Chow Times » Hong Kong

Sensus Bistro on Capstan Way, Richmond

Ben — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:07:47 +0000

We had passed by Sensus Bistro many times before.

But the thing is that we had never had the urge to go in and check it out … until now. You know what I think? I think it is because they have dark windows throughout the frontage that firstly you cannot see what’s in it. For us, we were a bit hesitant too because we were not sure what this place is. With a name like Sensus, who knows it’s like a bar or something which we do not normally go.

Sensus Bistro is located in Union Square on Capstan Way in Richmond. This is the place where Liu’s Taiwanese, Han Ju Hot Pot, Pho Queen and Richmond Sushi is, to name a few.

When we walk past this time on the way to @Ease, we notice the poster above pasted on the entrance. It looks like it is a Hongkong Style Cafe in the likes of Bauhinia … an upscale, more expensive type of HK Style Cafe. We thought this would be a much better idea than @Ease and decided to lunch here instead.

Don’t be misled by the empty looking restaurant above. We were there early for lunch as we normally do (i.e. it was just after 11AM). So they had just opened and the lunch crowd had not started trickling in. By noon, the place was packed. Sensus is obviously a popular restaurant and we had not heard of anyone talking about them before.

The decor is modern … OK, relative to all other HK Style Cafes. It is clean and well maintained. We had a good feeling about this place. If we had not pushed opened the door and walked in, we will have never discovered this place. If you ask me, the dark windows should go.

They have a relatively large menu with the same kind of offerings you find in Bauhinia. It is in color and have selected dishes pictured on it too. I had taken a few pictures of their menu and put them way down this post. Check that out.

On the table was this thingy above showing their special. I already know what I wanted. I had always wanted to try this (at Bauhinia). It is expensive though … $18 but on Thursday it is a special of the day at $14.

It sure is a mouthwatering chunk of meat isn’t it?

I ordered this with spaghetti on the side. The spaghetti is very well made … not too soft and firm to the bite.

While it is really nicely deep fried and crispy on the outside and the meat is tender and juicy inside, the pinkishness of the meat really puts me off. As for the taste …
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Lido Restaurant in Richmond, Revisited

Ben — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 04:02:06 +0000

This is going to be a quickie post. Am posting this since we got pictures taken and did not want it to go to “waste”.

We had been to Lido numerous times ever since we first discovered this place almost two years ago. As a matter of fact, this is our favourite restaurant if we do not need to go eat at a new place for this blog.

We like Lido because it is cheap and serves good food too. So, the day after we returned from our Spain vacation, we went to Lido for good old comfort food.

Lido is always busy. There is always a line during peak dining hours. You gotta leave your name with the waiters who doesn’t even issue you a number. So, you gotta have your ears peeled in case they call you.

Lido’s specialty is their Pineapple Bun (known as Bolo Bau in Cantonese). If you have never tried this before you must order this. This is so popular that you gotta order this when you leave your name for a table. This is because they are almost always taken the moment they take it out of the oven — serious, I am not kidding.

And the Bolo Bau is best eaten hot out of the oven. I dare to swear that they have the best Bolo Bau in Metro Vancouver … and maybe even the best outside of Hongkong too.

Lido is a Hongkong Style Cafe and that means …
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Bauhinia Restaurant on Granville Ave and St Albans, Richmond

Ben — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:00:35 +0000

Everyone in the whole family loves HK Style Cafes. We thought that we had been to all of the HK Style Cafes but there is one that was completely not on our radar. We only found out about this reading Wendy’s post on Eat N About.

We had passed by Bauhinia many times before. We thought that it was just a fancy and expensive Chinese restaurant never thinking that could have been a HK Style cafe. You see, HK Style Cafes are not supposed to be this nice looking.

Bauhinia is located on Granville and St Albans. Parking in front of the strip mall while plentiful, is always a challenge because there are two very popular restaurants located in the same row. Many people may not realize that there are parking too around the back of this strip mall which you access from St Albans.

Bauhinia is certainly more cleaner and organized than most other HK Style Cafes. They are upscale HK Style Cafe as evidenced by their pricier menu. There are a lot of items with the words steak and lobsters in it.

Even the customers here dress up better than you see in places like Lido and Kam Do (where it is not uncommon to see customers with uncombed hair).

