with a few much smaller green peppers in there. There were quite a few vegetables to be had and they went quite well with the rice.

The chicken itself was a mixed bag. The pieces were of a good texture, nicely chewy and varied in size. The breading was the one mark I would make against the whole thing; it was saturated with sauce to the point of being a little soggy and losing its integrity, almost falling off the chicken. It's worth reiterating here that I did get this as delivery, and breading tends to degrade a bit in transit, but considering how fresh the whole thing was, still steaming when I opened things up, I'm not sure that the sogginess can be blamed entirely on it being delivery.

The General Tao did come as part of a combo, fairly reasonably priced, with rice and an egg roll.

Overall, I liked this selection. The breading left something to be desired, but the chicken itself was solid, there were plenty of vegetables, and the flavour of the sauce was above average.

3/5

[justthegeneral]

9 + Nine Chinese Cuisine

480 Parkland Drive 

The somewhat oddly named 9 + Nine is a favourite of mine, an out of the way highlight of Halifax’s Chinese food scene, but somewhat unusual in that they don’t actually have a General Tao’s chicken dish, despite its popularity. What they do have is General Hot chicken, which is a similar enough name to pique my interest, though an acquaintance of mine was told in no uncertain terms by the proprietor that this is not the equivalent of General Tao, which is worth bearing in mind. It’s its own thing. 

The flavour of the chicken and sauce falls somewhat outside of the usual General Tao spectrum. It’s got a bit of a natural, pepper spice, but somewhat subdued, with the sesame seeds lending quite a bit of flavour on top of that. It’s not savoury or sweet, but the spice isn’t offensive or even lingering. 

As for vegetables there weren’t many to be found, some finely chopped peppers from what I could see in addition to the sesame seeds, as well as some very hot intact peppers. The hot peppers, eaten in the name of thoroughness, were certainly hot, but not as lingering as I expected, and didn’t upset my stomach in the way these things occasionally can. The vegetable mix was much more geared towards adding flavour to the chicken and sauce than being notable on its own. 

As for the chicken, this is another big point of departure; it’s a bone in recipe. As such, it’s not particularly easy, nor I would guess attractive, to eat, as one has to navigate around bones both large and small. The chicken itself was rather good, large pieces with an appreciable chewiness, though as I got delivery, the breading was quite saturated with sauce by the time I came to eat. 

There is no combination plate available with the General Hot chicken, but the rest of 9 + Nine’s menu is quite robust so you can certainly find a good pairing, though this won’t be a cheap and easy meal. 

Overall I have mixed feelings. The General Hot chicken is no General Tao’s by any stretch, but I did know that going in. For what it is it’s quite tasty, if unusual, though it loses major points for being a bit of a hassle to actually eat. Though my rating may not be stellar, I would reiterate that 9 + Nine is a personal favourite of mine for some of the other dishes on the menu, and the General Hot chicken should by no means be the make of break dish here. 

3/5

[justthegeneral]

Happy Garden Chinese Restaurant

1304 Birmingham Street

After realizing that the area around Spring Garden was surprisingly dense with Chinese restaurants, I decided to check the area out, and Happy Garden jumped to the top of my list for a simple and pragmatic reason: Their menu is online. Let this be a lesson in maintaining a healthy online presence.

The sauce on this one was outside of the usual ginger versus spicy dichotomy, ending up with much more of a savoury flavour. Unlike previous experiences with this kind of General Tao's chicken, I actually found that it worked here. While savoury, I didn't find myself in mind of backyard barbecue, and instead enjoyed the flavour. The sauce is well portioned out, leaving me with a healthy amount for work with while coating all of the chicken quite thoroughly.

There weren't many vegetables to go around with it, a few thinly sliced onions and peppers were all. Not bad by any measure, but a little disappointing. The chicken itself was excellent, in large part because I got it extremely fresh out of the kitchen. The breading was light and crunchy, and the pieces were pleasingly varied in size and shape.

The General Tao does come with a combo at Happy Garden, and standard rice and an eggroll for a reasonable price, and a goodly sized portion too.

Overall I'd say that Happy Garden's offering was fairly good, if sitting firmly somewhere in the middle of the pack. I suspect that my positive reception was coloured somewhat by the fact that I'd previously eaten some awful frozen Chinese food, but Happy Garden would acquit itself reasonable well in any scenario.

3/5

[justthegeneral]

Wong Wing Frozen Chinese Food

Wherever frozen bullshit is sold

Frozen Chinese food; we’ve all considered it at some point, entertained the faint hope that this quick and cheap option could capture some of the goodness of our favourite dishes. It can’t, but of course you have to try. So I tried. The results were underwhelming if not actually objectionable. 

The sauce is generally passable, and more of the ginger persuasion than the spicy, though it does have a little bit of a spicy aftertaste. It’s generously applied too, with quite a bit to saturate the meat and rice. It does unfortunately carry the unmistakable and off putting texture of that which has been frozen and reheated, just a little too thick to be enjoyable. 

The chicken itself was good enough, small pieces, saturated with sauce, which actually did wonders to counter or at least mask the negative effects that microwaving usually has on breading. 

There’s of course no vegetable or rice included, so I whipped some up to round out the meal, and ended up with a relatively satisfying option in front of me. 

It’s not good by any means, as it was easily the worst General Tao that I’ve eaten so far, but by the standards of microwaveable frozen dinners, it was at least serviceable. Mostly however it just left me craving a proper feed. 

1/5

[justthegeneral]

Best Choice Chinese Food Restaurant

28 Titus St Boulevard

I first had Best Choice late on a fairly disappointing and hectic night when I was left with no other options, and it’s never been a mainstay for me. Its hubristic name invites harsh consideration, and at some point I became convinced that it wasn’t very good. In the interest of being thorough though, I opted for another visit, and found myself pleasantly surprised. 

The sauce is generously served up in copious amounts, and has a ginger-y, slightly sweet flavour to it rather than a spicy one. It's a rather sloppy meal, but I'd always rather too much sauce than too little.

It comes with surprisingly few vegetables, I only noticed onions mixed in as I ate, which was a bit disappointing, but the onions were enough to add at least an occasional crunch.

The chicken surprised me with how good it was. Larger pieces, a little chewy, the breading wasn't particularly impressive, a bit soggy, possibly owing to my having gotten this as takeout. Not the best I've had, but very solid.

The General Gao's Spicy Chicken does come in a combo, which is utterly massive. The rice alone was enough for my group to divide it up between three people, and even with someone else taking some of the chicken, I was barely able to finish my meal. The egg roll though, was not nearly so good. It was among the saltiest things that I've ever eaten, and even for a meat paste egg roll, was not very good.

Overall I actually quite enjoyed this one. It's not spicy the way the menu implies, but it is fairly tasty, even if it's not necessarily the best choice in Halifax.

3/5