Richmond Archives - Page 8 of 11

In Bubble Tea

Mango Yummy: From Night Market to Store Front

December 1, 2014

Mango Yummy finally has a store front in Richmond. They may sound very familiar because they have stalls at the Richmond Night Market and the International Summer Night Market. Their store opened in October 2014 and serve up yummy asian desserts.

Of course anything with mango is super delicious. I came here with Food Queen, Dee and Nat from Gastrofork to catch up over yummy drinks.

It is located across from Richmond Center and has their own parking lot with free parking.

Their interior isn’t too large, but they have about 25 seats. We came here around 5:30pm, so it wasn’t too busy.

Mango Drinks, Red Bean Drinks, Shaved Ice, Fresh Tofu Drinks, Milk Tea, and Green Teas.

Lemonade, smoothies, fresh fruit slush, tea, ice cream floats, toast, crepes, and desserts.

They also have a variety of hot sweet soups. There’s only a handful of places in Richmond where you can find a good selection of these sweet soups. Mmmmmm Mmmmmm….

Signature Mango Sago Grapefruit ($6) is their popular drink and it has everything you need to satisfy your mango cravings.

Tofu Mango Sago and Grapefruit ($7) I got this tofu dessert and it is quite similar to the signature drink above but with a lot of tofu. I love tofu and I could drink this all day. I totally could have ordered a few more.

Mixed Fruit Shaved Ice ($7) has a bit over everything like lychee, berries, watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapples, etc. It is even topped with vanilla ice cream.

Mango Slush ($5) can’t go wrong with this.

The winter is definitely getting colder, but your sweet tooth still needs to be satisfied with yummy mango desserts.

We Rate Mango Yummy:

Address:
6564 Number 3 Rd
Richmond, BC

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/mangoyummy/

In Izakaya

Manzo: Japanese Izakaya in Richmond

November 24, 2014

Manzo Japanese Restaurant is located on Alexandra Road in Richmond. We came here for some more drinks and smaller dishes to pick at, so an Izakaya was the perfect idea. They have been around for over a decade and they also have another restaurant on Capstain Way.

It is dim inside and has a lot of cool items on all the walls like lanterns, pictures and signs. Service was ok, but they couldn’t answer a few questions about the alcohol on the menu as they didn’t know the size of a small or large sake.

750ml Bottle of Gekkeikan was about $29. Price was a bit high since you know you can buy this for really cheap at the alcohol store. Of course the prices would be much higher in a restaurant. The bottle lasted us a while, so it wasn’t too bad.

Edamame ($2.50) was on special.

Mentaiko Agedashi Tofu was a delicious item! The salty topping with the mentiko mixture was salty, but it blended nicely with the agedashi tofu, which was bit more bland.

Kawahagi is a file fish. It is thin an crispy kinda like dried cuttlefish found in grocery stores.

Deep Fried Baby Octopus was delicious. Anything deep-fried is an addiction.

Grilled Beef Tongue Skewers were really yummy. Perfectly cooked, tender and had great flavour.

Some items are quite pricey like sashimi. Their Izakaya items are ok, but there’s nothing very special about what they offer.

We Rate Manzo:

Address:
8391 Alexandra Rd
Richmond, BC

In Chinese

0755 Restaurant and Lounge: Eating in a Club

November 23, 2014

0755 Restaurant and Lounge in Richmond really looks like a club on the outside with the blackened windows. Our friends told us its a great place for some food, drinks and lively atmosphere. We were first asked for 2 pieces of ID before coming in.

Then, we waited a few minutes before the seated us as they were cleaning up tables.

It’s a restaurant and lounge, but the inside looks like a club too. A few of my friends said it reminded them of restaurants in Shanghai. I wouldn’t know, I’ve never been to China.

When we sat down, there are complimentary sunflower seeds on the table. It’s something nice to pick at when you’re slipping on a drink.

Big Bowl Cauliflower is soaked in spicy sauce with slices of pork. It was pretty good but of course nothing can beat Nuba’s Deep Fried Cauliflower. It was interesting to see a dish presented this way.

Mao Stewed Pork is deliciously braised pork belly. Mmmm so good! You really can’t go wrong with this dish.

We ordered rice to go with the 2 dishes we ordered. The entrees were quite large, so we didn’t have to order too many dishes for a group of 4.