Service was polite and very Cantonese. We spoke in English and while the waitress understands English perfectly, she spoke mostly in Cantonese.

It was Father’s Day when we visited here … it was MY day and the boys said that the lunch is on them!

Like all HK Style Cafe, there is the common Milk Tea. Maybe it is my perception that this place is more upscale, I swear that Bauhinia’s Milk Tea is richer and stronger than other similar places. Hot Milk Tea comes together with the meals we ordered but it costs $1 extra for cold ones.

I never quite figure out why it would cost $1 for cold milk tea. I mean, it is just adding ice cubes to the glass and the volume of milk tea in the glass is just a little more, if not the same, with the cup.

Suanne ordered the Seasoned Prawns with Curry Rice. The dish alone is $15 but we ordered the Combo version ($18) which included soup, dessert and a beverage.

The presentation of the dish is very nice with a pleasing balance of color. The center piece of the dish has to be the 8 big prawns arranged around the plate. The prawns were flavorfully seasoned with curry powder and tasted fresh and springy.

The yellowish curry powder flavoured rice is additionally flavoured with
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Boston Steakhouse on Alexandra and Hazelbridge, Richmond

Ben — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:00:55 +0000

Sometimes I don’t even know how to explain this.

At times, Suanne and I do not balk at spending $100 for a dinner for two. But for some reason, we can never bring ourselves to spending half that much in a Richmond restaurant. I don’t know why.

We passed by Boston Steakhouse virtually once a week but we had never wanted to visit that place. It was because we thought it would be overly expensive. That was until Wendy and Boyfriend went and blogged about it.

The Boston Steakhouse is located right at the intersection of Alexandra Rd and Hazelbridge Way. Parking is quite limited here because most of the parking spots are marked reserved for the neighboring businesses. There was this guy at the carpark who signaled to us to just park anywhere. Even though it was on a Saturday evening where all business were closed, we did not want to chance it and waited for an empty spot to come free.

Boston Steakhouse is very much like a Hongkong Style Cafe except that it is a tad more neater and they serve primarily steaks. The decor was modern but otherwise quite uncoordinated. Why … they even use plastic table cloth here.

Service wise, we like it better here compared to the other HK Style Cafes. They came with water very quickly and then proceeded to point to us their specials of the day. It was written on a chalkboard and all in Chinese. We said we can’t read and the young waiter translated slowly to us each and every item on the board. Such patience is something you don’t find in a lot in Richmond restaurants. LOL!

As in all HK Style Cafes, you get free buns, drinks, soup and sometimes dessert with the main dish. At the Boston Steakhouse,we were given the typical buns. These type of sweet and soft buns are called charn bau, or literally translated as dinner buns. I like that they served this warm because it melts the butter the moment you spread them on.

For drinks, I opted for Yinyong, a delightful cold mixture of Coffee and HK Style Milk Tea. Boston Steakhouse had a few more variety of drinks. Suanne selected the Honey Kumquat with Lime.

For the free soup, we had the Borscht soup. This is HK style Borscht soup where it is more like tomato soup. It was rich and tastes good.

The other soup they had was the Cream Soup. It was a bit too runny and quite bland to us even though it had quite a bit of ham pieces in it.

Now … this main is interesting. Boston Steakhouse calls this Kobe Beef Stone Grill. For a Kobe Beef this is $29. I could not believe it is Kobe beef, certainly not at this price. I had to ask the waiter exactly what kind of a Kobe Beef this is. I had a chuckle when he said it is the type that is from Kobe, Japan. Anyway, I just had to try this. Moreover it came served in a hot stone grill.

The waiter brought it to the table and I was looking at it and for a while did not know what to do. There was a big slab of beef rolled up and resting on top of some onions rings. I was not sure if it will just cook like that on the stone grill (don’t laugh OK, I had never tried this before!).

So I swallowed my pride and asked the waiter … what now?
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Delicious Cuisine on Alderbridge Way, Richmond

Ben — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:00:40 +0000

Do you know how many Richmond area restaurant reviews we had done so far? 145. One would have thought that pretty much covers all the major restaurants. But no … I won’t be surprised that for every one we had reviewed, there are perhaps 10 which we have never step into before.

