***½~ (3.5/5)

My second attempt to get dim sum at Gingeri Chinese Cuisine was a success! Last time I tried going here on a weekend, and had no luck of getting in because it was too busy. This time I went on a week day, and it was wait free and hassle free.

Like most dim sum places, they had an ordering sheet for you to order your items, however, this order sheet had no English on it. So, if you can’t Chinese, you got to use your verbal skills to order with a waiter. They had a couple menus for dim sum, and one of them actually have pictures of the dishes, that helped us a lot.

We ordered 9 items, the ones that stood out the most were the Seafood Salad Tarts, Steamed Fish Maw and Shrimp, Crab and Vegetable dumplings, Chinese donut in Rice Roll, and Coconut Sesame Rice Balls.

The Seafood Salad Tarts didn’t have much seafood in it. It had 1 shrimp, and it was sandwiched between 2 spoons of corn and mayo salad. It was also topped with shaves of gold sheets. The corn and mayo salad had the sweetness of the corn, and the mayo was a little tangy.  There was just too much of the salad in 1 tart. The shrimp didn’t have any taste to itself, it tasted like it was just boiled.

The Steamed Fish Maw & Shrimp was one of my favorite there. The fish maw were in big chucks, and the juice at the bottom of the dish had a lot of seafood flavor, it was really delicious.

The Crab and Vegetable dumpling was another great seafood dim sum dish. The dumpling wrapping held together really well, every bite was juicy and it tasted fresh. The only downside to it was it seemed like there was more shrimp than crab in it. It was still delicious though.

Chinese donut in Rice Roll is one of my all time favorite dim sum dishes. The Gingeri did not disappoint me. The rice roll wasn’t over steamed, and the donuts didn’t taste stale, they were crunchy on the outside, and doughy on the inside. It was really good.

We finished off our meal with Coconut and Black Sesame rice balls. They did a really good job on bringing out this dish towards the end of our meal, unlike other dim sum restaurants where they just bring out everything at once. The rice balls were still warm when they arrived our table. They were covered in loads of coconut. This was a really nice dessert. The black sesame inside was sweet and really delicious. It’s got just the right ratio of sesame filling in the rice ball. I will order this again without a doubt.

I didn’t know this place existed until a couple months ago. It was probably because it’s located at a pretty remote side of Lansdown mall in Richmond. The service at the place was pretty good. I had a great brunch here. I would definitely come back, but only on a week day, because it was absolutely a zoo here on weekends.

Note: 20% off dim sum 9am – 11am

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Gingeri Chinese Cuisine
323 – 5300 #3 Rd
Richmond, BC V6X
(604) 278-6006

***~~ (3/5)

On one particular weekend, my mom brought us out to Richmond for Sunday dim sum without making any reservations at any restaurants. To not have make reservation in Richmond for dim sum on a weekend, was not a very smart thing to do. After some calling around for the least wait times, we ended up in Shiang Garden.

I’ve been to Shiang Garden a couple times before for dinner, it was some what a more expensive restaurant for Chinese food, and I never had bad experiences there. We were seated on the first floor of the restaurant, I never knew they had more than 1 floor of restaurant space. They own the first and third floor of the building, I wondered what’s on the second floor.

Their dim sum menu had mostly the normal things like Shu Mai and Shrimp Dumplings, but I was more exited to try their chef’s specials. One of them I liked a lot was the Pea Leaf in Rice Flour Rolls. The pea leaves were cooked perfectly, they were well seasoned, and had a nice crunch to them.  I usually get Shrimp in Rice Flour Rolls when I’m at dim sum, but I think I just found my new favorite rice roll dish; pea leaves, were way better.

Their Scallops and Shrimp dumpling had great flavor, however it was a little bit over steamed. The rice flour wrap that’s holding the dumplings together were breaking as we picked the dumplings up from the steam basket. I think some of the flavor was lost because it was over steamed, otherwise this would be a great dim sum dish.

One of their dish is called Eggplants in Spicy, we ordered it for it’s funny name in English. It turned out to be a little hot pot of eggplants in meat sauce, which was something we did not expect. The name of the dish was misleading, I don’t think vegetarians would be very happy to find minced pork in this eggplants dish. It was a very flavorful dish, and it would be perfect with just a bowl of steam rice.

