Good Eat Seafood Restaurant

December 2, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

My parents wanted to go for dim sum last Sunday, but my mom forgot to make reservations the night before. And if you go to dim sum often, you know that dim sum restaurants are packed on Sundays. So we gave some calls to a few restaurants, but they all said the earliest would be 1pm, which meant I would be rushed to get to work. My mom ended up calling Good Eat, and they said we could get seats. I later realized that I had gone to Good Eat with a couple of friends a few years back. I remember the food was ridiculously cheap, but I didn’t exactly remember how the quality of food was. I was skeptical, since the outside of the restaurant is definitely not as classy as some of the other dim sum restaurants in Richmond. But I guess I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Anyways, parking is terrible here. You can basically park in front of other cars because the lot is so small. The manager would then call your license plate when a customer needs you to move your car so they can get out.

Seafood Fried Rice

We started with the Steamed Fried Rice. I think it was $7.99, which is a pretty good deal. The rice came in an unattractive and not very presentable way on the dish, and I got skeptical about the food. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too bad! There was lots of shrimp and scallops, and was actually pretty flavourful. Not bad!

Steamed Chicken Feet

And then we got the infamous $2.50 dim sum. Yes! Most of the dim sum here is only $2.50-$2.95. What a deal! Most dim sum restaurants charge you around $4 a dish. So then again, I was a little worried about the food. How can dim sum be so cheap?! But again, the Steamed Chicken Feet were surprisingly flavourful and not bad at all. The only issue I had with it, was that I think it was overcooked. It sort of broke off when I picked it up with my chopsticks, which doesn’t normally happen.

Sticky Rice Wrapped w/ Bamboo Leaf

My favourite dim sum is the Sticky Rice Wrapped with Bamboo Leaf. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of dim sum in general, but this is one of the few items I enjoy. It’s simple and filling, but the ingredients inside and slight bamboo aroma is what makes it delicious. These usually come three in an order, but of course, since they are only charging $2.50, they came with only two. They were still quite large in size and had lots of filling. Good!

Deep Fried Tofu

My mom wanted to get the Deep Fried Tofu. The tofu inside was really soft, and the sauce was tasty. I didn’t find it too special though. It was just average.

Steamed Rice Rolls with Dried Shrimp

Lastly, we got the Steamed Rice Rolls with Dried Shrimp. The steamed rice rolls were extremely smooth and soft. This is key to good steamed rice rolls. However, the dried shrimp were what annoyed me. I had multiple shrimps with either some sort of hard shell still on it, or just something that was hard inside my steamed rice rolls! It almost felt like it was sand or bits of rock… It was pretty annoying and distracted me from the great texture that it had!

Overall, I have to say I was pretty impressed by Good Eat. The food is actually decent, and for the price, it is definitely a great value! I’ve had much worse dim sum before at a much higher price. I think the only reason the place isn’t packed is because of the poor parking area. For a starter, I wouldn’t come here on my own, since I would have a headache trying to park. I guess cheap dim sum comes with other costs!

Deer Garden Signatures 鹿園魚湯米線

November 18, 2012May 2, 20131 Comment

Everyone got home super late the other night, so we were all starving. Problem was…no one wanted to cook. So off we went to grab some quick food. Mom decided that we go to Deer Garden. She seems to love those noodles. The place is always packed though! We probably waited around 15 minutes before getting a seat for dinner.

Hot Lemon Ribena

They are famous for their “Make Your Own Noodle Combo” type of menu, which is similar to many other Chinese restaurants out there these days. However, they also offer other types of HK style food. I shared two noodle bowls with my sister and mom since I had just ate some dim sum an hour earlier. This is the Hot Lemon Ribena that my sister ordered that comes with your noodles. All noodle combos, and many of the HK style combos come with a hot drink free of charge as well. I found the lemon ribena to be quite sour, and would much prefer it cold, but that would be an additional charge.

Original Fish Soup + Sliced Beef Brisket + Fish Puffs + Rice Noodles

For the Noodle Combos, you choose your soup base, 2 toppings, noodles, and a hot drink for $8.50. Mom got the Rice Noodles in the Original Fish Soup, with Sliced Beef Briskets and Fish Puffs. The soup had no MSG according to their menu, and I would believe so, as I wasn’t thirsty after drinking the soup. It was strong in fish flavour, but other than that, I found it a little bland. The beef brisket was extremely tender, and I liked the rice noodles as they had a great texture. Mom also got the Hot Ovaltine with her combo.

Desert Wings with Ginger

She also added a $1.75 to get 3 Desert Wings added to her combo. I didn’t eat them, since I was still sick, but I’ve had them before and they are quite delicious.

