As you can see it is 24 hours! Can never say no to 24 hour hot food

Once you step in you know for sure this is a Pho place, pretty much the standard decor and… smell

And here is the menu

I love all the pictures on the menu, as you know when it’s 3am and you are not fully awake, visual aid is always welcomed! Most of the items comes under $10, and the proportion is not bad.

And here it is my huge raw beef pho at 3am in the morning! The soup, although clear, is actually quite tasty, perhaps with the help of MSG. There is a good amount of beef in my bowl, and I need help to finish all of it.

And as with any pho, here are the two sauces that I can never live without. Usually my soup will end up a light-brown colour just from adding so much sauce into it.

I will definitely come back

The interior is quite different from what I remember years ago. Fairly open space and fresh, with comfy chairs spaced out.

They still offer the same type of food from years ago, salads, pastas and desserts. They still have all the pastas pre-made and microwaved when an order is place. As for the dessert, I knew when I wanted before I check out their menu.

Which is the mango cheese cake ! It still tastes the same and looks exactly the same as years ago, but for some reason I don’t find it as good as in my memory. Maybe my taste buds are more refined now ;P.

BG is one of those places that I am not sure that I will go back to, not because of how “bad” it is, but more because of how blend and non-remarking it is. Maybe in the future when they can reinvite themselves into something more remarkable, it will come back to my list of hang-out places!

I love going out for dim sum, it’s a particular favourite pass time of mine and lucky for me, Richmond has a lot of dim sum restaurants. One that I have not tried before is Royal Restaurant.

So why did I pick Royal? Well because they have free tea and 20% off dim sum! Plus, if you arrive early (9:30am), you can partake in a free line dance class but instructions are in Chinese. From watching the class and the chatter of ladies at the other tables, it is obvious that the instructor is really good. It’s a great choice for getting some exercise before eating. If you just want the dance classes without the dim sum, it’s a $3 charge.

So what does it look like inside? Well… very empty and very dark. I took the picture after the dance class was over. The area in the back to the right is where the dance floor is, most of the ladies and a few of the gentlemen who were dancing are now quickly ordering and eating. The décor definitely feels tired with the multitude of dusty artificial flowers and minimal lighting.

However, when I went to the washroom, I noticed that the fish tanks with crab in them are quite clean! Maybe that’s a good sign?

The service was quite prompt and they really try to sell the dance classes. There are also some classes for different ballroom dances during the evening and this includes dinner. Also there is a Filipino night, but I already forgot which night that is on.

So then onto the tea! We got Jasmine tea but it was just ok, nothing special, and the jasmine flavour was very faint. Slightly disappointed but hey it was free! So I guess I shouldn’t be complaining too much.

Now time for food! We ordered a fish and lettuce congee. The congee was quite watery and really disappointing. The fish was not warm, and there was a lot of lettuce. It was not good congee unfortunately.

Also ordered was egg custard buns and BBQ pork buns (char siu buns). The egg custard wasn’t very good. 2 of the 3 buns had really thick skin and so the filling to bread ratio was not good. Also the bread was quite dry and hard to swallow. The BBQ pork buns were much better, but pretty much standard compared to other BBQ pork buns I had.

After the buns came the pork spare ribs. These were cooked with squash, and the squash was quite mushy. It was cooked to the point of disintegration. The serving looks small, but the pork pieces are quite large and the mouth feel and taste really felt more like a home-made dish, rather than what I would have expected at a dim sum restaurant.

The last 3 orders were the red bean pancake, Chiu Chow dumplings and chicken feet.

The red bean pancake tasted ok, quite oily and the pancake itself tastes like nothing, just fried dough. When there was the red bean paste, it tasted sweet, but the other half didn’t have too much red bean paste and so I mixed it with chilli sauce. The pancake actually worked well with the chilli sauce.

The Chiu Chow dumplings don’t look pretty. They look like home-made dumplings and tasted like that too. There were bones in some of my pork bits in the dumpling which I didn’t appreciate at all.

