Deer Garden

I’m back to being addicted to HK-Style Milk Tea. Lately, I’ve noticed that there really isn’t a restaurant in Richmond that really makes it good anymore. The only ones that come to mind who makes decent ones are Alleluia, Cattle Cafe, and Joy’s Kitchen in Parker Place.

Actually, I really really like Cattle Cafe. They’re one of the ones who I think started the trend of “No-MSG Fish Soup Combo Noodle” type meals. Now Cattle Cafe’s post will be coming soon (I hope). Today we’re gonna talk about Deer Garden.

G’s actually the one who introduced me to it. Now he’s Filipino but he eats out in Richmond more than me (and I live there!). He highly recommended that I try their version of the Fish Soup Noodle dish.

My parents and I went on a weekday at around 11am or so and that’s probably the best time to go. Lots of parking still available, and seated right away. By the time we finished the waiting area was packed.

Having said that, they still stuffed us into the backroom where it was quite hard to flag people down. But then I thought the young servers did still try their best. That room was quite stuffy though.

I guess it’s kind of convenient that they place these sheets on the table so you can mark down your own choices. But then when we handed them the sheet they still just wrote down the whole order on the back, so I thought it was more of a waste of time. It seems to confuse them too.

I picked their signature soup (the first one on the list) which was something like ChaoZhao Fish Soup w/ Minced Pork. I also picked handmade squid balls, fresh bean curd, and thick vermicelli. Also a cold milk tea.

I guess I should’ve read the sheet over clearly, as apparently it already comes w/ bean curd and mushrooms. So I got lots and lots of bean curd. They were stingy w/ the squid balls too. I only got three.

Now for the taste. The soup was quite salty, so I was suspicious about the no-MSG claim. The vermicelli was chewy as always. The squid balls, were quite small and uneventful. Overall a “meh” experience.

The milk tea, well, I think I’ll stay w/ Cattle Cafe.

Mom got the Laksa soup w/ enoki mushrooms and fresh basa filet. Their version of Laksa was good, but not as good as Cattle Cafe’s. The latter’s version was creamier and more coconutty. Deer Garden’s was obviously more dilute but still good.