When Marian, Emily, Lorna and me had a meet up at the Yuemicka Noodle House which ended up to celebrate Marian’s birthday, we vouched to get together again for the next birthday among us. September is Emily’s birthday. I tried to organize a lunch since mid September but we just cant have a date that suit all. After several dates being postponed, Marian finally suggested that we get together first without the birthday girl and organized another meet up for Emily’s birthday. So, Marian, Lorna and me met up at Flo Tea Room in Richmond.

Flo Tea Room has two locations; one on Granville St and this Richmond location is a new addition. This location used to be Ginger and Garlic Malaysian Restaurant & Grill. The original Flo Tea Room on Granville St. is a Taiwanese place with bubble tea. So, I thought the new Flo Tea Room in Richmond will be the same.

The Flo Tea Room in Richmond looks nicer than the old Ginger and Garlic. It must have been renovated when Flo Tea Room took over the restaurant.

We were quite surprise to find that the menu is more like HongKong style with the addition of some Taiwanese snacks and bubble tea. You can click on the menu to have a larger view. The menu is elaborate, range from snacks, salad, soup, vegetarian, hot pot, set meals, western, special eastern and noodle soup.

We ordered two drinks to try. The one on the right is Mango Slush with crystal jelly for $4.50. It is quite sweet. The one on the right is Taro Milk Tea with crystal jelly for $4.25. We did not even get to try the taro milk tea as we were very full at the end. I took the drink home and tried it later. I found the taste was kind of artificial.

For appetizer, we ordered the Roti Canai for $5.25. Roti canai is a Malaysian street food. The roti canai here is not as flaky and crispy. It came with a very mild curry sauce.

The roti canai came with a drink. Marian opted for a Coffee Tea Mix (Yin Yeong). It has pretty strong flavour.

For the main course, we opted for a special of the day called Duck with Pamelo Skin. The dish which came with steamed rice and steamed bok choy … is $9.

The pamelo skin is so tender and tasty. Marian said it’s like eating candy. It soaked up all the flavour of the sauce. Lorna said the skin has to be toasted and soaked to remove the bitterness from the skin.

Underneath the pamelo skin is the duck. I’m not too excited with the duck. I’ll prefer roast duck from BBQ place.

Our next dish is Braised Halibut with Tofu in Hot Pot for $9.95. This also came with steamed rice. This is another special on the board. Besides tofu and halibut, there were also BBQ pork and bok choy in it.

Marian found that the halibut were quite boney but those that I picked up seemed to be very meaty. Marian is just unlucky.

Flo Tea Room accepts cash and debit card only.

We had a great time getting together again. Marian shared with us her vacation experiences in China during summer. Marian and her youngest daughter traveled to Hunan for a month for her daughter’s martial art competition. Marian told us that she brought with her a full 50 pounds luggage of water bottles as she was worried that her daughter would have problem with the local water. Marian said when they landed in the airport, the custom officers were giggling when they saw the luggage full of water bottles. We are very fortunate here in Canada that we have clean drinkable water right from the tap.

Flo Tea Room also caters for party. Above are their party take out menu. You may click on them to have a larger view.

Flo Tea Room opens early and closes late. It’s good to know.