The chicken feet were just ok, again they seemed like home-made rather than what you would expect at a dim sum restaurant.

Overall, the food was ok, slightly disappointing because it wasn’t anything special. They didn’t look all that appealing and the taste was just ordinary. The preparation was more like doing it at home because of the bones in the dumpling, thick skin/bread layer in the buns and the chunky spare ribs.

The service is quick and I am very curious with the dance lesson idea. I think my mom and her friends may enjoy it a lot. The price luckily was not too bad as you can see from the bill. I think the 20% off is for both dim sum and dinner, and really they should just price everything down by 20% because I don’t think the discount changes if you come in to eat later for example. I may come back but probably not as there are much more better dim sum places in Richmond.

I used to come to Steveston all the time back in high school because both me and my sister used to work in the area. A lot of things has changed recently, such as pay parking in Lot 3, causing us to go and park at Lot 1, and a new spiffy crossing at the corner of Moncton and No. 1 Road.

It’s pretty cool, and so like a giddy little kid, I decided to drag my companions straight across the intersection! We then walked North towards the water and came across the Fisherman’s Wharf. Since it was a holiday, not many boats were out and selling their catch. However, there were a lot of people along the walking along the boardwalk or eating fish and chips or ice-cream at the restaurants and shops.

This made me hungry for both, so we kept on going along the boardwalk and came across neat wooden orca. Make sure you walk around the sculpture, because there’s a surprise on the back. No picture for the back unfortunately, because I forgot to take one without people in it.

Continuing on… we checked out the new place the Crab King, which is a new floating restaurant. The crabs looked good, but unfortunately, I was the only one who wanted to eat there so we had to move on. Maybe next time when I have another chance to escape!

We did end up going for fish and chips at Pajo’s with a massive line up, see picture below:

They do have pretty good fish and chips and the service is quick and courteous. My only complaint is that they are pretty pricey. We ordered two large cod fish and chips with a large coleslaw salad and a medium pop and one apple juice. This came up to $38.xx!

I shared with my sister while my boyfriend got one large fish and chips all to himself. They were served in paper rolled into a cone. There are tables available with holes at each corner so that you could place the cones in and eat without spilling. Eating while walking is not advised. To bring the food to the table, they give you this plastic holder with holes, but be careful where you walk because this holder is large and I couldn’t see where I was going.

Lemon is available in a plastic container on the side of the pick up window and tartar sauces comes included with your order. Other condiments are available to the right of the pop machine and they have nearly everything you could ever want/need. I took the malt vinegar back for myself, filled a small container of Worchestershire sauce and ketchup for my sister and another one of plain ketchup for my boyfriend.

The fish was very flakey and warm which was good and bad. Good because it warmed me up but bad because it kept on breaking apart midway to my mouth. I had to work very very hard not to feed the seagulls by dropping the food! The outer coating had crunchy and soft bits, but I loved the crunchy bits best. The perfect amount of batter to fish ratio as well. Unfortunately, by the time I got to dig out the fries, they were a bit soggy. Nothing a little malt vinegar couldn’t fix, but my boyfriend was unimpressed. All of us did like the coleslaw. It had pine nuts and raisins and this helped give it more character because it added sweetness and a nutty flavour.

We did end up ordering more food than was necessary but we finished it all!

After lunch, we continued on our stroll to ease our full stomachs. We stopped at the Georgia Cannery and took pictures with the brass people sculptures outside. You could go into the Cannery for a rather interesting and inexpensive tour. But since, I’m supposed to be studying we decided just to have a quick walk around the village before sending me back to my desk.

Our stroll led us back onto Moncton St. where I spotted: Sara’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream!

