No sooner had I lamented that Richmond does not have a worthy Taiwanese Beef Noodle restaurant, we found one right at the Empire Square. Winnie was the one who alerted us to the place. [Thanks Winnie!]

In my usual style of getting overly excited over new discoveries, I am going to cut to the chase and say this — this is one Taiwanese restaurant that cannot be ignored. If you like Taiwanese food, you should check it out for yourself. We like it and we were impressed.

The Sunway restaurant is located at the Empire Square. This is the same strip mall where Hon’s and Shiang Garden is on No 3 Road.

They are situated at the same place where Richmond’s Legendary Noodles used to be. I personally felt this particular location is bad because it is on a blind spot to most people driving around this mall.

The Sunway restaurant is small but bright. The waitress was friendly and cheerful. She does look a lot like Bjork, no kidding except that she speaks Mandarin.

Since she was so helpful, we took the opportunity to ask her about the restaurant. She told us that they had been opened for over 3 months already. The chef was from Taiwan in a city outside of Taipei. She also told us that they take their cooking serious and uses the best of ingredients and that they do not use MSG, baking soda or tenderizer in their kitchen at all. We were quite impressed how excited she was with her sales pitch. Seriously, all this was said BEFORE we fished out our camera and notebook. So we know she did not put this up because we were going to write about them.

Our favourite is what they call Deep Fried Pop Chicken. This is like the good Salty Peppery Chicken that we tried just a few days before at Beefy Beef Noodles. The serving is larger than we expected because it was listed as $4.25. We thought it was just an appy size. When it was brought to our table, we could clearly smell the aroma. They don’t serve this with a dipping sauce.

From my memory, the Deep Fried Pop Chicken is crispier than … Beefy Beef Noodles and we felt this tasted much better too. What we really love is the deep fried basil leaves that came served with this. This herb adds an interesting flavour to the chicken.

We thought we also try another Taiwanese specialty, the Oyster Omelette. They have this on the menu as Oyster (or Shrimp) Taiwanese Pancake. This is $7.

They make this different from those we are used to. For one, it is very much less eggy and a lot more starchy. The one thing that is very different is the presence of large leafy vegetables in this. We like the soft, smooth and sticky texture too. This is worth a try if you ask me.

Next up is the Beef Noodle. They call it a Deluxe Beef Noodle to say that it has everything … not only the normal tendon but also tripe and stuff. This bowl is $7.50.

Our “Bjork” told us that they hand made the noodles themselves. It was not bad … chewy.

The soup is very different from those we tried else where. It is noticeably herbal’ish and condensed. They said that they make it using real herbs and cooked it according to traditional recipes. The soup is boiled overnight.

Unlike other Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup where you could slurp the soup, it is too thick and strong for us with this one. They also don’t serve pickled mustard with the noodles. It is … well … different.

Instead of cheap flank, our waitress told us that they use AAA Sirloin as their beef of choice.  I know now where they sourced their beef from. She told us they bought them from Costco. Too much info, LOL. I am not gonna rant about how good this is … you need to check it out yourself.

We were informed that for an extra $3.50 we get to upgrade our beef noodle to a combo. We get a choice between Fish Tempura, Fish Tofu or Squid Ball and a drink.

So we opted for the Fish Tofu. Suanne insisted that this is Fish Tempura and not Fish Tofu. Whatever.

On their menu, this item is $4.50. It had a springy texture and also served with deep fried basil. Nanzaro likes the basil so much that he asked his mum to buy this the next time she goes to the market.

As for the drink, we decided on the Honey Green Tea from our waitress recommendation. It was a light drink and is lightly sweetened by the honey.

The bill came up to just over $23. This is one restaurant we will definitely come back again. If  someone is to ask us for the best Taiwanese restaurant in Richmond, this one will at the top of our mind.

Let’s do a “looks” comparison of the Pop Chicken between Beefy Beef Noodles’ and Sunway Restaurant:

Sunway Restaurant	Beefy Beef Noodles