Hello again! Today I will be reviewing Richmond Sushi (located at #1488-8388 Capstan Way, just in Union Square behind Canadian Tires)! I ate at this restaurant on August 3rd with Tamato, her brother, and a couple of her friends. We happened to be playing badminton earlier at the Olympic Oval in Richmond and, as we were famished, we decided to eat there on Tamato's recommendation (I checked out dinehere and this seemed to be the best option for the most amount of food to choose from for a not too expensive price with a slightly higher rating). Unfortunately, none of us took pictures (we were all starving) so you will just have to use your imagination (things disappeared off the dishes before I could even whip out my camera.. meaning some of the stuff I did not even get to try when we ordered in the first round!).
We all ordered (regular) all you can eat for our meal. It cost $22 each, but there was a wide variety of food to choose from, so I thought it was pretty fair. The food arrived pretty quickly, so that was another plus.
As you might imagine, we ordered a wide variety of food. One of the first dishes to arrive was the california rolls, which were pretty good. The calamari and chicken teriyaki were excellent, too (the calamari, for me, wasnt as great, it was, for a lack of a better word, bland. I did not eat as much of it as I usually would). I would highly recommend their salmon belly, which was exquisite! There was also dessert, in the form of mango pudding, which, although small, was very good as well.
Of course, there were some foods that were a bit weak. The chicken wings we ordered all came out burned. Also, their chicken karage was a bit dry. Furthermore, the beef short ribs were lacking in flavour (I think Leek is a little biased here as the night before we had just dined at Norboo, and of course when we dine at Norboo's we have to order their beef short ribs).
Aside from those that Leek listed, I also recall ordering quite a few garlic butter mussels (would have tasted better if it was served warmer or hot), steak skewer (first round was great, second round was okay, but also VERY pink in the center), seafood broquette (awful, no taste, no sauce, I have no idea who decided it was worth putting on the menu), salmon tempura (great since the salmon inside was not dried out), chiwuka, bbq halibut (very tasty, but to the point that it was too tasty and we felt like we needed some rice to balance it out), and a bunch more that were more or less the standard we expected (nothing worth shouting about or booing about).
Service itself was okish. We were attended to quickly and were given our orders promptly. However, we were seated at a table which was somewhat small for the size of our party, which became a problem once the food started coming. Also, they gave us the wrong dishes at times, and missed a couple of the dishes completely. Interestingly enough, some of the order forms were missing a few choices, so we had to write in part of the order by hand.
Overall, Richmond Sushi is a pretty nice restaurant to go to if you are starving and have some money to spend. There are some noticeable points that the restaurant could improve upon, but for us (at least), they did not detract from the overall meal. Definitely not bad, but next time, I think I will stick to all you can eat lunch time because it is cheaper, I think with tips and tax, we each paid about $25.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Nutella Swirl Cupcakes
Today Leek and I made Nutella Swirl Cupcakes. Boy are they delicious, but unfortunately Leek is allergic to nuts, so he could not try the cupcakes with Nutella in them. I hate the smell anyways. I have like 2 large jars and 1/3 of a container left of Nutella (coming up next year), so I thought I would make some Nutella treats to use them up faster =) Even though Leek does not like Nutella (he dislikes chocolate AND nuts), being the sweetie he is, he still helped me to make them <3 Shocking as it is, I really do not like chocolates or nuts. Thus, foods with chocolates and nuts tend to be nightmarish for me (and can poison me too...).
I got the original recipe from I'm a Glutton, but I changed up the recipe a little. So here is the recipe I used to make mine! This recipe makes 12 muffin pan sized cupcakes.
1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners.
3. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 2 minutes.
4. Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. Don’t worry if the batter doesn’t look smooth.
5. Add vanilla.
6. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder until batter is uniform and no flour remains.
7. Scoop batter into muffin cups until 1/2 to 3/4 full.
8. Top each cup of batter with 1 1/2 tsp Nutella. Swirl Nutella in with a butterknife, making sure to fold a bit of batter up over the Nutella.
9. Bake for 20 minutes.
10. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
You can add a little more Nutella to each cupcake if you want. Visit I'm a Glutton's link above to read up on her technique on how to swirl the Nutella. It definitely works better than using a flimsy toothpick as the original recipe called for. The hardest part of this recipe is swirling the Nutella, but trust me, in the end, it is all worth it! For Tamato at least. I can't eat it.
