Exclamation

Food was meh, bland and uninteresting and menu was too large for simple choosing. The décor was terrible, they should get a renovation. Oh, and the bathroom… my god what an atrocity. I’m convinced that was Canada’s dirtiest bathroom. You know what they say, you can tell how clean a restaurant is by how clean they keep their bathroom.

Real hidden gem for authentic, delicious Chinese food in the KW region. My family and I came here for a celebratory dinner and the quality of the food and taste thoroughly exceeded our expectations. Since I’ve got family members who are usually critical of the authenticity of locally prepared «Chinese food» — who all gave this restaurant glowing reviews — I would definitely recommend this place to those who are craving a taste of home, or who are hosting people who are picky/​cynical about authentic-​tasting Chinese food. And as mentioned by other reviewers, they also carry many Western/​fusion styled dishes too. Notable dishes for us were:
— Roasted Duck. Highly recommend, was juicy and flavourful with crisply seared skin.
— Sweet and Sour Pork. Omg. Perfect flavour balance of tangy and sweet. The pork was crunchy and crispy and soo satisfying!
— Mapo Tofu. Really soft tofu made with peas and corn kernels and a ton of chilli peppers and those mouth numbing peppercorns! Yum!
— Eggplant with Garlic Sauce. Flavourful, well cooked.
We demolished the dishes so quickly I wasn’t able to get a «before» photo… But the empty plates in the «after» pic should speak for itself!
Bonus: as a free service they brought us fried ice cream balls drizzled in chocolate sauce. The ice cream was perfectly solid and the shells were warm and buttery; these were a delectable treat to top off our excellent meal!

Just had our first meal at Exclamation, I had the orange chicken bento box and Tom had the lemon chicken bento box. Both meals were delicious and colourful and highly recommend going. We’ll go back for sure! Great prices too!

This place has good Chinese food. Can’t make any arguments as to the authenticity of the food but its my favourite Chinese food place in waterloo/​kitchener. The service is always decent, my tea is always refilled periodically and the server (s) make sure to check that the food was good. Moreover the taste is better than average (I’ve gotten the duck and a seafood entrée) and the portion sizes are not small. Would recommend the duck, IIRC it had some interesting sauce and flavors.

I was pleased with my Cumin Chicken combo dinner. I ordered it with chicken fried rice and the salad instead of the soup. Everything I had was tasty and freshly prepared. The «crispy cheese» that comes with the combo plate was a pleasant touch (cream cheese in a fried wonton).
The wait staff were efficient and friendly. I agree with the other reviews that the restaurant is a pleasantly decorated.
I would definitely eat here again and appreciate that they were open at 9pm on a Tuesday.

We ate there last night and came away very satisfied, agreeing with all the previous Unilocal reviewers. That free ice cream dessert was really a nice touch. One thing about that free parking next to the martial arts studio: it had signs saying it was church parking and vehicles would be towed. We didn’t want to take the chance and luckily there was plenty of street parking available on an early Saturday evening of a long holiday weekend.

Can’t believe the amount of food you get for the price! It’s delicious and quick service!

