Oh Wow! Oh Gosh! Unbelievable! That’s all I could think of when we first visited the LA Grill and Bistro.
Suanne and I always frequently receive recommendations of restaurants to try from readers of Chowtimes. Vanessa was one of those … she sent us an email suggesting that we check out the LA Grill and Bistro. What really pique our interest was when Vanessa said that they have steak for $6.95. Great … that’s cheap … but that conjured in our mind a not-so-clean hole-in-the-wall kind of joint.
What we came across was quite unbelievable. Emblazoned in bold in front of the store are the words “Lunch $4.95” and “Dinner $6.95”. And the place is certainly not any hole-in-the-wall and a very respectable place. We were quite surprised that after so many years staying in Richmond and having blogged over 100 entries of restaurants in Richmond (oh yeah, that’s right … over 100 Richmond restaurants), we had never heard of LA Grill and Bistro.
It was more because we hardly venture to the strip mall on No 2 and Blundell, except for a visit to the boys’ dentist. Anyway, it was exactly what Vanessa told us to expect.
Service was prompt but the place is super busy. We did notice that the waitresses are the type you typically in more upscale restaurants like Sammy J and Cactus Club — pretty young slim white girls. For almost all aspects this place looked like it is non-Asian joint except that we noticed a bossy looking guy at the counter and the people working in the open kitchen are Asians.
Their menu has the following:
- Mega Portion — Mini Price
- Trendy Style — Unique Decor
- Fantastic Specials Everyday
I simply had to have the steak and see what the $6.95 New York Steak that Vanessa mention is all about. Actually, the $6.95 price is their special for Monday Dinner Special only. On all other days, it is $9.95. But still with $9.95, it looked like a great deal to us.
What I had with the New York Steak is rice pillaf (very well made and flavourful), roasted potato (quite a big piece too), green salad (very fresh) and a very well made garlic bread. We love the garlic bread.
The New York Steak is not exactly prime meat but it was really respectable. And they did it exactly the way I liked it … medium rare. Oh … I am bad at guessing the size but I would say it was at most 8 oz. It was not really big I would add.
He he he … no fried rice here! So Nanzaro ordered the Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo ($9.95). Frankly, we were kind of surprised he ordered this because we never thought he could be that “sophisticated” for a lil guy like him.
The chicken breast was too tough for him and so he left it untouched. We find that the chicken breast was really tough too.
Otherwise, the Fettuccine was great — it was full of creamy alfredo sauce. It has garlic bread served together with this. The chicken breast was a disappointment really.
Mum had the $7.95 Grilled Chicken Pesto Sandwich. This chicken breast (although it looked the same as the ones on Nanzaro’s pasta) was not as tough … strange, we thought. The grilled chicken breast was topped with pesto, melted mozzarella and served on an open-faced French bread. Like my steak, this also came with roasted potatoes and green salad.
Arkensen had the rather unexciting $6.45 Cheese Burger. They had quite a selection of “gourmet” burgers (ten) but he had to choose Cheese Burger. He did finish off the entire plate … so, I guess he likes it.
The bill came up to just $36 before taxes and tips. Pretty good huh? It would have been better on the weekdays when some of these goes for $4.95 lunch special and $6.95 dinner special. You know, there are nothing on their menu that is more than $9.95.
Vanessa, thanks for the recommendation … it was great. Keep the recommendation coming!!
And … I had scanned in their menu … check out their weekday specials … and also their drinks specials too!
Hello Ben
Test Comment.
Just to let you know, we use WordPress too, and the day you had a problem we did too. That night we lost 3 weeks blogs!
We went into WordPress forums but that didn’t yield much.
We tripped over to Spain where our Admin guys are & they’ve sorted the problem, it is now safer, and better protected, if you have a look at the site, you’ll see it looks totally different. Let me know what you think & if you’d like to leave a comment, please do. I hope this helps, and one last thing, another food blog lost 3 weeks work too, she also uses W.Press!
I enjoy your blogs and hit the site every week, well done!
Regards
lesley :0)
we go all the time but one thing I don’t like is their garden salad that comes with the meal because the dressing they use is hard a bit unusual. So I always upgrade $1 to get the Caesar salad instead.
Kind of odd that they don’t have fries…. i love fries.
In case you didn’t see it, the daily meal specials require that you buy a drink too.
Hey Lesley: I see you coming in from a different IP now and showed that you come in from Lincoln, UK. I hope that is correct. It took a while for me to figure that out. Weird … WP losing 3 weeks blogs.
Ben
Hi Ben,
Test post as per your request.
Cheers,
I Love Food Blog
GREAT REVIEW!! =) and YOUR WELCOME!
i had the same experience with the chicken breast too on my linguine, it was tough. haha.
The grilled chicken pesto sandwich looks delicious! I should order that next time…..
i have a few restaurants that I need to recommend them to you!
check your e-mail in the next few days! 😉
Wow, I wonder if this restaurant has the same owners as X-Site Grill and Bistro, which is located in Burnaby. Same menu and same low prices and no fries with their burgers too lol.
you should try Nathan’s Grill in Burnaby. Really secluded location for a restaurant but good menu and ambiance.
I was just going to say the same thing as Andrew haha. IT does look just like X-site Grill’s menu and just like Andrew said, potatoes instead of fries (I think they call it spuds)! I’m glad you guys blogged about this place because it is just around the corner from my place but I never thought of checking it out. If it’s anything like X-site grill, I’m going to love their burgers! 🙂
Yea!! I was just going to say, the menu is almost identical to X-site’s menu! And i <3 X-site~ its just down the mountain from SFU =). And its so much food (I always have to pack the salad and spuds) for so cheap!! I think its probably the same owner? Haha even the placement of items on the menu is the same… I’ve heard that their Curry Penne is delicious!
Have been wanting to try this place out as I’d heard it was great value for the money. However! We walked in there & asked for a table for 3 + 1 high chair…for parents out there with young kids that still crave decent dining experiences…we were told they didn’t have any! No high chairs?! We were quite surprised by this as it is not a bar. Perhaps they’re trying to send out the message that it is not a family oriented restaurant? Or at least families with young kids.
Hi Ben,
That’s an awesome review. I love reading your blog. I was looking for LA Grill’s menu just now and couldn’t find it anywhere on the web as they dont’ have a website and here I saw your full scan of their menu. I will continue to support this awesome blog of yours.
Sincerely,
Brian
Pingback: Chow Times » X-Site Grill and Bistro on Hastings Near Intersection with Willingdon, Burnaby
Just a heads up that there’s yet another location serving the same menu as Xsite and LA Grill. It’s called Flame Stone Grill and it’s located at #1-2810 St.Johns Street in Port Moody. Just found it this weekend and went for the $6.95 steak dinner special tonight. Amazing deal for what you get!
Thanks for letting us know of the Flame Stone Grill. Ouch! Port Moody is too far away for us or else I would certainly check it out.
Ben