****~ (4/5)

I’ll admit that I’m not much of a ramen lover. I usually find it way to salty for my liking. I’ve only had ramen a couple times at a couple of the Benkei locations, and it was only okay. I don’t know if I’ve ever craved ramen. G-men Ramen is run by the people who also do Gyoza King on Robson (which I also really need to try). The tables were all busy at dinner time so we sat at the front counter.

I ordered the Miso Ramen ($8.50), and my friend ordered the Shoyu Ramen ($8.00) with corn.

I really liked my Miso Ramen. It wasn’t too salty, which is why I really liked it. The noodles were cooked perfectly, still having a bit of a bite to them. In the tonkatsu miso were some nice fatty but thin slices of BBQ pork, seaweed, black woodear mushrooms, and plenty of green onions. The really fatty BBQ pork is for sure the thing I love most about ramen, and this was no different. I love how tender it was. They had the standard minced garlic and I had to put a nice heaping table spoon of that for extra flavour.

My friend also enjoyed her Tonkotsu Shoyu ramen because it wasn’t as salty as other places too. They even gave her a special slotted spoon so she can get at her corn! She enjoyed it, but still not as good as the ramen she’s had in Hawaii.

I think the prices were a little bit more than Benkei or the same price, I can’t remember. The menu here is quite limited though, as I didn’t see much more than the few types of ramen, and some donburi bowls. However, it is still the best ramen that I’ve had.

Note: Cash Only!

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G-Men Ramen
#1101-3778 Sexsmith Road
Richmond, BC

(778) 296-3779

http://www.gmenramen.com

***~~ (3/5)

Last week I finally dragged myself out to Steveston, Richmond to try Pajo’s Fish & Chips at the wharf. This was quite a busy little place even for Monday nights, with mostly local customers.

For my dinner, I got the One of Each ($13.09) fish & chips, with a side order of Crab Cakes (2 for $5.69). The One of Each fish & chips contains 1 cod, 1 salmon and 1 halibut and fries. Those were the 3 fish choices at Pajo’s. The fish & chips came in a big paper cone. The batter for the fish was pretty airy and light, and the fish were cooked perfectly. Out of all 3 fish, I enjoyed the salmon the most. The salmon was the most ‘meaty’ out of them all, the quantity of the cod and the halibut were pretty small. I wasn’t a big fan of their fries, because of the way they were packed in the paper cone, they got soggy pretty fast.

My friend suggested the Crab Cakes she said they are pretty good here. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy them too much. The Crab Cakes were pretty dry, and I didn’t find much crab meat in it at all. The patties were mostly fish, fish cakes would be a better name for them.

This would be a really good place to go and have a relaxing dinner on a really nice sunny day. They have a few picnic tables, and patio chairs out facing the water. It was actually a really nice quiet spot to eat and enjoy the view when the wharf is not super packed. Overall the sea side ambiance won me over rather than the food.

Note: Parking is limited. Avoid weekends if you dislike crowds.

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Pajo’s Fish & Chips
3500 Bayview St
Richmond, BC V7E
www.pajo’s.com

I’ve been hearing about these mobile trucks that sells Japanese food in Richmond, so on a fairly nice day, my friends and I went on a hunt for these mobile trucks. I say hunt, because it was really quite a journey for us to find them.

First we believed the address listed on urbanspoon, and drove to the middle of a business park parking lot. No luck, the address was totally wrong. Then, we googled Tenku Bakudanyaki (one of the truck’s name), and believed google maps. That led us to the empty parking lot across from Rona on Elmbridge way; the address was totally wrong, again. Not willing to give up,  we went to their website, just to double check the address, and that led us to a 3rd address to these trucks. Finally, we decided to try one more time, and 3rd time’s a charm, we found them.

Since there were 3 trucks and each truck really only sold one item, I broke them down into 3 little reviews.

Tenku Bakudanyaki

***~~ (3/5)

We started off with Tenku Bakudanyaki, this truck was selling Takoyaki bombs (bakudanyaki). You can get them in different sauce flavors, we got a Wasabi Mayo Bakudanyaki ($5).  This giant takoyaki had a more ingredients in it than I expected. It had shrimp, cabbage, whole quail egg, and it was topped with lots of bonito flakes. What was strange was, I don’t remember eating any tako (octopus) from the bakudanyaki. There was also a lot of sweet yaki sauce and wasabi mayo on top, really nice flavors. I’d eat it again but I probably wouldn’t pay 5 dollars for it.

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Fumisen!

