All Entries Tagged With: "Chinese"

Chubby Lamb Hotpot Restaurant in Richmond

I can’t remember where the boys were or what they were doing — maybe they were at the movies with the neighbors.  After all, it was more than a month ago.  Suanne and I found ourselves alone and wondering what to eat for dinner.  We drove around for a bit before deciding to go for hot pot.  This is only our second hot pot dinner.  Our first was at the Posh Sukiyaki Restaurant which we enjoyed a lot.

There are a few Hot Pot restaurants in Richmond but we ended up with one that is located at the restaurant row on Alexandria in Richmond.  We blindly selected this place simply from it’s name.  Chubby Lamb sounded like a great place.

Being newbies in hot pot, we quickly learned that one MUST make a reservation for hot pot restaurants, especially the popular ones.  Actually before we went to Chubby Lamb, we went to another who told us that the next available table is in 2 hours!

Chubby Lamb was better … they told us they can accommodate us walk-in’ers but we have only 1 hour.  Take it or leave it, no choice and sorry, they said.  Not wanting to go to another place and quite bent on having hot pot that day, we said OK.

Mind you, hot pot places are basically AYCE’s (All-You-Can-Eat) places and so you can imagine how rushed we must have felt to gobble down as much as possible before our 1 hour is up.

BTW, Chubby Lamb charges $17.75 per person.

First, we ordered drinks.  They recommended what they call Sour Plum “Soup”.  That is the literal translation for this drink … soup.  We did not quite like it and such a waste too since they gave us an entire jug of it.

For the hot pot broth, they have lots of choices … about 6 to 8 if I recall correctly.  The soup is not free — they charge on top of the $17.75 per head AYCE price.  The hot pot broth ranges from $5 to $12.

We opted for the ying-yang … one plain broth and another spicy.  It surely does look spicy and were warned clearly enough that they are spicy.  To us, it was not too spicy … just alright.

We like their sauces.  They gave us four types … sesame, chili, BBQ and the normal soya sauce.  It was good experimenting what goes well with what sauce.

The problem is that they do NOT have English order forms.  The order forms are in Chinese.  They offered to pick for us but … he he he … we said no lest they give us only the cheap stuff.  We asked the waitress to read each item for us which we can see she was not too pleased because the place was so busy.

We ended up with quite a lot of food.  So much that they had to bring another side table to place the plates.

It was great.  Three things I remember about this … (1) the meat was really fresh, (2) the stock was good and (3) the prawns were huge.  For the price we paid, it was well worth it.

We ended up taking more than 1 hour.  Strange thing is they came and surprised us when they asked if we wanted to order more when our 1 hour is almost up.  They sort of insisted we order more and said that there are still more time.  I think they allowed us more time because we were conspicuously taking pictures and taking notes of the meal.  Being food bloggers have it’s advantages.  :-)

The total bill for the two of us came up to $51.35 ($57 with tips).  I recommend Chubby Lamb even though it is a bit more expensive than Posh’s.  You better make a reservation before you go, especially at peak dinner times.

Their address is 8391 Alexandra Road and their phone number is 604-303-8843.

Click the link below to see what we had.

restaurant restaurants

Popularity: 40% [?]

Two Brothers Chinese Restaurant and Cafe on Granville, Vancouver

We were actually trying to go to the The Place Restaurant for dinner the other day but found that they were closed.  Since we were quite hungry and did not want to go drive to another place, we decided to just walk along Granville St in the south side of Vancouver to look for another place to eat.

We found a place called Two Brothers which was kind of interesting for a name.  From their logo I would guess that it’s operated by two brothers … one who is suave to work in the dining room and another who is a master of the wok.  If you ask me, I would prefer to be the suave one — there is no glamor in being a Chinese chef.

This is a no frills place.  The furniture are tacky and the color coordinating atrocious.  Moreover, they uses the very practical plastic table cloth but I thought the choice of the patterns terrible.  The picture above does not look too bad does it not?  Somehow, the picture turn out OK but really if you are there, it does not look as good.  We also had a couple of bowl that were slightly chipped and dated which to many people is a no-no.

