Canton House

Canton House is a Chinese restaurant on Buford Highway that has a regular menu but specializes in dim sum. Dim sum is a Cantonese way of eating that involves selecting many small dishes to eat. The servers push around carts of many different dishes on small plates or in metal steam trays. You point out what you want, the server puts them on the table and makes a mark on your check. The dishes are perfect for sharing. Each is a nice little sampling of a few bites. However, we learned the hard way today that you don't need to order everything that is pushed by. The way the servers approach and ask so nicely if you would like to try everything and the interesting array of dishes makes it hard to say no.

The final verdict is that Canton House is a fun experience with many tasty dishes. However, not every dish is tasty. Some are delicious and some are just mediocre. I can't promise that you will have the culinary experience of a lifetime, but Canton House's dim sum is good enough and fun enough to make it worth your while. Canton House would be an especially fun place to go with a group and share the many dishes.

The first cart to roll by was the soup cart. We tried a cup of pork and rice soup. The soup was rich and comforting with nice bits of pork throughout, but ultimately it was only mediocre. However, a bite of the soup with one of the croutons was quite good. The croutons had a delicious fried, oniony, crispy taste and texture that paired well with the creaminess and meatiness of the soup.

Next up was the curry "squid." Based on the body shape I am fairly certain that it was actually baby octopus. It consisted of whole baby octopus with a curry sauce. The curry sauce was warm and spicy but not hot. The sauce had a hint of sweetness to it. The octopus was properly cooked so that it was chewy but tender rather than just rubber.

Another dish was mushroom caps with shrimp stuffing. The mushroom cap itself was tasty. It had a meaty texture with a deep earthy taste. The shrimp stuffing was not as good. This criticism will come up again in my review of other dishes. The shrimp stuffing was a little rubbery brick of meat. There was a faint shrimp taste to it but it was otherwise impossible to distinguish from any other type of meat. It was not horrible but it was slightly questionable. I would eat it again but it wouldn't be my first choice nor do I think I will find myself daydreaming about it.

While on that note, we also had coconut shrimp balls that had the same rubbery ball of meat with slight shrimp taste inside. The balls were also entirely devoid of any coconut taste. They were served with a sweet, syrupy sauce that was tasty with the fried ball. Overall, I would not recommend the coconut shrimp balls. They were too basic when the restaurant has so many other options.

We also had an order of egg rolls. As far as eggrolls go they were pretty good. I would hope that an authentic Chinese restaurant would have good eggrolls. Nothing out of the ordinary to write about the eggrolls though. (I took a bite out of the eggroll before I remembered to photograph it.)

We also tried two different types of buns. One was filled with pork and the other with vegetables. The vegetables inside included cabbage and mushrooms. The buns are literally a bread around the filling. The bread has a slightly sweet but otherwise unremarkable taste. The bread is slightly doughy and chewy. Both buns were fairly tasty. However, the proportion of bread to stuffing placed them lower on my list of dim sum dishes. With the addition of hot sauce and soy sauce the buns were better but still did not rise to the level of amazing.

The hot sauce that I wrote of adding to the buns was one of the best parts of the whole meals. It appeared to be a simply combination of ground or diced chilies and oil. It had a nice combination of heat, fruitiness, and salt. It was spicy but not burn your mouth spicy.

We also had two different types of dumplings. The first were scallop dumplings. The dumpling wrapper was a little bland but this was improved by the addition of the hot sauce and soy sauce. The filling was like the shrimp filling but with a slight scallop taste instead of a shrimp taste. The scallop dumplings are not highly recommended.

The second dumplings we tried were the pork and taro dumplings. Taro is a root and is starchy with a sweet, nutty flavor. It paired well with the saltiness, meatiness, and chewiness of the pork. The spice of the pork tasted almost like a sausage. Unlike the scallop dumplings, these dumplings were delicious. They were a juicy explosion of flavors. I highly recommend them.