Despite them being around for 3 years, I never even knew it was a Chinese restaurant whenever driving by. They very recently added a sign in Chinese characters on their store front, which made us want to check it out for dinner.
The ambience is great and they actually have a very large space. Not a lot of people on a weekday evening, but they had music playing to remove the silence. The interior was very modern, clean, and reminiscent of the 2 other Chinese restaurants nearby on King St — Easy Earthen and China Bowl.
You get 10% off if you pay by cash. After 6pm, you can park at the lot beside the martial arts studio for free. Most of the information about this place seems to be carried through word of mouth or the Chinese forums used by U. Waterloo students, where the restaurant often advertise their new dishes.
As they are centrally located at Federick & Duke, they likely serve the lunch crowd. The reason they deem themselves fusion is that they have a few Thai dishes like Pad Thai. Westerners must love coming here because yes they have your wonton soup and chicken balls.
But what really surprised me was the actual authentic dishes — they were so good. They have a ton of Chinese dishes, you just need to know what to order. Ask the waitress about their specialties, and you’ll be in for a treat.
They are known for their duck. So we got a roasted duck half portion which was the best duck I’ve had in awhile — nothing compares to Scarborough’s Ho Ho Bbq but this was still amazing. Peking duck tends to be quite dry, so I prefer the juicy roast duck that these guys made for us. The half portion duck is huge and can probably be split between 2 people, it is priced at $ 17, and I’d say that’s on the cheap side when it comes to that dish.
We also ordered two vegetable dishes — the sweet & sour cabbage but we asked to have them cook it with garlic. We were about to order snow pea leaves, but the waitress mentioned they had luffa cucumber that day which was not on the menu. It’s a special veggie that is uncommon and not often offered at Chinese restaurants, so we thought of course! These veggie dishes were well priced at $ 9 per plate (which is lower than most places) and were delicious.
Top that off with a pot of chrysanthemum tea and you’ll have one of the best feasts ever. The food came very quickly too. The service was great and she came by to refill the water in our teapot without us even asking.
We each got complimentary scoops of Neapolitan ice cream for dessert which really completed the meal.
Dining here was awesome and yes we’re coming back.

Went there last Sunday night before closing time. Had the Exclamation Shrimp dinner combo with house salad, spring role and fries. The food came on time and was simply excellent! I have been to China and HK and would say that they have kept the authentic flavour.
The service was great — prompt and courteous. The ambiance and décor are also pleasant and the music in the background is relaxing which contributes to a great dinning experience.
Definitely going back and soon :)

Great Asian cuisine with friendly staff. I like the chicken balls, shrimp, and the vegetable fried rice is awesome. To top it off, their servers and staff are friendly and personable. :)

–Excellent service
–excellent atmosphere
–delicious food
–reasonable price
— delightful experience
I got chicken balls in sweet and sour sauce with fried rice. It was super good.
The location is only a block or two from downtown and is currently the only chinese good restaurant I have discovered in kitchener downtown by city hall.

Friendly staff, decent food. A wide selection of foods. Wouldn’t say it’s the best place in town, but if you’re up for some adequate Chinese food near downtown, this place isn’t too bad. They say they’re Chinese fusion, but I don’t remember seeing anything that seemed out of the ordinary.

Went here for a late dinner with some girlfriends. Very nice inside for a Chinese food restaurant.
The service was excellent and the food was delicious. The server even knew what to recommend because I can’t have gluten.
Portions were very good and the food was really tasty. I will definitely be back

First visit here during lunch.
Great lunch menu with a mixture of deep fried plates and stir fry plates. Great portion for their reasonable prices.
Tried the honey chicken with rice. Kick ass.
Will come back to try their dinner menu.
Friendly staff.
Comfortable seating.
Soft classical tunes.

This place is definitely a refreshing spin on Chinese dinning where the focus is on good food, lovely décor and GOOD service. I emphasize the latter. It is very rare for friendly attentive service at Chinese restaurants.
We ordered the lunch combo of orange beef with fried rice and a crispy cheese wonton which came with a choice of soup or salad (we got the wonton soup) and satay beef rice noodle. Everything that came out was good. Only problem I had with this experience is that my boyfriends food was out long before I even got mine. However, I will definitely be coming.

This is a relatively new Chinese place in downtown Kitchener. It mostly features Cantonese dishes.
Nice décor for a Chinese place. Modern, simple, clean, and spacious. It kinda gives the same vibe as Benh Than (the one near Conestoga mall after renovation).
Food was not particularly memorable. The bbq duck was quite good, everything else was pretty average. Don’t bother with the Hong Kong style tea, it’s really bad.
4 star for the ambience, service and adding more variety to Kitchener’s food selections, 3 star for the food.