Monday, May 21, 2012

Shanghai Wonderful

I love Shanghai food. There aren’t many good restaurants in town, but Shanghai Wonderful is definitely one of them. I have been here many times over the past few years and it has been consistently serving good food; a very solid restaurant. I like Shanghai Wonderful because of the flavourful yum-tum food with plenty of quality ingredients.

In terms of service, all the Shanghai restaurants are equivalent. For those who never been to a Chinese restaurant, please keep in mind that the only positive in these restaurants are efficiency. Unless you are a regular, no conversations will be generated; simply because the waiters have no time to spare for a decent conversation. My review on most Chinese restaurants is solely dependent on how well the food taste. 

Chicken with Wine Sauce 花雕走地雞 ($10.95)
This free range chicken is soaked in rice wine sauce. The flavour of the rice wine is actually quite strong. My sister didn’t really like it because it was too rich for her. I would not recommend this dish if your palate have not accustom to the rice wine flavour. This chicken itself is cooked really well. It has been soaked in rice wine sauce for hours, so you do not need to dip it in the sauce provided.

Seafood Hot and Sour Soup 海鮮酸辣湯 ($9.95)
Delicious. The soup itself is made of spicy oil sauce and vinegar to create the hot and sour flavour. The highlight of this soup is the amount of ingredients they used. Very rare do you find a restaurant using this much seafood in their soup. Many cheap out and just fill it up with liquid and tofu. I prefer Shanghai Wonderful version of this soup because it is quite mild; a very good appetizer.

Fried Sliced Roll 炸銀絲卷 ($2.95)
A classic favourite. Instead of eating rice, this bread will sometimes be eaten as substitute for the intake of carbohydrate. Inside is very soft with layers. It comes with a sweetened condensed milk on the side. For a healthier option, it also comes steamed.

Fried Shanghai Thick Noodle 上海粗炒麵 ($10.95)
Similar to many fried noodle dishes, it is a bit on the greasy side. Not too strong in soy sauce flavour. I like how it uses a lot of spinach and siu choi, so that it provides moisture to the dry noodles and meat. This is a popular dish, a very simple dish actually, but it stands out amongst other restaurants. It is difficult to ensure the flavour of the noodles, yet not going over greasy. I will rate this above average.

Shanghai Style Juicy Pork Buns 上海小籠飽 ($5.25)
Lastly, the ‘siu long bao’.  I love these juicy siu long bao! The entire bun is filled with soup. It is very fresh as well, which you can tell by the colour of the pork. The meat in many other restaurants turns me off because of the frozen taste given off due to the length of time it has been sitting in the freezer. Be careful while eating this; my cousin squirted the soup on me twice while eating it...

Overall, I enjoyed this dinner. Except the fact that my cousin made a mess on me while eating. I would not say Shanghai Wonderful is the best in town, but it is in my top 5 for its quality and price. It has yet to disappoint me with its flavours. It will continue to be part of my go-to Shanghai restaurant list.

Location: In the corner of Lansdowne Road and Cooney Road. It is behind Lansdowne Mall, a block from No. 3 Road. A 5-minute walk from the skytrain station. It has a small lot, so it may be difficult to find parking when it gets busy.

Food: A good, solid Shanghai restaurant.
Service: Standard efficiency.
Price: The total came to $45 with tax for three people.
Recommended? Yes.

- Hippo


Shanghai Wonderful Restaurant 旺
8380 Lansdowne Road
Richmond, B.C.
Phone: 604-278-8829

Shanghai Wonderful Restaurant 旺 on Urbanspoon

Thursday, May 17, 2012

G-Men Ramen Izakaya @ NanChuu

The first time we were there, it was NanChuu Japanese Izakaya. This time, it is G-Men Ramen Izakaya @ NanChuu. Not much changes to the interior and exterior, except they painted “G-Men” on top of NanChuu’s logo. The menu is still the same. When it was still known as NanChuu, Meko and I was not satisfied. This time was different though. Here is what we ordered:

Tonkotsu Miso Ramen with Butter Corn ($10.45)
This was delicious! The soup was thick and flavourful; rich but not overly salty. The noodle was good and chewy. Notice that the corn is actually topped with a big piece of butter. I really enjoy this. And I love the fact they provide a slotted spoon, which allows me to sieve through the soup and collect the loose corns.

Hiyashi Chuuka ($9.50)
This is a cold soupless noodle topped with sliced pork, bean sprout, cucumber, onion, bonito, mustard, and salad on the side. It is served in this special vinegar ramen sauce. Slightly sour, but goes well with the cold ramen. Meko liked it, but he said he prefers the cold ramen at Gyo-O more.

The ramen is much better the second time, when it changed to G-Men Ramen Izakaya. Hopefully they keep up the good work and I may become a returning customer. On a side note, this is one of the Japanese restaurants that do charge for tea. If you ask for tea, you get a choice of Jasmine or Green. Also, they have changed their hours. They are now opened for lunch, but are now closed earlier than before.

Food: Good, ramen very tasty!
Service: Average. Make sure you sign your name at the door for the seat waiting list. Meko tried to order takeout for me the other day, and he had such a difficult time. Apparently they aren’t allowed takeouts.
Price: The total came to $23 with tax for two people.
Will I come back? I would not mind if it was easier to find parking.