If you follow them on WeChat you can get discounts off your bill. The first person gets 5% off the bill and all others after that is an additional 1% off. Since 3 of us were following them on WeChat, we got 7% off. I’m not a WeChat user, but if there are discounts involved, of course I will download the app.

Their service is pretty good and the food comes out pretty much instantly. We were so confused since that never happens.

We Rate 0755 Restaurant and Lounge:

Address:
3779 Sexsmith Rd
Richmond, BC

In Fast Food

LA Chicken: Church’s Chicken + KFC

October 18, 2014

LA Chicken has been around for many many years and has been Richmond’s hidden gem. If you haven’t heard of LA Chicken, now you have. You won’t find them on social media and they also don’t have a website. People seem to stumble upon this place or just hear about it from a friend.

The interior is very outdated and if feels like you’ve walked back in time. When was the last time you saw wallpaper on walls? Most people do take out.

8 pieces of Chicken with fries and medium gravy ($23.00) you get to choose the option of spicy or regular chicken. We got a mixture of the to see the differences.

Original flavour is exactly like KFC but with the crispiness of Church’s Chicken. The first few bites were really great, but some pieces had a crazy amount of salt in the batter. Perhaps it wasn’t mixed properly.

Spicy Flavour is pretty amazing. It wasn’t as salty as the original flavour. It has the right amount of spice, the texture and the flavours were all there. Yum.

Fries were great too. Pretty firm and not soggy. We did eat it in the restaurant, so it was hot and fresh.

Overall, they did combine the positives of both Church’s Chicken and KFC, but my friends and I still prefer Church’s Chicken.

We Rate LA Chicken:

Address:
160-11780 Thorpe Road
Richmond, BC

In Japanese

Saboten: Japanese Tonkatsu in Richmond

September 8, 2014

Saboten is the largest Japanese Chain Restaurant for Tonkatsu chain with over 500 shops across the world. They have been open since 2012 in Aberdeen Centre in Richmond BC.

I’ve passed by this place all the time, but I’ve never dined her until now. I’ve always been turned off by the huge lines, but today, there are hardly any lineups. Perhaps the hype has died down.

It’s always a busy time in the Aberdeen Food Court, the crowds can be a bit crazy during dinner time, but there are a lot of food options.

I loved looking at the display food and you are probably going to be mesmerized by how good it looks. FYI, it’s not going to be looking like this at all.

Tenderloin Katsu Curry set comes with 2 pieces of katsu soaked with the curry sauce. Then you have rice and cabbage on the other side. You also get miso soup and a small container of pickled vegetables.

Tenderloin & Loin Set has miso soup, rice, sesame seeds, pickles, sauce and the tenderloin and loin katsu.

After tasting both of these items, you really don’t get a lot of katsu. Plus, it does’t stay crispy for very long. I was a bit disappointed in the portions and didn’t satisfy my katsu cravings. I much prefer Zac Zac Curry in Downtown Vancouver.

We Rate Saboten:

Address:
4151 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond BC

Website:
http://www.saboten.ca/

In Chinese

Richmond Night Market: What to Eat?

August 7, 2014

The Richmond Night Market is a summer attraction in Vancouver. I’ve come here for many years and I always gravitate towards the food stalls. The smell of grilling skewers, the slurping sounds of people drinking Bubble Tea and the sight of all the people speeding past you. Entrance is now $2.75 per person. Alternatively, you can purchase a Zoom pass for $20 to get up to 15 visits. It is transferrable and you get to go in the VIP line up rather than the regular line up. It’s good if you are planning to make multiple visits to the night market, have lots of friends, or just hate waiting in line.

I only come to Richmond Night Market once a year, so I paid $2.75 and went in the regular line up. Even though the lineup does look SUPER LONG. It does go by quickly. Their staff is pretty efficient.

There are many options to get to the Richmond Night Market – Driving, Canada Line Skytrain, or you could walk if you really wanted to.

We opted to just drive since we live in Burnaby as they do not charge for parking. So, we thought we could beat the 7pm rush and get here at 6:40pm. To our surprise, there was still a line up for parking.

They made us park a fair distance away from the Night Market entrance. Turns out, their closer parking lot isn’t open until AFTER 7pm.

So, we began our walk to the entrance.

Then we kept walking…and walking until we got to the closer parking lot.

We did eventually get to the Night Market. We just didn’t like the fact that we got “punished” for arriving early and have to park so far.