It was very warm when we went in the door and the owner was very nice even though she was in a rush. There was many varieties of ice-cream available and I decided on the Irish Cream Brownie that my boyfriend pointed out and the owner said was a very good imitation of Irish cream without the alcohol. It was very very good. It wasn’t too sweet and the brownie bits were marvellous! My only complaint would be that the Irish cream flavouring was not mixed in the cream portion of the ice-cream very well. It came in chunks of flavour but not in every bite. Maybe this was because the ice-cream is made in-house? No matter, it was very good and I didn’t get to take a picture of it because my boyfriend kept on attempting to finish it when I asked him to hold it for me.

Moving on, we stopped by Big Red’s plaque. Big red was an Irish Red Setter that was nicknamed the Mayor of Steveston as per the Steveston walking guide. I really love the Town Square area (see guide) because it is really pretty and relaxing here. Besides this area is the Steveston Post Office/Museum. It’s pretty cool inside but unfortunately was closed when we walked by.

By the way, if you were wondering what is that spring onion looking thing in Big Red’s bowl (I know I was)… I think it is one of the daffodils that may have been dug up! I saw two other ones thrown on top of bushes They were pretty daffodils. I hope no one else disrupts the garden, it is so beautiful and peaceful there.

On the way back to the car, we walked around the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and the Steveston Community Centre and I attempted to take pictures of a flying bee to no success. I did see some beautiful flowers on trees though.

So check out the walking guide and wander about Steveston Village if you get the chance on a beautiful day. There’s tons of shops, restaurants and free quirky things to see. Pajo’s is a favourite among my friends for fish and chips and I do have to admit that I like them better than some of the other places in town. But there are more stuff around the area to eat that may be less pricey.

Also in regards to the pay parking… in my opinion, I hope there won’t be pay parking in Steveston because to reach Steveston from my house using public transit, even though I live in Richmond is not the most convenient. Especially if I’m only doing it as a mini-break from my studies. I do have to agree that it is a massive headache trying to find parking in the middle of summer on a weekend, but there are spots out there. I’ve never left Steveston just because I couldn’t find a parking spot!

So, part II of my lunch dates with my best friend (see part I here), we were down the strip mall that is on Westminister Highway across from Richmond Public Market at the Pho Viet Restaurant. See the menu in the images above!

Instead of getting pho, they have awesome pho by the way – one of my favourite places in town actually, we got the subs instead. These aren’t on their regular menu, but there are signs posted out front. For $3.75 each (before tax and tip) you really can’t go wrong. I ordered the Lemon grass Chicken Sub.

Sorry for the soft fuzzy effect, I was cleaning my camera but was too hungry to wait for the cleanser to dry.

It had a lot of cilantro in it, my friend had a bit too much for her taste. There was also cucumber and pickled/marinated carrots which round up the veg portion. The grilled lemon grass chicken was very good. Good sized piece of meat and it was pretty much all meat, no extra fat bits. The bread was a good french bread with a crunchy outer layer with a soft inner core. It was spread with either margarine or butter, not too sure and I forgot to ask. Very tasty.

My friend had ordered the Ham Sub (no picture) but it wasn’t as good as mine. It seemed to have huge thick chunks of ham and she was a bit disappointed that there was only one type of meat.

In the end, we ended up really full but next time I’ll probably stick to the pho because we were surrounded by people who ordered pho and it smelt so good! The restaurant was clean and the service was very good. The waitress came around several times to make sure we were ok. They were really busy and the parking kind of sucks (not many stalls) so it is a bit hard to get to but you should try it out if you like Vietnamese food.

Anyhow, after the show it was quite late and so to catch dinner, I decided to stop by Duffin’s Donuts on the corner of Knight St. and East 41st. It was very hard to manoeuvre into the parking lot because of all the road barriers. Luckily we quickly found parking, because there was a massive line-up inside even though it was already 10PM!

The décor looks tired and some of the tables were a bit dirty (wet with food splatters). They had a lot of pictures and sign-age up, so the line-up was actually a blessing in disguise because it allowed me and my boyfriend time to think about what to order. They have Chinese, Mexican, Donuts and general Western food such as fries, breakfast, poutine, hot dogs, etc. Quite a mix, if you feel like anything, they might have it!