- Hippo


G-Men Ramen Izakaya @ NanChuu
#1160-8391 Alexandra Road
Richmond, B.C.
Phone: 604-276-8391

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Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Tamarind Hill Malaysian Cuisine

For months now, Ken and I were looking for a time we were both available to meet up for dinner. He is such a busy person and our little date is long overdue. Finally, we were able to settle on an agreement! I had work in Surrey, and he was working in Burnaby, so I chose a location that was midway: New Westminster. Honestly, I would probably never go to New Westminster to eat unless there was a reason, since it was out of the way for me. He always let me choose the restaurant, so we ended up in Tamarind Hill Malaysian Cuisine.

Ken was late! How could he? Well, that’s okay. More time for me to take pictures. When he finally arrived, we were going to order their mussels for an appetizer, but they sold out. It was a Monday night when we went and apparently it was really busy during the weekend. So we ended up with the calamari, which came last because it took us so long to decide.

Mee Goreng ($10.25) This is a stir-fry egg noodle dish with a sweet and sour sauce. I found this standard. It taste just like the ones I order from Chinese cafes, which disappointed me. The only highlight of this Mee Goreng is that the amount of beef, tofu, and vegetables are equivalent to the noodles, but personally like eating more noodles.

Beef Rendeng ($13.25)
Ken chose this. I warned him it had a spicy pepper logo indication beside the menu item. He probably underestimated the level of spice in Malaysian food, he was sweating as he ate this! I have tried curry in other Malaysian restaurants and this is one of the spicier ones. It comes with a bowl of rice. I couldn’t find anywhere on the menu for an option of my favourite coconut rice.

Malaysian Calamari ($8.95)
Served with a spicy house sauce. I enjoyed the sauce, but the calamari itself was not good at all. It was deep fried in old oil, so it had a burnt aftertaste. It also did not have a crispy crunch to it. The coating was very stiff.


Location: Near the Royal City Shopping Centre. There are paid parking along 6th Avenue and 7th Street. But I just parked in the underground parking lot of the Royal City Shopping Centre. You just need to cross the street, which is a 2 minute walk.

Food: I did not enjoy this meal. Only the Mee Goreng was decent. Perhaps their seafood menu is better? I probably will not come back in the future though.
Service: Average; was not very attentive.
Price: The total came to $37 with tax for two people.
Will I come back? No.

- Hippo


Tamarind Hill Malaysian Cuisine
628 6th Avenue
New Westminster, B.C.
Phone: 604-526-3000

Tamarind Hill (New West) on Urbanspoon

Monday, May 14, 2012

Hi Genki Japanese

I love home-style food. Hi Genki serves delicious Japanese comfort food. They do not offer sushi nor sashimi in their menu selection; although they do include a few pieces of sashimi in their bento boxes. This was the perfect lunch spot for us! After many nights of raw fish consumption, I miss those yummy deep-fried dishes!

Ebi and Satsuma Tendon: prawn and fish cake tempura on rice ($8.95)
First thing I noticed: the rice was cooked perfectly. I usually dislike tempera with rice, since many restaurants fail with the rice cooking. I love rice and it upsets me that Japanese restaurants will use undercooked or dried out rice for their dishes. After sampling the rice in the Satsuma Ebi Ten, I fell in love. The prawn tempera was deep fried, but there was no greasy after taste. The fish cake was prepared quite healthy: it was white fish paste mixed with peas and carrots. Lastly, it was finished with a drizzle of rich tempura sauce.

Pork Katsu Curry: deep fried breaded pork cutlet ($9.50)
I really enjoyed this. The portion was generous. I find this curry tastier than the curry made by Saboten in Aberdeen. The pork cutlet was thick and juicy. The side salad came with half a boiled egg, which was a nice touch. Despite the deep fried pork cutlet, it was quite a hearty meal with the many uses of vegetables.

Ice Cream Tempura: deep fried vanilla ice cream and strawberry sauce ($5.50)
Perfect for sharing and is a very nice finish to our big meals. The vanilla ice cream was actually good quality vanilla full of flavor. It is coated with corn flakes and lightly fried on the outer shell to give it a crispy crunch. The strawberry sauce was drizzled on top and on the sides if you want a strawberry touch to it. It was very good even without it.

My overall experience was good. Food was amazing, dine in the warm family atmosphere. Design is very simple, so probably not somewhere you want to take dates to. Many tables are filled with family with children. The waitresses are dress in casual clothing with a simple apron, wearing comfortable shoes. They aren’t dressing to impress, but their service is great.

Location: Inside of the National Nikkei Heritage Centre. You can park in the underground parking for free. Then walk up the stairs towards the front door of the heritage centre. The restaurant will be on the ground floor located inside straight from the centre’s entrance.

Food: Excellent! A nice change if you want Japanese food but are not looking for a sushi bar.
Service: Friendly, casual staff. They are Japanese and are not fluent in English, but they are all very approachable and are willing to help. Note: not to bring dates.
Price: The total came to $27 with tax for two people. Can be quite well priced if you do not order the Ice Cream Tempura like we did.
Will I come back? Of course. I look forward to try the grilled fish specials on their daily menu.

- Hippo


Hi Genki Japanese Restaurant
6680 Southoaks Crescent
Burnaby, B.C.
Phone: 604-777-0533

Hi Genki on Urbanspoon