Congee Wong

I have somehow managed to fall behind on my blog posts again. I blame the hubbub around my son's first birthday - I can't believe he's one year old already! But I'm just going to dig back to when he was still not yet ten months old and I was having lunch with my mother.

Restaurant: Congee Wong
Location: North York
Meal: Lunch
Day: Friday
Son's Age: 9 months

My mother asked me what I wanted to eat and I said I wanted Chinese food. I don't have a big selection of Chinese restaurants in my area so since I was in the northeast end of the city, my mom suggested Congee Wong. The restaurant is located in a plaza at Finch and Leslie.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
For the record, the plaza's parking lot is insane. If you have ever been in a Chinese parking lot, you know what I'm talking about. The parking lot itself is a bit cramped, and even at lunch time on a weekday it is busy. This doesn't affect the accessibility of the restaurant itself, but I feel that it's worth noting. As for Congee Wong, it is surprisingly accessible, which is pretty uncommon for Chinese restaurants! We were seated in a booth and my son was provided with a high chair.

Yes he has already started eating in this photo and you can see that he's pretty pleased about it. The washroom also had a proper change table!

The restaurant itself was wheelchair accessible (and therefore stroller accessible), even equipped with automatic doors. You really can't ask for anything more baby friendly. 

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

When we arrived, we mentioned that we had a baby and we were seated in a back corner, away from the commotion of other patrons and servers weaving around the tables throughout the rest of the restaurant. The hostess indicated that this was better because we got a booth and the baby was able to sit at the end of the table without us having to worry that someone might bump into him. I didn't need to request hot water as I had brought a food pouch this time, but our server brought us a takeout bowl and spoon in case we wanted to share our food. 

She pretty much left us alone other than that, which I'm actually okay with - servers at Chinese restaurants are not typically chatty people anyway. 

Food: ⭐⭐⭐

Again with the disclaimers: I have had congee here before and that is what they are known for (hence the name), so I actually recommend that you try the congee. That being said, I always rate restaurants based on the particular experience, and in this case, I ordered ho fun with fish balls and beef balls. 

I had actually already started eating by the time I remembered to take a picture, so the presentation depicted is a bit inaccurate. This place is not known for ho fun (rice noodles), and you can definitely tell - the dish was unremarkable and a bit on the bland side. It wasn't terrible by any means, but you can get better ho fun elsewhere for sure. 

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The restaurant itself is very baby friendly, and the service is probably as good as you can expect from an authentic Chinese restaurant. Please order congee though, and skip the ho fun!