Restaurant Review – Congee Queen

I love Congee Queen. This is one of those spots that’s always busy, and for very good reason. Their food is consistently delicious, and it is served at a quick and efficient pace by a well-trained staff. Even though the meat here is not halal, there are enough seafood and vegetarian options that you definitely won’t feel like you’re missing out.

It’s bright inside, well-lit and busy with dishes flying in and out of the kitchen. Servers are aplenty, and although it may be a little hard to catch their eye because there is so much going on, they do drop by to check in on you even when you don’t call for their attention. There is a fresh jug of complimentary green tea waiting for you when you are seated, so you can help yourself while you decide on your order.

You can’t go to Congee Queen and not try their congee. We ordered their Sliced Fish Congee ($7.25), which is good for two people assuming that’s all you order. If you’re ordering multiple items, you will definitely have leftovers. You would need a much larger crowd to finish your congee if you order a larger size (or their super bowl congees). I honestly don’t even like porridge. But oh my lord, this stuff is delicious.

I always order their Deep Fried Dough Fritters ($2.99) to dip into the Congee, and even though they are deep fried, this combo definitely still feels quite light for comfort food.

Their Fried Chilli Turnip Patties ($9.25) are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, served on a bed of shrimp and (what I can only presume are) scrambled eggs with a slight hint of spice. When they are fresh, I may even say they are better than French Fries.

I’ve tried their noodles before (also very good), so decided to give their fried rice a shot this time. Pictured below is the Spicy Softshell Crab Fried Rice ($15.25), and maybe it’s because this was my first time trying out crab that isn’t imitation meat, but wow. It. Was. Amazing. It’s hidden under that bed of rice, but honestly it was so delicious that we couldn’t wait around to take pictures after digging it out. We just gobbled it up.

We ordered bubble teas ($5.25) as our drinks. My friend got the Strawberry Bubble Milk Tea, and it was delicious. Sweet, creamy, cold and refreshing just as it should be.

I got the Milk Tea with Tapioca, and was a little bit disappointed. The flavour wasn’t consistent – sweet at the beginning, bitter as I got to the end, with a slight hint of that powdery texture all the way through. I think next time I’ll stick to what my friend got.

And even though we were already quite stuffed at this point (with plenty of food leftover), we were still greedy enough to order dessert. Their Golden Milk Pudding ($5.95) is light, creamy and oh-so-jiggly.

The crowd here is very friendly too, which I honestly didn’t expect. We actually had the guests sitting on either side of us ask if they could take a picture of our table and if we could tell them what we ordered so they could try it next time too.

I’ve been to their Markham location, which is just as amazing as this one (i.e. the one that just opened in the Heartland area of Mississauga). One key difference between the two locations that I’ve noted is how busy it gets in Mississauga!

When visiting the Markham restaurant, the longest I ever had to wait was 5-10 minutes even for dinner. Meanwhile, I thought I was going to the Mississauga location early to avoid the crowd at 11am, especially given that it had just opened at 10:30, but we were still at least 10 numbers behind on the waitlist. That was around a 30 minute wait. By the time I left, there was a crowd of 30+ guests waiting for their number to be called, with seats for only about 6-7 people in the waiting area, so it was extremely cramped. You can get a glimpse of the crowd gathering behind me before we even ordered our food. If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of waiting, it might be better to make a reservation, time your visit to go during off-peak hours, or just order takeout.

Congee Queen is one of my absolute favourite restaurants. Looking at these pictures again, I honestly wish I had the money and the appetite to order everything off their menu. Maybe one day.