But looks alone could be deceiving as we later found out.

They have quite an extensive menu but they also have what they call the “Special Family Dinner”.  We ordered the Special Dinner for Three which for $35.95, we get to choose any three items from 65 dishes.  For that price, we also get free house soup, jelly fish, steamed rice and dessert.  Sounds like a good deal right?  It sure was.

The Jelly Fish was good as an appetizer.  It’s cold, spicy and had a certain crunch to it.  I like this and was wondering if one could normally make this at home.  Looks simple right?  Must have just been shredding the jelly fish and then marinating it in some sort of a dressing.

Next came the free house soup which is also pretty good.  I am not sure what you would call this but basically it has pork as the base flavour.

It is a bit saltier than I expected.  Otherwise, it was perfect.  A good indication is that they put in quite a bit of meat in this.  Some free house soup is made basically of bones.

The Pan Fried Pomfret with Soya Sauce smell so good when they served this.  It had been a long time since we had pomfret.  My mum used to make this a lot and I remember I always had at least three all by myself.  Here, we are given three to share between us.  It’s a bit sweet.  The best part is picking off the pieces of meat from the bones and head … something that Suanne enjoy doing most.

The Crispy Fried Chicken with Fish Sauce was equally delicious, particularly the crispy skin.  What I like about this is that it is not entirely fried dry but they also cook it off with the sweetness of fish sauce.

You know what I like most about this meat … it is the “jup”.  LOL!  Cantonese readers will know what “jup” is but what is the English word for it?  Gravy does not sound quite right.  But basically, “jup” is what give rice the flavour, and makes it great.

The third choice was the Spinach with Roasted Garlic Broth.  Oh yummy … so good that even the boys ate this.

The steamed rice was free as it is supposed to be … especially so with so much “jup”!  Someone must pass a law that says that all rice are free.  I don’t care if restaurants include the price of rice in their dishes but they should not charge it as a separate item.  Also they should make it all-you-can-eat rice.  Do you agree?

Dessert was quite OK but we were quite full already.  Suanne digs these stuff and so she had them all.

Well, for $36 it was really good.  This place is definitely a place we will come back to again some day.

They are located on 8532 Granville St (i.e. on Granville and 70th Ave, opposite Safeway).  Limited parking is available at the rear of the restaurant.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Golden Szechuan Restaurant on No 3 Rd in Richmond

We’re back from vacation and I must add, dead tired.  So, it’s back to normal programming.  I have about a week of dine out blog entries to go and right after that I will be sharing with you all the vacation Suanne and I had the past two weeks.

You might find this hard to believe but we had never been to a purely Szechuan restaurant before.  It is because we were unfamiliar with the food and also feared that ordering would be a problem as most of these authentic Chinese restaurants does not have (proper) menus in English.

Anyway, we decided to just go in an try the Golden Szechuan Restaurant which is located along No 3 Road in Richmond.  It is about across the road from the Yaohan Mall.  You will never miss it because this is perhaps the restaurant with the most imposing facade along the busy No 3 Road.

The restaurant is kind of upscale.  Well, not upscale, upscale but at least they have white table cloth and sturdier looking chairs.  We kind of always judge how much we would likely pay based on whether they use table cloth or not.

Szechuan food is reputed as being hot and spicy and it’s just not spicy but the numbing type of spiciness.

We ordered three items in all between the four of us.  The first one was the Hot Pot Chicken.  We thought we order that because it’s on their highly recommended list even though it was $29.95.

It was downright spicy and was quite good.  However, I must say that it really does not do justice to price we paid for this.  To us, it is just chicken and on top of it, it is really boney and has little meat.  I think perhaps that it is expensice is that the chicken used is what they called free-range chicken.

The other dish we had was the Boiled Beef with Chili.  To us, this one looks a lot like the Hot Pot Chicken except that it is not served in a hot pot and that this is beef instead of chicken.  This dish costs $13.

