My first visit to Cattle Cafe was pretty disappointing. The menu has a lot of dishes, most of them interesting for a Chinese restaurant. I was really considering making my own noodle combo where you can pick your base, the noodle, and two toppings. Unfortunately I was running late, so I had to call my friends to order for me, so I just order something that I could remember – the Pork in a Creamy Onion Bacon Demi-Glaze with Rice ($8.75) with a taro bubble tea (extra $2) and some French Toast. I think it’s a pretty good deal if you can add a bubble tea to your meal for only $2.
My pork dish wasn’t really what I was expecting, as there was no bacon.. or onions. What I got was a big serving of rice, with two fried pork chops and a brown gravy. The pork was very tender and juicy, but a lot of it was because it was pretty oily. The gravy was very thick, I guess because of all the corn starch they added, I could taste a bit of the onion, but not much of a bacon flavour.
Now for the biggest disappointment was the french toast. It looked really good when it came out. A bunch of little french toasts with a nice slab of butter on each one. I was very lucky that my friends tried this before me, because instead of custard in the middle, it was peanut butter. Yup, peanut butter. Who the hell puts peanut butter in french toast? When my friends took the first bite, they said it was a bit strange. It was salty. They weren’t sure what made it weird, but they said it tasted kind of like a McChicken (their words). Probably because it had some salty protein, and deep fried in the same oil as all the other meat.
My friends ordered the soups, and their orders got a bit screwed up as they mixed up the toppings with the soup bases. Despirte the mix up, they said overall it was pretty good, but the laksa didn’t have nearly enough coconut flavour. It was also really spicy. They also didn’t get their drinks til near the end of their meal.
To me, a lot of the dishes were strange as I was looking through their menu online, and they are truly strange. Don’t expect anything to be what you imagined it, especially the french toast. A really disappointing first visit to Cattle Cafe, but I would still come back, because it does have potential, and I think it was just an off day.
Cattle Cafe
4885 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC
(604) 430-8686
