Alvin Garden is located in South Burnaby just behind Metropolis at Metrotown. They have been around for many years specializing in Szechuan cuisine. They have been recipients of the Chinese Restaurant Awards and Vancouver Magazine restaurant Awards for many years and is quite reputable. It’s actually located close to our home but we never came here until now. I wanted to take my family somewhere we havn’t been before so this was a perfect opportunity.
Scroll to the bottom of the article for the whole menu. (All 23 pages hahaha).
Interior
The interior isn’t that special but the space did fill up quite quickly, so I was glad I made reservations ahead of time. If you’re coming in on a weekend, doesn’t hurt to have a reservation.
Soup
We started with a large soup containing lettuce and taro. Surprisingly very flavourful and delicious. A large size for 7 of us was perfect so everyone can try it and get seconds if they like it.
Stir Fried Beef and Onion
This was also a very flavourful dish. Remember to get a bucket of rice on the side to soak up the juices. Very good portions too.
Mouth Watering Chicken
This is a must order dish and highly recommend. It is delicious and tender cooked chicken with chili oil and peppers. Even though it looks spicy, it has a good amount of fragrant peppers that isn’t mouth numbingly spicy. Those who can’t tolerate too much spice also enjoyed this dish.
Tea Smoked Duck
You can get this as a half duck or a whole duck. For the 7 of us, we opted for the half as we had quite a few dishes ordered. It was a good size as there are a lot of pieces.
Good flavour of the tea and smokey flavours penetrating the meat. Very enjoyable.
Stir-fried Garlic Bolt with Hunan Smoked Pork
Another popular dish on the menu, I love the garlic bolts as its like a mild green onion and garlic combination. Pairs well with the pork slices very nicely.
Cumin Lamb
This is a very popular dish and I love the cumin spices with lamb. So good! It also has red peppers and green onions. The lamb is tender too.
Dongting Broiled Fish in Chili Soup
Even though you see all the chili oil and red peppers, it’s not too spicy at all. Very good amount of fragrant spice that won’t numb or sting your mouth badly. Highly recommended as the dish is very moist and tasty.
Cauliflower with Hunan Chili and Pork
This was the last dish to arrive and it looked like most tables ordered this too. It has cauliflower, thin slices of pork belly in their Hunan Chili oil.
Final Thoughts
We really enjoyed Alvin Garden for their Szechuan cuisine. The prices are very fair and the food is well executed. All the dishes were a hit and none of them were disappointing. Even with all the peppers, its still a good place to have spice and non-spicy eaters all at one table.
Address:
4850 Imperial St, Burnaby, BC
Menu
