I heard a lot about New Asia Deli but we had never eaten there before. Word has it that they used to operate a small but popular place near Richmond Center before moving to this new bigger location.
The New Asia Deli is located at the Continental Mall. This is the same mall where there are a number of our favourite restaurants such as G-Men Ramen, Pearl Castle, Taiwanese Cuisine, and Lam Chu Kee to name a few. They describe themselves as serving Vietnamese and Asia Pacific cuisine. Their claim to fame is their Banh Mi which some people swear are one of the best in Richmond.
New Asia Deli is a no frills restaurant with poorly coordinated decor and simple furnitures. For all intents and purposes, I would classify this as a hole in the wall.
Other than that, the service is friendly and warm. They speak fluent Cantonese which makes me think not only that they are not Vietnamese, they are actually one of the many ethnic restaurant operated by enterprising Chinese owners. Not that this matters much to us as long as the food is good.
Despite seeing that we each ordered our own dishes, our waitress even asked if we wanted bowls for sharing. That was thoughtful of our waitress to suggest it.
Suanne ordered their Special Baguette which is just $3.75. The baguette was what one would expect from a good Banh Mi with the necessary crunchiness. The fillings are ham with some fish cake like stuff. It also had cucumber, carrot and pickled daikon. While the baquette was good, we wished that they had more stuffings in this.
You know, I must say that for a person his age, Nanzaro is quite adept in picking his dishes. He is the one who really reads the menu from cover to cover and is always the one who takes his sweet time deciding what he wanted.
This time, his selection was called the Combination on Rice B which is $9. His choice turned out to be a really mouth watering dish.
It has lemon grass chicken, shredded pork skin, Vietnamese ham and a very nice piece of fried egg. The chicken was juicy, moist and has a pleasant … springy texture to it.
We also ordered the Deep Fried Vietnamese Ham ($6.50) to share. I think this is called Cha Lua in the Vietnamese language. Vietnamese Ham is lighter than the western kind of ham and is not as salty and dense too. It has the springy/bouncy texture to it. We all gave this the thumbs up.
Arkensen is not as adventurous an eater as his younger brother. He went with the large serving of Beef Noodle Soup ($7.25). Although the darker looking soup was flavourful, I do find it unexciting. Arkensen thinks it is great.
My choice was the Curry Beef Brisket with Rice ($7.50). It was delicious and the curry was rich. However, the curry was not spicy hot at all. I wished it was. In my books, curry has to be spicy hot or else it should not be called curry. LOL!
All in all, the meal was good. The prices were what we consider as cheap. We like the service here particularly knowing that friendly and warm service is not one of the stronger points in Asian restaurants.
There are actually quite alot of Vietnamese people of Chinese orgin, they speak both Chinese and Vietnamese.
New Asia Deli is one of my favorite places for Nam-wiches. I’m a bit disappointed that they’ve gotten so much more expensive (they used to be 4 for $10) but still very good. The people that run the place are just about the nicest owners of a Vietnamese restaurant on the planet. Wendy (the owner lady) calls me by name every time I come in…which is often since I live a block away…lol
Just went there but they ran out of baguettes. The lady is the one who used to run a small restaurant beside Bob’s Sub at the Staples/TD mall for 6 years, now been here for almost 3.
This place used to be behind Staples on 3 Road. Very popular with their Vietnamese sandwiches. I think the owner is Vietnamese. I know quite a few Vietnamese people who can also speak Cantonese. Vietnamese vocabulary is mostly borrowed from Cantonese. 🙂
Their food is pretty good and cheap.
Yes, Sakura Sushi now occupies their former location. Prior to that they had a bigger restaurant on Westminster Highway where the Tsim Tsai Noodles is now located.
Very bad experience! very rude , we ended up leaving. They must have new management.
If you purchase the Groupon for this restaurant and try to use it you will be treated HORRIBLY! Do not come here!
OMG!!!! I also got treated horribly at 500 other restaurants, government building, playland, spa, and other places that has people in it! Hmm… maybe people treat other people bad because they hate their jobs? or it’s some other crazy theories like low wages and expensive living?