Caramel Brulee Frappuccino
Finally decided to try the frappuccino version of the Caramel Brulée Latte. For some reason, it just wasn’t that great. I felt that the flavour was not as strong and I would much rather get a Green Tea Frappuccino instead. It was either that the flavour was not strong enough or my barrista put too much ice in it. I still enjoyed the caramel sprinkles at the top which added some sweetness to the coffee taste.
Butter Chicken Poutine
Ever since Richmond Center’s food court began renovating, I never got my dose of poutine from New York Fries. But now that they are back in the new dining terrace, I get to devour that fatty goodness again! Always so delicious!
Crispy Chicken Sandwich
I’ve revisited Leisure way too many times by now. But there still seems to be items that I haven’t tried. I always tend to go for my favourites, but this time I decided to try some other menu items. These are actually two separate visits, but I’ll just put it in one post. The first item was the Crispy Chicken Sandwich. I’ve heard great things about their Club Sandwich, but I was curious to see what a Crispy Chicken Sandwich was. So glad I got this because it was really delicious! They come in a plate of four triangular sandwiches in white bread. Each sandwich has three layers of bread, so it makes it quite large in size. With the crispy chicken inside, which is really their famous Taiwanese chicken, the sandwiches are too big to take a whole bite of. But I didn’t mind that. Inside was also tomatoes, cucumbers and mayo. I would definitely recommend this.
Crispy Chicken Waffle
Then, on Christmas night after my Christmas potluck, I joined some friends to go to Leisure again… Only Asian restaurants are open on Christmas, so the place was surprisingly quite packed. With all Asians of course. Sadly, I wasn’t too satisfied with my potluck dinner, so I was actually craving some more food by then. I’ve had their Ice Cream Waffle before, but what was a Crispy Chicken Waffle?! I decided to give that a try and it was oh so delicious! It’s really the same thing as the Crispy Chicken Sandwich but in a waffle form. The waffle also had a lot more chicken than the sandwiches. It wasn’t too salty and all the ingredients just worked well together with the vegetables giving a refreshing feel.
Overall, extremely satisfied with both visits again. The food never seem to disappoint!
Butter Chicken and Rice Combo
Dining Terrace has been open for around a month now! I was quite late in actually going to try out their food. I went a week after to check it out while doing some shopping, but never actually tried out any of the food. So finally, during my break at work, I decided to head upstairs and look for a small dinner. The dining terrace is huge, and for someone who is always so indecisive, it’s terrible. I swear I could’ve walked around five times and my break would’ve ended by then. So I decided to head straight to Curry Express. I mean, with work every week, I’m sure to try out every place sooner or later.
Curry Express is also at Lansdowne Centre, but I seldom go there so I’m guessing the last time I had it was when I was a kid. I decided to get a curry and rice combo. There were so many different types of curries in the heating trays, so I asked the cashier what was the most recommended. She immediately said Butter Chicken, so that’s what I went with! I found that the butter chicken was a little more on the watery side, and I would have probably preferred it to be a little thicker. The chicken however, was extremely tender. The sauce was good – quite typical, but I felt it lacked some spices that would be present when you eat at an Indian restaurant. The portion was also less than I had imagined, but I guess that’s food court portions. Overall, I would just say it was average.
I’ve been trying to give Kari House a try for the longest time. Unfortunately, they only open for very short periods of time. Every time I’m at Steveston village, they’re closed! They don’t open on Mondays, and only for a few hours for lunch and dinner the other days. Finally, I suggested to go here with J for lunch the other day. It’s family operated, and during a Friday lunch hour, it was almost fully occupied. Although they are famous for their good valued lunches, we opted to go with the normal dinner menu since we could share the larger portions.
Spring Rolls (4 rolls) – Deep fried vegetarian spring rolls with plum sauce
First up, we got the Spring Rolls, which were vegetarian. I didn’t find these that tasty. There was too much wrapping paper so when it was folded over and over again, it became really thick. Only the outside was fried crispy, but the inside layers were soft.
Roti Canai (2 pieces) – Malaysian flaky bread with curry sauce
Whenever I think of Malaysian food, I think of curry and roti! I love roti, but these weren’t that great. Blotches of the roti were quite burnt, and it was one large piece ripped into two, unevenly. I also thought the curry sauce that came with it wasn’t that great. I found it too watery. I was kind of disappointed with this.
Satay Ayam (4 skewers) – Malaysian grilled marinated chicken with peanut sauce
I think these were my favourite of the meal. The Satay Ayam was served still hot and the chicken was super tender. It just ripped off the skewers. It was flavourful, and was perfect when accompanied with the peanut sauce. I found it not as tasty when I had my second one when it chilled though. Got to eat these skewers hot!
Kari Rendang – Traditional rich curry with coconut milk, onions, bell peppers & potatoes and beef brisket
Our last dish was the Kari Rendang. We knew we wanted some sort of curry, but we had no idea what to get. Decisions…! We ended up getting the Rendang because it said traditional curry… It was actually smaller than I had expected. But I guess paying a price of around $11, that was decent. I found this a little watery again. It wasn’t as thick as I would’ve liked. The beef brisket that we chose was quite tender though.
Steamed Jasmine Rice
We also got some rice to go with our Kari Rendang. It was actually a decent amount to share between the two of us.
Overall, Kari House was decent, but I had expected much more because of the reviews. I’m not sure if it’s because I ordered the wrong dishes, but I had much higher hopes. It’s still not bad for their prices, and I would like to give it another try if I’m around the area again (and if it’s open!). I still prefer places like Tropica…sadly… even though I know it’s not authentic Malaysian food at all. But it works for my taste buds!
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!
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.
On Remembrance Day, I didn’t have work or school, so it was a pretty chill day for me. Only thing was the house was left with just my dad and I, and we were both too lazy to cook. So off we headed out to look for food close by. My dad ended up suggesting Pho Lan, since it was close to our house and he was also craving some Vietnamese food. To be honest, I used to never want to even step inside this restaurant. The restaurant looks old and dirty from the outside, but last year, my dad finally dragged me in, and ever since, I’ve been okay with the place. And after hearing the great reviews about it, I guess I will enter a less pleasant looking place if it means good food. I’ve only visited Pho Lan once before this time, but each time I arrive, the place is jammed pack with people. It might have to do with the fact that the place is really small! When you enter from the back door and try to make your way up to the front, you really got to squeeze by those chairs on either side of you. It’s THAT tight fitting. But nevertheless, it is always filled with people.
Pho Lan Special Beef Noodle Soup (Medium)
We waited for approximately 5 minutes to get a table, and boringly enough, my dad and I ended up with the same order – Pho Lan Special Beef Noodle Soup. It’s got everything in it, including rare steak, well done flank, tendon, tripe and beef balls. I’m always so indecisive so I always get the specials for pho. I got the medium and my dad got the large. It’s pretty hard to tell from the pictures that the bottom bowl is much larger than the first. So the pictures don’t really do justice. But the large is much larger than the medium!
Pho Lan Special Beef Noodle Soup (Large)
From the last time I ate here, I remember that the soup used to be really good. And frankly, that’s what makes a good pho – at least in my opinion. Sadly, I didn’t think that the soup this time was any good. My dad and I both agreed that the soup didn’t taste the same as last time’s, and that it overall, wasn’t as good anymore. However, service was still extremely friendly and polite. I would probably opt to go somewhere else next time though, unless they improve on their soup again. Prices are definitely great for the quantity you get though!
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