Hon's Wun-Ton House - Coquitlam

I always see Hon's as a safe place to go for Chinese food. It's never terrible, but it's not the best Chinese food you can have either. Over the years, I've gone to Hon's numerous times at its various locations. However, it had been a few years since we went to the Coquitlam location, so my mom, Shane and I decided to pay a visit last Friday. It was a horribly rainy day, which made us in the mood for noodles, for some reason.

Like a lot of Hon's locations, the room is nothing to rave over--the seating is basic and cramped, with rows of tables next to each other, and the service is rushed and unattentive.

To celebrate their 37th anniversary, the restaurant had 12 potstickers on for $3.37. It was a good deal. The pan-fried pork dumplings same with a sweet vinegar that I didn't care for, but the dumpling was crisp on the outside and tasty on the inside.

One of my favorite items to eat at a Chinese restaurant is jellyfish ($7.50), even though it really doesn't taste much like anything. It's really about the crunchy, cool texture I guess. Hon's version was nicely flavored with soy sauce and sesame oil, though the sauce was a little salty. Many people don't enjoy this (like Shane), but I liked this.

It was cold and rainy outside, so we shared a BBQ duck wonton noodle soup ($7.25). The noodles were generous, wontons were porky and okay, and the broth wasn't bad. However, we were a little disappointed at the duck pieces we got, which were bony and had very little meat. I did like the way the flavour of the duck seeped into the broth though.

This was the "Szechuan" Style Seafood with Bean Vermicelli ($11.95). The dish came in a big clay pot, and had a good mix of squid, fish, shrimp and tiny scallops. The vermicelli sopped up the sauce really well, but there seemed to be something lacking here--there didn't seem to be enough of flavour and the dish was quite bland.

Our last noodle dish was Beef and Vegetable Fried Rice Noodle ($8.95). We we expecting fried noodles, but instead got steamed noodles topped with cornstarchy gravy. The texture was the same as the previous dish, so eating this got kind of boring. Maybe I just wanted greasy noodles. The sauce itself again lacked a certain flavour, and was again on the bland side.

We probably ordered too many noodle dishes! Having not visited for a few years, Hon's in Coquitlam seems to have changed--the flavours seemed a lot more subdued than I remember. Not sure if I would visit this location again, because other locations seem to be quite a bit better.