So we ordered the following:

• 1 Combo B (Fries, Torta sub, Drink)
• 1 extra sandwich for me
• 1 small/regular gravy
• 3 donuts

In both subs, you had lettuce, tomato, banana peppers and avocado with the meat. I really liked this combination. The avocado is great because it gives that buttery feel and the banana peppers add just the right amount of kick. The tomatoes and lettuce were a god-send because I actually really wanted salad.

Sushi Garden! This is one of my favourite places for cheap and yummy sushi. It is owned by Koreans not Japanese people and the service mostly is good but they are always busy! In this review I’ll be talking about both locations.

Let’s start with the original location on Kingsway (South location). I don’t prefer to come here because there is minimal parking in the back and it is very very tight. I’m always worried that I’d hit someone else’s car or someone might just back into me. The street parking (pay parking) is a hit and miss too because there are a lot of shops and restaurants along this stretch that also only have street parking. Not to mention that Kingsway is a crazy busy street.

Besides from parking, once you get in, remember to leave your name at the front where the cash register is. That is because if you wait by the door, you’ll never be seated! (I did this before =3=)

Let’s start with the food! Me and my sister went out one weekend and got the following:

Ebi sunomono! It has two pieces of shrimp, red cabbage, cucumber and carrots and a slice of lemon over some noodles in a sweet vinegar-y sauce. The shrimp were firm and the veg crunchy. I think the lemon is mainly for show because I found the sauce tart enough. It was very appetizing because of the sweet and sour mixture. The noodles were just right, not melting and not overly firm. I enjoyed this and would order it again if the mood strikes me.

Half order of the Spicy Salmon Sashimi. It comes on top of shredded daikon radish and is cubes of salmon and cucumber mixed in a sweet but very spicy sauce. Green onions, a wedge of lemon and the pink pickled ginger accompany the dish. I love love love this dish. I order this almost every single time I’m here, and when I don’t order it I feel like I’m missing out! I used to not like spicy foods, but this dish really taught me how to appreciate it. The spiciness level starts off soft because of the sweetness, but as you devour more and more of the dish, it will start to bite back. To counteract this, use the lemon or eat some of the daikon. The sauce makes the daikon taste wonderful! Don’t worry about not tasting the salmon, because even though it is coated with the sauce, you can still taste it. The cucumber however does not have any flavour besides the sweet spice. I find the difference in texture between the softer salmon and crunchy cucumber to be a very interesting and so always finish up the whole dish.

To satisfy my sister, we also ordered the crab <3 papaya roll (left) as well as the ebi roll (right). The crab <3 papaya roll has 2 fried imitation crab sticks with cucumbers, a piece of papaya (yellow) and mayo. I really like the sweetness from the papaya and mayo with the fried imitation crab. To give the roll more texture, the cucumbers were a nice touch, everything else is soft in comparison. The ebi roll has two of my sister’s favourite things, shrimp and egg (tamago). This is also a savoury roll with a hint of sweetness. The shrimp again was firm and on top of the roll only. There was some tamago (which is like sweetened rolled egg omelette) and cucumbers. The tamago is not bad and I have added this roll to my long list of favourite rolls at Sushi Garden.

Moving on now to the Lougheed location, I mainly come here with work buddies and over two occasions ordered the following:

The Mentaiko Udon. This is a garlicky, creamy, warm udon that is not in a soup. It is  made of basically spicy cod roe. I found an awesome recipe here for those of you who want to try it at home. You can find mentaiko at the freezer section of some Asian stores. The Sushi Garden version comes with chopped spring onions and nori. I really love this dish (and I think Lilo does as well!), because it is creamy, salty and I think garlicky. It’s like udon with a garlic alfredo sauce but with fish roe that you can actually see! So good! Try to order it if you go to Sushi Garden.