We headed straight towards the food section! I always get overwhelmed by all the different vendors, so I walk around the booths to see if there are a few booths that make my mouth water. You will find a plethora of different items here like German Pork Hocks, Skewers, crepes, grilled squid, donuts, curry, dim sum, takoyaki, etc.

Shaka Shaka Squid is an awesome new booth this year that serves up Deep Fried Squid. I much prefer deep fried squid over the grilled ones.

There are 3 flavours to choose from:

Shaka (Original Salt and Pepper)
Sweet Seaweed
Spicy Shaka

Small sizes are $7 and Large sizes are $11.

Shaka Deep Fried Squid (Large – $11) is what M, CCK and myself started with. The batter is definitely super crunchy and full of flavour. The squid was not chewy at all and cooked perfectly. The mayo on top went well with it. The Shaka flavour was by far our favourite. I would highly recommend this place.

It was so good, we went back and bought 2 more to try the rest of the flavours

Spicy Shaka Deep Fried Squid (Large $11) is quite spicy after you eat a few of them. It’s good if you love spicy. The amount of batter and crispiness was consistent.

Sweet Seaweed Deep Fried Squid (Large $11) was still good, but it wasn’t our favourite. I think I just really love salt and pepper.

No matter what flavour you get, i’m sure you’ll like it. The batter is what makes it so addictive. M, CCK and I were so addicted to these.

Another new booth this year is Tenryu Hashimaki which sell Japanese savoury crepes on chopsticks.

They have 5 main flavours:

Curry
Cheese
Ramen
Crab
Shrimp

It’s $6 each or 2 for $10.

They even have a diagram to show people how to eat it.

Crab Hashimaki ($6) has the crepe wrapped around the chopstick and topped with the crab, seaweed, and a generous handful of dried bonito flakes. You definitely need two hands to eat this or else it will get messy with just one. I felt the crab didn’t add much flavour to the crepe.

Ramen Hashimaki ($6) was quite similar but it has the crispy ramen noodles, mayo, seaweed, and bonito on top. The ramen added nice texture to the hashimaki.

It definitely reminded me of an Okonomiyaki on a stick or a takoyaki in a different form.

A visit to the Richmond Night Market isn’t complete until I take a visit to Chef James to buy a few of his skewers.

You can choose from:

AAA Steak Beef
Chicken
Lamb
Honey Prawn Garlic
Crispy Green Onion Bun
Lamb Kidney

The skewers are 3 for $7.25 or 5 for $11.50.

We chose an assortment of skewers – Lamb, Chicken, and 3 beef skewers. Delicious as usual.

M started getting thirsty from all the salty food, so he made a visit to Sugar Cane Juice for some Young Thai Coconut.

Young Thai Coconut ($4) M really enjoyed it. Thirst quenching and delicious as always. We prefer these ones over the brown-looking coconuts. These are much sweeter and the coconut meat tastes good. Too bad we didn’t have a spoon to eat it.

For my beverage/dessert, I took a trip to my favourite booth – Icy Bar. I love these items and remind me of my childhood. Plus, I also love mangoes.

They also have a permanent location inside Crystal Mall in Burnaby.

Mango Tapioca Icy ($5) has fresh mango, small tapioca pearls, coconut milk, shaved ice, and condensed milk all layered in a large clear cup. Tastes delicious and looks delicious.

Overall, despite our failed attempt at arriving early to the Richmond Night Market to get a close parking spot and beating the crowds, the food is undeniably delicious and is quite a unique experience.

There’s definitely more food options than what I covered, but you will find something you will like.

On Friday and Saturday, they are open from 7pm till 12am. Sunday and statutory holidays, they are open 7pm till 11pm. It is open this season till October 13, 2014, so you have plenty of time left to visit.

Website: http://www.richmondnightmarket.com/

Address:
8351 River Rd
Richmond BC

In Cafe

Sweetie Pink Dessert: Chinese Dessert in Richmond

August 3, 2014

100% Healthy Dessert has now changed to Sweetie Pink Dessert. It is located in Richmond and they serve up asian desserts like Mango Pomelo Sago and Tong Sui. A group of us came here late at night for some good ol dessert..asian style. hahaha. There really isn’t too many places in town to get good ol asian dessert.

The entire restaurant is pink and is quite fitting to their name. The space isn’t too big but it is comfortable for groups if you come early.

