Updated: 7th Mar 2010: This restaurant had closed.
>Oh … you all should take note of this food blog that we had just taken notice of the past couple of weeks. It is called Eat N About and is authored by Wendy. Wendy blogs about restaurant reviews primarily of Asian restaurants in the Richmond area. If you enjoy chowtime’s dineout reviews, I am sure you will enjoy Wendy’s blog too.
One of Wendy’s review was to this place called Lam Chu Kee. Last weekend we decided to pick this place for our lunch. Lam Chu Kee is located at 3779 Sexsmith. It is at the south side of the strip mall where Ellie and Vogue is. If not for Wendy’s review we would not have given this place a second glance. From the outside it looked so uninspiring.
We were the first customer that morning. We meant to be there for brunch but because the boys took forever to take a bath and brush their teeth, we only got there at around 11AM. So instead of brunch, it became more like lunch.
I saw quite a few moist ducks hanging by the display near the kitchen. I thought it could be one of their specialty. I ordered the Oyster Sauce BBQ Duck Mix Noodle. It is $7.25. It was good, I love it.
What I like especially is the cut of duck I had which had the right amount of fat and the skin is so crispy. The meal came with plum sauce. Can anyone tell me why plum sauce is about the only type of sauce for roast duck?
This is the first time I came across this. They gave me a bottle of oyster sauce instead of them adding it to the noodles. I kind of like it this way because I could add as much or as little as I want.
For the noodles, it included a choice of either coffee, tea or soup. I like this better … all the places we had been to so far had a choice of coffee or tea. Especially for cold winter days, soup is better. The soup is pretty delicious and has a fair amount of meat in it too.
Suanne opted for the $6.50 Mixed Meat Congee. The only thing I would say is that their congee is a coarser type unlike in many other places where it is smoother, whiter. It has the usual suspect … pig stomach, kidney, liver and meatballs … no pork blood which is good because we cannot stand it.
I tasted the congee and it was just OK really. I like livers (Suanne hates it) but I find that it is overcooked.
The best part of the Congee is really the side dish that came with it. It is sort of a deep fried bread. I can’t quite figure this out but I think the “bread” is more like a soft mantau type of a bun. Anyway, this is served warm and is sweet. It came with a bit of condensed milk as a dip. Lovely. We’ll come back for this in future.
My boys had the same old-same old. Arkensen’s version is the BBQ Pork Fried Rice ($6.75).
The fried rice came with a free drink.
Nanzaro’s choice was the Boneless Chicken Fried Rice. Boneless chicken? Why not just call it diced chicken? Arkensen wanted me to publish his commentary … and wanted you all to know that “it was good but not enough taste”. That’s it.
He almost finished it but left the veggies untouched as usual. It doesn’t work at all with my boys. You see, when I was young, my mum used to tell me that if we leave grains of rice on the plate, we will end up with a wife with pock marks on her face. The more grains of rice, the more pock mark she will have.
That habit stayed with me until today because I will never leave a single grain of rice on the plate … that’s why Suanne until today have perfect face complexion. And she has to thank me for that!
Lam Chu Kee accepts only cash. The bill came up to $33 plus tips. Not bad for a brunch. I am sure we’ll be back someday although I don’t count on this as a top of the list for a return visit.
Hey! I was just there on Sunday! Lam Chu Kee is like my family’s home kitchen away from home… we go there whenever we don’t feel like cooking!
The wait staff is always friendly, courteous, hard working and when not too stressed out – humourous as well.
Even though they just work there, they run the business like there own… Props to Gary, Olivia and Eric! I’m sure they make Mr and Mrs Lam very happy (not to mention profitable!!)
Cheers!
In reply to the plum sauce question, I’ve not had duck with plum sauce like that before in London. I’ve had it with a sauce that tastes like bbq sauce or something, which they call plum sauce here but looks nothing like the one you had. Perhaps it’s because the tangy taste balances out the meaty duck taste? It all looks so tasty, you seem to order really delicious items!!! 🙂
I really enjoy their lunch set menus actually as I love congee. I almost always get a congee with the soya sauce pan-fried rice rolls or the (BIG) sticky rice thing…shoot…I dunno wut it’s called in english…it’s that sticky rice thing with pork, green beans, and salted duck egg in the middle. It’s huge.
I also follow the pock-mark thing strictly haha…I never leave a grain of rice in my bowl either~
Thanks Ben for the mention!! It is greatly greatly appreciated!