Skewers and Noodle Soups at A Chinese Cuisine in Markham

A Chinese Cuisine located at 9570 McCowan Rd in Markham,

“A Chinese Cuisine” is a casual restaurant that serves Chinese-style skewers of all types, baked items in tin foil, soup noodles, and more. It’s located at the plaza (with a FreshCo) at McCowan Road and Bur Oak Avenue in Markham.

I dined in at this restaurant with my mom back in August when we were looking for a restaurant for our mommy-daughter date and I loved how affordable and delicious the food was. It’s a family friendly restaurant too because I noticed that they gave plastic section plates to kids and there were dozens of children dining in with their families.

Menu front page

Menu back page

Spacious interior

On this recent visit in mid October, my entire family of six dined in for dinner. We were lucky to get a table when we arrived right before 6 p.m. on a Saturday night. I say lucky because right after we got there, another party wanted a table but they were asked to wait. If we weren’t a step before them, we wouldn’t have got a table. And after this, there were lots of people waiting for a table.

Grilled Chicken (4) $6.99

We ordered a bigger assortment of skewers this time since we had more people as well as the same beef noodle soup and smashed cucumbers as last time.

Unfortunately, I think I was starting to get a sore spot in my mouth and because the skewers had a lot of cumin on them, it irritated the insides of my mouth. Thus, I didn’t enjoy the meal as much this time around. I didn’t remember there being so much cumin last time on the skewers (or maybe because we only ordered one type last time). And despite selecting the non-spicy option, most of the skewers had cumin on them which was more on the spicy side so my kids couldn’t eat them.

The best tasting skewer was the Grilled Chicken Hearts (4 skewers for $6.99). They were so tender and very meaty. The chicken skewers were smooth and tender as well.

Grilled Lamb (4) $7.99

The Grilled Lamb skewers were great last time when we had them and this time they were not as great as the first time — more fatty and coarse.

Grilled Orleans Chicken Wings (2) $7.99
Grilled Okra $5.99

Grilled Gluten (2) $6.99

The Grilled Orleans Chicken Wings (2 skewers for $7.99) and Grilled Okra (4 skewers for $5.99) were all right. They had a lot of cumin on them as well.

Grilled Chinese Bun $4.99

I had wanted to ordered the grilled toast (like I had when we went to Miss Qu Barbecue and it was so satisfying), but unfortunately they were sold out here at A Chinese Cuisine. Instead, we ordered the Grilled Chinese Buns (2 skewers for $4.99) to try. They were more on the torched/burnt side and didn’t do my mouth any favours. We thought the kids might have wanted to eat them because they like bread, but it was too toasted for their taste.

The Grilled Gluten (2 skewers for $6.99) was interesting to try but because we chose the non-spicy option, it didn’t have enough flavouring to it.

We had a total of 7 types of skewers and thus lots of grilled food. I feel like for a meal like this, you definitely need a drink like beer or plum juice to balance out all the heatiness.

All of the skewers were placed on a board with aluminum foil on top of it to keep the skewers warm. This time because we had ordered more skewers, we also filled up the metal container which held the wooden skewers after you were done with them.

Metal container for you to place all of your used skewer sticks

Traditional Beef Noodles $14.99

The Traditional Beef Noodles soup was a big portion and perfect for the kids (they love noodles). The beef slices in it were so tender and soft too. The broth was great. I feel like the noodles were more soft last time which I preferred. They also seem to be freshly hand-pulled in the restaurant.

On my previous visit, my mom and I also ordered the clams baked in a tin container which had spices in it. This was a great dish and I loved being able to eat meaty spicy clams without the kids being there. The vermicelli soaked up of the flavours too.

Baked Clams $11.99

On both visits, we ordered the Cucumber with Garlic (smashed cucumbers). This is always a great fit to any meal because the cucumbers are refreshing and a perfect contrast against the other savoury (and spicy) dishes. It’s very vinegary with peanuts too.

Cucumber with Garlic.$7.99

Plates and utensils for kids

The service here is attentive and fast, and the servers seem to speak both Mandarin and Cantonese. I like how they are family friendly with the kid plates and utensils. The restaurant is bright and spacious, and there is plenty of parking at the plaza. The prices are reasonable and affordable too.

I think I MIGHT come again for a third visit (but only if it’s a mommy-daughter date again because the kids aren’t able to eat much of the skewer-focused and mostly spicy menu items). I really like these types of restaurants because you can order a lot of small dishes to eat and share. I love small dishes/tapas.. and variety! There’s still so many more items I would want to try. It’s a great restaurant to eat casual plates and chat over food for adults.