Have you heard about Mister Chen’s, a hip restaurant located downtown in Mission? Opened by Chef and owner Shaun Desaulniers, they’re serving up Asian food and fantastic cocktails in a sleek and fun environment. The restaurant is designed by an architect firm, Fort Architecture, who has also designed the space for Village Ice Cream and Ol’ Beautiful.
Photo Courtesy of Mister Chen’s (@MisterChensYYC)
I was invited to Mister Chen’s first ever Tour of Asia dinner. For $50 (+tax & gratuity), guests enjoy a delicious interactive four-course dinner. On this Tour of Asia, we went to three different countries; Vietnam, the Philippines, and Thailand. There was a vast variety of sauces from each country and each course came with the suggested sauce pairing. However, the interactive part of the dinner was to create our own sauces! Every course of the dinner is meant to be dipped into the sauces and eaten with your hands.
#WeVibeHard
Sauces for the interactive dinner
We were taken to Vietnam for our first course with a lobster, mango, mint salad roll, and chao tom sugar cane shrimp. Peanut sauce (tuongh den) and hoisin sauce are the suggested sauce pairing for this course. The salad roll was very refreshing and it cools down the spiciness from the sauce on top of the shrimp. Overall this dish is an amazing dish for the summer and I would definitely get it again!
SALAD ROLL - lobster, mango, mint
SHRIMP - chao tom sugar cane
We were taken to the Philippines for our second course with adobo chicken satay and filliino Pinoy-style ribs. Adobo sauce and banana ketchup are the suggested sauce pairing for this course. The ribs were fall off the bone and the chicken had the taste of char from the grill. This course is simple and straightforward.
SATAY - adobo chicken
RIBS - filliino pinoy-style
We were taken to Thailand for our third course of green Thai curry mussels with grilled bao. Fermented shrimp paste fish sauce (nam prik kapi) is the suggested sauce pairing for this course. Fresh PEI mussels were cooked in an extremely flavourful green Thai curry. My only regret is that I wish I had rice to eat the curry with!
MUSSELS - green Thai curry, grilled baos
To finish off Tour of Asia, it’s time for dessert! To keep going with the Asian theme, we had a mango cotton candy dessert. I thoroughly enjoyed it with the two different types of mango ice cream; a really sweet and a really tart one. The contrast of the two ice creams paired with the sourness of the crunchy, unripe mango and sweet cotton candy, all melded together perfectly.
MANGO - cotton candy
Overall I had a fantastic experience at Mister Chen’s and will definitely be back to try out more of their food. They have daily specials such as the late-night menu, AYCE baos, biang biang noodles and all day dim sum on Sundays. You didn’t hear it from me but the next Tour of Asia might be cocktail-focused 😏
Photo Courtesy of Mister Chen’s (@MisterChensYYC)