***~~ (3/5)

Fumisen! was the next truck over, and it was selling sushi cones. There were a few specialty cones that they sell, but you can also make your own. We decided to just go with one of the specialties, and got the Spicy Salmon Cone with Soy Crepe ($4.75). The cone had spicy salmon, green onions, and tons of tobiko. The cone was held together by their yellow soy crepe, which I really had no clue what it was. The soy crepe didn’t have any taste to it, but it did make the cone looked prettier.

This was a pretty delicious cone. The spicy salmon was great and it got the right amount of heat from the spicy sauce. Every bite has got a nice contrast in texture from the salmon and the rice and the tobiko. This was a great item to get in the summer, no heavy flavors here.  I’d eat this again, however like the bakudanyaki, I didn’t think it was worth $4.75.

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Shoryumen

**~~~ (2/5)

Shoryumen was last truck we visited and it was a ramen noodle truck. We were there when they were in the middle of changing menus for the summer, so we basically made our own bowl ramen noodles with the help of the guy at the counter. We got a Shio Ramen and it included nori (seaweed sheets), cabbage, sprouts, and green onions. We were also asked to pick 3 additional toppings for our ramen, and we picked Chashu (pork), black mushroom and bamboo shoots. All that for $8.75 dollars.

The Shio Ramen was not what I’m usually used to. The soup base was really clear, and it tasted like just how it looks, nothing fancy. The pork were shredded instead of sliced. All of the toppings by the way, were cold. The soup was just lukewarm. I definitely didn’t get the comforting feeling that I’d expect from a bowl of ramen.

There was also nowhere to sit in this truck, there was a bar, but it was for standing only. The guy at the counter was pretty nice. He gave us an extra topping (young bamboo shoots) because we told him we went to all of their previous locations before finally finding them there.

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I think the concept of the trailers was interesting, however everything was slightly over priced in my opinion. The one bad thing about these trucks was that they are mobile and they move. The best way to find out where they are currently located is through their website, we found that out the hard way. Overall, I give these 3 food trucks 3/5 stars, for decent food, and it’s street food concepts.

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For store hours and location:
www.bakudanyaki.com

***~~ (3/5)

A few days ago my friend took me to Berry Good in Richmond for desserts. It’s located in quite a remote location, hidden away from the major streets, therefore, I never knew it existed.

Berry Good is a cake/coffee shop. They make their own cakes freshly everyday. We were their first customer of the day, because we got there right when they opened for business. When I walked in, I could immediately smell the freshly baked cheesecakes; the owner had just finished making a couple.

The menu had a lot of different cakes on it, but the availability really depended on what the owner had already made that day. I wanted a Strawberry Shortcake, but the owner was still in the process of making it, so I go the Very Chocolate cake instead.

The Very Chocolate cake was a really really dense cake. It was chocolate cake, with chocolate icing and gold sheet shavings on top. It was very chocolaty, and the cakes were rather dense than spongy. This was a heavy duty cake, and was very delicious with a cup of coffee.

We also got a slice of their Mango Cheesecake. This cheesecake was really fluffy. It was lighter than regular cheesecakes, it was almost exactly like a mousse to me. There were a  lot of cheese taste to it, and it had chucks of fresh mangoes. It was also a really good cake, however, I think it’d be more appropriate to name the cake a mousse cake rather than a cheesecake.

My favorite cake of the visit would be the Noir Blanc, the black and white cake. It looked pretty funky, the top almost looked like there’s a layer of marshmallows, but really it was just cream. It was layer of cream, chocolate cake, more cream, mousse, and chocolate cake. I liked this cake a lot because it was so light. The cream was really nice, fluffy, and airy, the cake was spongy, and super soft. It wasn’t too sweet. It was just a really light cake in both texture and taste.

I think the owner of this bakery is Korean, and I think her cakes reflected that. The cakes were very Asian and similar to the ones you’d find in Asian bakeries. It was a nice little place to hang out and have desserts.

Note: They open quite late, best to visit after dinner to avoid it not being open yet.

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Berry Good
#1120-8766 McKim Way
Richmond, BC V6X
(604) 247-2253

***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

****~ (4/5)

There are two Manzo Japanese Restaurants in Richmond. One on “Food Street” aka Alexandra Rd, and the other on Garden City and Capstan. Today, I went to the one on Capstan which Urban Spoon lists as an Itamae (the other is Izakaya). Can someone tell me what the difference is?

