It seems like we Richmondites living south of the City Hall are second class citizens. Until TODAY, the side streets are still a mess … it is passable but we still have our four lane street relegated to a single lane. Despite the warmer air the past two days, the hard packed snow is not really melting at all.

Anyway, we ventured out again for lunch. We wanted to go to Top Shanghai but it was absolutely packed. So, instead, we pop over the new place next door. It’s called Tri-ty Cafe … odd name but it looked good.

Tri-ty is located on the strip mall on Akroyd and No 3 Road. It’s on the side where Safe-On-Food is. Parking was madness that day because of all the snow piles taking up a lot of the parking bays. To add to the madness, everyone is taking the advantage of the break in the weather to venture out.

You know the reason behind the Tri-ty name. Well, it is QualiTY, QuantiTY and TasTY!

Actually, Tri-Ty is a hip place that caters mainly for the younger crowd. The decor has really clean lines but not spotlessly clean. It seems like a great place to hang out for youngsters because they pasted a cheap looking sign that says something like you gotta spend a minimum of $3 to hangout here … something like that. I thought that the sign kind of cheapens the place!

From the looks of it, this seems like a Taiwanese style restaurant.

What I like about this place is that a lot of thought outside-the-box in placed on the little details. They even have one of those fadish electronic picture frames which flashes the delicious looking food and drinks. I think it is an awesome idea. We couldn’t help but kept on looking for what is shown next. I bet this draws a few extra orders … it is like a more modern version of “would you like fries with that?”.

I have seen chopstick stands quite commonly but the one above beats the rest. It is both a soup spoon and a chopstick stand. Pretty neat. I wonder where I could find one of these.

For appetizers, we ordered the Marinated Intestines because I know my boys had taken to a liking of this. The intestines were served warm which contrasted very nicely with the cold sourish pickled cabbage. It came with two types of sauces too (also one hot and one cold). We expected the texture to be chewy but instead it is soft. It is simply good. $4.50.

I had the Hakka Pickled Cabbage Hotpot which is unique in that it came in a wooden platform. This is safer compared to just the bare metal hotpot. This $9.50 meal came with a serving of rice and a small dessert.

Although $9.50 is a bit pricey but it is worth the price. It has a very generous serving of mainly pork stomach and lots of pickled cabbage.

What I did not like was the pig(?) blood. So, I left it untouched … and not one in the family wants it. The thought of eating it turns us off but I know many people likes this.

They gave each of us these small saucers of smallish tapioca pearls. Because it was served in such a small saucer, I thought that for a moment it is some condiment I need to throw into the hotpot.

Suanne also ordered the hotpot (also $9.50) but opted for the more unusual Hokkaido Milk Hotpot. The whitish soup tastes kind of weird to me but Suanne seems to like it. Well, I am not exactly a fan of milk anyway. This hotpot has a chockful of ingredients like fish cakes, pork slices, prawns, artificial crab meat, meat balls and suey choy.

Nanzaro, the “fried rice everyday” boy, ordered the Fried Rice with Deep Fried Fermented Pork. At $8.50, it is more of a fried pork rice than it is fried rice but is really good. This is like a step up for Nanzaro!

Arkensen though had noodles … the House Special Beef Noodle in Spicy Soup. If you like spicy hot food, they make really spicy ones. I am actually quite pleasantly surprised how spicy this one is. This one is $8.50.

The total bill before tips and taxes came up to $42.53 which is not too bad. Tri-ty is a nice surprise find. We like it a lot and told ourselves we will return again. Please note that they take cash only.

Ordering is also very simple because they give you the menu in a pamphlet form for you to mark the order you want. Tri-Ty has a very extensive menu and a very impressive 5-page “Light Meal” and drinks menu. I highly recommend them.