New Concept Hot Pot 蜀九香

March 3, 2013April 28, 2013Leave a comment

I’ve been to New Concept Hot Pot once before, but for some reason, I don’t have a fond memory of it. It’s a tiny little shop on Westminster Hwy, so reservations are pretty much a must. I find that the place is much cleaner than many of the other hot pot places too. However, they are not that great in English, so it’s more catered to mandarin-speaking customers.

They use an electronic heater, and you can tell that everything is pretty brand new and clean. It’s interesting how they offer sunflower seeds while you wait for your food. Their menu isn’t too extensive though, so they really only have the basics.

We got one side with spicy Sze Chuan soup base, and the other side a mushroom soup base. The mushroom soup base was also filled with goji berries. New Concept Hot Pot also offers a pot that can have 3 soup bases, which isn’t seen at many restaurants.

Udon, Rice Cake

I found the udon to be of poor quality since it wasn’t chewy at all. The rice cakes were also not that chewy. I wasn’t too satisfied with these two items.

Tripe, Ice Tofu, Soft Tofu, Octopus, Lotus Root, Wintermelon

Sweet Potato Noodles, Yam Root Noodles

Dumplings

Variety of Veggies

Enoki Mushrooms

Spicy Beef and Spicy Fish

I found this too spicy personally, but the beef was very tender. It was almost like a chili base for the spice.

Beef

Another variety of Beef

Overall, the food was quite typical. Nothing extremely amazing. We ended up paying a little under $30 each person. Their menu is definitely smaller than many other hot pot places though. But the quality of their food is decent. Service was also quite well. The food took a little long to arrive in the beginning, but after that, the wait was quite reasonable.

Sun Sui Wah 新瑞華海鮮酒家

February 26, 2013April 28, 2013Leave a comment

I haven’t gone to Sun Sui Wah in a long time. It was decently busy on a weekday around 11a.m.

Congee

The congee was a decent size and I loved the little crisps at the top. It was filled with meat and wasn’t too salty.

Pan Fried Radish Cake

The Radish Cakes were lightly pan fried and were decent. Nothing too special.

Steamed Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaves

I didn’t try the sticky rice but they seemed to be a decent size for three of them.

Steamed Rice Rolls with Chinese Donut

I found the Chinese donuts to be quite tough. They didn’t seem too fresh. I’ve definitely had better.

Siu-mai

The Siu-Mais were filled with lots of pork and topped with tobiko. Quite average as well.

Egg Tarts

Lastly, for dessert, we got some egg tarts. They had the flaky tart but it was quite thick. I think I’ve had better egg tarts before too.

Overall, I wasn’t too impressed by Sun Sui Wah. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything amazing. Everything was quite typical. The bill ended up being around $16 per person with tons of leftovers, so I guess the prices are not bad.

Top Gun J&C Restaurant 尖東新派食館

February 20, 2013April 28, 2013Leave a comment

Parents decided to go for some dim sum to celebrate Chinese News Years last weekend. We went to Top Gun J&C Restaurant. Top Gun owns a variety of other restaurants as well. For dim sum, you each individual gets their own choice of tea, which is pretty different. Above is the heater for the shared teapot of water, and then the bowl is to pour your tea out. Apparently, you are supposed to pour out the tea after you pour water in the first time since the leaves are dirty.

You get a little cup with a lid on top to steam your tea.

I don’t remember all the tea names..but you essentially get a small cup of leaves for each individual. Pretty neat!

Steamed Rice Roll with Chinese Donut

The Steamed Rice Roll with Chinese Donut is one of my favourite dim sum items to eat. These were quite delicious. The Chinese donut wasn’t too soggy or hard, and the rice rolls were soft and smooth.

Steamed Rice Roll with Wood Ear

I’m not sure if that’s the exact name, but the steamed rice roll is essentially filled with wood ear, which is also known as black fungus. It’s crunchy and has a great bite to it. Quite good when dipped in soy sauce!

