House of Tofu Soup

November 8, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

I know I am totally guilty of not posting in a very long time…It’s probably been literally a whole month since I’ve last posted, but early October was midterms for me, and then I got sick. And now I’m still sick, so I’ve been eating at home pretty much every day. I pretty much got sick two times in the month, and while I was sort of recovering from my first cold, I decided I should finally go out to eat! But that also meant limited choices since I shouldn’t be eating oily, greasy food. I ended up looking some places offering soup and came across House of Tofu Soup. I’ve actually driven by the the restaurant multiple times on Garden City, and I was always curious if it were good. Looking at the reviews, it had pretty good ratings, but those can be deceptive sometimes.

J and I got there at around 8 for dinner and the place was pretty packed! It wasn’t fully occupied, but pretty full compared to what I had imagined. The place looked really small from the outside, but it was actually quite large and could fit many tables. I felt like there was a lot of the young crowd here, although there were families as well.

After taking down our orders, we were served appetizers just like any other Korean restaurant. However, their appetizers were a little different from the usual ones I see. What was really interesting was the Pumpkin Soup. It was funny because J did not believe me when I said it was soup, and refused to drink it. We asked the waitress after, and she confirmed that it was pumpkin soup. I actually thought it tasted a little like cream of corn, but I guess my taste buds were acting a little funny since I was still sick. I actually really enjoyed the soup though. It was quite thick, but the amount they gave you was perfect so that you wouldn’t get sick of that thickness. It also had a hint of sweetness, which I really enjoyed. Another interesting appetizer was the Mashed Potato. At least I’m pretty sure that’s what it was. It was a tiny scoop with beans and corn mixed inside. It was smooth and creamy, and was pretty good as well. And then there was the typical Kimchi and Marinated Seaweed, which I both enjoyed. The last appetizer was the Radish, which I took a bite out of, but did not enjoy due to personal taste preferences. What I really wanted as part of the appetizers were sweet potatoes! But guess they don’t serve them here… Oh and they also brought an egg as well, which I assumed was to be thrown into my soup.

J got the JapChae, which apparently wasn’t that great. I only took a few strands to try, but I wasn’t exactly able to get a good taste of it. The appearance of it didn’t look as flavourful as some of the other ones I’ve seen before though. It also seemed to lack some of the usual veggies that other Korean restaurants use. It looked as though there were more potato noodles than the accompaniments, which might be the reason why it wasn’t as tasty. It was a huge portion however.

And for myself, I got the Tofu Soup, where you get to choose your toppings and soup base. I chose to get a Mix, which basically means there’s both seafood and beef. As for the soup base, I had to go with “White” since my throat definitely would not be able to take the spice. I kind of regret getting the mixture of toppings, because most of the seafood portion were shrimp that were so tiny that it was pretty impossible to rip off the outer shell. I already hate making a mess with seafood in public, and the fact that the shrimps were so tiny, I just completely gave up on doing so. So it was pretty much a waste for me. They did however have mussels in it too, but they didn’t come with the shell and were extremely tiny as well. The beef was limited as I got the mixture, so I should have probably just gotten all beef instead. However, I really enjoyed the tofu and the soup was full of it. I liked how they weren’t cubes of tofu, but they were the ones that were extremely soft. It mixed in well with the rice. I have to say the soup lacked flavour though, but I’m guessing that most people normally order the soup with spice, so that should probably help.

What was really interesting about this tofu soup was that, the waitress would come with a trolley and there would be your tofu soup as pictured above, and then there would be a stone bowl with your rice in it. Then she would scrape the rice and put it in the metal container that was beside the soup in the previous picture. There would be a little leftover rice sticking to this stone bowl, and she would pour this tea in it. She told me that it was for cleansing at the end of my meal. Pretty interesting! I’m guessing if she didn’t pour the tea in it, then it would be like the crunchy rice in bibimbaps! I tried the rice with the tea at the end of my meal, and indeed it was quite cleansing! It was like rice tea… well that was literally what it was. The most interesting part of my meal for sure.

Overall, I wouldn’t say House of Tofu Soup is anything amazing. I actually prefer the Han Ju Tofu Hot Pot, which is pretty much the same thing, although I heard they changed names. House of Tofu Soup would definitely be able to fit larger parties though. Prices were decent, but nothing too special. It might be a place I would go again if I ran out of choices and was around the neighborhood.

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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!

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.

Tokyo Joe’s Sushi Factory

September 9, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

Salmon Maki, Chopped Scallop Roll

I wanted a quick snack after work, so off I went to Tokyo Joe’s Sushi Factory. They always have extremely friendly service, with all the employees greeting you with Japanese upon entering and leaving. It’s also extremely busy during lunch and dinner hours, and they are also known as a great place for take out. I got my usual favourite – Salmon Maki and Chopped Scallop Roll. They were both as usual, quite average, but not terrible. They are always consistent with their food, and although they are nothing fancy, they are the right quality for the price of the food. Overall, great place for a quick meal!

Leisure Tea & Coffee

August 23, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Shaved Ice with caramel pudding, tapioca pearls, red bean, peanuts, raisins and much more..I don’t remember!

Strawberry Crepe

Revisit for Leisure again! I swear I revisit this place too often… But that’s cause the food and drinks are so good! This time, I decided to try their crepes. I got the Strawberry Crepe and it was presented really nicely. The middle was filled with lots of strawberries, and then it was topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. I found the strawberries a little sour, but the ice cream helped add some sweetness to it. Not bad!

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.

L.A. Grill and Bistro

August 20, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Curry Penne served with Garlic Bread – olives, tomatoes & onions in curry cream sauce

Grilled Chicken Pesto Sandwich – toasted whole wheat bread with grilled chicken breast topped with house-made pesto, melted mozzarella, served with roasted potatoes & green salad

L.A. Grill and Bistro used to be a place I went with my friends back in high school. It was cheap with large portions, and their daily specials always attracted us back when we were students. Especially since I’ve moved away from that neighborhood, I haven’t been to Blundell Mall for quite a while. It’s kind of out of my way, but since I hadn’t had it since..probably high school, J and I decided to revisit it.

I got the Curry Penne, which was alright. The curry soup is definitely not the curry you get at Asian restaurants. It’s the westernized curry, which isn’t my favourite compared to Asian curry, but still not bad. All that pasta totally filled me up though.

You can’t expect any high quality food at L.A. Grill and Bristo, but the portions are definitely filling for the price you pay. It’s also got a very nice casual environment, and I think they offer some pretty good deals for late night snacks now too.

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.