One thing you need to know is that Szechuan cooking is not healthy.  They use a lot of cooking oil, and I mean a heck lot.  Me thinks that we’re supposed to just drink it like we do soup or pour it on rice like we do gravy.  This will put a lot of people off.  However, I enjoy this a lot.  It’s OK having this once in a while, I guess.

My favourite is the what they called the Pepper Tofu (also $13).  Like the other dishes this is ultra spicy.  I think people have this generally as a snack or appetizer.  It is crunchy, spicy, and a tad salty.  Nice.

Rice is pretty expensive if you ask me.  We ordered a bucket for four people and for that we are charged $6 bucks.

Total bill came up to $65.  Expensive, would you say so?  Really, I think it is quite reasonable if only we did not order the $30 Hot Pot Chicken.  As we left, we noticed that there were quite a lot of unique dishes the other tables had.  One of them had something like raw pork strips which they serve hanging on a bamboo contraption … not sure what that was but it sure was interesting.  We’ll come back again someday to try that.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Neptune Sharkfin Seafood Restaurant on No 3 Road in Richmond

We had always thought that some of the worst time to go for dim sum is on a Saturday morning.  Generally, Chinese breakfasts are simple affairs but if one wanted something more substantial then the only breakfast to go for is dim sum.

BTW, for those of you uninitiated to the intricacies of dim sum, I have you know that dim sums are always served in the morning.  You can also get dim sums for lunch but never for dinner.  I don’t know the reason why — it just is.

The Neptune Sharkfin and Seafood Restaurant is one of the known dim sum places in Richmond.  You will never miss it on the No 3 Rd.  It is on the Richport strip mall on Akroyd.  Despite that prime location, we had only been there like once every two years.

As the name implies, it is basically a seafood restaurant serving really upscale dining options.  They have $398.80 dinner for two on their menu which includes dishes like shark fin, abalone, giant prawns, bird nest and stuff.  So, if you want to splurge, this is the place.

If you want to go cheap, they also have menu for six for only $128.

Neptune does not have push carts that delivers dim sum to your table.  You order them and they deliver it from the kitchen.  They were pretty fancy in that they have colored order forms.  The English translations helped.  Their specials and unique dishes are highlighted in red which makes selection easier.

For dim sum, their “happy hours” is 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM which a small selection is just $2.50 each.

Neptune is decidedly more cleaner and classier than most dim sum restaurants.  I am not making this up but I swear their customers dresses better too.  You know how it is in some dim sum places where the customer came without combing their hair, in shorts and looks like they just got out of bed.  Well, I was looking just like that and felt immediately out of place!

The tab came just under $40 which is not too bad considering how much we ordered.  We certainly will come back again someday.

The above is one of their special dishes.  It is called Abalone Buddhist Delicious Dumpling which costs $3.98.  It was alright … it’s just dumpling with better ingredients.

The Dried Oyster and Pork Rib Congee was good … much more better than the run of the mill congee elsewhere.

The Spare Ribs and BBQ on Rice is my favourite.  It was perfectly executed … the rice was steamed just right and not soggy.

More after the jump …

Popularity: 28% [?]

The Boss Bakery and Restaurant in Vancouver’s Chinatown

Vancouver’s Chinatown is known as the second largest Chinatowns in North America.  Only the one in San Francisco is larger than Vancouver’s.  Frankly, it had been on a decline for many years now.  We used to go to Chinatown often for food and groceries but no longer.  We could get what we wanted and more just about anywhere in Metro Vancouver these days.

Suanne and I decided to take a drive to Chinatown a weekend a few weeks ago.  The boys were off doing their air cadet stuff and we had time for our own.  We checked out a few places but many of the restaurants really looked very dirty.  The one that seems the cleanest is The Boss.

The Boss Bakery and Restaurant is located at the 500 block of Main St.  I believe they are the same restaurant as The Boss in Metrotown which I used to blog here.  (BTW, the one in Metrotown was closed the last time I pass by a couple of weeks ago … am not sure if they are undergoing renovation).

Don’t be deceived by the picture I took above.  It’s just that the angle shows a quite classy restaurant.  It is not!  It is by no means dirty but rather quite clean for a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown.

