KING'S RESTAURANT
Wor Wonton a royal repast
by Bill Kaufmann
Calgary Sun
King’s still packs them in with its no-frills fare in big portions. The wor won ton soup at King’s Restaurant has become renowned and reminders of it are everywhere to be seen in the bustling, smokeless diner that also peddles its own line of preserves.
So we felt virtually obliged to try out a large helping of the wor won ton which also comes with crab sticks for an extra buck fifty. It’s a busy bowl of large, meaty pork dumplings, julienned barbecued pork, carrots, green onions and broccoli — and dense with noodles of spaghetti thickness. The helping was enough for Mizue, Craig, Nadia and I to sample and we all concluded it was a savoury, hearty meal in itself.
On Sundays, King’s features breakfast along with lunch items on a menu that devotes an entire page to western-style Chinese fare. I went with the $4.39 breakfast special that changes every day — this time the ham and cheese omelette. The omelette sported a thin egg envelope barely constraining an impressive motherlode of juicy julienned ham with a shock of molten cheese in the centre. It came with a hefty heap of mash-style hashbrowns of routine truck stop quality — and two slices of toast.
Galvanized by a taste of the orient with the soup, Mizue went with the barbecued pork chow mein with six crispy won tons. It proved a large pile of thin noodles, pork, bean sprouts, shredded carrots, celery and onions, fringed by a tossed salad. We dipped the crispy-brown Sputnik-shaped deep-fried won tons in a thin, sweet plum sauce. Mizue pronounced the chow mein a wholesome, tasty success, but was most impressed with the size of the dish, at least half of which was doggy- bagged.
Nadia confirmed this Sunday as the Day of the Pig with her order of pork chops and two eggs — another belly-busting plate of unpretentious goodness. I sampled the pork and found it to be juicy, tender and tastefully seasoned.
Nadia also loaded up on the hashbrowns and toast, as did Craig, who answered the call of simplicity with the scrambled eggs with green onions.
In a city where the diner has taken on more of a trendy cachet, King’s still packs them in with its no-frills fare in big portions and a darn good wor won ton soup
FOOD ........ 3 out of 5
AMBIENCE 3 out of 5
SERVICE .... 4 out of 5
Western and Chinese
RECOMMENDED:
Wor won ton soup
PRICE: $3.15-$9.25
CREDIT: Visa & Debit only
WHEELCHAIRS: Restaurant — yes; washrooms — no
March/April 2003
The Ultimate Calgary –
Sights, tastes and insider tips that define the city, from wait-worthy wonton to 24-hour pouch shampoos.
THE LONGEST LUNCH LINE
Don’t even bother going to King’s Restaurant at noon. Packed to the gills, this Barlow Trail diner serves up burgers and fries, and huge steaming bowls of Wor Wonton Soup. The soup is packed with huge wontons, BBQ pork noodles, steamed veggies and flavourful broth.
Don’t be put off by the exterior – on the corner of an industrial block – inside, the food is great and the staff is friendly.
The Kings of won ton
Sunday, August 27, 2006
John Gilchrist/Calgary Herald
The Kingdom has grown. The Kingdom of won ton, that is.
King's Restaurant has ruled over a panorama of the Rockies at 104 Meridian Road N.E. (272-2332) for almost three decades now.
For many Calgarians, King's is THE place to go when they need their won ton fix. The room is quietly downscale, the food is all prepared on-site, service is quick and the prices are reasonable. And it's good won ton.
But the king and queen of won ton, King's founders Alfredo and Nellie Chuy, have abdicated. In their place, the two crown princesses, daughters Angela Chuy and Christina Lee, have divided and expanded the empire.
Lee now oversees King's and the main kitchen for the corporate won ton kingdom while Chuy - along with her uncle John Chu - handle an off-shoot operation called Wonton King.
There are now three fast-food Wonton Kings in the monarchy.
There's one in Crossroads market that operates Saturdays and Sundays, there's another in Foothills Industrial Park at 7800 - 38 th Street SE (236-4224) and a third at 7070 - 11 th Street SE (252-6612).
