The Vancouver food scene travels in waves, and if you wait long enough, any lines that you may have paused at for a new and/or popular restaurant will eventually dissipate. Case in point, Chung Chun. Its once lengthy queues for meat on a stick has been reduced to a quick service and we were here for it.
Tonight I was dining in at their standing room only, hover counter with Joyce of @monkeyeatsworld; as we both highly enjoy the convenience and novelty of meat on sticks. Although they do offer more than that, in a handful of complementary sides that we would actually try on this visit.
Their staple and the one everyone gets is their hot dogs, with a whole slew of options. When ordering you choose your dog/centre: chicken, beef, beef + chicken, pork + chicken, veggie dog, cheese, and/or even chocolate.
Under each category there are types of additional filling or breading toppings that you can then have in conjunction with your hot dog. Some are as simple as a spicy “volcano” sauce and others more adventurous like a dyed black squid ink dough wrapped around your dog.
After your hot dog has been fried up and placed in its cardboard holder, you are invited to their saucing counter. Here, you get to visually choose how your hotdog is finished. Either with a liquid sauce drizzle, or a few shakes of a powdered seasoning. This is all done before your very eyes and quite the show. With a steady hand the hot dog is evenly sauced.
What you choose is how it tastes, in conjunction with the drizzle of sauces at the end. We got the Double cheese with ramen chip breading for the classic cheese pull moment. Only for the cheese to have harden and the pull to have snapped. Not as satisfying when the cheese isn’t gooey and soft. There was a similar case with the ramen crust that was no longer crispy, and the crunch is more of a miserable chew. The sauce and powdered seasonings are the saving grace. Here ,we got a sweet chilli drizzle, as recommended by the clerk.
Our second hot dog was the beef and chicken dog covered in a batter speckled with chunks of chicken nugget meat. It looked interesting, but was overkill with the dry and hard fried hunks adding nothing but aesthetics. At least it was tasty with tangy and slightly spicy barbecue sauce finisher.
Here, I decided that I liked the way both looked with their embellished breaded crust, but recognized that the original dog and breading, corn dog/POGO style was the best for taste.
As for our sides we got a box of wings, choosing the saucy sweet and spicy flavour. Not the tastiest of wings, but this was a nice accompaniment to help change the taste from above.
I also liked the Mac & Cheese Bites which were triangles of macaroni pasta coated in a cheese sauce, then breaded and fried. It gave you chewy and crispy moments. Tasty, but I needed more cheese, maybe a side sauce to dip into would have been nice as well.
The Waffle cut fries, which are my favourite type of fries were disappointing. They were on the oily side, diminishing much of its seasoned flavour.
And to wash it all down we shared their housemade Pineapple Refresher, which proved to be a welcomed fresh element, as the name promised.
In short, this is your quick and easy, carnival-style, fried fast food option. Not a meal, but a snack on the go, for that specific craving.
And apparently their newest location will be at New Westminister, and to celebrate they will be offering their hot dogs for $3.99 a stick.
Chung Chun Rice Hot Dog
1795 Robson St, Vancouver, BC V6G 1C9
(604) 423-5529
chungchunricedog.ca