Deep Fried Cuttlefish with Mayo

We also got some Deep Fried Cuttlefish, which was suprisingly really good! It wasn’t oily and the cuttlefish was soft to bite. The batter wasn’t thick, so it was a great dish that I wouldn’t normally get at dim sum. Dipped in the mayo, it added some extra flavour.

Steamed Shrimp Dumplings

The typical Shrimp Dumplings at dim sum! These were average and quite typical.

Fried Bean Curd with Shrimp

This was a tasty dish. It was bean curd that was filled with shrimp and then deep fried. It was a little crunchy and crispy on the outside, but the thin layers of bean curd allowed you to have tons of shrimp in each bite.

Chicken and Chinese Sausages on Rice in Clay Pot

My parents enjoy rice in clay pots as they are difficult to make at home. This one was topped with chicken, Chinese sausages, and veggies. You pour some soy sauce on top and mix it all together for a filling dish.

Radish Cakes

Whenever it’s Chinese New Year, Radish Cakes are seen everywhere. You can still order these during the whole year, but they are festive item to eat during this time. These were soft and the tops were fried to perfection. A little crispy and golden yellow. Yum!

Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf

Usually, each order has 3 at other restaurants, but the ones here come with only 2. However, the portions are much larger, so it makes up for it. They were filled with many ingredients and were quite delicious.

Marinated Steamed Chicken Feet

Lastly, we got the Marinated Steamed Chicken Feet. We found that this dish lacked flavour. They did not even have the fermented black beans that are commonly topped on this dish to bring some salty flavour. It was bland and in a way, we thought it would probably be healthy then.

Overall, the food was average. We didn’t think it was anything special, and the place was surprisingly quite empty on a Sunday morning. It’s a great place to go if you enjoy drinking tea though, since they have a large variety and you can experience having your own tea.

Bubble Waffle

February 18, 2013April 28, 20131 Comment

I was told that the Bubble Waffle that used to have their own store is now in the food court of Aberdeen Centre, so I decided to go check it out. The place was packed and had a variety of food to choose from. There were of course bubble waffles, their signature make your own noodles combo, and some surprisingly items like hurricane potato fries and rice rolls!

Hong Kong Rice Roll Combo – Rice rolls, fish balls, shiu-mai, all mixed with a mixture of sauces

K and I shared some items. We got the Hong Kong Rice Roll Combo because it reminds us of the ones we can get in Hong Kong. I have to say the quality of the rice rolls are nothing special at all, but it’s the fact that you get a bunch of your favourite food all mixed in a tasty sauce in a bowl. I didn’t find the fish balls to be that great, but the Shiu-Mai were pretty good. It was all mixed in a peanut and sweet sauce. Yum! This item, however, took quite a while to be ready. I think I waited 15-20 minutes for it.

Make Your Own Noodle Combo – Oil Noodles in Minced Pork Fish Soup with Fried Shrimp Ball and Fish Ball with Shrimp

We also got the Make Your Own Noodle Combo. We chose oil noodles, and a minced pork fish soup base. I felt like the soup base was full of MSG, but it was quite flavourful. It was filled with tons of cabbage which were tasty soaked in the soup. We chose to add two toppings, so it ended up for only $4.95, which is an extremely good deal for the portion you get. It is definitely enough for 1 person if you are not a big eater. We chose the Fried Shrimp Ball, which was alright, but I really liked the Fish Ball with Shrimp! It was basically a outer layer which was made of fish, and it was filled with shrimp inside. They looked like little dumplings which were pretty cool!

Cold Lemon Ribena

Lastly, for my drink, I got the Cold Lemon Ribena, which was fizzy and delicious. I love ribena and lemon tea, so it was the perfect match!

Toyotomi 豐臣家

February 1, 2013April 28, 20131 Comment

It’s about time I finally tried Toyotomi for their all you can eat hot pot. Toyotomi is located in such a hidden location. There’s basically no other restaurants on Anderson Rd, and they are just offices around there. They used to be a sushi restaurant that was known for their competitive prices and combos at a great deal. However, last year, I was told that they now offer hot pot! What a strange transition. They still make sushi as well though, but hot pot seems to be their selling point.

