Taiwanese Archives - Page 4 of 4

In Bubble Tea

Bubble Queen: Mango Madness in Richmond

July 6, 2012

Bubble Queen is a very popular restaurant in Richmond that serves up a variety of drinks and bubble waffles. I’ve been meaning to check out this place but it took me a while since I don’t live in Richmond.

After going to the Night Market, FoodPunk and FoodQueen decided to come here. I think we were all excited. The place was packed and lots of people were doing takeout. We were determined to get a seat, so I had to stalk tables to snatch one up. A group left and I accidentally ran over a person to grab that table. I felt bad, but I really wanted a table.

Fresh Mango Slush with Mango Cubes is everything a mango lover needs.

The chunks of mango were very large and delicious. You may need a spoon or fork to help you out when eating this.

Overall, they have a HUGE selection of drinks and bubble waffles. You may need some time to figure out what you want to order. It’s a very popular place to hang out, but since the store is very small, most people won’t find a table to sit and chill.

Words of Wisdom:

Cash Only
Free Wifi
Large selection of drink and bubble waffles
Very limited seating
Paid Parking in front or free after a certain time (I can’t remember the time)

We Rate Bubble Queen:

Address:
8888 Odlin Crescent
Richmond, BC

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In Bubble Tea

Pearl Castle: Shaved Ice Dessert and Bubble Tea

April 12, 2012

Sometimes after a large dinner, you need more food! For the #604insomnia crew, they are always hungry! After consuming king crab, we headed over to Pearl Castle to eat some more. We’re young and adventurous! Pearl Castle is a great after- dinner spot as it sells bubble tea and a few snacks.

The interior is quite nice and modern! Unfortunately, the service is really bad here. We sat there for a while waiting for a server to take our orders. It took a long while and I’m not crazy at all. We had to wave our hands several times to get their attention and sometimes they glance at us and then walk away again.

Shaved Ice an awesome after dinner treat. you get a pile of shaved ice delivered to the table. There is condensed milk on top and underneath are pearls and pudding. You can choose any 3 types of toppings for shaved ice and additional toppings cost a bit extra too. It’s fun dessert to share with everyone at the table.

Avocado Yogurt Juice was surprisingly good. The combination of the two flavours made it a bit tangy and sweet. I’d probably get this again! I only ordered it because it sounded cool and they ran out of another drink.

Overall, drink and desserts are good, but you do have to put up with the bad service.

Words of Wisdom:

Bubble Tea + Shaved Ice… or any deep-fried item
Lots of parking in parking lot
Horrible service
nice interior

We Rate Pearl Castle:

Address:
3779 Sexsmith Rd
Richmond, BC

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In Dim Sum

Dinesty Chinese Restaurant: Steamed Pork Dumplings (XLB) Is Addictive

March 29, 2012

Dinesty is a Chinese restaurant in Richmond best known for the Xiao Long Bao (Steamed Pork Dumplings). They have been know to have amazing food and great prices.

Since the last dinner didn’t go so well at Po King with my parents, I decided it was time for me to decide where to eat. After luring them with delicious internet photos, they agreed to take me here.

Once you enter the restaurant, you’ll see a wall of teapot and little dim sum toys. They are glued to the shelf, so don’t think about stealing them.

Told you there were mini dimsum toys.

For a Tuesday dinner, this place was packed. My mom was super surprised and excited at the same time. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for a table. I’m pretty sure the weekends are crazy to get a table.

The best part about the interior is their open kitchen. You can see everyone cooking in the kitchen. It reminded me of watching a reality show on Food Network or something.

Look at them making the Xiao Long Bao. I was excited.

All your utensils and plates already at the table.

Steamed Pork Dumplings ($6.50) comes in 8 pieces. The skin has a nice thin layer, but still keeps the juice locked up inside. They were pretty good! My little sister couldn’t get enough of these.

Comes with a vingar and ginger dip for the dumplings. I love dunking it in this sauce.

Marinated beef with soy-sauce wrapped in pancake ($5.50) is crispy on the outside and has a great flavour overall.

