Updated: 30th Dec 2014; This restaurant is closed according to Urbanspoon.com.
Suanne and I are beginning to find more time to ourselves these days. The boys are getting older and they are having more extra-curricular activities. It’s a sign that it’s going to be a few more short years before they will be spending even more time on their own.
With the boys involved in another of their activities, Suanne and I took the opportunity to check out Posh in Richmond. We had always been meaning to try this place for sometime already.
Posh is located at the strip mall by Sexsmith Road. There are three Posh’es within Metro Vancouver with the other two located on Broadway (Vancouver) and Kingsway (Burnaby).
Despite it being called a Sukiyaki restaurant, I had the distinct feeling it is more Chinese than anything. At least all the workers spoke Chinese.
I had always thought that it is a big restaurant but were quite surprised how small it is.
There are a few tables upstairs which seats about 20 people max. They optimize the seating by putting removable wooden partitions since it is just the two of us. It is OK for us and does give us a bit of privacy in the cramped seating arrangement.
I can’t recall exactly what Suanne ordered. I think it is called Green Sofa and had some apple flavour in it. It looked pretty for sure.
For me, I had the sake. To tell the truth, I had NEVER had sake in my life before. So when I ordered sake, they asked if I wanted it warm or cold, I had absolutely no idea what to order. I just chose warm. It was pretty good. It came in a small flask and a small cup.
This is a All You Can Eat place. We had to place our order on the chit provided.
First thing to choose is the soup. We had the Spicy Soup Base which costs $7. It was very spicy which was great. Posh claim that they brew this concoction of 15 herbs and 4 types of chilli over 7 days before serving.
There are extras that one could order like satay sauce for $1, Hot Sauce for $1, extra eggs, butter and vinegar for 50 cents. We ordered the satay sauce and really, the soup base is flavourful enough and we did not need it.
Tell me … I can’t tell the difference between Sukiyaki, Shabu-shabu and the Chinese hotpot and steamboat. You know what the differences are?
For some odd reason, they keep on telling us that we get one free egg each. They told us like four times. I am not sure what the big deal is really.
We saw our neighboring tables breaking the eggs and eating it raw as dip. If I did not see them eating this, I would have thought that we’re supposed to break it into the soup base. This adds a lot creaminess to the sukiyaki.
It was great, for me at least. Suanne don’t like eggs, especially raw ones. Good thing too because I got to have two eggs. Extra egg is 50 cents each. Next time I come, I’m gonna smuggle in my own eggs from home.
The star of the sukiyaki is their thinly sliced pork and beef. We ordered way too much … 12 trays in all! We had no idea how much a tray was and was shocked when they stacked it up on the table. We sheepishly finished it off because the order chit specifically said that “wasted meat will be $3/portion”.
Posh claim that they serve only premium Alberta beef. For Suanne and I, we can’t tell one type of beef from another. But it was awesome. It was great.
Besides the meats, there are over 30 other types of ingredients. There are no way we could try everyone of them. They offered to help us fill the order but we sort of declined in case they gave us only the cheap stuff. LOL!
I must say that the service was great and genuine. They were quite patient with us and took time to explain things for us. Seeing this being our first time, they came by often to check if we’re OK and if we wanted more. (We did not want more … we wanted them to take some away because we had over-ordered).
Total bill was $55 which was kind of pricey but we love every aspect of the meal.
Business Hour
Sun & Mon: 11:30 am – 3:00 pm | 5:30 pm – 11:00 pm
Tues: closed – | closed –
Wed & Thu: 11:30 am – 3:00 pm | 5:30 pm – 11:00 pm
Fri & Sat: 11:30 am – 3:00 pm | 5:30 pm – 12:00 am
Hi Ben,
I checked with a friend of mine whose spouse is Japanese. I could only differentiate them based on “small” differences – though to me they are almost exactly the same.
1) In the case of sukiyaki, all ingredients are cooked together. However, in the case of shabu-shabu some ingredients (notably meats) are cooked by swirling them in the boiling water/broth.
