All Entries in the "Japanese" Category
Shibuyatei on Sexsmith Road and Bridgeport Road in Richmond
Jennifer wrote to Ben recommending this sushi and larmen restaurant. Since Ben is not around, he forwarded the recommendation to me because he knows the boys would love to go to a Japanese restaurant.
Shibuyatei Sushi and Larmen is located at the corner of Sexsmith Road and Bridgeport Road. Parking is available in front (just a few) and at the back of the restaurant.
The menus are pasted in the board in front of the counter. There is also a chalk board menu.
You order at the counter. This is a small place with 7 tables which seats 14 people. It’s a one man operated mom and pop place. The chef told me that they had opened for business since August 2011.
I ordered the Charsyumen as recommended by Jennifer. There seemed to be a price reduction as the printed menu showed that the original price was $11.50 and now it’s $10.80.
Charsyumen is ramen with fully cooked pork with soy sauce flavoured soup. There were five of six big slices of pork in the bowl. Other fixings include … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Yuu Japanese Tapas on Sexsmith Road in Richmond
It was BC day. Nanzaro had gone to Playland with his friends. The three of us went out for lunch. Ben wanted noodle soup. We kind of debating on whether we should go for Vietnamese Pho or Japanese Ramen.
We ended up at Continental Plaza. G-Men was still closed as we had noticed sometime ago. Our second choice was New Asia Deli which is a Vietnamese Restaurant. Unfortunately, it was closed too for summer vacation or something like that. Then, we were attracted to this quite new Japanese Tapas restaurant which took over the Purity Vegetarian Restaurant. There were colourful posters of ramen on their door. That’s it, we will take it.
The interior is clean and neat. There are banquettes that line one side of the wall while booth seats on the opposite side. The flat screen tv on the wall was displaying some of the Japanese dishes and it shows how it’s made, etc.
There were Japanese written menu on the wall too.
Service was prompt. We were served green tea after we sat down.
Ben ordered the Hell Fire Ramen. The name of the dish sounds very intimidating. As the name indicates, it is very spicy. The Hell Fire Ramen has Japanese style char siu (BBQ pork), half an half boiled egg, bamboo shoot, bean sprout, corn and green onions. On the menu, the price of this is $8.99 but … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Fukuroku Sushi Express at Real Canadian Superstore on No.3 Road, Richmond
This is another mother and sons dined out while Ben was in Beijing. I had to go to Real Canadian Superstore to do some groceries shopping. I wanted to get the boys out with me for lunch too in order to kill two birds with one stone. With the high gas price nowadays, I try to run as many errands in one go.
I had promised the boys to have sushi for lunch. Initially, we intended to go to Jun Sushi but the moment we came out from the house, it started to rain. So, we changed our plan to go to Fukuroku Express at the Real Canadian Superstore since it has underground parking. Anyway, it is still sushi.
At first I thought this is a very small place for fast Japanese food as the word express implies. Surprisingly, it is fairly big which seats about 25 to 30. This is a self service place, i.e. you order and pay at the counter and help yourself with the water at a corner of the counter too. They only serve cold and hot water.
When the food is ready, you’ll pick up your food from the counter. There are lots of picture menu pasted all over the place which makes ordering easier. Even their take out menu is all loaded with pictures.
You can click on the menu above for larger view.
I decided to go for … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Gyo-O Japanese Restaurant, Richmond
I have a new project and Suanne hates me for it.
It is called the “Japanese Cuisinization of Suanne”. I had been pushing her to give raw fish a try. I roped in Arkensen and Nanzaro to put collective pressure on her. Each time she just coolly tell us “I just don’t like raw fish”. End of story.
Actually it was not that hard to break Suanne down. She is simply just too sweet and will do anything for her boys at home. My point of attack is Chirashi. It is something that was just milling around my mind over and over again. I had never tried it before and I wanted to try it. I wanted to try it WITH Suanne.
When I asked on Facebook and Tweeter a good place for Chirashi, back came a number of suggestions. One of them was Gyo-O. I like that name. I think it is pronounced as “Ghee-Yoh-Oh”. Is that correct? Whatever it is I will call it “Ghee-Yoh-Oh”.