The service here was pretty good, but just like most Chinese restaurants, they were a little under staffed. The waiters will get you what you want, as long as you can get their attention. We did have one dish that wasn’t cooked fully, the waiter did apologize to us and took it off of our bill.

The dim sum dishes averages about $5 dollars per dish, which was on the pricey side. It’s probably one of the restaurants, where you go when you feel like splurging a little on dim sum.

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Shiang Garden
4540 #3 Rd
Richmond, BC V6X
(604) 273-8858

****½ (4.5/5)

Honestly, I’d never even heard of the place before Friday. I just got into Taiwanese Beef Noodle on Friday (yah, yah, I had some back in January but that didn’t really count), so this was my second taste of the delicious soup in the past 72 hours. My friend told me about this place today, and then I quickly looked at Urban Spoon, and saw the huge grey 29%. I got a bit worried. I went onto read some trust worthy reviews by Sherman, Chowtimes, and Follow Me Foodie and wasn’t so worried anymore. The lines looked ridiculous, and I probably wouldn’t have waited an hour on my first try. I came in with not very high expectations. I definitely wasn’t falling for the hype to only be let down.

We got in at about 7:30 PM tonight, and the place was empty. Yay no wait! The decor is pretty nice, and the waitresses were kind and attentive. 

I didn’t look at the menu, I just described what I wanted to my friend, and they found them. You order by checking off stuff on a piece of paper - like Dim Sum/AYCE Sushi.  We all ordered the Champion beef shank with noodle in a spicy-ish broth with flat noodle for $10.95. Yah that’s pretty pricey for a bowl of noodle soup. I spent $9 on a large bowl of soup at Lao Shan Dong on Friday. We also ordered the Marinated beef wrapped in crispy pancake ($5.95), pan fried ground pork cake ($3.50 for 2), and some cold mixed baby cucumber ($3.50 – my friend loves pickled cucumber).

The food came really quick. The cucumbers came first. They were actually pretty and had some little red chili peppers on top. A bit spicy, and a bit vinegary. It was definitely good, and got my mouth ready for the upcoming food. Better than Lao Shan Dong.

Surprisingly our soup came next. The bowl is big, but there isn’t a huge amount of noodle in here like at Lao Shan Dong, that place gives a huge portion. It’s enough though, as I was full by the end of the meal. The flat noodle was a bit undercooked, and still had a bite to it, but meant to be that way, as it was able to soak up a bit of flavour from the broth. It was really good. The broth was hot, and had a bit of spice to it. Definitely more heat than the spicy broth at Lao Shan Dong. What made the dish for me though (besides the excellent noodles and broth) was the chunky pieces of beef. OMG! It was so good. It was so tender and fell a part so easily as you bit into a piece. You’d probably take 2-3 bites per piece, and it was just so tender and amazing. It was marbled with fat. I love it. That’s what made this beef noodle a winner for me. There were 4-5 big chunks in my soup, and every one of them was consistently awesome. Oh and there were also about 4 strips of thin sliced beef on the soup which were just as wonderful and tender.

There was a piece of bok choy floating around in my soup which I didn’t care for. It was too much work for me to eat. They also served the soup with a pickled cabbage or something.. I only tasted it, and didn’t put it in my soup.

The Marinated beef in pancake was thin slices of beef and cucumber wrapped in a crispy pancake. This was pretty good, but it could’ve been more saucier. There wasn’t that much flavour to it. The pancake was well cooked and crispy, but was a bit bland for me. It came with two pieces that were cut into 4 pieces each. It was OK. Maybe if it came with something to dip into it would be better, or just more sauce inside the roll.

The ground pork was better in my opinion. The pork had a bit more flavour but not by much, and the texture of the “cake” was really nice. It was crispy on the outside, and still kind of moist. It had some peas mixed in with the ground pork I think. I’d probably order it again as it was only $3.50 for 2. It’s good but not awesome.

