This restaurant has been closed according to Urbanspoon – updated 16th April 2010.
We had been trying to look for the other Vietnamese restaurant that serves 7 Courses of Beef (Bo 7 Mon). The first time we had the this Vietnamese wedding specialty was at the Tamarind Tree in Seattle which was one of the more memorable meals that we ever had.
In Vancouver, I heard that there are only two Vietnamese restaurants to serves this high end Vietnamese meal. The one that we had been to was Song Huong. For some reason I thought that this other one was Nha Trang on Broadway and Fraser. So we took a long drive from Richmond with high expectations for a good meal.
When we got there, we asked if they had 7-courses of beef and they confirmed yes. Just as we were about to get seated, they asked again what we are looking for and was duly told that they don’t have it! They just said “yes” without understanding what we were asking. Maybe they heard the word beef and thought we were asking for beef noodles.
Thinking that I might have mistaken Nha Trang with another Vietnamese restaurants nearby, we left and drove around. We drove and drove and drove … and could not see any Vietnamese restaurant that looks it.
So we ended up going to this randomly selected restaurant on Kingsway (near Joyce). It is called Hu’s Chinese Restaurant and is located just next door to Popular Chinese Cuisine.
The restaurant is quiet and empty. The tables and chairs are uncoordinated with traditional Chinese round tables mixed with wrap around cafeteria style tables. Frankly, we felt like turning back but everyone is already hungry.
It did not get any better. When we got seated, the waitress who is dressed in loose sweat pants and sweat shirt delivered the tea pot to our tables while chatting on the cordless phone. Moreover the tea pot had stains on the outside like it had been cleaned properly. We asked for it to be replaced.
Checking their menu, they have pretty interesting items. However, we did notice that they are priced higher than one would expect from such restaurants. Most of their main dishes are $15 and up with most at the $20 range. With the four of us dining, we decided to order three dishes … one soup and two main dishes as we usually do.
For the soup we ordered the Boiled Fish in Soup. It is $19. They have the whole “swimming” fish fresh from the tank in the soup with some soft tofu. We found the soup … quite flavorful. We just enjoy soup like this but we had never had this at home before. This is because Suanne does not have the recipe. I bet it is a simple recipe. Does anyone have a recipe for this type of whitish soup?
In Cantonese, this type of fish dish is called “swimming fish”. This means that they are cooked fresh out of the tank. It is Tilapia that they served with the soup.
The second dish is called Braised Duck with Beer. This is $15. Despite its look and name, it is really spicy and does not have any hint of beer in it. The duck was boney. While it was tasty, it is the lack of meat that makes this dish mostly unsatisfying.
For the third dish, we ordered the House Special Preserved Pork with Chili ($15) … and they forgot to deliver it! We did not bother to ask the waitress as she was still on the cordless phone all these while.
Oh … about the steamed rice, we asked for four bowl but they said that they only have it by the buckets. Our waitress asked us if we wanted a big or small bucket. How on earth do I know how big is big and small is small? We said we don’t know but just give us enough for four bowls. That is kind of “unsmart” to ask their customers that way.
I have nothing better to say about Hu’s Chinese Restaurant. This is a perfect place for a study on how NOT to run a restaurant.
Well…it might time to strike it off my list. It is rumoured to be a decent Hunan place run by a family from Changsha. The Beer Braised Duck and Preserved Pork with Chili Dish are Hunan.
I have tried to eat there a number of times now…it was either closed, or I would walk into a family gathering (ie they were all eating at the corner table). I was kind of shooed away. That happened twice. I persevered because this place held a bit of mystery to me.
Hi fmed: I think you should still give Hu’s a try regardless of my experience. The food was not bad and was flavorful. The soup was great. The duck was understandably not a particularly meaty food. Perhaps all would have been better if our waitress was paying attention to her work. She was on the phone all the time … and forgot one of the dishes we ordered. It should have been wise of her to check why we just ordered two dishes for the four of us.
Ben
I’ll give it a go soon!
BTW – as a PS to the note about Bo 7 Mon below….you may also have been thinking about Vong Gac (just up the road on Fraser and Kingsway) which used to serve a good Bo 7 Mon many years ago. That space is now part of Les Faux Bourgeois.
BYW – if you are looking for Bo ‘N’ Mon – Pho Linh on Brodway may serve it (maybe Bo 4 Mon) and Pho Quyen of Fraser has Bo 4 Mon.
I haven’t been to Pho Linh in a billion years and I haven’t had the Bo N Mon.
I was at Pho Quyen for Bo 4 Mon a few months ago – not as good as Song Huong’s. They are known for their Vietnamese BBQ though…you might want to recalibrate and check it out for that instead.
Hi Ben, is this where the new Lucky Noodle restaurant is located?
Hi Crispy: That is correct. This is the same location as Hu’s. Ben
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What’s up, just wanted to mention, I enjoyed this blog post. It was funny. Keep on posting!