Silver Dragon (Banff) 12/2010

Banff, as many know, is a wonderfully beautiful area in the Canadian Rockies. The town has a population of 5000 and some 50 restaurants, at which locals occasionally eat. Tourists outnumber the residents by about four to one at most times. Along the main street one long block has about 15 hotels, lodges and guest houses in a row. Because of the need to wait an hour or so for our room to be ready we wandered into a local Chinese. On the third floor, up a strange elevator, there was an unprepossessing staircase for anyone desperate for exercise, we got quite a surprise. There was a long, well lit room with some bare and some clothed tables, not at all dingy. Several tables were occupied by by diners but there were no waiters or servers in sight. We wandered towards the casse where we found a second room and a couple of well dressed waiters. The menu was quite typical of a suburban Melbourne Chinese restaurant with three lunch specials for about $11. We had a thick tofu and seafood soup which comes in three sizes. We shared a medium ($7.50) which filled both our bowls twice,
and very nice it was too. The sea food was delicate and blended well in this dish. We very often have sweet and sour dishes which can often distinguish the quality of Chinese cooking. With no great expectations we ordered a sweet and sour pork in batter.($14) Wow, it was tops. The batter was crisp and tasty and the vinegar/sweet sauce just right, although there could have been a bit more of it. Green and red peppers and diced pineapple added to the taste. A large serve of stemed rice was an other surprise at $5.00. When we left we got a fortune cookie. Mine said "Enjoy good health, eat out as much as possible". Just kidding.
Score: 13.5/20