Another dish was the pork rolls. I don't know how to categorize them except as rolls. They were similar to the buns, but the buns had a doughy quality whereas the rolls were light, fluffy bread. The best way to understand the rolls is to imagine a croissant stuffed with salty, spicy pork. The bread has a sweet taste with a little bit of onion due to the green onions on top and the pork contrasts against the sweet bread with a salty, umami taste. My only complaint about the rolls would be that they were dry. The bread was a little dry and the pork was even drier. While I would prefer a little more moistness, I would still recommend the rolls.

Another dish was the tofu skin around shrimp stuffing. The shrimp stuffing was the same odd rubbery stuffing. The tofu skin wrapper was tasty. You wouldn't know that it was tofu if you weren't told. The skin was light with a sweet taste and a sweet sauce. Overall, despite the rubbery stuffing, the tofu skins around shrimp were good.

Last but not least for the savory dishes was the chicken feet. Yes, chicken feet. The whole trip was worth it just for this experience. The manager was walking around checking to make sure all of the customers were satisfied. He stopped at our table and asked if I liked the chicken feet. When I reported back that I did, he was quite surprised. He said that usually only "orientals" like the chicken feet.

Chicken feet are a unique dish. There is very little muscle in a chicken's foot. It is mostly skin, tendons, and cartilage. The composition of the foot gives it a unique gelatinous texture. The feet are prepared by frying, boiling, and then coating in a sweet, tangy sauce. The preparation technique results in a fluffy layer of meat around the little bones. The feet have to be eaten with one's hands. As you try to pull the meat off the bones the bones come apart and you have to separate the bones and meat in your mouth. It is a quite messy dish to eat. The taste is a chicken taste but slightly more gamey; it tastes more like the dark meat of the chicken rather than the white meat. (In other words, it actually has some taste. I have never understood why people prefer the white meat of a chicken over the dark meat. The white meat literally almost has no taste.) The feet are also quite oily which could be from the sauce or the meat. The sauce is both sweet and salty. While the texture is quite unique, I enjoyed both the texture and taste of the feet. However, I would recommend chicken feet for only the most adventurous of eaters.

Finally, we tried two desserts. While I go for unusual, savory foods, my wife has a sweet tooth. She ordered the chocolate mousse and the mango pudding. She enjoyed the chocolate mousse. It was good, but it was just chocolate mousse prepared out of a box with whipped cream that was purchased rather than made in-house. The mango pudding was very odd. It was a creamy pudding with mango chunks throughout. My wife did not enjoy the mango pudding at all. I ate more of the mango pudding, but I would not order it again. To my wife's chagrin, a dim sum house is probably not the place to get fantastic desserts.

The interior of the restaurant is spare but comfortable. The restaurant was clean. The staff was accommodating and helpful. Some of the servers pushing carts did not have a complete command of the English language whereas others spoke perfect, clear language. They were all more than happy to at least try to describe what they had on their cart. While the restaurant's customers were predominantly Asian, persons of all races and ethnicities were in the restaurant. The restaurant had a very open vibe, rather than a closed ethnic community.

Give Canton House a try. Avoid dishes that look overly doughy or that involve seafood stuffing. Stick with pork and chicken. The dumplings seem to be a safe bet. They also have ribs that looked good, but we did not try them, as well as many other dishes that we were unable to try. The experience is fun and the trip is worth it for that alone.

Canton House
4825 Buford Highway
Chamblee, GA
770-936-9030

Pho 24

This past weekend we ventured out to Pho 24 at the prompting of a 50% off coupon from http://www.scoutmob.com/. Pho 24 is a Vietnamese restaurant on Buford Highway that specializes in pho and is open twenty-four hours a day. My wife and I were accompanied by two of our good friends who are now husband and wife and still radiating the excitement of being newly married. Not that being married ever stops being exciting. (It's true. I didn't add that only for when my wife reads this, although that was an important consideration.)

