Ho Ho Chinese Food

I never ate here when I was a university student, but decided to try it when I was at HUB Mall and extremely hungry. While a bit expensive for the serving sizes, I found the food to be reasonably good. The fried rice was not greasy and the vegetables in it could actually be tasted, while the orange chicken had a pleasant, citrus taste. The ginger beef was not over-​fried and tasted fresh. I also tried some of the spicy tofu, which I really enjoyed, until I realized there was meat in the dish, which turned out to be pork (I don’t eat pork for cultural reasons). I would not expect meat to be in a tofu dish, and the staff were really nice about it and replaced my meal. There is also a menu of food made to order, which I may try at a later time.

If you have experienced Chinese food made properly, you’d find this fare passable at best. The part that always gets me is how the meat is so overcooked it tastes like it’s been reheated on a grill 6 times. It is rigid and parts of it has changed to a darker colour from the overcooking while the rest is dry, pale, cracked. The one dish that surprised me the most is the curry beef fried rice in which you could visualize the rice tinted with curry, the beef, and greens — it looked all to be in order but all you could taste was a strong raw onion and choking black pepper scent that overpowered all the ingredients and made you wonder why you can’t taste the texture of the GODDAMN RICE at all. Or curry. Just raw onion black pepper sensations going up your nostrils. Please do not misunderstand, I am more than okay with heavy spiciness but this was not just any spicy, it was just straight up … some standard Ho Ho wizardry where they generate a taste so wrong with food you wonder how they did it. I often look at their food and think how does anybody get something so wrong?
Many times I have caved and thought «well x was not their strongsuit, but maybe if I order a dish without x…» and given another dish on the menu a try and the poor consistency is the only promise I’ve learned to receive from them. I think the only thing that tastes alright is the few items in the front display that you can choose for their combos. Even then their tomato egg is swimming in thick red tinted grease, nothing like the gloriously healthy homemade dish tomato egg usually is, no green onion rings in sight. The staff are friendly but for the same price or cheaper you can get MUCH better Chinese food by taking the bus down whyte to 104 street. I found out a certain place there delivers for free for orders over $ 40 before tax so I am happy to say I will be getting my chinese food from them for the rest of my time in HUB.