They gave a huge menu which they place under a glass top — just like they do in the Metrotown restaurant.  I know it’s kind of corny but it’s practical if you ask me.  I get seated and there is the menu right in front of me … no need to wait for the server to bring along one.

However, they have a very limited menu for breakfast and I mean very limited.  They only have the breakfast menu you see above and congee.

I had the congee which was quite good and has in it three types of meatballs, fish, shrimp and beef.  What I like most is the raw ginger they put into this.  For $4.75, it’s quite cheap.

Suanne had the Breakfast combo which included quite a lot of dishes … it includes the dinner roll above right down to all the items below!  The Boss is principally a bakery and they make great pastries.  The dinner roll were fresh out of the oven … soft and smell really good.

Next was the pork chop and eggs.  The pork chop was moist and juicy … really nice.

Suanne does not like eggs and so I had hers.  Sunny side up is the best if you ask me.  Now … for those of you who normally have eggs with ketchup, you MUST try it with white pepper and soya sauce.  This beats ketchup 1000 times.

The combo also included a Shredded Chicken with Pasta in Soup.  It was quite bland.  I am not a fan of these type of pasta in soup … it’s pretty tasteless but I guess it is popular because it’s a chockful of carbohydrates.

And … there’s a cup of beverage too for $1 extra.

The bill is only $11.29.  You can’t beat this place for value.  When you’re here, check out their Chinese pastries.

Popularity: 13% [?]

The Place on Granville, Vancouver South

LotusRapper (also goes by the name Saabken) recommended this place to us.  I tell you … this guy is a real foodie and sure knows his food.  The other day, he commented about this place called “The Place” where he claims that they have the best spicy beef noodle soup, we simply had to check it out for ourselves.

The Place is located at about 63rd on Granville in the southern part of Vancouver.  It is such a nondescript place that most people would not have noticed it let alone giving it a second glance.  But I tell you … it’s a gem of a place.

The Place is a no-frill smallish Chinese restaurant.  I don’t know how to categorize it … maybe the best way to describe it is it’s Mainland Chinese restaurant.  They serve both Shanghai and Sichuan dishes.

Service is excellent and I like the sweet and polite server which sometimes I find so wanting in many such restaurants.  She was so helpful in helping us choose the dishes as we could not read Chinese.  Although there were English translations on the menu, it does not do justice to the type of dishes they have.

The Place have very unique dishes and does seem very authentic.  The server recommended the Family Hot Pot (Chien Gar Fook in Cantonese).  It was great.  It is a clear and flavourful broth with lots of stuff in it … fishballs, vermicelli, sliced pork, and suey choy.  They also have stuffed bean curd skin and egg wrapped minced pork.  This is so good and excellent with rice — a real comfort food.

It came in a large pot that is more than enough for the four of us.  Although it’s pricey at $13.25, it is worth it.  You should try this.

The second dish recommended was the Boiled Spicy Fish.  It is a Sichuan style “Sui Gee Yee” — very, very spicy — very, very nice.  It is a big serving of fish filet with bean sprouts.  Suanne said that it is too salty for her.  I can’t say it’s salty for me as I was just dealing with the heat of this really spicy dish.

This dish costs $13.25.  You should order this if you like spicy Sichuan food.  It has a thick film of oil which may put some people off.

The Braised Pork Hand came served in a wooden bucket.  This is a Shanghainese dish, I believe.  The sauce at the bottom of the bucket is sweet and one must never waste this … it is very good with plain rice.  It’s so good I could just eat rice with the sweet sauce alone as a meal.

Again, this is not exactly very healthy food.  The best part of the meat is the thick fat layer of skin.  Yummy.

For $47, including taxes and tips, I find this value for money.  There were so much food left over we had them to go — we have enough left over for lunch the next day.  BTW, they only accepts cash.

I like The Place and will definitely go back again to check out their other dishes.  I know they are not very healthy food but they are really delish.  I highly recommend this place.  You MUST go.

Popularity: 13% [?]