Lucky Joy BBQ

It is time for our annual Alaskan King Crab family dinner! Of course, being in the industry, Daddy Lam always know the best place to go for a top notch dinner with great value. We held our AKC family dinner at Lucky Joy BBQ Chinese Restaurant last year and it was amazing. The fresh king crab still lingers in my memory since. Definitely excited to share a whole king crab for the six of us!

Last year, we had a 13.7 pound king crab, 3 entree dishes, and a dessert. It was definitely way too much food. We had to pack most of the entree dishes to go. This year, we decided to focus our dinner mostly on the king crab. We will be having it cooked three ways: steamed, fried, and baked with rice.

Starter Soup
Average clear soup served in Chinese restaurant.

Our Alaska King Crab this year is 12.2 pounds!

King Crab 3-Way: steamed king crab legs
The legs of the king crab are opened and steamed to perfection! It is topped with fried garlic and green onion. I love garlic and this was really good! It is not overwhelmed with pungent garlic flavour; you can definitely taste the fresh sweet juicy flavour of the king crab.

King Crab 3-Way: salty-peppery fried king crab
Light salty-peppery batter on pieces of king crab. Very delicious. Despite it being deep fried, the batter does not overpower the fresh sweet taste of the king crab meat itself. My parents actually found the fried king crab to be cooked better.

King Crab 3-Way: baked king crab pieces over rice
The remaining pieces of the king crab is mixed with a curry sauce and baked over rice in the shell of the king crab. Great presentation and great taste too!

Fresh Noodles: 'sang mein' cooked with the king crab broth
When we finish devouring the steamed king crab, there are king crab broth/liquid that leaked from the legs. Often, people will cook it in noodles for the fresh king crab taste. We choose to cook it in two fresh noodles (sang mein). Slightly too much flavour, we should have cooked it in three fresh noodles.

Seasonal Vegetable: garlic 'gai lan'
After a hearty king crab meal, we definitely need some vegetable in our diet. We ordered garlic 'gai lan' as our final dish. I enjoyed it, as it was not overly salty like most other Chinese restaurants.

We were all very satisfied with Lucky Joy BBQ Chinese Restaurant. Especially if Daddy Lam is satisfied, it is a good indication of quality food. Definitely a restaurant I will recommend for an Alaskan King Crab dinner. This time, we ordered the right amount of food for 6 people! If you are coming with a party of 10, I will suggest getting a 14 pound king crab and 3 entree dishes. The 3 entree dishes includes dessert in the end as well.

Food: My whole family loved it! Great flavours.
Service: Not much service provided. We had to ask for our dishes to be exchanged and to have our tea topped up.
Price: The total came to $290 with tax for six people.
Recommended? Highly recommended for Alaskan King Crab.

- Hippo


Lucky Joy BBQ Restaurant
11780 Thorpe Road
Richmond, B.C.
Phone: 604-303-8172

Lhy Thai

It's been a while since I have updated my blog. Well, that is because I have been away for 3 weeks on an Asia trip!! It was super amazing. My girl friend and I had a ton of fun. And of course, knowing me, I definitely tried a lot of traditional and cultural food that you do not normally find in Vancouver. I will be blogging about that once I finish sorting through the million of photos I have taken.

But anyways, I am finally home in Raincouver. Definitely not missing the rain, but I do miss the lovely, breezy Vancouver weather. I took it easy with the food I ate the first week I was back. Now, I am ready for more food adventures! My friend, Flash, was mentioning to me that we can eat emu at this restaurant in Richmond. Despite it being such a cute animal, I was totally down for trying new meat. Unfortunately, the restaurant we were originally going to did not serve emu. Being slightly disappointed, we decided to go grab some Thai food in Burnaby at Lhy Thai.

When you enter Lhy Thai, it is a small, cozy restaurant that appeared to be family owned. Very laid back and casual dining. On a Thursday night, it was not busy at all and our server was highly attentive. After reviewing the menu, we have decided on a couple of simple dishes:

Phat Thai Gai: rice noodles fried with chicken, tofu, green onion, tomato sauce, bean sprouts, egg, and sprinkled with peanuts ($10.95)
This pad thai was very tasty. You can choose between chicken or prawn. We chose the chicken. The portion is smaller than most restaurant, but it was full of flavours and definitely had a good balance of sweet and spice to it. However, it is a bit oily and can be heavy if you were to finish the platter to yourself. I will recommend sharing.

Green Curry with Beef: bamboo shoots, green and red pepper, sweet basil ($10.95)
This curry disappointed me. It was very liquid and watery. We ordered the green curry in mild, so I hope they did not just dilute it with water to achieve the mild flavour. We didn't want it too spicy, but we still wanted the thick curry flavour. The sliced beef was average and slightly dry. Side note: this dish does not come with rice. We ordered a bowl of steamed rice for $1.50.

Lhy Thai is located near the South Burnaby-Kingsway-Edmonds area. It is on Edmonds Street and Linden Avenue cross street to be exact. There is free street parking at the front of the restaurant on Edmonds Street. The restaurant is quite small, so I will make reservation if you plan to attend with a larger party. Please note: they are closed on Sundays. Their hours of operations is as follows: Lunch from Monday to Friday (11:30am to 2:30pm); Dinner from Monday to Saturday (5:00pm to 10:00pm).

Food: Only average. They serve great pad thai, but definitely need to work on their curry.
Service: Excellent. Warm and friendly staff from a family owned restaurant.
Price: We paid a total of $25 with tax for two people.
Recommended? I do have preference for other Thai restaurants, but they are located in Vancouver.

- Hippo


Lhy Thai
7357 Edmonds Street
Burnaby, B.C.
Phone: 604-526-8085