Anyway, when I declared that we are having Japanese and we are driving outside of Richmond AND that mummy is going to try raw fish dish, the boys let out a cheer and gave me high fives. Suanne on the other hand refused to even look at me as she muttered “OK”.
Gyo-O is part of the Gyoza King group which operates several excellent Japanese restaurants. Among them includes Nanchuu on Alexandra Rd, Richmond and G-Men Ramen just across the parking lot from Gyo-O. They use to also have their name on a food cart in Richmond called Grazy-Dog but I don’t see them around anymore.
Gyo-O is located on the Continental strip mall on Sexsmith and Cambie.
Lovely joint. Excellent service.
The walls had this wooden panels with Japanese words on them. It was all over the restaurant. I have no idea what they were but if you ask me to guess, they could be their menu.
The service is very Japanese. Very courteous. I had never been to a Japanese restaurant where we had poor service before. Have you ever encountered bad service in a Japanese restaurant before? It is just how the Japanese people are and how this is all ingrained deeply in their culture.
The young waitress who served us speaks English in a heavy Japanese accent. This restaurant is definitely a … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Ramen Sanpachi on West Broadway, Vancouver
Polly and I visited Ramen Sanpachi on West Broadway for our cake meet. Since Ramen Sanpachi only opens for lunch at 11:30 am, we had plenty of time to pass. We spent more than an hour at the Chapters at Granville and Broadway, browsing books.
The reason we picked Ramen Sanpachi because we saw their promotion in the Klip magazine. During the week that we went, they were offering a 50% off for Yatai Ramen and 30% off for a few other ramen like Miso, Shoyu, Shio and Spicy Ramen.
The above is their lunch menu. They are mostly ramen with some side orders. You may click on the menu to view larger.
The above are their dinner menu which has much more varieties like vegetarian, salad, oyster, sashami, rolls, seafood, meat, hotpot and dessert. We noticed that they have half size ramen after 5:00 PM for $6.95. The menu is clickable for clearer view.
Ramen Sanpachi has a narrow setup. There are booth seats which line both sides of the walls. Ramen Sanpachi has a bar that serves sake.
We ordered the Yatai Ramen … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Tokyo Joe’s Sushi Factory on Ackroyd Road, Richmond
I don’t plan to blog about this place so soon and wanted to blog only sometime next week. But I think I better just go ahead and write about it since we accidentally published an unfinished post yesterday. So here goes.
Tokyo Joe’s is one of those place we would have never been to up until a few weeks ago. Our boys love sushi but the thing is, Suanne hates sushi. We are trying to get her to learn to love uncooked food so that we can visit more Japanese restaurants. Believe it or not … until today I had never been to a Izakaya before and ironically Suanne had. She went to Guu in Aberdeen.
In other thing that prevents us from giving Tokyo Joe’s a second glance is the name. It’s full name is Tokyo Joe’s Sushi Factory. The words “Joe” and “Factory” just does not evoke images of quality sushi.
We went this time. The boys wanted sushi and I said I will not go for sushi if mummy does not take at least one piece of sushi. Hehehe … that worked. Suanne will do anything for the boys. Of course just so that she does not back out, we all shook hands to seal the deal.
This place is … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Miyabi Sushi and Ramen on Ackroyd Road, Richmond
- Updated 16th Dec 2011; This restaurant had closed according to Urbanspoon.com.
Arkensen and Nanzaro loves sushi. Mummy hates sushi.
That is the reason why we don’t go for sushi much. Suanne is one of those who just can’t understand why anyone would like uncooked food. :-)
So every time when I suggest we go for Japanese, the boys will immediately say sushi and mummy will say ramen.
The Miyabi Sushi and Ramen restaurant is just the perfect restaurant for us to keep familial harmony. Normally, you find Japanese restaurants that either serves sushi or ramen but this one serves both. I can see this sort of combination working in Richmond.
Miyabi is new and located on Ackroyd Road. They took over the spot vacated by Specialty Chicken and Wonton House who moved a few door down.
Miyabi is Chinese owned and operated from what I can tell. The workers speaks Chinese but that is not a concern for us.
This is a 40 seater restaurant with mostly booth seats. There are also 6 counter seats too. It is clean, neat and comfortable.
