Lucky Joy BBQ Restaurant on No 5 and Cambie

The family dined out at the Lucky Joy BBQ Restaurant a couple of weekends ago. Lucky Joy is located near the intersection of Cambie and No 5 in Richmond. It’s on a little strip mall where Panago Pizza is, across the road from Fruiticana.

We would not have found this place if not for the recommendation of Steve Lum. Steve and his family had always been someone we look up to a lot because we felt that their live journey is so similar to ours. We have always admired how they brought up his two boys and how committed they are in the Lord’s work.

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You know what we like about this place? It’s that the restaurant throws in free soup, free dessert and all-you-can-eat rice. We ordered the Dinner-for-Three option — costs about $33 not including tips. We get to choose three dishes from their menu of, oh, about 50 items?

For starters, we were given their soup-of-the-day, some mixed vegetable/meat soup.

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Since the rice is all-you-can-eat, we wanted to order dishes that has lots of gravy. Our first selection was the Fried Squid with Preserved Vegetable. It was good — liked the gravy and the “springiness” of the squid.

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Hon’s on No. 3 Road (Again)

Updated: 1st Feb 2015; This restaurant is closed.

Went to Hons again for dinner over the weekend. You know, it’s one of those days when you wanted to eat out but just can’t think of anywhere to go. Their menu is extensive, the food is good, the price is cheap, and parking is easy.

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This time we ordered a dinner set for 2 which cost $19.80. The dinner set comes with a soup of your choice, 2 dishes of your choice and 2 dessert soups. We also ordered a bucket of steam rice to go with this. The total cost of the meal comes up to $26 (include tax and tips).

Wonton Soup is the boys favourite. They can eat just this for dinner.

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Dim Sum in Pink Pearl Restaurant

For long timers in Vancouver, Pink Pearl is perhaps the most well known dim sum restaurants. It’s also one of the first upscale dim sum places in Vancouver. Located in East Hastings between Main and Commercial, Pink Pearl had over the years been somewhat surplussed by newer and fancier dim sum restaurants located in Richmond and Burnaby. Opened in 1981, before the start of big scale inflow of newcomers from Asia, this restaurant must have been one of the top restaurants in it’s early years. This is evident from the fact that they have won numerous best Chinese restaurant award in the 1990’s.

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I must say that the menu is pricey but the quality is very good. They may be amongst the best in class of traditional cart-arounds of the good old fashioned way. The somewhat drawback is the location. Many people are put off going to eat in East Hastings where car breakins are known in this part of the city. However, we were not concerned because the restaurant has a security guard patrolling the car park which is also very visible all round.

The most notable difference between this restaurant and other dim sum restaurant is that there are as many Caucasian as there are Chinese customers. I think it is because of the good reputation that the restaurant has built over the years. Despite such varied clientele, the dim sum is as authentic as any dim sum places you’ll ever find anywhere in the world.

We especially like the setting of this restaurant as the dim sum is served on carts pushed by the waitresses. Here, you can look at the items and decide what looks appetizing to you. There is also a cart with frying action on the spot. It makes the selections look much more inviting.

Suanne and I decided not to order the normal steamed buns and dumplings but instead decided to order some dishes we don’t normally order. Here are the dim sums we ordered … starting with Jar Leong which is basically yeow jar koay wrapped in cheong fun. It is crunchy on the inside and served with sweet soya sauce.

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The dish below is Pepper filled with fish and prawn paste. It’s fried to perfection.

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Congee Noodle King Seafood Restaurant on Kingsway

Arkensen is away camping this weekend and it’s one of those rare moments that Nanzaro can be the boss around the house. Although we know he misses his big brother but he cherishes times when he has 100% of our attention. So, this weekend he gets to choose where to eat out without his brother overruling him.