ChaoChou Style Dried Fish and Minced Pork Fish Soup + Chicken Balls + Beef Stomach + Udon

Sis got the Udon with the ChaoChou Style Dried Fish and Minced Pork Fish Soup, with Chicken Balls and Beef Stomach. I found that her soup base had much more flavor, even though it said the fish soup had no MSG on the menu. Her Chicken Balls, however were full of MSG. It was super salty and flavourful…totally MSG. All noodles also came with lots of cabbage, mushrooms, and bean curd.

Baked Pork Chop on Rice with Honey Tomatoes Bacon Sauce

Dad wanted to be adventurous and decided to get something other than their famous noodles. He chose the Baked Pork Chop on Rice with Honey Tomatoes Bacon Sauce instead. It was a large portion and he said it was extremely hot all throughout the dish. The amount of pork chop was also extremely generous. It was one large piece that reached from one side of the casserole dish to the other. However, he expected some bacon, and it took him a while to discover some bacon bits on the top of the sauce. He also said that he couldn’t really taste any honey, which he was expecting. All in all, he said it was not bad.

Overall, Deer Garden is a great place to get a decent meal if you’re looking for noodle combos, or HK style combos. The prices are quite average, but you are looking to be waiting around during busy lunch and dinner times. The food never seems to disappoint too much, but you won’t be expecting any superior service at this busy restaurant.

HML Seafood Restaurant: Lobster Feast!

October 12, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

Located in central Richmond, HML Seafood Restaurant has been here for quite some time now. I’m pretty sure I’ve ate here before in the past too, but my memory of dim sum restaurants are always faint since I’m not a big fan of it. We usually make turkey every year for Thanksgiving, but we were really lazy this year. I mean, it’s literally a whole day in the kitchen preparing for that big day. So lazy of us…but we decided to go out to eat instead. And since my mother is obsessed with Chinese food, of course she chose a Chinese restaurant.

My parents had recently gone to HML Seafood Restaurant with their friends for dinner. My mother told me that their dim sum is definitely no good, and they had only tried their dinner menu for the first time last time. She was surprised that it was actually pretty good, especially at the amazing value and price. They have a few promotions, and when they ate out last time, they had the lobster meal, which included 6lbs of lobster along with 3 dishes for only $98! What a deal! They said that the portions were large and the dishes weren’t too bad, so off we went.

The restaurant was pretty packed, and literally every table had lobster. I’m guessing everyone was taking advantage of this lobster promotion since it’s probably only available for a limited time. This deal is perfect for 4 if you want to be extremely full, or for 5, which is what we did, and we were still pretty full!

Specialty Chicken (half)

We started off with our first dish of Specialty Chicken. I have to say that the dishes seemed to be a little smaller than at other restaurants, but for this deal, it’s still a pretty good value. These dishes are normally $9.99 if you get them separately which is also a promotion they are having. The chicken wasn’t too tough and it was flavourful. Not bad.

Deep Fried Squab

And then we had Deep Fried Squab. This came in 4 pieces, basically the whole squab. It was hot and the skin was fried to perfection. It was crispy and the meat was flavourful.

6lbs of Lobster!

And of course our main dish – the lobster! You can choose to add noodles underneath for an additional price, but we chose not to. It was presented nicely, and each piece was filled with meat. The sauce was also flavourful, but not too strong. I thought it was just right. There’s actually so much lobster that you get pretty filled up. And the service was actually pretty good. They changed my plate at least 3 times, as opposed to some restaurants that only do it once, so I was pretty impressed.

Deep Fried Egg Tofu Topped with 3 Kinds of Mushroom

Last but not least, we had the Deep Fried Egg Tofu Topped with 3 Kinds of Mushroom. This was one of my favourite dishes. I loved the egg tofu, since it’s extra smooth compared to normal tofu. My mom also said that it’s a difficult dish to make at home because of the amount of oil you need to deep fry these tofu. So delicious though and it was great to have some vegetables after all that lobster meat. It was perfect to pair with a bowl of white rice. Yum!

Overall, HML is not bad for dinner. I read many reviews saying that it’s not that great, and I’m pretty sure dim sum isn’t great here, since my mother repeatedly told me that. But if you catch their promotions for the lobster, I think it’s worth it to give it a try. You can’t expect to have anything magnificent here, but you definitely get what you paid for!

