Author: Misty_11

Sandy La is one of the many nondescript Chinese restaurants located in Vancouver… in this particular case, serving the Kensington area around Victoria Drive. The reason why we came to visit this restaurant was because they listed an online special where you order 3 dishes...and you get a free order of clams in black bean sauce. We were sad when we arrived at the restaurant and saw that they changed their menu to offer Hainan chicken instead of clams (and the price had gone up). As with many old-school Chinese restaurants, the first thing to arrive at the table was the complimentary soup made with vegetables and some bone-in meat. Despite not offering clams in their special combo anymore, we did wind up ordering the combo where you pick 3 dishes and you get 1/4 Hainan Chicken for $55.95 (you also get rice and dessert with the combo). Hainan (or Hainanese) Chicken is served cold and with a nice dipping sauce (this version was bone-in chicken). The Beef Brisket and Radish Hot Pot was quite large with a plentiful amount of daikon radish (but noticeably fewer pieces of beef brisket). The tender beef brisket was good and had plenty of sauce that’s perfect for sopping up with rice. Similarly, the Seafood and Tofu Hot Pot was a generous portion and contained shrimp, fish, and squid along with the tofu. Our third dish was the Chinese Mushroom and Veggies. As with all of the other dishes, the ingredients aren’t cut up into bite size pieces (probably to save time). This does make it a bit harder to eat things (especially when you try to take a bite out of a whole Chinese mushroom. Dessert was a Tapioca soup which was not overly sweet. Overall, the food itself was pretty good but the pieces were cut large (which makes it difficult to eat) and there’s really nothing which makes this place shine. There is a pretty large menu of items to choose from for the combo dinner but just beware that the items and prices listed online haven’t been updated in a while. Note that they are cash only too.