Sam's Congee Delight

Sam's Congee Delight located in Market Village has been around for as long as I can remember.  As a kid, while my mom did her grocery shopping at the Chinese supermarket next door, I loved watching the cooks roll rice noodles.  There's not that many Chinese restaurants that survive that long.  Most places close within a few years, change names, and re-open again.  The reason my friends and I decided to check out Sam's Congee Delight was because our favourite congee restaurant, My Kitchen, closed.  I have lost my source for fragrant plain congee without anything mixed in.  I know you can order plain congee at any restaurant that serves congee, but they either mix in msg, dried scallops, or they blend their congee to make it thicker (speed up the cooking process).  It's just not the homestyle cooked plain congee that I love.

Sam's Congee was packed as usual.  And unless you have enough people for a full table, you will be asked to share your table with others.  We were 4+baby, and we had to share a round table with a single diner.  I prefer not to share tables usually, it's just kind of awkward especially since i'm eating with friends to catch up with them.  But it seems you pretty much don't have a choice at Sam's.

The prices are low here, but that's because the dishes are small as well.  So be ready to order lots of dishes.  Our first round we ordered a beef and persevered egg congee, beef and fish congee, chow mien, beef and enoki rice roll, dough fritter and beef brisket on plain rice noodle (not in picture).  The food definitely arrives fast.  I guess it's not difficult to bring out the congee when they have a giant vat of congee cooking and they just ladle in whatever ingredients you want into a bowl and pour some boiling hot congee into that bowl.  We were quite hungry from waiting for the table, so we dug in before I remembered to take a picture.  Congee topping wise, there was a good amount of beef and preserved egg.  But the congee itself, just didn't hit the spot for me.  There were extra 'flavours' added in.  I was looking forward to rice noodle.  They make those in house.  Again, quite a bit of filling, but the rice noodle was too soft.  It couldn't hold up against the filling.  Same thing occurred with the brisket rice noodle.  It was super hard to pick up with chopsticks.  It was almost like mush.  At this point, I was losing hope.  So I didn't have much in terms of expectations for the chow mien or the dough fritter.  The dough fritter I don't know for sure if they make it in house, but for some reason I'm thinking they do.  It was so disappointing.  It should be crispy on the outside, but soft on the inside.  It was soft inside and out.  At least it was warm?  The chow mien, nothing to write about, its just soy sauce noodles.  We did place another order for rice noodles (because we were still hungry), but same as the first round, soft and mushy.

Sam's Congee Delight

The combination of less than satisfying congee, and the fact that they make you share tables, I think I need to keep looking for a congee restaurant.

Sam's Congee Delight
4390 Steeles Ave. E.,
Markham, ON
L3R 9V7

Phone:  (905) 479-1074

Hours:  Monday - Sunday 10a - 8p