Cold Wined Chicken ($7.50) was good, but it did have a bit of a strange taste with the wine. If you are into the whole cold chicken type of thing, this may just be for you.

Stewed Chicken Leg in Brown Sauce ($6.50) was good, but most of the meat was closest to the drumstick. The meat was quite tender too.

Noodles Topped with home-made Meat Sauce ($6.50) is similar to the Korean Jajangmyeon. You mix everything together really well and just eat it. The dish was ok, but the sauce was a tad bit salty and needed to be more thick and chunky.

Fried rice with scallop and egg whites ($9.95) I liked it. It had a good mixture of ingredients and it wasn’t too oily.

Steamed shrimp scallop and pork dumpling ($7.50) was definitely not as good as the XLB. Even though I really like seafood, the taste didn’t wow me. It just tasted so fishy. It also comes with 8 dumplings.

Steamed Pork Dumplings ($6.50) we also got more of these because we really really liked them!

Almond Tofu ($2.75) was good, but the picture on the menu was pretty misleading…it had more fruit and when this name out…it seemed like there were only a few pieces.

Overall, the food was great and at good prices. The service was really good as well. I love their menu since it’s so easy to read and has PICTURES! I’ll definitely ba back to eat more steamed pork dumplings!

Words of Wisdom:

Steamed Pork Dumplings (XLB) is a must!
Very busy, so best to make reservations
Most dishes under $10
Good service

We Rate Dinesty Chinese Restaurant:

Address:
8111 Ackroyd Rd
Richmond, BC

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In Bubble Tea

Bubble 88: A Great Addition to Surrey

March 15, 2012

Bubble 88 is a Taiwanese restaurant that serves bubble tea and food. They are located very close to the SFU Surrey Campus, so it does draw a lot of traffic from students in the area.

It was a long day at school, so a few of us decided to head off to Bubble 88 for some light snacks before heading home.

The interior is quite nice with lots of modern decor. It’s good for large groups.

Coffee Milk Tea with Milk ($2.95) is essentially the coffee and tea mix that you would find in other restaurants. I requested that they use milk instead of the instant milk powder stuff. I tastes so much better and I’m sure much healthier too if you substitute with milk.

Deep Fried Squid Tentacles ($4.50) is good! A good amount of seasoning is added to the batter, so when it comes out, its delicious.

Wonton in Chili Sauce ($3.95) was not very spicy at all. The others at the table had some too and it was the right amount of spicy. It comes with 10 pieces, which is awesome because places like Bubble World give you less and charge you more.

Hot and Sour Soup ($5.25) was quite large. It seemed like it was never ending, so I decided to pack it to go. The taste was good, but not everyone will like it.

Deep Fried Pork Chop with Curry on Rice ($6.95)

Popcorn Chicken with Curry on Rice ($7.25) was also good. M liked it since the curry is more spicy than other places.

Overall, the food was good and the prices were affordable. It’s probably not the best Taiwanese food, but it will satisfy your cravings. It’s good to have another bubble tea place in Surrey besides Bubble World. I much prefer this place.

Words of Wisdom:

Lots of parking in front for free
Service is a bit slow
Good prices and decent quality

We Rate Bubble 88:

Address:

10209 King George Hwy
Surrey, BC

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In South Burnaby

Accord Food House: Declining Quality or Just Bad Luck?

February 3, 2012

Last time I had a great experience at Accord Noodle House, so I decided to come again with InsecureGirl and Gloria (ImBusyEating).

Since it’s close to where we all live, we thought we should meet up and chow down on some Taiwanese noodles. It still looks really ugly on the outside and is located beside a very special “toy” store. Just sayin…looks very sketchy but don’t worry about it!

The service this time was quite bad since it was very hard for me to communicate with the server for my order since they spoke minimal English. Good thing Gloria and InsecureGirl know Mandarin or else it would have been super awkward.

Totally different from the outside right?

Tomato Beef Noodle ($8.95) has tender beef, veggies, tomatoes and a yummy broth. InsecureGirl has this and she thought it was alright.

