REVIEW | Lion City Restaurant - authentic South East Asian cuisine in Mississauga

Lion City Restaurant has been around in Mississauga for more than ten years now serving Malay, Singapore, Thai and Indonesian food. There aren’t any restaurants with this combination of cuisines available in Mississauga so it’s no wonder they’ve been able to stay open for such a long time.

Photo from The Grid

I haven’t been there in a while because I’ve been trying to try out new places but I couldn’t help but go back for a visit. Don’t be surprised if you miss it amongst all the other restaurants in the plaza because it doesn’t have a flashy sign or anything and the restaurant interior is pretty modest.

We ordered the mango salad ($7.50) as a starter. The serving is pretty generous and definitely worth the price. The mangos were very fresh and firm, which is how a mango salad should be. The spices were perfect and packed a kick without overwhelming your palette. This mango salad had pieces of chicken in it and I definitely would have preferred it without. 

 
The other appetizer we ordered was the satay platter ($7.95). It comes with 6 satay skewers either in beef, chicken or pork but you can also choose up to two of the different meats.  We ordered the chicken and pork and I preferred the chicken to the pork. The peanut sauce that comes with it was very flavourful and paired with the meat perfectly.

  

One of the main courses was the Hainan chicken rice ($7.95). The last time I’ve had this dish was in Penang, Malaysia a year ago. On the surface, it just looks like white rice with chicken but what sets it apart from other dishes is that the rice is cooked in chicken stock, which gives it a fragrant flavour and soft texture. The chicken might look bland because it’s still white but when you pair with the assortment of sauces, you’ll know that the chicken doesn’t need to be covered in spices to be so tasty!

The other main course was the Wat Dan Hor Fun ($7.95). This noodle dish is made with flat rice noodles, which would normally be stir fried or in a broth but this is dish is almost in the middle. It is stir fried with soy sauce but also has a wet sauce that doesn’t make the noodles as oily as it would be just stir fried. It comes with shrimp, chicken and Chinese vegetables.  I would have preferred it to be a bit more on the dry side but flavour wise, it was perfect. 

They have desserts on their menu but they also have a table right by the front that has an assortment of fried desserts and rice cakes that can be brought home easily. The green pandan rice cake was my favourite amongst the table desserts.

Overall, Lion City provides great value for authentic Asian cuisine that isn’t abundant in Mississauga.  As the restaurant is only run by a couple, the service can be a bit slow at times especially during dinner on a weekend.  They aren’t too attentive and at times I would have to walk up the front to order what I wanted.