Who knows, right? Maybe Richmond has the highest concentration of Asian restaurants in North America.

Delicious Cuisine is one of those places we had always know about but for some reason we have never step into it before. Come to think of it, we had always kept our eyes peeled on the east side of No 3 Road and had pretty much ignored anything on the western side.

Delicious Cuisine is located on the strip mall on Alderbridge Way and No 3 Road. If you are looking for the signboard that says Delicious Cuisine, you will not find it. The sign outside is actually Zephyr in the Sky — that is the old name.

We were kind of confuse too. The sign outside the restaurant and behind the bar area shows that it’s called Zephyr in the Sky. All other things like the menu and even the paper mats says Delicious Cuisine.

So we asked the really friendly waitress why the two names. She explained that it’s the same restaurant … the same chef, the same owner and same staff. They started to change their image and name about one month ago and the makeover will take some more time.

It was pretty quiet when we were there. That is despite that it was lunch time on a weekend. The place was spacious and had a lot of different seating configurations. There were private rooms, areas with sofa and U-shaped booths.

Service was great. We always enjoyed it when the waitress do not mind us asking questions. As a matter of fact, she was quite eager to speak to us. It helps too since the restaurant was not that busy.

They had a new menu along with the new image and name. The menu is a mix of Taiwanese and Hongkong Style cafe food. They told us they are also trying to introduce dim sums in their restaurant too.

We like this kind of menu … they have pictures along with English names.

We placed our orders on the order form. Despite it being in Chinese, we just need to cross-reference the numbers on the menu and select what we wanted. Prices are indicated on the order form.

We had Pu Erh Chinese tea with chrysanthemum flavor. It was really thick. We like this because of its purported healthy properties in lowering cholesterol and weight loss. High quality Pu Erh tea leaves could cost hundreds of dollars.

Nanzaro ordered the less healthier modern tea … the Mocha Milk Tea. This is about $4.50 and came in a very tall glass. The glass was at least 10 inches tall.

The boys chooses to have their own dishes. They don’t like sharing dishes. We let them decide what they wanted for themselves but for Suanne and I, we went to choose two “zhong” (is that how you spell dishes in Cantonese?).

The first dish was the House Special Smoked Duck. I was more drawn to the words “House Special” because that indicates it is their specialty. The Smoked Duck was good but I do wish they had a more meatier cut and lesser bones. It was quite boney and you perhaps can imagine how sharp duck bones are compared to chicken. The taste and smell of smokiness is pronounced. They did this very well and is $8. Rice are extra though ($1 each).

The other dish we had was even better. It is called the Deep Fried Shrimp with Salted Egg Yolk. Surprisingly it is just $6.75. Both Suanne and I loved the creaminess from the egg yolk. It is the egg yolk that makes this stands apart from the normal Deep Fried Shrimp dishes. The prawns were both succulent and quite fat too. They are deep fried so well that even the shells are edible.

The really best part of this dish is …

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Cattle Cafe on Alexandra Road, Richmond

Ben — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:00:22 +0000

I was telling Suanne that Vanessa (who we had never met) is like our eating consultant. This time she brought to our attention of a new Hongkong Style Cafe in Richmond.

Come to think about it, we had not come across any new Hongkong Style Cafes for quite a long time. It is like Hongkong Style Cafes out of fashion these days along with Vietnamese Pho and Taiwanese Beef Noodle Houses. Instead there are more and more mainland Chinese restaurants, particularly Shanghainese and Szechuan. I think it is due to the shifting demographics of the Chinese immigrants to Richmond the past few years.

Cattle Cafe is located on the Alexandra Road in Richmond. Alexandra Road is the “wai sek kai” of Richmond. Concentrated on this block is some of the better restaurants ranging from cheap eats to high class restaurants with chandeliers. The parking on this street is impossible especially during dinner time on weekends.

Cattle Cafe is new alright. Everything is so sparkling clean and new. The decor is bright with clean lines … certainly a lot better looking than the oldies like Kam Do, Silver Tower, Lido, E-Canteen and such. The place is not too big, perhaps half the size of Kam Do.

It was quite busy when we were there and had to wait for a table. Talking about tables, BOTH our tables were unbalanced and shakey for the good part of the time we were there. For as long as I remember, I had not come across having an unbalanced table, let alone two. I blame it on their relative newness and oversight. No big deal but it was downright annoying when one is having noodle soup.