Service is fast and efficient — down to business in every respect. The drinks and menu came the moment we got seated. Every time we needed anything we got it.
The menu is quite normal. Nothing really special about it. The menu looks like it is pretty much laid out for the Chinese customers because there is a sizeable section for Ramen and Donburi.
There is also another section for their specialty rolls which is pretty pricey at $9.
We were more interested in their Lunch Special which consists of combos off their main menu. This special is applicable from opening time and extends all the way to 5 PM.
Suanne made sure she has first pick, saying that she only wants Ramen and nothing else. She knows what she wants already. She wanted the Ramen lunch special.
So she had the … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Dinner at Top Gun J&C on McKim Way and Garden City, Richmond
We went to dinner at a canteen. Actually we had a feast in a canteen. And it was not just any canteen. It was Buddha Boy and Girl’s (BB&G) personal canteen.
The Top Gun J&C Restaurant is known as BB&G’s personal canteen because they eat there all the time. I think it must be AT LEAST once a week. LOL! They had eaten here so many times that they had loaded over 200 pictures of the food they had on Urbanspoon (see link here) … on just this one restaurant alone! So no one argues with BB&G when they declare that Top Gun J&C is their personal canteen.
The thing is we need to hear from them why they always go to this restaurant. They claim they don’t own shares in this restaurant. Do you believe that? Let’s see how they “defend” this. LOL!
After reading so much on this canteen, we asked BB&G to organize a chowdown there. We just gotta see what it is that makes them go back again … and again … and again … and again ….
So nine people went to this dinner and it was well represented too. Representing the foodie group were Crispy Lechon, Doris and Joyce. We even have Derek of PanDa Fresh Bakery … yeah, the very pleasant young chap who is behind the Croissant Bus. Representing the foodie bloggies are Elaine of O My Sweet Tooth who I declare is the second prettiest food blogger in Vancouver. The host is BB&G and of course chowtimes (represented one half by the prettiest food blogger in Vancouver and I think one half by the handsomest food blogger).
So there you go … we have people who eat food, people who sells food and people who writes about food. What more can one ask for?
Actually we had been to this restaurant before but it was for dim sum. I still remember that dim sum (post here) with JS and TS and ET and Christina. Oh BTW, after a hiatus of five months(!), ET and Christina had started blogging again. Go to their site and drop them some comments to spur them on to blog more!
Top Gun J&C is part of a group of well known restaurants. Their restaurants includes
- Garden City Hot Pot in Richmond
- Kingsway Sushi on Kingsway, Vancouver
- Richmond Sushi in Richmond
- Top Gun Sushi in New Westminster
However, Top Gun J&C is the flagship restaurant. The name of J&C stands for Japanese and Chinese but I think it refers to the cuisine that the GROUP specializes on and not that this particular restaurant serves both Chinese and Japanese food. This restaurant is primarily a Chinese restaurant.
While waiting for everyone to turn up, we had something to munch on. They served us XO sauce and peanut.
The XO Sauce has chunky ingredients with lots of dried shrimps — quite big ones and they were rather chewy. While this is nice, I find that the best is still the ones that I had in Western Lake (picture here).
Buddha Boy recommended that we mix the XO Sauce with the peanuts. It was good and because BB&G knows the restaurant so well, we could ask for as many servings as we wanted. Remember? This is their canteen?
We started with Tea Smoked Duck (香茶鴨). This is NOT something from the restaurant at all. BB&G bought this from a place that they refuse to tell us where. There is a story behind this tea smoked duck.
Some of you may remember that Alvin Garden won the Silver award for the Duck Category in the 2010 Chinese Restaurant Award (see this post). Well, according to BB&G, Alvin Garden did not make the smoke duck at all and yet they won silver. We were told that Alvin Garden got their award winning duck dish from another supplier who smokes them at home! LOL!
So, BB&G went out of their way to get the duck from their secret supplier and brought it to us to try — so sweet of them. The duck is very nice but slightly different from Alvin Garden’s (who briefly deep fried it). Word has it that the duck is marinated for a week and smoked for 3 days.
The first dish was the Winter Melon Soup (冬瓜盅). It was a good start … the soup was steamed in the winter melon itself.
The soup was … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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