Chinese food @ Summer Palace, Saskatoon

I am quite impressed by the number of Chinese restaurants in a small town like Saskatoon. Of course, some are good and some are just..mehh….Summer Palace is one of the better ones which I only found out recently from my Chinese friend. Apparently, her friends seem to like this place alot (which means….the food is probably good right?) Anyways, since then I've visited here twice; so I'm combining both visits in this blog!

During my first visit with Bambi ( my Chinese friend), we headed here after our day trip to Moose Jaw. Good thing was this restaurant closes late (9.30pm) since most restaurants (apart from bars) closes early in Saskatoon @__@. She recommended some of the good dishes she had before ; Kung Pao Chicken with peanuts which is spicy stir-fry chicken with peanuts and dried chilli with green onion as garnishing. The thick sauce used to cook this dish basically consist of soy, sesame and dried chilli. This dish was pretty tasty; it has the 'wok-hei' where most westernized Chinese restaurants lack. Taste awesomely good with rice. In Malaysia, the Chinese restaurants cook this dish with cashew nuts rather than peanuts and with lots of dried chilli.

Kung Pao Chicken with Peanuts ($9.95)

Tired face after our long fun day at Moose Jaw's spa

Another dish we had was the Szechuan boiled fish with pickled Chinese cabbage. I've never had this dish before and the closest version I used to have in Malaysia is steamed fish with pickled vegetables. This sour-salty dish however has a tinge of spiciness (due to the dried chillies) which really add a kick to the dish. Fish was fresh and soup / gravy (not sure is which ;P) was pipping hot. It tasted so good with rice. This dish however was a bit too salty ( maybe that is the way they cook it , I'm not sure), and I am pretty sure they have MSG inside because I was so thirsty the whole night. This dish has to go with rice and not to be eaten by itself.

Szechuan boiled fish with pickled Chinese cabbage ($14.95)

During my recent visit again, we had the Szechuan stir-fried slice pork which I believe is the pork belly which came with generous layer of fats. But don't stop there..because the fat layers were the one that actually gave the juiciness and taste to this dish. I like how Szechuan dishes are; either sour or with a slight spiciness to it :). We also ordered the special deep-fried diced chicken with dried chilli. Again, I'm pretty impressed with the taste of the meat; yes, its deep fried but the small pieces of chicken were definitely well-marinated beforehand. The only downside was I thought this dish was a little bit of a cheat because it is covered with so much of dried chilli that I felt the amount of meat was actually not much. 

Szechuan stir-fried slice pork ($10.95)

Special deep fried diced chicken with dried chilli ($10.95)

Overall, I think Summer Palace is definitely worth going. I like how they cook it with the Chinese 'wok-hei' and that the dishes themselves are quite tasty. Apart from the saltiness of the dishes (which might be a normal standard for them), everything else is good. 

Address : 3A 3602 Taylor St E Saskatoon, SK S7H5H9

Opening hours : Monday - Sunday (11.30am - 9.30pm) ; Closed on Tuesdays

*They have a separate menu for take-out as well

I