You gotta love these type of new places where everything is new. Even the cutleries are shiny.

Service too was very quick and eager — we like that and does feel our patronage was appreciated.

Their menu is where they are different from all the other Hongkong Style Cafes. Instead of huge menu itemizing every single combination possible, Cattle chooses to do it choose-and-mix style.

For instance, their Self-Pick Noodles Combo allows you to assemble your own noodle by selecting a soup base, choice of two toppings, the noodle type and a beverage. You may sort of upgrade for a price. It is not just combo for noodles but also for congee and toasts too. It’s a good way for their customer to have their food the way they need it.

Suanne is getting smarter these days. You see, there is an unwritten rule that we cannot order the same food … this is because we are bloggers and we want to try as many different ones as possible. She used to end up with the short end of the stick after the boys and I get all the better ones first. Suanne is fast these days … she will “chop” the signature dishes before we even get the chance to say what we wanted.

So Suanne ended up with the Self-Pick Noodle Combo … which is just $7. I think it is a good deal. She had the Szechuan Spice Soup Base. I tried to influence her to get the Laksa Soup Base because I see a lot of other people having that. No deal, she said. For toppings, she had pork intestines and fish puffs. For noodles, she had rice noodles (I thought egg noodles is a better combination). Hot Milk Tea was her choice of beverage.

The bowl was big. Certainly more than enough for one person. The soup base was spicy and flavourful but the best thing is …

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Late Night Supper at E-Canteen in Richmond

Ben — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:00:41 +0000

It was one of those nights.

We are not night time eaters. As a matter of fact, we have our dinners rather early, as early as 5PM everyday. That night we were just hungry at 9PM even though we had the normal meals. At the time of the night the options are somewhat limited as we could think of only three places … Hon’s, #9 Restaurant or E-Canteen.

We like E-Canteen. We can’t quite figure out why. Maybe it’s because it is so predictable … getting there is easy without getting tangled in the nightmarish No 3 Road traffic. Or maybe it was because parking is so predictably available despite the relatively small size of the parking lot. Maybe too it is because they make respectable Laksa and has a wide variety of food. But we do like the service … it is not that it is superb but they are responsive and sincere. It is also very family oriented.

I know … we also like the free beverages which came with most items on the menu. Sometimes I feel that it is a great idea that every restaurant should come up with a menu which includes drinks for every dish. I mean, build in the price of the standard drinks. I think many people would appreciate it … we would.

Guess again … who ordered the Fried Rice. Nanzaro can finish this whole dish by himself. It is Salted Fish Fried Rice … my boys’ favourite. $7.
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Tai Hing Congee and Noodle House in Richmond

Ben — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 15:00:13 +0000

It snowed the night before. It was one of those mornings, you know. The air was chilly and we all wanted more than just cereals for breakfast. We wanted something warm, hot and I could see Suanne hinting under her breath that she wanted to not make breakfast that morning. She does it ever so subtly … like commenting there are not enough eggs for everyone and that we are down to only two Costco croissants. LOL!

The boys were too lazy to go out and so was I. The main problem was not so much as the drive and all … it is because we gotta brush our teeth, take a bath and put on going-out clothes. That is Suanne’s rules. It is like a formal event or something. Before we go out, Suanne will insist we all must, at the minimum, take a bath, brush our teeth, comb our hair and put on street cloths. This time she compromised … she allowed us to go out “as is” as long as she does not have to make breakfast. Deal … we said!

So we all gingerly rescued our yesterdays clothing from the laundry basket and pull it over our head (after taking a quick whiff it is humanly acceptable). We quickly combed our hair using our fingers and made sure we zipped our mouth unless absolutely necessary during the short drive. Suanne, being the ever so prim and proper, went through the rituals. She kept very quiet during the drive because I can see that she was beginning to turn blue from holding her breadth. It was not that bad, really … and it’s all in her mind, we told her. We assured mum that once we take our first bite, the smell will theoretically dissipate.

We knew about this place called Tai Hing. It is very well known for being cheap and no frills kind of a breakfast place. This is exactly the type of place where 73% of the people comes in without combing their hair.