Our waitress came back very often to refill our tea cups also! I think in our hour long dinner she came by 5-6 times to refill our cups. Oh and supposedly the Chef Hungwon best Taiwanese Beef Noodle in 2006 or something, which probably over-built his hype too. I think the soup is worth the hype. My friend did say when they first opened it was a bit inconsistent, and some dishes came out warm rather than hot. She’s actually been 4-5 times since it opened, so she’s had a lot of experiences. Her last 3 visits have been excellent.

Personally, I actually like Chef Hung’s better than Lao Shan Dong, I think it all had to do with the soup. I wouldn’t mind spending the extra $2. Yah it’s not as much and not as filling, but it’s good for a meal, and it tasted awesome. The beef here was just so much better and so consistent. The only thing stopping me from giving it 5 stars is the overall price, and the appetizers/snacks weren’t 5 star worthy.

I wish I took better pictures of my Taiwanese Beef Noodle though =(.. oh well that just means I have to go back =)

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Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle
2800-4151 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC

(604) 295-9357

****~ (4/5)

This was one of the restaurant that I went purely based on its name. McNoodle House is a Chinese restaurant in Richmond serving congee and noodles. McNoodle… Heehee

I went in around 8pm and the place was pretty empty. I was able to pick my own seat. The menu was pretty simple, it had mostly congees and noodle soups. With a quick glance at it, I already had an idea of  what I want. I got Preserved Egg and Pork Congee, Wonton noodle soup, Gai Lan (steamed vegetables), Chinese donuts (to go with the congee), and Taro and Pork spring rolls.

Preserved Egg and Pork Congee is a traditional congee, I was relieved that they didn’t screw this one up. It was pretty good actually. The congee wasn’t too watery, and the flavor was nice. The Chinese donuts ($1.50) didn’t taste fresh. I think they’ve been out for a while since it was pretty much the end of the day. I wish they were made fresh.

The wonton noodle soup was OK. It came with 4 wontons, and they were decent wontons. I preferred the congee over their wonton noodle soup. I got the Taro and Pork spring rolls because I was curious of what it would taste like. It was OK, the wrap was really crispy, but the filling was just OK.

I’m glad that I came to this place, because I had a really good dinner here. The food was cheap, our dinner came to $20.95, that averaged $4.00 dollars per dish, although the portions weren’t big. It was a really simple restaurant, serving simple delicious food, too bad they close early at 9pm. It’s a good place to get your congee fix, if you are craving for it.

Note: Close at 9pm. Cash Only!

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**½~~ (2.5/5)

I went to Beijing Noodle House because I was really hungry, and I was craving for some dumplings. Also my friend seemed to really want to try this place.

I got in at 8pm, and there was only 3 tables occupied. The restaurant is pretty big, but it seemed pretty empty. Their menu actually has quite a few items, mostly consists of noodles and dumplings. There were a bunch that I wanted to try. I ended up ordering the Beef Brisket Noodle Soup, Mushroom and Pork Dumplings, Green Onion Pancake, Pan fried dumplings with eggs & leeks, and Beef roll. I wanted to try their Pan fried Pork bun, but they had already sold out.

The Beef Brisket Noodle Soup was the best one of the night. The soup was flavorful, and the beef was tender. The noodles were cooked well, it tasted home made. The rest of the food I ordered were OK. The green onion pancakes were a bit dry, and the Pan fried dumplings with eggs & leeks were not dumplings at all. They were green onion pancakes wraps with leeks & egg filling inside, kinda looked like a quesadilla. I didn’t like the beef roll, there wasn’t much taste to it.

My friend said I would be disappointed with the dumplings because I was craving for dumplings, and he was right. The mushroom and Pork dumpling was not good. While the dumpling wrap was good, the filling didn’t taste fresh, and there were no mushrooms at all. The portions for dumplings were pretty big though. For $7.50 dollars you’d get 15 big boil dumplings. There were about 3 other kinds of dumplings, you’d might want to stay away from the mushroom & pork.

Before I started ordering, I started taking photos of the restaurant, menu, etc. With only 3 tables in occupied in the restaurant, it was pretty obvious to others that I was taking pictures. Almost right after I took a picture of the menu, the waitress came over and said her boss didn’t want me to take pictures of the menu. I asked if I could take pictures of the food, she also said no. Ok.. thank god for camera phones, I managed to sneaked a couple pictures after.