My Grandpa Chinese Pasta ($7.95) has fresh vegetables, tomatoes with a yummy meat sauce. Gloria thought the food was OK and it seemed like something she could make at home. Check out ImBusyEating’s blog to hear what she thought about the whole experience.

Stewed Chicken in Noodle Soup ($7.95) sounded good, but when it arrived, I knew this would be really hard to eat. I didn’t want to use my hands because I didn’t want to get physical with my food. The chicken was a bit on the dry side, thus making it harder to eat. The noodles and the soup base were alright, but it wasn’t amazing or anything.

Overall, the food is alright. I found it quite disappointing since I did have a good experience last time. They did go on vacation in December, so maybe the quality of the food suffered a bit? May be they will improve over time.

Words of Wisdom:

Homey type of food
Super ugly exterior, but don’t be afraid to go inside
Italian Soda, Parfait, Tomato Beef Noodle are highly recommended
Best to come in 4′s
Pay parking on street

We Rate Accord Food House:

Address:

4611 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC V5H

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In Bubble Tea

The One: Decent Food, Decent Prices

November 13, 2011

Since my mechanic is right beside The One, I needed somewhere to kill time. The closest thing was The One for some Taiwanese food. Since I was starving from a long day of school already, I was ready to chow down with my sister. They are known for their HUGE slush drinks that are super tall.

Preserved Egg With Tofu ($3.25) is definitely not for everyone. It has 2 slices of tofu with preserved egg on top with a sweet sesame sauce. I really liked it but I found that their yolk could have a be more creamy.

Meat Sauce on Steam Rice with Vegetable ($6.50) comes with side dishes too. Really good value since you get the bowl of rice and meat in addition to the 4 side dishes. Good price.

The One Wonton Soup with Noodle ($7.95) was quite horrible this time around. The bowl was HUGE and had so much noodle that I found it a very hard challange to finish it all. The wontons tasted so-so and bland. Also, the soup tasted like it had a lot of MSG inside.

Overall, I think a few dishes are a hit and a miss, but the pricing is very good.

Words of Wisdom:

Large portions
Under $10
Fried Chicken Nuggets!
Free parking in the front lot

We Rate The One:

Address:

5908 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Website:
theonerestaurant.ca

In Cafe

Accord Food House: Amazing Taiwanese Noodles + Desserts

November 11, 2011

M and I were at Metrotown and we wanted to eat something delicious during the cold cold night. I really wanted noodles since the weather calls for it. My sister kept telling me to go to Accord since they have really good taiwanese food. We decided to take a visit. We almost walked past it since it really did not look nice from the outside.

If you have the same feeling too, just go inside since you will discover some delicious food.

The interior is quite small and homey. The interior is so-so, but at least it’s much better looking on the inside. Most tables are in 4’s, so best to come in 4’s.

Their menu is written on 2 large chalk boards. Left board is drinks and desserts and on the right it’s their food.

Italian Soda ($4.95) is something to set your eyes upon. I don’t know whats in it, but it tasted really good! Definitely worth a try!

Royal Milk Tea ($4.25) was super hot. Since it’s in a double-walled cup, it doesn’t get cold easily. The milk tea had a good taste, but it burned the heck out of my tongue. So, make sure it cools down before you drink it….or you can always get the cold version.

Tomato Beef Noodle ($8.95) has the most tender beef, with fresh veggies, tomatoes and a super yummy broth! One of the BEST Beef Noodles I have ever had!! Highly recommended!

My Grandpa Chinese Pasta ($7.95) has fresh vegetables, tomatoes with a yummy meat sauce. M thought it was alright.

Dark Chocolate Custard ($5.95) is topped off with berries, currants and oranges. I found that the fruit took away from the dessert. The chocolate custard tasted good, but it seemed a bit small for the price.

Parfait ($7.95) was pretty epic. It had loads of fruit, whipped cream, ice cream and wafers. It’s a super fun dessert to share! I got my hands kinda sticky from picking at all the fruit.

Overall, really good assortment of items that they offer. We noticed that it can be easy to spend a little….but in our case we did end up spending a lot trying everything.

Words of Wisdom: