Seventh Heaven Cafe 七重天

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Wendy

As we’ve said before, the staff of Boston Steakhouse has migrated to Seventh Heaven in Aberdeen. Not sure what the reason for the move was though.

Anyways, continuing with my HK-style Milk Tea craving as of late, Boyfriend took me to Seventh Heaven.

It has quite a unique decor.  It’s supposedly to be I guess 60′s style?  There’s jukeboxes and old Coca-Cola signs, but it’s quite weird in that there’s a mix of old Chinese and English style posters.  For instance, there’s posters of 50′s/60′s Chinese style girls, but also Casablanca, Marilyn Monroe posters.  A weird combination if you ask me.  The theme is almost there but not quite.

So we both ordered from the Afternoon Tea menu naturally.  Again they charge $1 for cold drinks.

Boyfriend had his favorite hot Almond Tea again, while obviously I had the cold milk tea.

But perhaps I should’ve ordered the hot one…it was so cold in the restaurant!!

Milk tea was decent but, once again, it’s no Alleluia.

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Filed under: Bistro, Cantonese, Chinese, HK Style Cafe, Restaurant Reviews, Richmond | Tagged: , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Red Star Seafood Restaurant 鴻星

Posted on May 29, 2009 by Wendy

I’ve had these pictures for quite a while…probably a month or more. For that amount of time, it’s a miracle that this restaurant is still operating.

Anyways, this is another dim sum post. As the visit was quite some time ago, I’ve since went again and so there will be pictures from both visits.

Both visit we ordered this.  It’s blanched geoduck with another similar food item.  I have no idea what the English name of that other thing is but in Chinese it’s 桂花蚌.  I’m pondering whether or not to tell you exactly what that is…

But being a food blog, I will.  It’s the stomach of the sea cucumber.   Yes, we Chinese do eat some weird stuff…

But it was so good.  The geoduck was fresh and sweet, and crunchy.  The chili soy sauce for dipping added a great flavoring to it also.  The 桂花蚌 was excellent also.  Crunchy.  This dish is a bargain at $10.95.  My mom loves it.

Next was another staple in our dim sum outings – Steamed Fish Maw with Shrimp Paste.  I love this stuff, so does Mom.  Most places prepare this either this way or steamed with chicken.  The fish maw was great.  Some places are able to soak it enough in preparation so that it’s actually all fluffy.  But most of the time it is gooey.  I like it both ways.

So what is fish maw exactly?  It’s actually the gas bladder (no not that type of gas…) of certain types of fish.  Quite similar to the swim bladder for buoyancy I suppose.

Again, we Chinese eat almost any part of anything.  ALMOST.

The Deep-fried Shrimp Dumpling with consomme is offered at most places but not all.  Mom really likes this.  She was impressed at how light golden the color of the dumpling is, indicating that either they use fresh oil to fry this or a whole different batch of oil.  Certainly not “thousand-used oil”. Do you know what that term means???

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Filed under: Cantonese, Chinese, Dim Sum, Richmond | Tagged: , , | 3 Comments »

Vivacity 名都

Posted on April 23, 2009 by Wendy

SO like I said before, Vivacity is my mom’s favorite dim sum place. This one Tuesday we were fortunate enough to be able to get a parking space in that hellhole parkade of theirs.

Normally, it shouldn’t be that bad (but honestly, it’s still really bad) cuz there’s supposed to be an attendant that tells you where to park, even when it’s a spot you’re not actually supposed to park in.  But this particular day, the attendant decided to converse (for the longest time) with a young lady that works next door, leaving the 5 or so cars (us included) to fend for ourselves.

But like I said, we were fortunate.

Bad parking aside, this place is pretty good.  The food is good, and the price isn’t too expensive.  They have around 5 lcd screens around the dining room playing underwater footage.  It’s quite enjoyable actually

This is one of those dim sum restaurant where you have a list to check off.  No ladies wheeling stuff around.

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Filed under: Cantonese, Chinese, Dim Sum, Richmond | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Kirin 麒麟 @ New Westminster

Posted on April 14, 2009 by Wendy

It was another weekly dim sum brunch with Mum.  This day she wanted to go to Walmart so we decided to yum cha at Kirin in New Westminster, at Starlight Casino.

I really like the decor of the place.  It’s unlike other Chinese Seafood Restaurants in that it’s not all red with a dragon and a phoenix at the back.  It’s quite modern looking.

Now on to the food!!

After having the Steamed Mushroom Dumpling at The Jade the other day, I was ecstatic to see that it was on the menu here too.

But I was disappointed to see that it wasn’t made using the same type of dumpling skin as the previous.  The skin they use here is similar to the ones used for siu long bao.

Nonetheless, it was good.  There was a lot of filling in the dumpling and it was very flavorful.

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Filed under: Cantonese, Chinese, Dim Sum, New Westminster, Seafood | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Excellent Tofu & Snack 好好豆品

Posted on April 14, 2009 by Wendy

Wendy and I have been wanting to come to this place for a while.  We have been at Excellent Tofu a couple of times in the past and it was quite good.  After we had dinner, we rushed to Excellent Tofu at Central Square to try to get there before 9pm, only to find that it closes at 10pm!  There were a few people in there as it was getting late in the day but usually the place does have its share of customers.

We didn’t hide the old man’s face because he was our server/cook/cashier all-in-one!  The guy spoke English fluently with little to no Chinese accent!

Here’s what we ordered:

Grass Jelly Tofu Pudding – $3.25

Taro and Coconut Milk Tofu Pudding – $3.75

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Filed under: Cantonese, Chinese, Dessert, Drinks, Fast Food, Richmond, Snacks, Sweets | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

The Jade 玉庭軒

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Wendy

I’ve been very fortunate lately to have at least one weekday off per week to go have dim sum with my mom.  I love going to “yum cha”, and I look forward to it everytime.

This particular Monday, we were originally planning to go to Vivavity Restaurant on Alexandra Road.  That seems to be one of my mom’s favs, if not THE fav.

However, parking there is hellious, even on a Monday afternoon (just imagine what it would be like on a weekend!).  That’s probably the reason why we choose to go yum cha only on weekdays.

So, unable to get a parking spot there, we ventured East a little and ended up at The Jade Seafood Restaurant, also on Alexandra Road. (I urge you, please don’t try to go there during the weekend!  You’re just creating problems for yourself).

On a side note…I was so surprised that they actually have a pretty complete website!  In English!  I am very surprised and pleased at the same time. You can even download their full menus in pdf format!!!

Anyways back to the food.  Mommy really felt like having the spicy Duck Webs with Jelly Fish ($6.69).  Duck Webs/Feet, when prepared this way, is always de-boned, so you can just munch on it very easily.

This wasn’t as spicy as mom wanted it.  Texture-wise, the feet were very tender and the jelly fish were crunchy, just as they should be.  Taste was there, just not the ‘kick’.  Maybe it’ll be better next time.

The Steamed Mushroom Dumpling is something I haven’t tried before, as it’s unique to this restaurant.

We really liked it.  It was filled with different kinds of mushrooms and it was very fragrant.  The dumpling skin was fresh, CHEWY, perfect.  I highly recommend this ($4.48).

The BBQ Pork Bun, more familiar to us as cha siu bao, is my mom’s favorite.  She’ll order this everytime.  Me?  For some reason, I rarely touch it.  It just doesn’t appeal to me.

That doesn’t mean it’s not good though.  The bao was fluffy and slightly sweetened.  There was also quite a bit of stuffing too.  This is $3.98.

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Filed under: Cantonese, Chinese, Dim Sum, Richmond | Tagged: , , | 3 Comments »

Shang Noodle House 尚麵館

Posted on March 28, 2009 by Wendy

I would never have thought to go to this place if it wasn’t for my mom.  She has become a ‘patron’ of the nearby establishment known as “Starlight Casino”.  Shang Noodle House 尚麵館 is a very convenient location for the casino-goers because it’s a 2-minute walk from the casino’s front doors.   Parking was simple, just parking underground in the casino.  It is much better than fighting for parking spots in Richmond Chinatown, downtown and the malls during the weekend.

A shot of the interior from where we sat:

It was pretty quiet on the day we went.  I enjoy the LCD TVs mounted above the bar seats but too bad there was no sound.

We’ve been here a couple of times before and they never had a ‘value combo’ before.  I thought it was because of their vicinity to the casino but then again, a recession does wonders to pricing.

Here’s the normal menu:

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Filed under: Cantonese, Chinese, Fusion, Japanese, New Westminster, Richmond | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

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