Tai Hing was absolutely full that morning, and I assume like every morning too from the looks of it. Some people had to wait for a table outside the restaurant in the frigid weather. They are highly popular because of one thing … their food is simple and their prices cheap. OK, that is two things.
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Happy Date Bakery and Restaurant on Park Road, Richmond

Ben — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:24:43 +0000

Hey … does anyone of you feel the economic hardship coming your way yet? Until now, I have not heard of anyone I know who had lost their job but me think it’s the calm before the storm. So, we thought we should start looking at spending a bit lesser on dining out.

When we think about budget, no frills meal, we often head off to Happy Date. It just dawned on us that despite being there so many times, we had never gotten down to blog on them.

Happy Date is located on Park Road just off where the Richmond City Hall is. It is a very popular Hongkong Style eatery. Like many HK style cafes, they also have a bakery but I don’t really think highly of their bakery. I much prefer the ones found in The Boss, Kam Do and particularly Lido.

We had always visited Happy Date for breakfast which is always packed with people. This was the first time we were there for dinner. We were kind of surprised that the restaurant is half empty. We expected it to be just as packed as breakfast.

They gave us free soup. They looked like they had been in the pot for weeks. I don’t know what to make of it really. It doesn’t taste bad at all but it’s just that such lotus plus pork soup should be a lot more clearer. The boys did not want to touch it.

You-know-who ordered this. Sigh … I don’t want to talk about it except that it costs $9.

Between Suanne and I, we ordered two main dishes to share. The Oyster Omelette costs $10.80 came in a really big plate. We figure they must have used at least 6 eggs for this judging from the size of it. It had salted radish and ginger besides, of course, oysters.

It was OK except that it’s somewhat overcooked. We prefer it to be slightly undercooked with a bit of runny eggs — like this.

The Sea Cucumber Hotpot was quite expensive at $15.80. The reason is it is just a normal hot pot. We counted only about 5-6 pieces of small sea cucumber in it.

We like sea cucumber for the texture of it. There is a belief that it has aphrodisiac properties but let me confirm to you that it has no effect on me — nor do I need the said properties. LOL! Maybe I need a few more pieces.

They gave us Mango Pudding as dessert. We sure did not order this but since it’s free, we gobbled them up.

Our bill came up to $45 including tips and taxes. Frankly, for $45, I could think of a few other places with better food and deal than Happy Date. Still, Happy Date is one of our favourite breakfast place.

7th Heaven in Richmond’s Aberdeen Center

Ben — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 02:30:52 +0000

I can’t recall which one but there is a Vancouver Food blog that did a review of the 7th Heaven Cafe in Richmond not too long ago. If it was not for that blog (which gave a rather good review), I would not have know it is there.

The 7th Heaven Cafe is basically a HK-Style Cafe. It is located on the first floor of the Aberdeen Mall in Richmond. It is really tucked behind the Northern Delicacy restaurant and one would not know of its existence if not for a banner they put up.

It is definitely a much more cleaner place than most HK-Style Cafe. They apparently allow the rental of the entire place for events during certain days of the week for a minimum charge of $2000 or $3000 … something like that. Our boys like this place simply because they have free wifi here.

Food wise, their menu shows a wide variety. Their Laksa (which they spelt as Larsar on their menu) looked pretty but does not even have a kick to it. They even have sweet corns in it. It looks like Laksa but does not in any way tastes like one. This one is $7.50.

We also order the Curry Lamb. From the looks of it, we knew that it is more of a “curry cream” and devoid of spices — indeed it was. They had two huge piece of lamb though but it was so tough and dry we did not finish it all.

One thing we observed … the dishes looked pretty and nice.

We also had the Hainanese Chicken Rice. The chicken was somewhat skinny. It was nothing to shout about, really.

Ginger and chilli sauce … a must have in any Hainanese Chicken rice.

The Sauteed Clam in White Wine Sauce costs quite a lot. I can’t recall exactly but it could have something like over $20. Again, presentation wise, it was really nice but it is just OK. I would say it is not worth the price.

All in all, we were not impressed with 7th Heaven. The whole place looked great with fun decor. The waiters and waitresses are young and looked quite professional. The dishes looked great. But that is as far as it goes. Frankly, we were quite disappointed. The boys were happy though … they had wifi.