Even water comes in pink ceramic cups.

Mango Pomelo Sago with Black Pearl Barley is served chilled and is one of the more popular desserts ordered. Quite refreshing for the hot summer nights.

Mango Pomelo Sago with Mini Rice Balls is another good option if you like the little tapioca balls for added texture.

Cold Tofu Flakes with Taro, Red Bean & Rice Ball has lots of toppings to add taste the tofu pudding.

Traditional Cold Tofu Flakes with Ginger Sugar was what I ordered. It came in a cute little container with the syrup in the pourer.

It is a simple dessert and I kinda have an addiction for tofu dessert.

Chocolate Lava Deep-fried Ice cream was quite sweet obviously. It has pocky, waffle, and the deep fried ice cream in the centre. M thought it was ok, but not the best.

Overall, it’s one of a few places in town where you can get asian desserts. It’s pretty good but the only thing that bothered me was the poor service. It’s to be expected.

We Rate Sweetie Pink Dessert:

Website: http://www.sweetiepinkdessert.com/

Address:
150 – 8291 Westminster Hwy
Richmond BC

In Farmers Market

Steveston Farmers and Artisan Market

July 8, 2014

Steveston Farmers and Artisan Market has been around since 2008. It’s a great venue where local farmers, artists and craftspersons make their products available in an open, fresh-air environment.

I came here on Fathers Day with my family and it was a nice sunny day in Steveston compared to the rest of the Lower Mainland where there were crazy rain storms. Luckily, we avoided all of that.

Summer 2014 Remaining Dates: July 20th, August 3rd and 17th , September 7th and 21st

The market was located right near the Cannery. There are 2 little areas of the market and it’s fairly close to each other. They have around 50 vendors participating. The vendors are proud to “Make It, Bake It, Grow It or Catch It” for customers who appreciate buying from, and supporting, local farmers and artisans.

It’s a good place for a foodie because they have a lot of specialty baked goods. If you are gluten-free, they will find shops that cater to your dietary needs.

My sister is celiac, so paying a visit to high crow gluten-free foods. We bought cookies, brownies, and other sweet treats.

Their gluten-free bread tasted great and you wouldn’t believe it does not contain gluten.

A lot of the produce at the different stalls are beautiful.

It’s great knowing you are getting fresh produce and supporting local farmers.

There’s even chicken being sold here.

Another cool discovery is BrainFood Dried Tart Cherries ($20). It’s really good and tastes way different than any dried fruit I found in stores. They also have some other dried fruit too like blueberries and cranberries. All were delicious.

Steveston Farmers and Artisan Market was a great place to take my family and we bought a lot of stuff. Let the cooking begin.

Website: http://sfam.ca/

In Canadian

Pajo’s Fish and Chips: The Quality Sailed Away

July 7, 2014

It’s been a few years going to Pajo’s Fish and Chips. When it was Fathers Day, we took the family out for a stroll around the area and check out the farmers market too. During lunch, we decided to head to Pajo’s for lunch. It was a nice day, so naturally, this place was packed with people. It’s a pretty cool place to eat since you care on a floating platform.

You order on the left side of the building…

Then you wait for your order on the right side. A lot of people accidentally mix the areas up as the waiting area is closest to the entrance.

Once you have you order, you can take it to your table and place it in these slots. Once done, you must return the trays back or else they get mad.

Large Cod Fish and Chips ($13.99) it comes with 2.5 pieces on top of fries. It is a lot of food for one person, so we shared it among the family. When you peel the batter off, you don’t have a lot of fish inside. We were quit disappointed that there was barely any meat.

Cod Fish Burger and Chips ($10.99) has the burger on top and then the fries on the bottom. I always accidentally order the same item at Pajo’s. Every time it is a mistake and I keep forgetting. I should have read my previous blog post.

The cod pieces were definitely smaller, so you get a lot more bun than what inside. It’s just tartar sauce, deep fried cod fish and lettuce. I would not order this again. I hope I remember if there is a next time.

The fries were limp and bland.

Large Fish Only ($10.99) has 2.5 pieces of battered fish. These were bad too. If you’re paying that much for 2.5 pieces, give us some meat and not just batter.

Overall, it’s a great atmosphere to eat fish and chips outside, but I feel like Pajo’s has lost its quality over the years. None of my sister liked it and has a bunch of other places they would rather go to.