Copa Cafe (Cambie)

October 7, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

Again, this is like one month late. I really should get all these posts up! Anyways, congrats to our Sunshine Boy, Evan! He decided to treat us for dinner and since part of his reward was a gift card to Copa Cafe, why not use it! Plus, he loves HK style Cafes! Copa Cafe is literally right across from the St. Edwards Canada Line Station, so it’s super convenient. After seeing that little chef cartoon on their signage, I realized that I always see this cafe advertised in Chinese magazines.

7 Up Coffee

This was MP’s 7 Up Coffee. I thought it was so interesting that I took a sip. I normally don’t drink coffee since I can’t take the bitterness, but this was surprisingly so good! It wasn’t too strong in coffee, but instead had more 7 up, and then had a hint of coffee flavour. I actually liked this!

Thai Fried Rice?

And this was ML’s Thai Fried Rice (I think that’s what it was…). ML is some fried rice fanatic. He literally eats fried rice everyday I swear – well at least I see him eating that every time I have school with him. He seems to also get fried rice whenever he’s at some sort of Chinese restaurant. Oh, and he also makes his own fried rice. Anyways, I asked him what he thought of his fried rice, since he’s such an expert. He said that this one had too much soy sauce and not enough chicken. He also mentioned it wasn’t as good as the one he’s had at Kingspark Steak House in Richmond. He said that he would rate it a 6/10. So serious about his fried rice…

Baked Seafood with Cheese on Rice

For myself, I got the Baked Seafood with Cheese on Rice. I always get this at HK style Cafes! I probably shouldn’t have gotten this by myself though. It was HUGE. And yes, of course I didn’t finish it. I ended up just eating the top layer or rice mixed with the cheese and toppings, since that’s the best part. I’ve definitely had better baked seafood on rice before. The rice was also extremely dry. It was just alright. Nothing amazing.

This is what E got. I’m not too sure what everyone else got to be honest. But it looks like some sort of steak paired with veggies and fries. It also came with a soup and bread.

And what the rest of the boys got. They got the same thing apparently. Some sort of steak again, but this time paired with rice. It also came with soup and bread. I heard the steak wasn’t that great though.

And this was J’s chicken I believe? I think he tried ordering fish but apparently they sold out. This came with soup and also linguine.

And the rest of the girls shared a meal of steak with veggies and crab cakes and some other items? I’m not too sure again. This picture was actually the wrong order though, as it came with sausages, which they hadn’t ordered. So the crab cakes aren’t actually shown here.

So how good was the food? Just average. Nothing special and the prices seemed to be around the same as other HK style cafes. They have quite a large variety of food on their menu though. Convenient location, although I would probably stick around Richmond with so many cafe choices available.

Double Double Restaurant & Wonton

September 30, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

Double Double recently just opened early September. It took the old spot of where West Lake used to be – well there was another restaurant after, but that closed too. My parents spotted it one time, and decided to go check it out for brunch. We weren’t sure what time it opened, so we got there around 10:15 am. It was actually open at 10:30, and surprisingly, customers were already waiting in line eager to get in. I’m guessing everyone heard about this new restaurant since the owners used to own another restaurant apparently.

Anyways, once the doors opened at 10:30, everyone bombarded into the doors, and we were quickly seated. Good thing we had a table of three, so we got to sit at the booths. If you were a table of 2, you most likely had to sit at the large round tables with randoms – much like what they do in Asian countries. It was insane, because as I sat down, I saw that all the seats were already filled and there was already a lineup. I feel sorry for those people, since it literally meant they had to wait for a table who had just sat down to finish their meal – probably at least a 30 minute wait. Good thing we got there early!

When we were ready to order, pretty much everyone else was – as you can imagine since everyone was seated at the same time. This caused some chaos as everyone wanted their orders taken, but the servers seemed to use a systematic method by just going down the row one by one. We got our orders taken, but wow was the wait long to get our food.

We literally sat there for at least 25 minutes with no food. Since I was bored out of my mind, I looked over since I was seated right next to the kitchen where they made handmade steamed rice rolls. This was actually one of the reasons we came, since handmade rice rolls can be difficult to make and really depends on the chef. These rolls were made by the owner’s wife I believe. It’s a tough job because you have to stand in front of hot steam and you also have to touch the burning hot rice roll in order to roll it and such. I watched as the order lists she received piled into a stack of a ridiculous amount. I told my parents that we would probably be here for a long time waiting for these steamed rice rolls.

Plain Congee (Big Bowl)

Finally, after roughly 30 minutes, we got our Plain Congee. Like really? It takes 30 minutes to make some congee that has no other ingredients in it? Pretty ridiculous. And of course we ordered the congee hoping to dip our Salted Chinese Donuts in, but nope, they were not present.

