Even though we live in Richmond for many years our weekends revolves around the Metrotown area. We used to attend the church near Metrotown. Also, we forced our boys to attend Chinese language classes during Saturdays. So, for the longest time, we had our weekend lunch outings near the area. Those were the days before chowtimes.

One of the places we frequented was the Rose Garden. We absolutely loved their delicious comfort food, huge servings and especially their low prices. Our boys were very young that we just ordered two dishes for less than $15 and that was enough to feed the whole family. Those were the days.

It must have been 4-5 years since we last stepped into this place. It looked every bit the same — even the waitress was still the same but a bit more plum. They used to know us quite well because we almost always ordered the same stuff. But this time, we were like strangers to them. The place still looked the same.

This time we noticed that the plates and cups were quite faded. It shows their age. I am not sure how long they had been in business but I guess they had been quite a fixture on this part of Kingsway.

I guess many of you know that restaurants come and go. There is a saying that of all newly opened restaurants, 80% of them will close within a year. And within the second year, another 80% of those who survived the first year will fold. It is those that manage to survive the second year who will thrive for one reason or another. The Rose Garden is one of those who I know will thrive.

They have a varied menu. If you want westernised food like chow mein, they have it. If you want something more authentic Chinese, they have it too.

We choose from their Family Combo. Their “3-item” option costs $36 which includes soup, steamed rice and dessert. If you more people, they provide free dishes too. We wanted so much to order the 4 items but with the additional 1 free dish, it would have been way too much for the four of us. Someday, I’ll round up a few foodies and tackle their 8 items.

The free soup was respectable — (more…)

We were actually trying to go to the The Place Restaurant for dinner the other day but found that they were closed. Since we were quite hungry and did not want to go drive to another place, we decided to just walk along Granville St in the south side of Vancouver to look for another place to eat.

We found a place called Two Brothers which was kind of interesting for a name. From their logo I would guess that it’s operated by two brothers … one who is suave to work in the dining room and another who is a master of the wok. If you ask me, I would prefer to be the suave one — there is no glamour in being a Chinese chef.

This is a no frills place. The furniture are tacky and the color coordinating atrocious. Moreover, they uses the very practical plastic table cloth but I thought the choice of the patterns terrible. The picture above does not look too bad does it not? Somehow, the picture turn out OK but really if you are there, it does not look as good. We also had a couple of bowl that were slightly chipped and dated which to many people is a no-no.

But looks alone could be deceiving as we later found out.

They have quite an extensive menu but they also have what they call the “Special Family Dinner”. We ordered the Special Dinner for Three which for $35.95, we get to choose any three items from 65 dishes. For that price, we also get free house soup, jelly fish, steamed rice and dessert. Sounds like a good deal right? It sure was.

The Jelly Fish was good as an appetizer. It’s cold, spicy and had a certain crunch to it. I like this and was wondering if one could normally make this at home. Looks simple right? Must have just been shredding the jelly fish and then marinating it in some sort of a dressing.

Next came the free house soup which is also pretty good. I am not sure what you would call this but basically it has pork as the base flavour. (more…)