We Rate Pajo’s Fish and Chips:

Address:
3500 Bayview St
Richmond BC

Website:
http://www.pajos.com/

In Dessert

Screamers Soft Serve and Treats: Mini-sized Screamers

July 5, 2014

My last visit to Screamers was a few years ago and it is literally the best Summer treat when you are down in that area. You can walk along the pier or take a stroll to Gary Point Park and enjoy your Screamer in the sun.

Last time, I got the small, but I left it was way too large, so this time I opted for the mini-size. Plus, it’s only $2.

A Screamer is part soft serve ice cream and part slushee. When I was here they only has 2 flavours – Crush Lime and Crush Orange. After all this time, I still like the Crush Orange flavour. Mini is the best size if you want a taste.

We Rate Screamers Soft Serve & Treats:

Address:
12211 Third Avenue
Richmond, BC

Website:
www.screamerssoftserve.ca

In Late Night

Maji Restaurant: Taiwanese Restaurant in Richmond

June 28, 2014

Maji Restaurant is located in Richmond on Alexander Road with all the other delicious restaurants on that strip. I came here for dinner with a few friends and I was excited to try this place. Maji serves Taiwanese food and are only open for dinner till late.

There is parking in the back, but during peak hours, it’s really hard to find a spot. You may find yourself having to park further away.

The interior is unique and the bricks on the walls look quite neat. It is a bit dark inside, but it sets the mood for late night snack and drinks.

If you know Taiwanese Beer, this beer is pretty delicious! I haven’t been able to find it at any other restaurant till now. It’s very light and has a crisp taste.

Stir Fried Gai Lan ($6.25) was delicious! It is stir fried with garlic. The downside is that it’s a bit oily.

Taro Chicken ($8.99) is once of the dishes our friends suggested. It has a good amount of chicken and taro. Some of the chicken had bits of bone, but the sauce was very good. I would get this again.

Rice was ordered so we could eat it with the dishes we ordered. Since I don’t eat a lot of rice.

Overall, the food was pretty good. M and I shared these items and we still had to take some of it to go. The portions are perfect and price is great.

We rate Maji Restaurant:

Address:
1180 – 8391 Alexandra Rd
Richmond BC

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/majirestaurant

In Filipino

Kumare: Yummy Filipino Food

May 28, 2014

My go-to Filipino Restaurant is Kumare in Richmond. The prices are fair and the food is really good if you know what to order. I’ve probably been here at least 5 times already and I haven’t been disappointed. Here was my previous visit.

There are lots of people who come here for dinner. Sometimes theres a few large groups inside, so I would suggest having a reservation if you want to avoid waiting in line.

Calamansi Juice was really good and tasted fresh. It even came in a cute mason jar.

Small Garlic Rice ($2) is good for an individual person, the size is one small bowl. If you have a group, it’s best to get the large for $4 to get a better deal.

Beef Mami ($7) was ordered by accident, we wanted the beef congee, but the waitress mistook our order. Since we already waited a long time for our food, we decided to keep it.

It has egg noodles, cabbage, egg, beef, then garnished with green onions and garlic. It was pretty good and the broth reminded me of chicken noodle soup.

Kumare Fish ($10) is a Basa filet topped with garlic sauce. There are a few other sauces you can have on top, but we choose the garlic one. Garlic is so good.

Beef Caldereta ($10) has beef, shank, potatoes, and bell peppers braised in tomato sauce. It was pretty good. The beef was tender and the dish went well with garlic rice.

BBQ Pork ($3.25) has a 10″ BBQ pork skewer, marinated and grilled street style. The char on this is very delicious and will probably be one of the top places for pork skewers. Highly Recommended.

Sizzling Tofu ($12) has tofu, green onions, and bell peppers served on a hot plate. After ordering it a few times at Kumare, we never get tired of this dish. It’s true that it is greasy, but it’s so flavourful! Highly recommended.

Overall the food was good, but this particular visit, the service was very slow. They seemed quite overwhelmed by the packed dining room with only 2 servers.

We Rate Kumare:

Address:
8130 Park Rd
Richmond, BC

Website:
http://www.kumare.ca/

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In Chinese

The Jade Seafood Restaurant 玉庭軒海鮮酒家: Alaskan King Crab

March 30, 2014

Every year, I look forward to eating Alaskan King Crab. When Tourism Richmond invited me to come down to join them and some food bloggers and media, I couldn’t say no. We headed to Jade Seafood Restaurant in Richmond. This restaurant has been recipients of multiple Chinese Restaurant Awards and Vancouver Magazine Awards. I haven’t been to this restaurant till now.