Sweet Chinese Donut

We waited another 5-10 minutes, and finally got Sweet Chinese Donut. We could at least dip that in our congee so it wasn’t too bad. I actually really enjoyed this as I liked the hint of sweetness in the donut. My dad however, said that he saw that these donuts were being made by this really young guy. He didn’t seem to really know what he was doing, and he took extremely long rolling out the dough. I’m guessing they actually roll the dough as they are being ordered or something. All the donuts were also sold out within 30 minutes as I heard other customers ask in disbelief.

Pan Fried Radish Cake

We also got the Pan Fried Radish Cake, which when presented, we thought looked extremely ugly. It just didn’t look appealing. Upon eating it though, it tasted pretty good and the batter was soft in the inside and crispy on the outside.

Soy Sauce Pan Fried Rice Rolls?

We also got the Soy Sauce Pan Fried Rice Rolls. At least I think that’s what it’s called, since my mother ordered that separately after we had taken the order so I never checked it out on the menu. These rice rolls were not handmade, and you could tell when you bit into it. It was much more tough and the layers were thicker. These were also pan fried so it had a little burnt texture to it. The flavours really were based soley on this special soy sauce they had, but even with that, I didn’t think it was flavourful. I had to dip it into the other two sauces that accompanied it (peanut sauce and sweet sauce) to really get some flavour.

Steamed Rice Roll served w/ Mixed Sauce

And then we finally got our Steamed Rice Roll served with Mixed Sauce. This is probably the most simple steamed rice roll, with just dried shrimp inside. It is then topped with a mixture of sauces. It wasn’t too bad. The layers were thin, but I’ve had thinner ones. This really takes skills to make though. The rice rolls were also very smooth. My parents agreed that we could get better ones at actual dim sum restaurants though. And we wouldn’t need to wait this long!

Salted Chinese Donut

And last but not least – our Salted Chinese Donut. We literally had finished all our food, although we each kept a bowl of Plain Congee, which had gone cold. We sat there for probably another 20 minutes waiting with no food. We were even tempted to just cancel the order. It had already been more than 1.5 hours since we came. We were afraid we would get ticketed for our parking too. This was ridiculous. The table behind us had also finished their food and they seemed to be waiting on their Salted Chinese Donuts as well. They finally came and they were not bad. Our congee was already all cold, so dipping it in wasn’t as great as we had hoped. My mom also said that she could get the same quality donuts at other Asian bakeries.

Overall, the wait is way too long. They seriously need to figure out their process flows and work on their capacity management. Figure out what their bottlenecks are or some sort. I don’t think any customer, including myself, would wait 30+ minutes to eat at an Asian brunch restaurant. It makes sense to be eating for 2 hours at a dim sum restaurant, but definitely not at a place where you would assume you can get a quick meal. Food quality isn’t even that amazing and there is nothing that I can’t get elsewhere. My family also heard from friends that there were complaints as to the quality of food. Definitely not going back again unless they fix their problems with waiting time.

Salt Spring Island Noodle Bar (at PNE)

September 23, 2012August 21, 20176 Comments

Chicken + Veg + Pad Thai + Thai Chow Mein

Continuation of The Fair at the PNE! We also looked for some actual food instead of just desserts, and we came across this Asian looking booth called Salt Spring Island Noodle Bar. We thought Pad Thai sounded appealing at that time, so we decided to get it, but we soon realized that it wasn’t the Pad Thai noodles, but the Pad Thai sauce! But it wasn’t even really close to that sauce anyways… It was actually some sort of spicy sauce with chow mein noodles. Although it wasn’t what we had expected, it was still pretty good. It’s not even Asian operated, but I have to say it’s probably better than most of the non-Asian operated food places I’ve tried. After searching it up, I also found that the noodle bar is actually from Salt Spring Island in the Gulf Islands! So it actually came all the way from Victoria to attend The Fair. Pretty cool!

Gingeri Chinese Cuisine

August 22, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Fresh Fruit Salad & Deep Fried Crab Claws w/ Shrimp Paste

Braised Whole Dried Scallops in Mo Qua Rings

Braised Superior Shark’s Fin in Supreme Thick Soup

Braised Whole Australia Abalones with Vegetables

Pan Fried Lobsters in Consomme Sauce

Steamed Rock Cod

Fried Rice with Shrimps in Cream & Chicken in Tomato Sauce

Dumplings in Supreme Soup

Chinese Petit

Coffee Jelly

Sweetened Sesame Dumplings in Red Bean Cream

Gingeri is one of my mom’s favourite dim sum place. I swear she suggests to come here every time we want dim sum food. Not long ago though, I attended a wedding and they held it at Gingeri. I don’t normally come here for dinners, so I was actually kind of curious what the food was like for dinner time. Chinese weddings always have some crazy dinner banquets, with hours of food. This one had around 12 courses I believe? I’m missing two pictures I think, since I was too excited to eat…