2) Because sukiyaki uses mirin (sweet sake), the broth tends to be sweeter than shabu-shabu (which tends to be more savoury).
3) Steamboat -> Hot Pot = shabu-shabu.
Not sure if this helps or confuses things a bit more!
Hi Ben,
I’m not an expert in Japanese cooking, but Sukiyaki tends to be more soy sauce and mirin based while shabu-shabu and hot pot cook their items in clearer broths. KimHo is correct in that sukiyaki items are generally cooked together in one pot. There has been a revolution of shabu-shabu in that you’ll see more spicier broths alongside the regular broths for those that can take the heat. I remember a San Francisco place that brought over the spicy hot pot concept from Taiwan. I never went in, but you’re supposed to sweat from the spicy broth. Sounds like fun, eh?
Hi Ben,
I’ve been following your website for a while, love the information! Too bad I don’t live in BC 🙁 I think the egg is usually found in Chinese hot pot? When my husband and I went to Taiwan, at the hotpot places, they give raw eggs to mix with the Korean BBQ sauce (the one with the cow logo, I forget the name). But in Singapore, people break raw egg into congee 🙂
Also, I had shabu shabu a long time ago and the place added udon noodles in the shabu shabu. If I remember correctly, we didn’t add the ingredients into the communal pot (except for the meat I think?) but each person add their own ingredients into their own soup bowl.
Happy eating!
Chi
Just wondering if you think this would be a good date place? They don’t have a website. I’m trying to find somewhere good to go for a date night! Thinking this or Chambar.
Hi Jessica: I think this would be an adventure for you as a date place. It will be fun for sure but don’t expect a nice romantic night … after all this is a All You Can Eat place. They have a website on 303-posh.com. Hope to read about your night out on vantasty.com!
Ben
Hey Ben
This comment is a bit late but I thought I’d put my word in all the same, as I don’t agree 100% with what’s said above.
I lived in Japan for over 2.5 years and love their food. As the comment from KimHo said, there’s a seemingly small difference between the three dishes but the difference in taste is greater.
Sukiyaki= This is more of a fried dish. You meat and vegetables are cooked together in soy sauce and mirin (sweet cooking sake) in a cast iron pan. The sauces are there to add falvour but the food is fried, not boiled.
Shabu-shabu= This is a “high class” hot pot as it requires the ingredients to be high quality, especially the meat. Reason for this is that you hold the meat with your chopsticks and dip it a few times in the boiling soup (this motion is called “shabu-shabu” in Japanese) before you eat them. The ingredients should cook but stay extremely tender and flavourful.
Nabe (Japanese hot pot)= Here all ingredients are put together in a pot and boiled for a few minutes before you start eating. Once all or most of the ingredients are eaten more is added and left to boil again before eating is continued.
For both Shabu-shabu and Nabe it’s common to add rice or noodles to the remaining soup base as an extra tummy filler, and to enjoy the flavourful soup base at the end of the meal. The raw egg suites all three dishes as well as Chinese style hot pot, which is similar to Japanese Nabe. I find the difference between Chinese hot pot and Nabe to be that the Chinese often use chicken soup base, while the Japanese more commonly use miso, pork bone, or sake soup base. The Chinese also have a BBQ dipping sauce which the Japanese don’t use, as well as it’s common to have a peanut sauce instead of white sesame sauce. In Taiwan I found that they also often add garlic and green onions to the dipping sauce.
They have one thing in common though; they are all delicious! Yum!^-^
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Just drove past ‘Posh’ on West Broadway and Burrard (has been there for a little while I believe, next to Osaka). From what I can tell, seems like it would be a good place.
There are other very good Japanese options in the area, though…
darren
Hi Ben and Suanne,
Thank you so much for sharing all your dinning adventures and delicious recipes!
I thought your family or other chow times fans may want to try out the Japanese restaurant downtown call “Toyama” on Seymour! Top food and service quality! lots of selection as well!