The restaurant was packed and most tables were having Alaskan King Crab. It is always best to call ahead of time to guaranteed the size of King Crab that you want for your party. You can get one up to 20 pounds!

Since there was only 7 of us, we settled for 7 pounds ($28.88 per pound), which is a great size so everyone gets about a pound each. They can turn this crab into 3 or 4 dishes depending on what dinner set you choose.

The dinner set we got was the 10 person dinner set, which comes with 10 courses and cost a total of $398. Items on it can be modified. It is a bit pricier than some Chinese restaurants in town, but always come with a large group, so you can split the bill so the price is more reasonable.

Steamed Mushroom Dumplings was a modification to the set meal. This is one of their signature items on their menu and it is filled with a mixture of mushrooms. It’s great for mushroom lovers like myself.

Shredded Chicken with Fish Maw Soup is another great dish. I love this type of soup, but some people may not like it after finding out fish maw is the air bladder of a fish that controls its buoyancy. Don’t be afraid, it actually tastes like nothing but has a consistency of jelly.

They serve the soup individually and you can add some of the red vinegar for added taste. I love vinegar, so I added a good amount into my bowl. It really changes the flavour profile completely.

Steamed King Crab Legs with Garlic is another staple item on an Alaskan King Crab meal. All the legs are cut open, so you can easily scoop out the meat. They really make it easy to eat especially for picky eaters. This item is very standard across all Chinese restaurants and you can get it anywhere.

Deep Fried King Crab Knuckles in Spicy XO sauce is always one of my favourite dishes. It wasn’t spicy at all and the crunchy exterior was so yummy. The added edamame and garlic chips were just perfect. Nom nom nom nommmmm…

Grandpa Chicken came with the whole chicken. It was served cold and it’s like a smoked soy sauce chicken. It was ok, but it wasn’t anything amazing.

This was also a substitute item and on the original menu, it would have been the peking duck.

Minced Beef with lettuce wraps. If we had the peking duck, this would have been the duck and lettuce wraps. I didn’t mind too much since this is always a fun dish to put together.

You take the lettuce wrap and then scoop up the filling and add a dash of the sauce for extra flavour. Then, you roll it up and start munching away. The flavours were good and I always like the chestnut for an extra crunch in texture.

Bean curd and bok choy in fish soup was a nice break from the rest of the items in the meal. I personally love tofu and vegetables so I ate this up. I could eat endless amounts of this.

Braised Halibut with Green Onion and Ginger was a very surprising dish. The halibut was in meaty chunks, very moist and had a nice crisp exterior.

Baked Rice in Portuguese Sauce with King Crab Head is what we have all been waiting for. All the rice and sauce overflowing out of the shell.

They serve it to you in individual bowls and it’s always a treat to eat. Loved that there was so much sauce.

Steamed Brown Sugar Honey Cake was a new item to me. It looked crazy cool and looked very porous. It was spongy and was like a very firm jello. After taking a bit out of it, it was really good! Not too sweet at all.

Coconut Cookies and Lotus seed pastries was the last dessert. Went well with tea and was a nice item to end off the meal.

Overall, Alaskan King Crab is a pricey meal, so always make sure you have a group of friends to go with. It makes it more fun. Jade Seafood Restaurant is more of a higher end Chinese Restaurant, but you still have tons of options in the Lower Mainland to enjoy Alaskan King Crab while the season lasts.

We Rate Jade Seafood Restaurant:

Address:
8511 Alexandra Rd
Richmond, BC

Website:
http://www.jaderestaurant.ca/

In Chinese

Imperial Court Beijing Cuisine: Dinner in Richmond

February 22, 2014

Imperial Court ( 王府井京川粵名菜) is located in Richmond and they serve up Beijing and Szechuan cuisine. My mom found this place in the newspaper and heard it was a good place for peking duck. M really wanted some good peking duck. We made reservations and headed down here for dinner.

This place has lots of large round tables perfect for large groups. It’s a popular place for King Crab but it wasn’t the peak King Crab season yet, so we opted for a 10 person set menu for the 8 of us.