Once we sat down, we were immediately asked what kind of soup base we wanted. Honestly, we hadn’t even picked up on menu yet! How do you expect your customers to know what they want! We were then asked 3 more times within 10 minutes what we wanted for our soup base. I actually got kind of annoyed. I know there’s a time limit, but that’s my problem for wasting my time. You don’t need to ask 3 times when we clearly aren’t sure yet!

There are two prices for all you can eat hot pot. $14.99 gets you the normal menu, or if you want the deluxe menu, then it’s $20.99. This is on top of the soup base, which ranges from $7.68 to $9.48.

Bonito Clear Soup Base

We finally decided to just go for the Bonito Clear Soup Base, and that waitress finally disappeared. I don’t think she came back to see how things were going again after that. Their soup bases are not what you would normally see at Chinese hot pot restaurants. They are Japanese style soup bases, and have ones such as Sukiyaki.

Seaweed Salad

After handing in our menu list, we immediately got our Seaweed Salad. It was fresh and well seasoned and the portions were just perfect so you had enough of it.

Mix Sashimi Crispy, Salmon Sashimi, Tuna Sashimi, Tai Sashimi, Baby Tako Sashimi

We decided to go for the deluxe menu, which basically comes with more assortment of meat as well as sashimi. The sashimi was really what got us to decide to add on that $6. The sashimi is presented nicely on ice and even comes with seashells! We kind of came to the conclusion that they reused the ice and seashells though, so we really hope they washed it… Anyways, the sashimi was surprisingly quite fresh. It’s weird how the Salmon Sashimi still comes with a thin layer of the silver skin, and at first I thought it would feel disgusting in the mouth, but I really didn’t feel it at all. The slices were also very large for an all you can eat restaurant. I also tried the Tako Sashimi, which were limited to 1 per person.

Beef Sashimi

We were really impressed with the Beef Sashimi, that we ended up ordering 3 more dishes. The beef had great flavour and was seasoned extremely well. Full of flavour and was extremely juicy. This also didn’t have a limit, so we ordered tons!

Snow Beef, Pork Cheek, Sliced Lamb

Then we got our orders of meat. I think we ordered like 30 slices of beef, and then 15 of pork and lamb. But wow, we did not expect the slices to be so large. We still finished it regardless, and we were extremely satisfied with the meat.

Ice Tofu, Fish Tofu, Beef Tripe, Imitation Lobster Ball, Black Wood Ear, Gluten, Tofu Puff, Oyster Mushroom, Squid Ball, Shrimp Wonton, Shrimp Dumpling

They put most of the other items all together in one bowl. It looks pretty nice when presented though. I enjoyed the Squid Balls, as you could actually taste the squid in it. Everything was pretty average, and I didn’t hate any of it.

Veggies

For our second round, we ordered some veggies. You basically get 3 columns to order, so it’s easy to pace yourself.

Mussel, Tiger Prawn

I never tried the tiger prawns, but my parents said that they were large and had full of shrimp flavour to it. The mussels were also great.

Curry Fish Ball, Deep Fried Oysters, Takoyaki, Chili Seafood Ball

Other than hot pot food and sashimi, they also had cooked food, which I found interesting. The Curry Fish Balls were surprisingly pretty good! Up to par with the ones at night markets. They also had Takoyakis, which is kind of strange. These were limited too! They actually had tako in it, so I was quite pleased. The Deep Fried Oysters were also not bad.

Sesame Oil w/ Enoki Mushroom, Salmon Sashimi, Tuna Sashimi

Another order of sashimi! Tons of Salmon Sashimi because it was really good! I feel like we totally ate our money’s worth since we ordered so much sashimi! The Sesame Oil w/ Enoki Mushrooms were pretty weird though. They just tasted of sesame oil, and we didn’t like it.