P.S. In the second photo, you can see that there is a plain white cupcake, we left that one Nutella free so my honey can have a bit of cupcake too as he loves them =) <3 Yep! I like plain cupcakes. They are far superior to nutella ones (although I am a little biased)!
I got the original recipe from I'm a Glutton, but I changed up the recipe a little. So here is the recipe I used to make mine! This recipe makes 12 muffin pan sized cupcakes.
- 1/2 cup margarine, softened
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 3/4 cups ifted all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/3 cup Nutella (or more =)
1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners.
3. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 2 minutes.
4. Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. Don’t worry if the batter doesn’t look smooth.
5. Add vanilla.
6. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder until batter is uniform and no flour remains.
7. Scoop batter into muffin cups until 1/2 to 3/4 full.
8. Top each cup of batter with 1 1/2 tsp Nutella. Swirl Nutella in with a butterknife, making sure to fold a bit of batter up over the Nutella.
9. Bake for 20 minutes.
10. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
You can add a little more Nutella to each cupcake if you want. Visit I'm a Glutton's link above to read up on her technique on how to swirl the Nutella. It definitely works better than using a flimsy toothpick as the original recipe called for. The hardest part of this recipe is swirling the Nutella, but trust me, in the end, it is all worth it! For Tamato at least. I can't eat it.
P.S. In the second photo, you can see that there is a plain white cupcake, we left that one Nutella free so my honey can have a bit of cupcake too as he loves them =) <3 Yep! I like plain cupcakes. They are far superior to nutella ones (although I am a little biased)!
Monday, August 17, 2009
Little India Restaurant
Today, after putting it off for many many months, my friends and I finally went to eat at an Indian restaurant! Unfortunately, the restaurant we were going to eat at, I cannot recall what it is called but it is located on Fraser and East 56th Avenue, is closed on Mondays. So we made our way over to Little India on Main Street and East 49th Avenue. This was Tamato's girls night out, so I did not go! boo hoo...
Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of my food before eating, so I have no pictures to show you =( I will try to remember for next time though!
Anyways, I ordered the Tandoori Chicken Special. This includes a whole chicken leg (the thigh and drumstick) prepared in tandoori style, with masala fries and a choice of a soft drink for only $7.95! This is quite a deal as it was a fairly large portion even though it was listed under the appetizers! The chicken was very tasty. Although the thigh was perfect, I found the drumstick to be a little on the dry side, probably because it was smaller. I was expecting something special for the fries, as I had never had 'masala' fries before. But when the dish came out, I was disappointed as it was just regular fries, it looked and tasted regular (it was still good though!).
When we looked around the restaurant, we noticed that the only person of Indian descent, aside from the employees, was my friend. Everyone else was mostly Caucasian! However, my friend said the food was alright for Indian standard (it is run by Indians after all!), but the restaurant we wanted to go to tastes better and is cheaper! I guess we will have to wait till next time to try that place out!
Oh! One more thing, we noticed that at the back of the restaurant, they had a vegetarian buffet going on. Upon looking above, we saw that the buffet is served all day for only $10.95.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of my food before eating, so I have no pictures to show you =( I will try to remember for next time though!
Anyways, I ordered the Tandoori Chicken Special. This includes a whole chicken leg (the thigh and drumstick) prepared in tandoori style, with masala fries and a choice of a soft drink for only $7.95! This is quite a deal as it was a fairly large portion even though it was listed under the appetizers! The chicken was very tasty. Although the thigh was perfect, I found the drumstick to be a little on the dry side, probably because it was smaller. I was expecting something special for the fries, as I had never had 'masala' fries before. But when the dish came out, I was disappointed as it was just regular fries, it looked and tasted regular (it was still good though!).
When we looked around the restaurant, we noticed that the only person of Indian descent, aside from the employees, was my friend. Everyone else was mostly Caucasian! However, my friend said the food was alright for Indian standard (it is run by Indians after all!), but the restaurant we wanted to go to tastes better and is cheaper! I guess we will have to wait till next time to try that place out!
Oh! One more thing, we noticed that at the back of the restaurant, they had a vegetarian buffet going on. Upon looking above, we saw that the buffet is served all day for only $10.95.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Norboo Korean Restaurant
Heylo everyone! Leek here with another food post! As a change of pace from the last few postings, this one is about Norboo Korean Restaurant, at 1536 Robson Street. Tamato and I went here about a month ago, along with a few of Tamato's friends. I have been here a couple more times before too, it is just that good and cheap here! It was a bit awkward for me, but oh wells... Anyways, on to the food!
Because Tamato and I are poor university students, we went pretty light on the ordering. Together we ordered two dishes: the Norboo chicken wings (pictured above) and the beef short ribs (pictured below). This ran contrary to Tamato's friends, each of whom ordered more than Tamato and I combined! Still, these two dishes were enough to satisfy both of us. Anyways, The Norboo chicken wings were excellent. The skin was crispy and the meat was very tender. The sauce complemented the meat well. Normally, I would quickly tire of heavily glazed meats, but the sauce was awesome enough to keep me coming back for more! This dish was definitely cheap, it was just under $4 a plate and I think we got like 6-8 wings, I dont remember. For me, I am not a big fan of heavy sauce, so I actually would have liked it if they did not drizzle as much over it. It would have been even better if the sauce came in a little bowl on the side!
The beef short ribs is what I consider to be the main draw of the restaurant. The portion is huge (the picture above does not do it justice). The meat itself is well-cooked and tastes excellent. I found myself giving my jaw a bit of a workout trying to chew off every last bit of meat from the bone! I love this stuff, yumyum, Korean beef short ribs! I can eat this several days in a row, although I do not think it is a good idea for my body. At Norboo, they have a lunch special that runs from sometime in the afternoon to 3:30pm. The lunch special is $7.99 for your choice of a dish on their lunch special menu. This includes the beef short ribs I always order, which is a steal considering that you get the plate of meat, a bowl of rice, as well as the many side dishes!
Also provided were side dishes of sweet potatoes, kimchi, pasta salad and bean sprouts. Of all of them, I preferred the bean sprouts the best. I liked the pasta salad the least (but then again, I'm not really a fan of salads in general). For me, the only thing I eat is the sweet potatoes and maybe a nibble of the kimchi. Norboo's sweet potatoes are overcooked though. They're a little on the mushy side, so if I wanted sweet potatoes, Norboo would definitely not be the place I would go to for it.
The bill for the two of us came out to be about $12. I thought that to be a good price considering the food we ate. Overall, I thought that Norboo Korean Restaurant has excellent food for a reasonable price, I will highly recommend to everyone. As a side note, all of Tamato's friends thought the restaurant was excellent too! I think everytime I have a craving for beef short ribs, I will be coming back to this place. Hopefully they keep their lunch deal on forever too! =)
Because Tamato and I are poor university students, we went pretty light on the ordering. Together we ordered two dishes: the Norboo chicken wings (pictured above) and the beef short ribs (pictured below). This ran contrary to Tamato's friends, each of whom ordered more than Tamato and I combined! Still, these two dishes were enough to satisfy both of us. Anyways, The Norboo chicken wings were excellent. The skin was crispy and the meat was very tender. The sauce complemented the meat well. Normally, I would quickly tire of heavily glazed meats, but the sauce was awesome enough to keep me coming back for more! This dish was definitely cheap, it was just under $4 a plate and I think we got like 6-8 wings, I dont remember. For me, I am not a big fan of heavy sauce, so I actually would have liked it if they did not drizzle as much over it. It would have been even better if the sauce came in a little bowl on the side!
The beef short ribs is what I consider to be the main draw of the restaurant. The portion is huge (the picture above does not do it justice). The meat itself is well-cooked and tastes excellent. I found myself giving my jaw a bit of a workout trying to chew off every last bit of meat from the bone! I love this stuff, yumyum, Korean beef short ribs! I can eat this several days in a row, although I do not think it is a good idea for my body. At Norboo, they have a lunch special that runs from sometime in the afternoon to 3:30pm. The lunch special is $7.99 for your choice of a dish on their lunch special menu. This includes the beef short ribs I always order, which is a steal considering that you get the plate of meat, a bowl of rice, as well as the many side dishes!
Also provided were side dishes of sweet potatoes, kimchi, pasta salad and bean sprouts. Of all of them, I preferred the bean sprouts the best. I liked the pasta salad the least (but then again, I'm not really a fan of salads in general). For me, the only thing I eat is the sweet potatoes and maybe a nibble of the kimchi. Norboo's sweet potatoes are overcooked though. They're a little on the mushy side, so if I wanted sweet potatoes, Norboo would definitely not be the place I would go to for it.
The bill for the two of us came out to be about $12. I thought that to be a good price considering the food we ate. Overall, I thought that Norboo Korean Restaurant has excellent food for a reasonable price, I will highly recommend to everyone. As a side note, all of Tamato's friends thought the restaurant was excellent too! I think everytime I have a craving for beef short ribs, I will be coming back to this place. Hopefully they keep their lunch deal on forever too! =)
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Homemade Pizza
Yummy, tonight we had homemade pizza for dinner, so I thought I would share this recipe with you. It is a plain thick crust pizza recipe that is very popular on allrecipes.com. Credit goes to JASON SHARP, although I did alter it a tiny bit. This recipe yields 2 medium-sized pizzas or one large cookie sheet pizza.
Ingredients wise, it is very simple.
I love to top my pizzas with lots of pepperoni, bacon, italian sausages, mushrooms, and lots of mozzarella cheese. After the pizza crust is in the pan, spread tomato sauce over the crust, then place pepperoni slices around evenly. In a bowl, mix together the bacon, italian sausages, mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese together. Spread the cheese mixture over the pizza evenly, making sure none is touching the edge of the pan (so it does not burn)!
And tada! Does that not look delicious? Yummy! The crust is a little bland, but it is alright because there is lots of toppings on the pizza and that is why we all love pizzas! You can always add spices to the dough too before/when adding the flour to the yeast mixture. I only have garlic powder on hand, so I only put a teaspoon of that in it.
A thing to keep in mind is that when you take it out to cool, make sure the pan is cooling on a high rack. I totally did not do this for one of the pizzas today, and all of the steam that was trying to escape from the bottom of the pan ended up going through the pizza and made the crust all soggy, yucky! Hope you enjoy this recipe too! Definitely easy and very simple to make! Leek loves it =)
Ingredients wise, it is very simple.
- 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.
- Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour.
- Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise until double; this should take about 1 hour. Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before rolling out. Use for your favorite pizza recipe.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). If you are baking the dough on a pizza stone, you may place your toppings on the dough, and bake immediately. If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan, and let the dough rise for 15 or 20 minutes before topping and baking it.
- Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.
I love to top my pizzas with lots of pepperoni, bacon, italian sausages, mushrooms, and lots of mozzarella cheese. After the pizza crust is in the pan, spread tomato sauce over the crust, then place pepperoni slices around evenly. In a bowl, mix together the bacon, italian sausages, mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese together. Spread the cheese mixture over the pizza evenly, making sure none is touching the edge of the pan (so it does not burn)!
And tada! Does that not look delicious? Yummy! The crust is a little bland, but it is alright because there is lots of toppings on the pizza and that is why we all love pizzas! You can always add spices to the dough too before/when adding the flour to the yeast mixture. I only have garlic powder on hand, so I only put a teaspoon of that in it.
A thing to keep in mind is that when you take it out to cool, make sure the pan is cooling on a high rack. I totally did not do this for one of the pizzas today, and all of the steam that was trying to escape from the bottom of the pan ended up going through the pizza and made the crust all soggy, yucky! Hope you enjoy this recipe too! Definitely easy and very simple to make! Leek loves it =)
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Homemade Poutine
Sorry for not having posted anything yesterday. Leek and I were both preoccupied with studying and job applications, I am so sick of writing cover letters! But without further ado, here is today's post, homemade poutine!
Yes yes, I know, it is a no brainer my 10 month old baby cousin could probably do it. But this will be a recipe and product review post! So as we all know, or don't know for some of us, poutine is fries with cheese curds drenched in hot gravy. The gravy must be really hot so that it can melt the cheese curds and make your fries into a gooey stringy mess. Yum, writing about this is making me crave some.
A few weeks back, Buy-Low Foods had their Western Family french fried potatoes on sale (2 packs for $3, what a deal!) So I went and grabbed a pack of their crinkle cut and shoestring fries. I used the package of crincle cut fries to make the poutin the first time around. Since I was making it for lunch for my mom and brother as well, I used the whole package. Following the instructions exactly as per the package, I preheated the oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit, laid out the fries into a single layer on a baking sheet, and stuck them in the oven for 20 minutes.
For the gravy, I actually stumbled upon the No Name brand poutine sauce the other day at Superstore. I was planning to just buy gravy mix and make my own, but since this is specifically for poutine, I decided to get this instead. It is much cheaper too! Gravy mix is usually $1+ but the can of sauce was less than $1. This I just opened up, stuck it into a pan over medium heat with constant stirring until it was really hot.
Cheese curds I find are a little harder to find. I got these at IGA as I read from someone online that they sold them. However, boy are they expensive!! That package there cost me almost $8!! But then I only used up half of the box for 1 kg of fries, so I guess it is alright. But if IGA did not have any or if I am short on money next time, I think I might just stick with regular cheddar or mozzarella cheese.
So to assemble, you scoop some fries into a bowl, sprinkle some cheese curds over top, and drench the whole bowl in gravy making sure to cover all of the cheese bits. Do not over do the gravy though, your fries will be overly soggy then (not to mention you can always add more gravy later, but it will be harder to try to take the gravy out)!
The fries were okay, but I am a little biased here because I am personally not a big fan of thick cut fries. I prefer thin and crispy fries, that is why when I made this with the shoestring fries, I loved it a lot more. Oh another thing is that, for these fries, you definitely need to add your own salt! I did not know that it was unsalted, so the fries were a little bland, good thing we had gravy and cheese to go with it. I did put salt on the shoestring batch though before I stuck it in the oven, and boy did it come out nice and crispy and tasty when it came out.
The cheese curds were lovely. I love melted cheese. It went great with the poutine, yummy!!
And last but not least, the gravy was alright. Just alright though. I actually found the gravy to be a little bland too. Not much of a taste to it. I think next time I will stick with gravy mix or canned gravy instead of the No Name brand poutine sauce.
So there you have it, homemade poutine, definitely does not beat those ones you can get out there, but it will be a temporary fix for your cravings! Enjoy!
Yes yes, I know, it is a no brainer my 10 month old baby cousin could probably do it. But this will be a recipe and product review post! So as we all know, or don't know for some of us, poutine is fries with cheese curds drenched in hot gravy. The gravy must be really hot so that it can melt the cheese curds and make your fries into a gooey stringy mess. Yum, writing about this is making me crave some.
A few weeks back, Buy-Low Foods had their Western Family french fried potatoes on sale (2 packs for $3, what a deal!) So I went and grabbed a pack of their crinkle cut and shoestring fries. I used the package of crincle cut fries to make the poutin the first time around. Since I was making it for lunch for my mom and brother as well, I used the whole package. Following the instructions exactly as per the package, I preheated the oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit, laid out the fries into a single layer on a baking sheet, and stuck them in the oven for 20 minutes.
For the gravy, I actually stumbled upon the No Name brand poutine sauce the other day at Superstore. I was planning to just buy gravy mix and make my own, but since this is specifically for poutine, I decided to get this instead. It is much cheaper too! Gravy mix is usually $1+ but the can of sauce was less than $1. This I just opened up, stuck it into a pan over medium heat with constant stirring until it was really hot.
Cheese curds I find are a little harder to find. I got these at IGA as I read from someone online that they sold them. However, boy are they expensive!! That package there cost me almost $8!! But then I only used up half of the box for 1 kg of fries, so I guess it is alright. But if IGA did not have any or if I am short on money next time, I think I might just stick with regular cheddar or mozzarella cheese.
So to assemble, you scoop some fries into a bowl, sprinkle some cheese curds over top, and drench the whole bowl in gravy making sure to cover all of the cheese bits. Do not over do the gravy though, your fries will be overly soggy then (not to mention you can always add more gravy later, but it will be harder to try to take the gravy out)!
The fries were okay, but I am a little biased here because I am personally not a big fan of thick cut fries. I prefer thin and crispy fries, that is why when I made this with the shoestring fries, I loved it a lot more. Oh another thing is that, for these fries, you definitely need to add your own salt! I did not know that it was unsalted, so the fries were a little bland, good thing we had gravy and cheese to go with it. I did put salt on the shoestring batch though before I stuck it in the oven, and boy did it come out nice and crispy and tasty when it came out.
The cheese curds were lovely. I love melted cheese. It went great with the poutine, yummy!!
And last but not least, the gravy was alright. Just alright though. I actually found the gravy to be a little bland too. Not much of a taste to it. I think next time I will stick with gravy mix or canned gravy instead of the No Name brand poutine sauce.