The first item that arrived are the cold appetizers. It has bean curd, jelly fish, cucumbers, tomato, and pork.

The next dish that arrived is the fish maw and egg soup. The big bowl of soup is poured into individual bowls.

I thought the soup was good. M didn’t know what the soup was until we told him that fish maw was actually fish stomach. He was quite afraid to eat it. Mind over matter right? I thought the fish maw was quite tasteless and it’s the broth of the soup that brings out the flavour.

Peking duck arrived with and the slices were quite think with not a lot of meat. The wrappers that came with it was tasteless and thick. The duck is supposed to feed 10 people, but we felt it was very small. My parents tried requesting to take the duck bones home but they said we were not allowed to. Some people actually request it to bring it back home to make soup. We thought it was a bit weird how they said no.

There are shrimp chips underneath.

Duck lettuce wrap is what they made with the remainder of the duck. The duck and vegetable stir fry sits on top of the fried noodles.

Hainanese chicken was the next dish. The skin has its classic yellow shade. It tasted ok, but the meat was a bit dry and the skin was gummy. It was alright, but not very impressed.

Steamed flat fish was the next dish and it was very moist and delicious. The bones came off easily and wasn’t too hard to pick out.

2 Lobsters arrived on the plate but they were also quite small. It was cut up into bite size pieces and cooked in a white sauce. The meat was quite tough and surprisingly hard to get out of the shells.

Fried rice came in a huge plate and was not bad. Not too oily.

Vegetables and mushrooms was a good compliment to the set meal. Very delicious.

Red Bean Soup was the last item to arrive. It’s quite common for Chinese restaurants to have this at the end. It wasn’t as thick as other restaurants, it was very watery.

Hello Kitty Mango Pudding was a very cute item to order, but it lacked in the mango flavour. It was more like jello.

Overall, this place was below average and there are so many other Chinese restaurants in the area that are better. None of use were really impressed by any of their dishes. Felt very climactic as the dinner went on.

We Rate Imperial Court Beijing Cuisine:

Address:
6360 #3 Rd
Richmond, BC

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In American

A&W: Teen Burger at YVR Airport

February 19, 2014

After checking in and going through security at the Vancouver International Airport (YVR), M and I were pretty hungry. There’s not a lot of choices before boarding international flights.

We had to choose from:

Milestones
Starbucks
Tim Hortons
Euro Cafe
A&W
Burger King
Subway
Hanami Express

It’s all fast food and it’s definitely hard to choose what your last meal before the plane will be.

I actually quite like A&W for the burgers and you can really notice their fresh ingredients. It doesn’t come close to McDonalds. All their beef is 100% pure and contains no hormones or steroids. Also no additives or preservatives.

Their quality has gotten a lot better over the years and I prefer it over the other fast food options.

We got 2 teen burger meals, onion rings, yam fries and cokes.

My favourite sides are the onion rings. The batter is fried till its crispy and the onion is large. I wasn’t a fan of the yam fries, but I never liked yam fries in the first place. M did enjoy the yam fries.

Teen Burger is my favourite and it has lettuce, tomato, bacon, cheese, ketchup, onion, pickles and the burger patty between the two buns. Even looking at the burger, the ingredients look fresh. I ate it all and enjoyed it! Yum.

All the other burger at A&W are pretty good, but you can’t beat the teen burger.

Website: www.aw.ca

In lunch

Tealicious Richmond: Taiwanese Cuisine

January 21, 2014

Tealicious Taiwanese Cuisine is located in Richmond in a plaza near Cambie Road and Sexsmith Road. M and I were with CoffeeLover and he took us here to have some good noodles. They were open since August 2013 and serves up authentic Taiwanese dishes.

I’ve never heard of this place but was excited to give it a try.

Beef Noodle Soup ($6.75) has the beef broth some thick noodles and bits of beef. M thought it was ok. Not as good as some of the other places in town.

Black Pepper Chicken With Rice ($8.50) was huge! There is also some cold side dishes to accompany the meal. It was worth the price as you get pretty full. The chicken was tender and had the coating similar to salt and peppery chicken.

Seafood Noodle Soup 海鮮麵 ($8.95) was CoffeeLovers favourite item to order. There’s lots of seafood like fish, squid, and shrimp in it.

Overall, the food was ok. Nothing very special about the items that they have here.