First up was Roasted Pig Slices with Jellyfish Appetizer, which was one of the dishes where I got too excited to eat that I totally forgot to take a picture of. The pig skin was roasted to a nice crisp, and the meat wasn’t too salty. Jellyfish is one of my favourite Chinese appetizers, and this one was marinated very well. The second dish was the Fresh Fruit Salad & Deep Fried Crab Claws w/ Shrimp Paste. It was basically a crab claw with shrimp paste surrounding it to form a round shape and then it was deep fried. I really liked the shrimp part, but the crab claw didn’t really have any meat to it. Way too many fruits on the side too..I was already starting to get full. Third dish: Braised Whole Dried Scallops in Mo Qua Rings. This was a really nice dish, as the Mo Qua, which were basically some sort of melon were braised in a very nice sauce. The dried scallops were also extremely soft. Fourth dish: Braised Superior Shark’s Fin in Supreme Thick Soup. The soup was definitely very thick, and you could feel the collagen stick to your lips. They also didn’t cheap out on the ingredients. Fifth dish: Braised Whole Australia Abalones with Vegetables. Another delicacy in Chinese cuisine. The abalone was quite large in size, and it was cooked so it wasn’t too chewy or too soft. Perfect tenderness! I also loved the sauce that it was paired with. But oh my, I was getting REALLY full by the fifth course…so I started leaving my vegetables behind.. Moving on, sixth course was the Pan Fried Lobsters in Consomme Sauce. These were alright. I’ve had better lobsters before. Nothing too special. Seventh course: Deep Fried Crispy Squabs. And yes, I forgot to snap a picture of it as well. It was served still hot and crispy. Good stuff! Eighth dish: Steamed Rock Cod. I’m not a big fan of fish, so this was probably my least favourite of the night. I have to say that the fish wasn’t fishy though, and the meat was quite tender. Still, steamed fish isn’t something I like to eat. Ninth course: Fried Rice with Shrimps in Cream & Chicken in Tomato Sauce. This dish, no one at my table even touched it. We were all too full, and stuffing ourselves with more rice seemed silly. Some of us ended up packing it away instead, so I can’t comment. Tenth dish: Dumplings in Supreme Soup. These were actually really nice to end the dinner off. The dumplings were filled with shrimp and the soup was a thin clear broth. As for the desserts, there were Chinese Petits, which were basiaclly some sort of cookie dough batter, with read bean paste inside. As well, there was Coffee Jelly, which was one of my favourites. It was strong in coffee flavour and was a great dessert for a summer night. Lastly, there was the Sweetened Sesame Dumplings in Red Bean Cream. I’m not a fan of red bean soup, but I enjoyed the sesame dumplings as I love the surprise of the filling spilling out when you bite into these sweet dumplings.

Way too much food for this set menu, and I wish everything was portioned smaller, so I could actually eat everything without feeling like my stomach would explode… Good food though! And service wasn’t too bad.

Dragon View Chinese Cuisine

August 15, 2012May 5, 2013Leave a comment

Chinese Donuts Wrapped w/ Rice Rolls

Steamed Shrimp Dumplings

Steamed Chicken Feet in B/B Sauce

Deep Fried Squid Tentacle

Mini Sticky Rice Wrapped w/ Bamboo Leaf

Lychee, Goji Berries and Chrysanthemum Gelatin Dessert

My parents decided to grab some dim sum for lunch, and since we were already at Continental Centre, we decided to just go to Dragon View Chinese Cuisine. I’ve been here a few times, but not recently, so I had forgot what it was like. Food was typical and I quite liked it. My family and I both felt that the chef seemed to cook most of the food with less feisty flavours. Most of the dishes were on the bland side, but not to the extent that it was terrible. I actually quite liked it since I don’t like to eat too flavourful stuff sometimes. My favourite was the dessert! It was a gelatin dessert that had lychee, goji berries and chrysanthemum in it. So refreshing on a sunny day!

Service that day was really well. This lady, who I believe was the owner, was extremely friendly and quick. A few days later though, I went back for dinner with some family friends, and the service was just plain terrible! Our server was extremely rude, and in the middle of taking our order, he just told us to hold on and he walked away for like 5 minutes. What kind of service is that? He was also extremely unfriendly when we asked questions about the menu, and he just seemed arrogant. Definitely was disappointed the second time.