So there you have it, homemade poutine, definitely does not beat those ones you can get out there, but it will be a temporary fix for your cravings! Enjoy!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Congee Noodle House
So yesterday I talked quite a bit about congee, and how I had an awful experience at Congee Noodle House. Well, I think I would talk about that today since Leek is busy reviewing away for his diagnostic tests. True, but I am also editing this post, so...yeah.
In the past, I have frequented Congee Noodle House on 141 E Broadway with my family, Leek, friends, etc. But I think it was around the end of last year when I had a sudden craving for congee and Leek for wonton noodles that we stopped by. Unfortunately, at that time the windows and door were all taped up with newspapers and a note saying that they were renovating and should be open again by the end of the month. The funny thing was that it was wayyy past the end of the month they had written on the note and was already well into the following month -.-" Tamato forgot to take into account that most things never go by the plan.
Anyways, some time near the beginning of this year, Leek and I paid a visit to them again after busing by one day and noticing that they were finally done renovating! So in we went, when we should have turned around to go to Kwong Chow instead.
Right when we stepped into the restaurant, we noticed several waitresses, some serving, others just standing by the kitchen window. No one bothered to greet us or even turn around when we arrived. Fine, I can help myself to a table. But right when we moved to a table, they finally decided to pay attention to us, directing us to the table a few feet in front of the kitchen window and next to some other customers. The restaurant only had a few tables occupied at that time so I do not understand why I could not get a little more privacy.
"Shortly" after being seated, we were given the menus and cups of tea, as customary with Chinese restaurants. Not one minute after being given the menus, a waitress came back to take our order, when we barely had a chance to figure out what dishes we wanted to share between us. If only they were this quick to greet us and to serve us. Because after this, no one paid attention to us again.
I flagged down a waitress when we were ready to order, and she said she'd be back in a second. The second dragged to minutes before she came back. But that was not it, she decided to come back without a pad of paper to take our order. It was then I knew everything about this meal was about to go wrong. She figured she could memorize the few dishes we were going to order and just run to the window and write it down and tada, that is all there is to it! We ordered their Wonton with Noodle Soup (of course), BBQ Duck with Noodle Soup, and Beef Rice Rolls. She repeated it exactly back to me, very good, and then I watched as she walked to the window, hunch over to scribble a few words, hesitate in between writing something, scribbled some more, and then passed the papers over to the kitchen.
So began the long wait for our food. Minutes and minutes passed before we got our noodles, separately. I do not know what took the two chefs in the kitchen so long, but Leek got his noodles and finished them before I got my noodles. It was good wonton noodles! Seriously, both of them should have taken only 5 minutes to come out from the kitchen.
But wait, get this, even till after I finished eating my noodles, our third dish still had not come. Thus I flagged another waitress down, and told her we were still missing a dish. She later came back with a dish of some kind of fried rice which we did NOT order. I told her again what we ordered, and she ran back told the kitchen, and guess what? The plate came out in a jiffy! The rice rolls was pretty good too! Of course, Tamato was too focused on the service (or lack thereof) to rate the food.
While we polished off the last dish, some waitress plunked down a tray of change and the receipt at our table. Leek and I stared at it for a while until the waitress took it back, apologized and plunked it on our neighbour's table. At this time I asked her to bring our bill as well, and she said 'okay'. 'Okay' turned out to be a waitress's way of refusing to do so. We waited and waited, flagged another waitress an asked for the bill, received another 'okay', and continued to wait. Eventually we resorted to staring down the manager and another employee at the cash register. Manager took the hint after a minute, and instead of asking US if we wanted our bill, asked one of the waitress who we flagged for the bill if we wanted the bill. And guess what this waitress said? "NO." Wow, just wow. I was so in awe at their desire to give us the world's worst customer service ever that I was actually turning red and heating up. Meanwhile I was trying to calm Tamato down. So again, for the third time, and thankfully, the last time, I asked them for the bill.
The bill came, and, not wanting to wait another 10 minutes for some waitress to take our money and refuse to give us back change, I went up to the cash register to pay. Ding, cash register opened, in went our money, out came our change, and my hands went ALL of the change AND the receipt, and out the store we went. This was the first time ever (and only time so far) that I had NOT tipped a single penny after receiving service. Since I was paying, that saved me a bit of change. Still, I was a bit shocked. This was absolutely the worst service I can imagine and had me soo mad it took me a while to cool off even after we were out of the restaurant. So since that experience, I refuse to step foot inside that restaurant again. I agreed that the service was horrible, but the wonton noodles was excellent! Good food and crappy service pretty much sums this place up.