Upon entering Pho 24 we were assaulted by an onslaught of servers. We were repeatedly asked what we would like to drink and then what we would like to eat. Each request we made for additional time to consider our options was kindly granted. But within two minutes a different server was back at our table asking what we would like. While this was a little unsettling and annoying, I prefer it to the alternative of being ignored. The best way to describe it is that the system of service in the restaurant is confusing. My best guess is that the first server to take an order from your table is assigned your table and thus, gets to collect the tip. Or perhaps it was just that the restaurant was fairly empty. I wouldn't weigh this heavily against the restaurant, just be prepared for the onslaught, and as this restaurant just recently opened perhaps management will work out the kinks.

When we finally relented to the pressure to order something and placed our drink orders, I ordered grass jelly drink.

According to the trusty source Wikipedia, grass jelly is a jelly made by boiling the slightly oxidized stalks and leaves of a member of the mint family, adding some starch, and letting it cool into a jelly form. The drink consists of small cubes of this jelly accompanied by its liquid. The sensation of drinking it was very strange. You suck the liquid up with a straw and as you do so little jelly cubes come up into your mouth as well. The odd sensation of drinking something with jello cubes did not bother me at all. The taste, however, was not gross but didn't amaze me. It tasted like a weak, watery tea. I am glad I tried it, but I will definitely try other Vietnamese drinks before I try it again.

My wife and the newlyweds each ordered bubble tea. Bubble tea is a drink made by blending together tea and fruit and then adding small tapioca balls. The newlyweds are experienced bubble tea drinkers, while my wife and I have never tried bubble tea before. They were disappointed that the bubble tea was made with a fruit powder rather than fresh fruit. There also was some confusion as the restaurant had several flavors of bubble tea on the menu but then did not not have them available and then had several flavors available but not on the menu. This is another kink that the restaurant needs to work out. Despite the powder base instead of fresh fruit, my wife and the newlyweds all seemed to enjoy their bubble tea.

Within seconds of being served our drinks, we were being rushed to order some type of food. We got off with only having to order an appetizer of two orders of the eggrolls. Just like the service, the food comes out incredibly fast.

The eggrolls were filled with a pork and vegetable mixture and were tasty, but not mind blowing. They were served with a thin, sweet, cold dipping sauce which was a nice match to the hot eggrolls. Again, the eggrolls were good, but not amazing and were on par with eggrolls at many other restaurants.

We then moved on to the main event: pho. Pho is a Vietnamese rice noodle soup dish. Like so many other dishes, pho consists of a starch and vegetable base to which the diner's choice of protein is added. Pho always consists of a deep, rich broth, rice noodles, green onions, and a side plate of vegetable garnishes to add to the bowl. Typical garnishes, and those served at Pho 24, are bean sprouts, Thai basil, culantro (a relative of cilantro), and sliced jalapenos. Another traditional accompaniment is several lime wedges to squeeze into the bowl. Like many other internet reviewers of Pho 24, I found the lemon wedges they served to be a poor substitute for the traditional lime wedges. While lemons and limes are very similar, they are not the same. Limes, to a much greater degree than lemons, have a note of sweetness in addition to their acidity. Finally, where pho is consumed the tables usually have an array of hoisin sauce, sriracha, and other hot sauces to be added as the diner desires. To those uninitiated to sriracha, it is a hot sauce made of a paste of chili peppers, vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt. I personally consider sriracha to be among my favorite hot sauces and favorite condiments. A bottle of sriracha is always at the ready on my kitchen counter and on many days I add sriracha to every meal from breakfast through dinner. It is hot, but also has a pleasant acidic and sweet taste that livens up any food. It is hard to describe the level of heat in a hot sauce to another person because everyone has a different tolerance for heat, but I find sriracha to be in the middle to lower end in terms of heat. Of course, I can eat fresh jalapenos and I could probably drink Texas Pete without feeling a thing.

That is enough background on pho. To put it simply, pho is delicious. On the night we went to Pho 24 it was cold and raining outside. The rich, meaty broth alone was enough to warm us up and brighten our spirits. Pho is worth ordering for the broth itself. One taste and you know that the broth took several hours of simmering meat and spices to make something that can pack so much flavor and warmth into each bite. The rice noodles were tasty as well. The garnishes were fresh and flavorful. The basil and jalapenos added a nice spice to the dish as did the sriracha I added.

This picture shows the delicious broth after I finished eating everything out of it. My broth was a little bit darker and redder than the basic broth due to my liberal addition of sriracha.

I ordered the Pho Dac Biet which came with sirloin, flank steak, brisket, tendon, and tripe. My pho was also supposed to include meatballs, but I did not find any meatballs in my bowl. Dac biet literally means "the special" or "the combination." It is the pho option with all of the beef proteins in one bowl. The tendon in the dish is literally the fibrous material that connects muscle to bone. When cooked down in pho it turns into a nearly jelly like protein that is slightly rubbery when chewed but also quickly melts down. The tripe is beef stomach. The stomach is thoroughly washed and then boiled for several hours. It looks like a central piece of meat with many tendrils coming off of the central piece and then small threads of meat coming off of the tendrils. It sort of looks like tentacles hanging down parallel to one another. I am actually amazed at how difficult it is to find a similarly shaped food for comparison or any way to describe it that does not make it sound horrific. Tripe has a very mild, clean taste. It has an interesting, chewy texture. One of the newlyweds described it is a "tongue massage."

Everyone else ordered plain sirlon or sirlon combined with flank steak. The picture below shows a sirloin and flank steak pho. My Pho Dac Biet looked the same except it had additional types of meat.

Everyone was pleased with their order. However, one of the newlyweds did not like the fatty nature of her flank steak. This serves as a word of warning to future diners. Pho does not use the greatest cuts of meat and ample amounts of fat are left on the meat. I would guess that the fat is left on for flavoring. I have no problem with fat, but some people do. If you do you can still enjoy the delicious flavors of pho, but I would suggest you try ordering just sirloin, brisket, or meatballs.

I have only recently begun to venture into the world of pho so I am not a pho expert. Previous to my Pho 24 experience I had only had pho at Saigon Cafe at the corner of Clairmont Road and North Decatur Road in Decatur. While I enjoyed the pho at Saigon Cafe, I found the pho at Pho 24 to be far superior. I have also heard that Saigon Cafe's pho does not hold a candle to any of its Buford Highway cousins. Compared to Saigon Cafe, at Pho 24 the broth was more flavorful, the meat was better, and the garnishes were all fresh rather than wilted as has been the case at Saigon Cafe.

Pho 24's interior was nowhere near crisp, white linens and fine china, but it was pleasant, clean, and comfortable.

The interior, with one exception, did not detract from the food or the dining experience which is as it should be in a restaurant of this type. My one complaint would be the presence of televisions on the walls. This seems to be a popular trend among restaurants offering moderately priced culinary delights. This is also a trend that I despise. I find it virtually impossible to avoid staring at the television regardless of whether I know or care about what is flashing across the screen. The flashing lights draw in my gaze, and then I find myself neglecting the stimulating conversation of those with me and the taste of the food I came to enjoy. Televisions turn an enjoyable dining experience into a zombie-like state of shoveling food into one's mouth while staring entranced at the flickering lights. Other reviews around the internet described loud rap or pop music playing, but fortunately this was not part of our experience.

Finally, as with so many other Buford Highway delights, the price is just right. A small bowl of pho will set you back $5.75, a medium bowl goes for $6.50, and a large bowl of pho is a whopping $7.25. A large bowl of pho truly is large. I am capable of eating more than anyone I know, and while I did finish all of the fillings, I did not finish all of the broth and I was stuffed by the time I was done. Two non-starving people could easily share a bowl of pho and an appetizer for a meal.

As a final note, the menu at Pho 24 also offers banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches, see my previous post on Lee's Bakery), bun (vermicelli rice noodles dishes), and com (rice dishes). We stuck to the pho portion of the menu. When a restaurant is named after one dish it makes sense to order that dish. While I have no experience from which to judge the quality of their other dishes, it is worth mentioning that other reviewers around the internet found Pho 24's banh mi to be rather disappointing.

Pho 24
4646 Buford Highway
Atlanta, GA
770-710-0178