We got here at 4:30 PM only to find out that it opens at 5 PM. Went around and came back at 5 PM, and the door still was locked? Huh? We called in to see if they were open, and they were, and they quickly turned on the Open sign and unlocked the door. They apologized. We were the first ones at the restaurant and were immediately seated. The restaurant is very dark so I had to boost up my ISO to get proper shots. As we left the restaurant, it was so bright out outside, that it felt like we were just leaving a strip club at noon. The restaurant was pretty cool. They had a booth lined up with Asahi Big Boy bottles. They had a lot of red trim too, pretty trendy.

Their menu was pretty big, and they had daily specials. On the first go we ordered the lamb skewer ($5.95), enoki beef maki ($5.95), grilled miso chicken ($4.95), oyster motoyaki ($2.95), beef short ribs ($5.50) and chicken karaage ($5.95). The chicken karaage was boneless fried chicken, with some sort of aioli. I couldn’t make out what flavour it was though, as I mostly tasted mayo, I think they used a seasoning salt. It was good, crispy outside, tender inside. It was only seasoned a little bit, but it wasn’t nearly as good as what I had at Guu with Garlic. We also got the Beef Shortribs, which was only OK too. It was a bit tough to chew sometimes and wasn’t as tender as I liked. The marinade was good though, not too salty.  The Lamb skewer came next and this was awesome. It was tender and had a nice flavour to it. It also came with a bit of mustard that was pretty pungent, but good, just put a little though. The miso chicken wasn’t very good, it was just really salty, and maybe slightly undercooked, I wasn’t a big fan of this. The oyster motoyaki was only $2.95 and the scallop motoyaki was double the price. My friend got two and he said it was really good. The enoki beef maki was a bit weird. Since it said maki I thought it would be sushi, but it was another skewer. It was some beef rolled around enoki mushroom, skewered then grilled. It wasn’t very good either. Although the beef was pinkish, it was still kind of hard to chew.

On our second batch we ordered Pork Toro ($9.95), Takoyaki ($5.95), and Beef Sashimi ($11.95). Now these orders were all awesome. The beef sashimi came first. This was a bit different because the slices of beef were double the thickness of what it usually is, with onions, and the sauce was in a little bowl, so you just dip as you eat. This was amazing, the used really fresh beef here, and the sauce just added a little bit more flavour. This was my favorite dish of the meal. The pork toro was also pretty good. It kind of reminded us of lechon (Filipino roast pork). It had a salad on the side which we didn’t touch, and a sauce and green onions on top of the pork. The pork was cut thin, and there was some pieces with skin, and a layer of fat. Sometimes the fat would be a bit chewy, but other pieces were very tender. It had really good flavour. I can’t say anything about the takoyaki, but my friend said it was his favourite dish of the meal. The fried octopus ball had some bonito flakes on top which added a fishy saltiness, and the sauce on the bottom tied everything together perfectly.

In the end I guess it was a bit pricey. It came to $65.15 before tip for just two people. We didn’t even order any drinks. When I go back I’ll make sure to go with 4 or more people so you can try lots.

So overall there were more good dishes than bad. Also, the servers were all really friendly. Even the manager was helping out by serving us and refilling our tea whenever they came by to check up on us. One of the waitress’ was hot too =).

Manzo Japanese Restaurant
120-9020 Capstan Way
Richmond, BC

(604) 821-9834

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****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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***~~ (3/5)

Today I was in Richmond, thinking I haven’t had Korean food in a while, so I stopped by Jang Mo Jib. Jang Mo Jib is a popular chained Korean restaurant in Vancouver. They started out on Robson street, and now they 5 other locations in Vancouver, Richmond, and Burnaby.

I almost always get one of their Tofu Pots every time I visit and today was no exception. I got a Mushroom Tofu Pot with medium spicy level. I liked theses tofu pots because they’re individually sized, and they came with a bowl of rice. It’s something really good to eat on a cold, rainy day. They serve these pots almost right out of their burner, poor for the waitresses for having to carry them to customer’s tables while they’re still boiling, but cool for the customers to see.

I’d say today I was a little disappointed with my food. It felt like they had skimped out on their ingredients. I remembered the mini pot would be filled with tofu, and other ingredients, but today I found myself fishing in the pot looking for my mushrooms, egg, and tofu. The taste was still good, I just didn’t get as much satisfaction as I’d like to get. Maybe it was lunch portion?

My friend also ordered an tofu pot, but requested it to be White. I have never heard of ordering a White Korean hot pot, and I was interested to see what it was. The White stands for white soup base, which means no spicy flavorings at all. So, if you don’t like to eat spicy food, you can still try these Korean tofu pots.

The food quality here compared to their Robson was not as good. I still like their Robson locations the better.

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Jang Mo Jib Richmond
8320 Alexandra Rd
Richmond, BC V6X
(604) 233-0712