We Rate Tealicious Richmond:

Address:
2116-3779 Sexsmith Rd
Richmond, BC

Website:
http://www.tealiciousrichmond.com/

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In Japanese

Charcoal Sushi & BBQ Restaurant: Lunch Specials

December 28, 2013

Charcoal Sushi & BBQ Restaurant is on No. 3 Road and Westminster Hwy. My coworker and I stopped by for lunch on the way back to Vancouver. The place looked pretty good and there was a lot of people during noon.

The tables inside have built-in grills, but no one was using it. Perhaps it’s more popular at night.

Their lunch combo is $9.75 and you choose one item from the A menu and another from the B menu.

If you look carefully, you can find some good items and not just rolls.

Miso soup comes with the combos. Nothing special, just the usual stuff.

Assorted Maki Combo ($7.50) has Salmon and Tuna Maki with California Rolls. Definitely filling and they didn’t skimp on the salmon and tuna in the maki rolls.

For my combo, I ordered the Mini Charashi Don. It wasn’t bad considering the original price of this dish is around the same price as the combo. Pretty decent size too.

Deep Fried Gyoza was the second part of the combo. Comes with 4 pieces.

Overall, the price during lunch is pretty good and the quality was good. I would definitely come back again. Service was quick and the servers seemed nice.

We Rate Charcoal Sushi & BBQ Restaurant :

Address:
250-7997 Westminster Highway
Richmond, BC

Website:
http://www.charcoalrestaurant.ca/

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In Dessert

Adorabelle Tea Room: Afternoon Tea in Steveston

November 25, 2013

Adorabelle Tea Room is a little cozy tea room in Steveston that serves up Afternoon tea. I rarely come to Steveston, but had I know there was such a cute little restaurant here, I would make more trips down here. The tea room is in the location of an old courtroom in Steveston. Seems like a weird place, but it’s the perfect location for a girls night out.

Afternoon Tea service is from Wednesday through Sunday. There are designated seating times 11:00am, 12:30pm, 2:00pm and 3:30pm. Reservations are required before you come here as they need to plan in advance. It’s $25 per person, which is a good price considering other places are around $50 per person.

Once you go inside, it is small, but it is the perfect atmosphere to have afternoon tea here. There are only 5 tables here.

Good intimate atmosphere for a bunch of girls to come here, de-stress, and have a good catch up session.

Our reservation was from 12:30pm – 1:30pm. Each seating is an hour-long, but its a decent amount of time to eat the 3 tiers of treats. If not, you can take then home and enjoy further.

When you sit down, you have your cup ready and your napkin folded like a rose. It’s the small little touches that make dining here great.

You can choose when types of teas you want. It can be a bit of a struggle to figure out which tea you want to try out.

It’s good that they come around to help you choose the right tea. You can smell them all if you like too.

I went with the Cream Earl Grey and my friend chose Paris. Both very good types of black tea.

As your tea steeps, it has a cozy to keep the heat from escaping.

A few minutes pass by and we can enjoy our tea. There is milk and sugar on the side if you need.

Shortly after, our little treats arrive.

For each person, it comes with:

five tea sandwiches
two fresh baked scones with sweetened cream & strawberry preserves
five house-made petite sweets

Smoked Salmon pinwheel, bacon and chive cupcake, egg pinwheel, cucumber cream cheese open-faced sandwich, chicken and waffles sandwich, and lastly the savoury shortbread with asiago and fennel.

This was by far my favourite section of the meal. Every single item tasted fantastic! The two items that really stood out for me were the bacon chive cupcakes and the savoury shortbread. YUM!

Level two is scone central.

There is the regular scone with raison and topped with icing sugar. The next is the orange scone with a nice glaze on top.
I’m not a huge fan of scones, but these were pretty good. Very filling as well.

Sweetened cream and strawberry preserves to go with the scones. You must add these or else the scone will not taste as delicious. So good.

The last tier is dessert time.

Strawberry with cream cheese, chocolate minty cake enrobbed with ganche, ginger molasses cookies and fruit pastilles.
Delicious and was a sweet overload. A good way to end the meal!

Overall, KoreanGirl and I really enjoyed ourselves here. It’s a quaint little place and we will definitely be back. Afterwards, we walked around Steveston and checked out Garry Point Park.

We Rate Adorabelle Tea Room:

Address:
12051 Third Avenue
Richmond, BC

Website:
http://www.adorabelletearoom.com/

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