Pekin Garden Celebrates Its 55th Anniversary on Queen Mary Road
There are not too many West End restaurants that can boast about celebrating a 55th anniversary. Yet that is the case for the iconic Pekin Garden on Queen Mary Road, just above Decarie Blvd.
Jai Chong Lin is the longtime owner and for this business, a labour of love. He lives across the street and can be found heading the kitchen seven days a week. “I come in at 9 a.m. to start with the food preparation and I leave when we close at night,” he says.
The owner is very proud of the restaurant’s longevity. With that in mind, any client who mentions the year “1969,” marking the year the dining establishment opened, will get a 10 per cent discount for dine-in, takeout, or delivery. This is only good for the anniversary month of November.
Jai Chong Lin was originally a Pekin Garden employee until he assumed ownership. His son, Fong, whose true profession is a CT scan technician at a local hospital, comes in to help when he can. “Most of our chefs and servers have been with us for as long as 20 plus years,” Chong Lin boasts.
Pekin Garden moved to this location seven years ago. Prior to that they were situated below Decarie Blvd. They eventually decided the time was right as many customers had been complaining for years about the stairs they had to climb at the other spot. “It’s so nice here,” commented a regular named Vicky, who was seated at a back table reading her copy of The Suburban.
The restaurant seats 110 people. The décor is bright and modern with two flat screen televisions. Clients love to feast upon their dinners for two, three and four, as well as the soups, appetizers, duck, chicken, beef, pork, seafood, shrimp, fried dumplings and noodle dinners.
A friend and I recently enjoyed a delicious lunch. The dinner for two contained two piping hot bowls of wonton soup, four crispy egg rolls, dry garlic spareribs, pineapple chicken, chicken chopped suey, chicken fried rice and some fortune cookies. Their portions are large and generous and the two of us split the leftovers to further enjoy the food at our respective homes. The egg rolls were especially good. Chong Li says he continues to use his own special recipe, and that the General Tao chicken remains the most popular dish.
And all this cost only $52. Our server, Chen, brought everything out in a nicely timed fashion.
The restaurant is large enough that sections can be closed off for holiday parties. “We have many regulars who continue to dine with us on a weekly basis or more,” said Chong Li.
Pekin Garden is located at 5255 Queen Mary Road. Hours of operation are 11:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. weekdays, 12:00 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 12:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sunday. For more information call 514-484-9139 or log on to pekingarden.com/menu/