The ambiance, there wasn’t much ambiance. Since the restaurant was so empty, I could hear the cooks talking at the back, and they sounded like they were arguing the whole time. The waitress never came to refill our tea. We had to wait awhile for her to pack our food, and get our bill. The food here is pretty cheap, but I would not come back.

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Beijing Noodle House
90-6451 Buswell St
Richmond, BC V6Y
(604) 278-2323

***** (5/5)

I’m starting off this post to congratulate Paul & Belinda on their wedding, and thanks for inviting me to one of the best weddings I’ve ever been to.

The wedding reception was held at Kirin Seafood Restaurant in Richmond. The dinner was a 12 course meal including appetizers, various entrée dishes and desserts. The whole meal had soup, vegetables, chicken, various types of seafood, and 3 types of desserts (including the wedding cake).

The food here was excellent. Out of the 12 dishes, there wasn’t a single dish that I disliked a tiny bit. Every single dish was well cooked, and timing on each course was just perfect. Some of my favorites were the steamed fish, the lobster, and the desserts. The crispy chicken was also really good. The skin was nice a crispy, and the meat was really juicy. The shark fin soup, and the rice in the end was pretty magical too. The sweet soup dessert with rice ball stuffed with black sesame was a perfect dessert to end the meal. I wasn’t all the hungry going to the dinner, and I ate everything the waiter gave me. It was so good!

The waiter we had was THE BEST! He was serving 2 tables at a time, ours and the other, and our tea pots, glasses of water, wine, pop were never empty. In fact, I don’t think my glass of water was ever less than half full. He had all the right etiquette, and didn’t have any assumptions. On our first course, he suggested to split the dishes for us, and we agreed. Our big Chinese dish was portioned into 9 little dishes, one for each one of us at the table. I never liked spinning the table for food at Chinese restaurants, so that was a genius idea. Ever since then, he always asked for our consent to split the dishes, to the point where we didn’t feel it was necessary for him to ask, he still did, for all 12 courses. He was a big part of our dining experience, he was so good that we thought he should give out waiter-ing lessons. No joke.

For all of you lovers getting married, consider Kirin Seafood Restaurant as your wedding reception. The food was honestly delicious. Everyone had a great time there, and I didn’t hear a single complaint about the food or the service. The restaurant was clean, and the fact that our dishes were split up before hand, there was no mess at our tables at all.

Thumbs up for hosting an awesome reception, they absolutely earned 5 stars out of 5.

Read my dim sum experience at Kirin Seafood, New Westminster here

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Kirin Seafood Restaurant
7900 Westminster Hwy
Richmond, BC V6X 1A5
(604) 303-8833
http://www.kirinrestaurants.com/

***½~ (3.5/5)

I started going to No. 9 Chinese Restaurant in Richmond back when I was still a student. This would be one of the few restaurants that still serve decent food at 3am, yes, they are open 24 hours 7 days a week.

The menu here is pretty big. They’ve got everything from noodle soups to burgers and fries. If you are craving for french toast at 3am, they’ve got you covered. Burgers, fries and French toasts in a Chinese restaurant? Yep. That’s how they roll.

The last time my friends and I got BBQ Pork fried rice, Honey Garlic Spare Ribs, Soy Beef rice noodle, Beef and Vegetables on rice, and French Toast for dessert.

The food here was generally good. One of my favorites here was the Soy Beef Rice Noodle. I almost always order it every single time I go there. It was pieces of beef, bean sprouts, fried with rice noodle in soy sauce, so yummy. The Honey Garlic Spare Ribs was OK, not as good as the ones from On Yuen. They were  good with fried rice.

One of the things you gotta try here is the French Toast. Their french toast was 2 pieces of Chinese bread with custard filling and deep fried all together. It came with butter and maple syrup. It’s so bad for you, but it was like almost every single item on the menu here, so greasy, and So Good!

Note: Cash only! Portions here are big, so keep that in mind when you are ordering. Parking is free.

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