In the past, I have frequented Congee Noodle House on 141 E Broadway with my family, Leek, friends, etc. But I think it was around the end of last year when I had a sudden craving for congee and Leek for wonton noodles that we stopped by. Unfortunately, at that time the windows and door were all taped up with newspapers and a note saying that they were renovating and should be open again by the end of the month. The funny thing was that it was wayyy past the end of the month they had written on the note and was already well into the following month -.-" Tamato forgot to take into account that most things never go by the plan.
Anyways, some time near the beginning of this year, Leek and I paid a visit to them again after busing by one day and noticing that they were finally done renovating! So in we went, when we should have turned around to go to Kwong Chow instead.
Right when we stepped into the restaurant, we noticed several waitresses, some serving, others just standing by the kitchen window. No one bothered to greet us or even turn around when we arrived. Fine, I can help myself to a table. But right when we moved to a table, they finally decided to pay attention to us, directing us to the table a few feet in front of the kitchen window and next to some other customers. The restaurant only had a few tables occupied at that time so I do not understand why I could not get a little more privacy.
"Shortly" after being seated, we were given the menus and cups of tea, as customary with Chinese restaurants. Not one minute after being given the menus, a waitress came back to take our order, when we barely had a chance to figure out what dishes we wanted to share between us. If only they were this quick to greet us and to serve us. Because after this, no one paid attention to us again.
I flagged down a waitress when we were ready to order, and she said she'd be back in a second. The second dragged to minutes before she came back. But that was not it, she decided to come back without a pad of paper to take our order. It was then I knew everything about this meal was about to go wrong. She figured she could memorize the few dishes we were going to order and just run to the window and write it down and tada, that is all there is to it! We ordered their Wonton with Noodle Soup (of course), BBQ Duck with Noodle Soup, and Beef Rice Rolls. She repeated it exactly back to me, very good, and then I watched as she walked to the window, hunch over to scribble a few words, hesitate in between writing something, scribbled some more, and then passed the papers over to the kitchen.
So began the long wait for our food. Minutes and minutes passed before we got our noodles, separately. I do not know what took the two chefs in the kitchen so long, but Leek got his noodles and finished them before I got my noodles. It was good wonton noodles! Seriously, both of them should have taken only 5 minutes to come out from the kitchen.
But wait, get this, even till after I finished eating my noodles, our third dish still had not come. Thus I flagged another waitress down, and told her we were still missing a dish. She later came back with a dish of some kind of fried rice which we did NOT order. I told her again what we ordered, and she ran back told the kitchen, and guess what? The plate came out in a jiffy! The rice rolls was pretty good too! Of course, Tamato was too focused on the service (or lack thereof) to rate the food.
While we polished off the last dish, some waitress plunked down a tray of change and the receipt at our table. Leek and I stared at it for a while until the waitress took it back, apologized and plunked it on our neighbour's table. At this time I asked her to bring our bill as well, and she said 'okay'. 'Okay' turned out to be a waitress's way of refusing to do so. We waited and waited, flagged another waitress an asked for the bill, received another 'okay', and continued to wait. Eventually we resorted to staring down the manager and another employee at the cash register. Manager took the hint after a minute, and instead of asking US if we wanted our bill, asked one of the waitress who we flagged for the bill if we wanted the bill. And guess what this waitress said? "NO." Wow, just wow. I was so in awe at their desire to give us the world's worst customer service ever that I was actually turning red and heating up. Meanwhile I was trying to calm Tamato down. So again, for the third time, and thankfully, the last time, I asked them for the bill.
The bill came, and, not wanting to wait another 10 minutes for some waitress to take our money and refuse to give us back change, I went up to the cash register to pay. Ding, cash register opened, in went our money, out came our change, and my hands went ALL of the change AND the receipt, and out the store we went. This was the first time ever (and only time so far) that I had NOT tipped a single penny after receiving service. Since I was paying, that saved me a bit of change. Still, I was a bit shocked. This was absolutely the worst service I can imagine and had me soo mad it took me a while to cool off even after we were out of the restaurant. So since that experience, I refuse to step foot inside that restaurant again. I agreed that the service was horrible, but the wonton noodles was excellent! Good food and crappy service pretty much sums this place up.
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