The various Kings are know for their big bowls of wor won ton, meaning the ultimate bowl of wor won ton. Each bowl is filled with a rich chicken broth, egg noodles, barbecued pork, roast pork, vegetables, and fresh-rolled, pork-filled won ton.
The flavour remains remarkably the same between outlets because the food is prepared in the main commissary kitchen on Meridian Road.
Chicken bones are roasted for the chicken broth, pork is ground and rolled into fresh won ton dough and more pork is barbecued or roasted to top the dishes. This is a major operation - more than 4000 won tons are made every day. The result is a hearty, flavourful lunch soup for just over $7.
The Kings also serve a seafood version of the soup with shrimp and imitation crab for a $1.30 premium, plus noodle soups and drier dishes such as sweet and sour pork, ginger beef and lemongrass chicken. And they do a western bacon and eggs style breakfast, too. Everything is under $8.
While King's is a sit-down restaurant , the Wonton Kings are fast . You line up at the counter cafeteria style, choose your meal from a whiteboard hanging on the wall and wait a few seconds while it's scooped onto a plate.
You pay, you eat, and you leave. That's if you're ordering the drier dishes. Soups take about three minutes to assemble and are delivered by staff who call out the order numbers.
The spaces are crowded, noisy and efficient for eating, but are not overly comfortable. Stainless steel counters and a bank of communal tables serve as propping stations for quick consumption and big bins wait for your utensils to be self-bussed. But, for a tasty $7 lunch, you won't see many folks complaining about the simple approach. The kingdom of won ton is one where the citizenry is quite happy.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2004
Great Cheap Eats
Where to eat to soothe your soul and your wallet in the post-holiday doldrums.
King’s Restaurant
Liz Tompkins, good cook and a City Palate great palate.
Usually my definition of “great cheap eats” is eating on the run for five bucks or less. However, if I want to sit down and be waited on, then I might have to ante up a few bucks. One of my favourite places to get my fill is at Kings Restaurant on Barlow trail just north of Memorial Drive. You’ve probably driven by there a hundred times and noticed the large sign advertising breakfast. Drive by at lunchtime and witness the throngs of people waiting in line for a bowl of wonderful wonton soup.
Kings is an unassuming cafeteria kind of place with friendly efficient waitresses and a loyal following that ranges from neighborhood R.V salesmen to cellphone-wielding suits outta downtown. Despite the extensive menu, most people seem to come for the soup. The bowl is full of tender-crisp fresh veggies and large, handmade wontons floating in a delicious golden broth. The flower shaped carrots are a nice touch; they take me back to the Chinese sweet-and-sour dishes of my youth. Kings is almost always busy, but you get in and out in no time at all. Wait ‘til 1p.m. and you’ll miss the line-up (104 Meridian Rd. N.E., 272-2332).
WONTON KING
Calgary Eye Opener (CBC)
January 16, 2004
John Gilchrist
A few weeks ago I got an email from a couple of former Calgarians who now live in Victoria. They had been back in town and had had a good meal at the Wonton King at 7800 – 30th Street SE.
Now a couple of things stuck me about the email. First, I hadn’t heard of the Wonton King. And second, what the heck were these people doing dining in the Foothills Industrial Park when there are more obvious restaurant areas of town. So of course I had to get out there.
The eateries of the Foothills Industrial Park tend to echo the sentiments of the area – industrial places with fluorescent lighting, heavy duty furniture, fast service, and simple, hearty food at pretty good prices. Nothing wrong with that. Usually they serve breakfast and lunch – there’s not a whole lot of dinner trade in the area.
And the Wonton King fits right in. It’s a cafeteria style place where you line up to place your order from an overhead menu and then plunk down at one of the tables or at a stainless steel counter. There’s no table service, they call out your number when your food is ready, which takes about 3 minutes on average, and if it’s crowded, which it usually is, sharing tables is expected. The clientele is predominantly working guys from the neighbourhood looking for a big, fast, meal for cheap. Dress code is overalls and working boots, ball caps optional.