For the last round, we felt like our items weren’t coming, but they weren’t significant items. They were items we just wanted to try, so we didn’t really care. We did want to get those Iced Pineapples which were part of our deluxe menu though! They don’t have desserts, so that’s pretty much their dessert. They didn’t come until we told the girl who told us it was our last call. Then they immediately came…Like c’mon, we have to ask them for pineapples in order for them to come…

Overall, we were pretty satisfied with the food. For the price, you are getting average or above average food, and especially since it’s an all you can eat place. Don’t expect much from service though, because they just want you to eat and leave so they can get the next round in.

To see the menus:

Top Chiu Chow Cuisine

January 20, 2013May 2, 2013Leave a comment

I didn’t even notice Top Chiu Chow Cuisine until my family decided to go try the restaurant. It’s in the same mall as Richmond Sushi and Bubble World among many others, but it’s literally at the end of all the shops in a corner. The restaurant was quite packed when we got there, but we made reservations beforehand, so we immediately got our seats.

Apparently they also have a second floor, but it seemed a little sketchy…hmm
The decor is surprisingly quite clean and modern for a Chinese restaurant. They started us off with complimentary peanuts and something that reminded me of sour pickles.

Since their menu is all in Chinese, I’m not exactly sure if I’m translating the items correctly in English, but here’s the items we ordered.

So we kind of got lured into getting their Daily Soup…okay fine, maybe they didn’t exactly trick us into it, but the guy told us we should get a soup since most dinners aren’t complete without a soup. He suggested the daily soup, and started listing out the ingredients, and my mom just quickly said sure. We later realized that it cost us $68.80…

Daily Soup

It came in a large cauldron and we learned that we had ordered some soup with expensive ingredients… Shark fin! And now I feel terrible because I was hoping to stop consuming shark fin since everything is about sustainability these days. 😦

They serve the soup to you with just the clear broth. It’s also got goji berries, chicken, and other Chinese ingredients.

The waiter then scoops out all the stock. The shark fin was actually not even that good. The parts of the shark fin were not the best parts, hence the price wasn’t extremely ridiculous. We were surprised that the service was quite good though, since they also offered to reheat our soup after if we decided to eat our other dishes after our first serving of soup.

Oyster Omelet – 煎蠔餅

This is a typical dish in Chiu Chow cuisine. I really enjoyed this dish although I found it a little oily. It was nicely pan fried so that it was crispy on the edges though.

Crab and Shrimp Balls

I’m not sure if I’m translating this correctly, but half of them are basically crab balls and the other half are shrimp balls. They are fried and then you dip them into this sauce for extra flavour. I found them to already have enough flavour alone, and dipping into the sauce just made it too salty.

Chicken with Kale Leaves – 潮式川椒雞

I found these chicken to be a little too salty, but it worked well when accompanied with rice. The kale leaves also gave a nice crunch. They were flaky and almost like seaweed!

Marinated Goose Meat – 滷水鵝肉

We were quite disappointed with the marinated goose meat. It was much more tough and lacked flavour. It felt like these were not done in house, and that they had just reheated store bought ones.

Satay Beef Noodles with Veggies

We were expecting the noodles which to be flavourful with satay, but surprisingly it lacked the satay flavour. It was a sweet flavour instead, which we didn’t mind. Very saucy, and the beef were tender.

Oranges were complimentary and were a refreshing way to cleanse our palettes.

Sweet Red Bean and Lotus Seed Paste Dumplings – 潮式水晶包

For dessert, we ordered sweet dumplings which are famous in Chiu Chow cuisine. Half were filled with red bean paste, and the other half filled with lotus seed paste. I tried both, but my favourite was the red bean paste. They had tons of filling and you could tell the filling was grounded with actual red bean or lotus seed. There were still little bits in it, unlike store bought paste. What was great about these dumplings were that the outer layer was extremely thing. They’re kind of like a mochi gelatin texture and translucent, but the chef was skillful enough to make them extremely thing. The only issue was the folding area which was difficult to keep thin, and therefore there would be a lump of dough at the bottom end.

Overall, I was quite satisfied with Top Chiu Chow Cuisine. The service was extremely tentative and they even switched our plates twice throughout dinner, which doesn’t happen at most restaurants unless you are eating seafood.

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.