Nanzaro insisted on “Asian Food” and he wanted to go to a restaurant which we have never been to before. So, we recommended a nice Indian restaurant we always wanted to try out. But Nanzaro insisted that Indian food is NOT Asian food. This cracks us up as we found a blog just yesterday called “Indians Are Asians”. That was a very funny site, you should check it out here: http://www.indiansareasian.com/

We ended up the Congee Noodle King Seafood Restaurant which is located along Kingsway at the intersection with Joyce. I wanted congee. It was past almost 1pm when we got there — the restaurant was packed and like most popular Chinese restaurant, it was very busy and noisy. The wait was not too long — just about 10 minutes.

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Nanzaro has never been too adventurous when it comes to food. He always ordered the same food — ham yee gai lup chow fan (salted fish and diced chicken fried rice). Price was $7.25. It was a big serving enough for even two adults.

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Hou Lok Restaurant on Cambie, Richmond

We all like lamb; each has a different way of cooking it.
~ Chinese Proverb

Ever had one of those days when you have planned to eat out but do not know where to go? Well, Suanne always insists that we eat out on the weekends because she says that since I get the weekend off work, she deserves the weekend off herself too. Last weekend we cruised along No 3 Road and were not sure where we were heading to. I came across this little unassuming place right across from the new Aberdeen Mall (and just right next to the T&T Supermarket) along Cambie.

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We were early and were their first customer for dinner. Needless to say, service were prompt. You tend to know that the food is really authentic when you see tacky looking hand written menus plastered all over the place — the Hou Lok Restaurant was one such place.

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We ordered the Chicken Ball in Szechuan sauce. This is spicy and is cooked with lots of onions and green pepper. We liked the gravy/sauce in particular — goes great with steamed rice.

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Dim Sum at Sun Sui Wah

Words that come from the heart stay warm three winters long.
~ Chinese Proverb

Panos slept over last night at our place and since we planned to go out for dim sum on this Saturday morning, we brought him along too. Panos has never been to a dim sum place before. We told him stories about eggs dunked in horse urine, chicken feet, beef tendon and all — he took it in good stride and told us he’ll try it all! 🙂

We went to the Sun Sui Wah Restaurant in Richmond just across from the Lansdowne Mall. It’s a very busy restaurant, especially in the weekend. We went early just as it opened before the weekend crowds starts streaming in.

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Dim Sum is a Chinese light meal or brunch, eaten sometime from morning-to-early afternoon with family or friends. Dim sum consists of a wide spectrum of choices, from sweet to salty. It has combination of meat, vegetables, and seafood. It is usually served in a small basket or on a small dish, depending on the type of dim sum. Dim Sum is a Cantonese term, literally translated as “choose heart”, meaning “choose to one’s heart’s content”. It may also be derived from the words “yat dim sum yi“, meaning a “little token”.

Dim sum dishes can be ordered from a menu or sometimes the food is wheeled around on a mobile cart by servers. Traditionally, the cost of the meal is calculated based on the number and size of dishes left on the table.

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Chicken feet and Beef tripe

Some modern dim sum restaurants record the dishes on a bill at the table. Servers in some restaurants use different stamps so that sales statistics for each server can be recorded. (more…)

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Hon’s on No 3 Road

Updated: 5th Feb 2015; This restaurant is closed.

Anything that walks, swims, crawls, or flies with its back to heaven is edible.
~ Cantonese saying

Hon’s Wun-Tun House (or better known as just Hon’s) is noted for it’s Chinese “comfort food”. The restaurant serves primarily cantonese style food and has been a favourite chinese restaurant in Vancouver for many years. Hons is well regarded for its wonton and noodle dishes, pot sticker dumplings (fried or steamed), and barbecued beef. More than 300 dishes are featured on the extensive menu!

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Meals are prepared in an open kitchen as diners look on. Although this concept is pretty common in Asia, it is a novelty in Canada. The restaurant started 25 years ago as a lone restaurant and has since opened many outlets throughout the Lower Mainland. We visited the outlet in Richmond’s No 3 Road recently.

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