The other thing that caught my eye about the Wonton King was the name. It’s similar to King’s Restaurant, a Calgary institution for 23 years as a popular place for wonton soup. And sure enough it is the same family that runs the Wonton King and opened it just a few months ago. And they really do a good wonton soup. They make their own stock from a mix of beef, chicken, and pork bones – it’s a great soup, not greasy, very fresh. – they tell me they go through about 4000 wontons a day between the two locations – plus sliced pork and greens and noodles. Their wor wonton, packed with even more ingredients and is a full meal in itself. They also do a seafood wor wonton for an additional dollar.
Beyond the soups the Wonton King has a short list of Cantonese and Southeast Asian favourites – the menu is really a hybrid of cultures. There’s lemongrass chicken and dry ribs and, of course, ginger beef and there’s even a list of steak sandwiches and clubhouses. And they do a big breakfast special. I tried the barbecued pork with King’s rice and was very impressed, not only with the fresh, housemade quality, but with the price. It beat most similar dishes in Chinatown. There was almost half a pound of pork on the plate. And it was good.
Now again, there’s no table service and maybe not even a table but the food is all made in-house, it’s good quality, the staff are pleasant and quick, and the price is right. - the Wonton King knows what they’re doing.
They are located at 7800 – 30th Street SE and are open weekdays from 7am to 4pm and Saturdays from 8am to 2pm. Definitely worth a visit but don’t dress up.
I’ll rate the Wonton King at 8 out of 10.
Wor Wonton Wonderland
Kings Restaurant’s belly-busting soups fit for royalty
November 22, 2007
Darell Hartlen
The next time you're thinking about spending your lunch break with a meal made by a king, skip the pre-formed fast food burger and head on over to Kings Restaurant.
Self-billed as "home of the wor wonton in Calgary," Kings has been catering to breakfast and lunchtime crowds in its industrial location just off Barlow Trail for more than 25 years.
The restaurant itself is nothing fancy, sporting a simple yet hospitable environment. As far as I'm concerned, that's just fine. Kings is not the type of eatery that's overly concerned about bells and whistles. It’s focused on serving good food in a timely fashion. Given the option of choosing between a standard fast food chain burger and the fare at Kings, I'm more than willing to forgive its interior designer.
There's a simple passage written on each menu that summed up our lunch experience quite succinctly: “Make your taste buds smile.”
We headed over for an early lunch at Kings on a Saturday. Upon arriving, there was already a short lineup, and we did have a few minutes wait to get our table for four. That trend continued over the course of our visit as patrons arrived continuously and lined up for tables of their own, a sure sign that it's worth the trip.
That said, Kings works like a well-oiled machine. Although busy, staff manage to get you in and out at a good pace without feeling rushed. They’re friendly and willing to offer refills on coffee or water as needed.
We started our lunch by sampling the grilled dumplings (eight for $7.89) and the crispy wontons (add-ons to the wor wontons, eight for $4.38). Both were excellent and served with dipping sauces. The dumplings were not doughy or greasy and the crispy wontons provided a nice crunch, contrasting well against the soft, plump regular wontons.
Two of us, myself included, tried the No. 5 classic original wor wonton soup ($7.99); one guest had the No. 26 barbecue pork chow mein with six crispy wontons ($9.69); and the final pick for our group was No. 15 Shanghai noodles with soup and pop ($8.99).
I was intrigued by the last selection. Kings has taken the wor wonton classic, disassembled it and served the bulk of it on a plate, with broth on the side. It's a simple twist on an already successful menu item that appeals to those who cherish the wontons and noodles above all else.
The classic wor wonton is served in a giant bowl loaded up with six golf ball-sized wontons, shanghai noodles, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, baby corn, pork and beef strips, all in a tasty broth. The wontons are good enough to be a meal on their own, but the balance of ingredients in the classic wor wonton is incredibly satisfying. Make sure to top it off with Kings's own chili garlic oil, available at every table to add a spicy kick. This homemade concoction has proven to be so popular that it's available for take-home purchase, as are several other menu items.
As for the pork chow mein, it looked great and the portion was generous. My guest commented that it was excellent comfort food, good for those days when you are recovering from a night out, or you just need something warm and familiar to fill your belly.
For those who might not be interested in the Canadian Chinese menu, Kings also offers more traditional breakfast standards like meat, eggs or omelets, hamburgers and the like for lunchtime choices.