One More Szechuan Chinese Cuisine opened in the old Thai Basil space next to Save-On-Foods at Pemberton Plaza.
I always suspected the location was challenging; being a sit-down restaurant situated in a functional strip mall where the vast majority of traffic is banking, visiting the pharmacy or shopping for groceries must make it hard to fill seats.
That said, I notice that the ever-spawning White Spot group has added a new restaurant in the same plaza in order to better service the North Shore’s apparently insatiable demand for Triple-O products.
Meanwhile, Capilano Sushi continues to endure, despite the seemingly interminable construction and reconfiguration of their surroundings.
Perhaps takeout is the key to success in a mall. I read with interest a number of online testimonials about One More’s outstanding delivery service, and while I take all anonymous user-generated content with an entire shaker of salt, it is rare to see multiple accolades for service outweigh ubiquitous derision for trivial shortcomings like substandard after-dinner mints.
With the rest of the world hunkering down to their holiday meals on Christmas Eve, the Dagenais family decided to do Szechuan takeout. I placed a phone order for a large pickup order and was told it would be ready in 15-20 minutes.
One hour and multiple cups of complimentary tea later, our meal was ready. I need to confess, readers, that I do not have a deep well of patience for waiting. If I had been told at the time of ordering it was going to be an hour, I would have cursed my own poor planning but would have grudgingly waited at home for 50 minutes before setting off to pick up my food. And so when the two-bag order was finally placed in front of me, I proffered a clenched smile and remarked that it had been a significantly longer wait than I had been promised.
On the way home I began to feel guilty. It was Christmas Eve, after all, and I’m sure it is hard for a new business to forecast volumes. Also, having worked in the service industry for a number of years and manning the fort on holidays, I know first-hand how deflating it is to encounter irate guests when you could be elsewhere, enjoying time with your own family.
So, for what it’s worth at this stage, One More team, your meal was worth the wait.
I have grown hardened about self-proclaimed Szechuan restaurants in North Vancouver, as I have always understood this style of cuisine to be boldly flavoured and interesting.
Too often, however, I find Szechaun dishes on this side of town to err on the side of bland, if not insipid. And while my palate was not blown to smithereens by the intricacy of spices and flavours issuing from One More’s kitchen, I am pleased to report that the meal was universally solid, with a few outstanding dishes. Chief among these was the Mu Shu Pork with Crepes, a fresh, generously portioned take on a takeout classic, featuring stir-fried strips of pork, cabbage, cloud ear mushroom, carrots and peppers accompanied by a stack of nearly translucent crepes in which to fold the mixture, like a Szechuan taco. The dish is technically an appetizer, but at $11.75 represented really good value for the quantity and quality.
Wontons with Spicy Chili Sauce were densely packed, fragrant with notes of ginger and garlic, and had a decent kick courtesy of the deep red chili oil in which they were steeped.
Another winner was the stir-fried cabbage with little squares of dried red chilies.
This simple dish with few ingredients was a lovely showcase for an underutilized vegetable and provided some welcome crunch to the meal. Mixed Vegetable Foo Young – essentially a seasoned omelet with broccoli, onion, peppers and bean sprouts – was very mildly spiced but enjoyable nevertheless, contributing some salty, savoury accents to the meal, while Deep Fried Squid in Pepper Salt was a great accompaniment for a chilled lager. Neck-in-neck with the Mu Shu Pork for best in show was the House Special Szechuan Fried Rice, a gingery, spicy mixture of rice, shrimp, squid, barbecue pork, and mixed vegetables. I gorged on this dish, loathe to top it with anything else for fear of undermining its balance.
Not quite as successful was Beef with Dry Tangerine Peel. I was intrigued by the sound of the dish, but found its thick sauce to be too sweet and perfumed. Vegetable chow mein, which I requested crispy, was unremarkable and was the one dish that revealed the sort of thick and soggy thickening agent that I find off-putting in westernized Chinese cuisine. I continue my search for great chow mein on the North Shore.
If you know of a place that serves an exceptional version, please drop me a line; I’ll be eternally grateful. Spicy Szechuan Green Beans were well represented, with a requisite crunch and garlicky kick. I’m happy to say that based on my inaugural visit, One More Szechuan does not appear to be just one more entry into the annals of cookie-cutter takeout joints that come and go.
Our meal of nine dishes was $93.50.
One More Szechuan Chinese Cuisine is located at 1262 Marine Dr. in North Vancouver. OneMoreSzechuan.ca. 604-929-3000
Chris Dagenais served as a manager for several restaurants downtown and on the North Shore. He can be reached via email at [email protected]. North Shore News dining reviews are conducted anonymously and all meals are paid for by the newspaper.