On another outing, I ordered the assorted sushi combo. This is kind of expensive, I think it came out to be around $13. It was the standard assortment of nigiri and roll sushi. Not terribly exciting, I like Sushi Garden’s raw seafood because they don’t have a weird slimy after taste and the fish aren’t hard as ice when they get to you. The rice was ok, nothing special. Starting from the top and left to right. The ebi (shrimp/cooked) was ok. The tuna was not bad, but there wasn’t much flavour. I personally preferred the salmon over the tuna. The ika (squid) was firm but when you bit into it, it was like butter. The amaebi (sweet shrimp/raw) was not bad, there was the shrimp flavour and the flesh was still firm. The tako (octopus) and hokkagai (surf clam) were a bit chewy and these were my least favourite.  I enjoyed the tobiko (I love fish roe!) and the salmon and tuna rolls were a meh~ It satisfied a craving for raw fish, but I don’t really recommend ordering this.

For the Lougheed branch, I found that if you want to be seated as soon as you get there, the best times are right when they open for lunch or later in the afternoon. Around noon, it starts to get busy and they do a ton of take out orders (I am totally guilty for this!), so the service starts to suffer a bit and there may be line ups to pay if you are using credit or debit cards.

First word of warning, it is VERY warm inside. It’s basically like a cafeteria-style place where you order at the front and find a seat. I ordered the large Butter Chicken curry bowl. It comes with rice only, if you want naan, it’s an extra charge.

You also have an option of making it mild, medium or spicy. I picked medium. I think the spiciness comes from the seasoning that they sprinkle on (see the red flecks on the rice?). The butter chicken itself wasn’t as strongly flavoured as I would have liked. I didn’t get the spiciness until I ate the rice and I felt that it may have been a bit too salty. There was also a lot of rice compared to the sauce and so it was a bit hard to eat afterwards because I find basmati rice to be more dry. A good thing however, is that the butter chicken has loads of chicken. The decorations on top also tasted good. I’m not 100% sure but I think those cucumbers and peppers were marinated. The crunchy sticks of bread (I think naan?) were awesome and I really regretted getting rice instead of the wrap which comes with naan.

The service was really quick even though there was only one person manning the counter. He was super nice and I would have talked to him longer except that I was kind of hungry! Not sure if I’d come back for the food, but I really haven’t tried their wrap yet and it seems like that is what the majority of people who come in order. Perhaps the wraps work better than the curry bowls? That will be determined later.

Kingspark is notorious for their bad (slow) service. This visit was no exception. When we first stepped foot into the restaurant, we had to wait a bit for the servers to notice us and seat us. After we sat down, we realized that there was no menus! I attempted to flag a server down, but even though I made eye contact with at least two people, no one came over! I ended up getting the menus myself, and even then the two servers I saw both saw me and didn’t help. Next, ordering was actually ok, and after the food started coming, the service was a bit better.

So the reason we came here was to order this! It’s the stir-fried rice noodle with beef and shrimp paste (or in Chinese: 蝦醬乾炒牛河). It’s my friend’s favourite dish and she thinks that Kingspark has the best one in Richmond that is also cheap. It was very flavourful and not overly salty even with the shrimp paste. The beef was very tender and did taste like beef (at some places, the beef tastes pretty tasteless). The bean sprouts still had a bit of crunch to them and the noodles were perfectly cooked.

The next thing to come was our drinks. I was so hot and thirsty I actually started drinking and nearly forgot to take a picture. I had ordered the iced mixed coffee and tea (pronounced Yuenyeung). I felt that it was a bit too weak for my liking perhaps because I ordered it cold (extra charge) and they gave it to me with a lot of ice. I could taste the sweet condensed milk and the tea component, but the coffee wasn’t really there. That being said, the drink was not overly sweet like other places, but the tea and coffee were just a bit weak.

There is also another option to have the daily soup and our choices were Russian Borscht or cream of corn soup. I chose the Russian Borscht option. This is not the same as the Borscht soup with beets. It still has a beefy component, but the main veg here is tomato. It was very tasty and had an almost spicy kick similar to Worcestershire sauce. My only complaint was that there wasn’t many chunks of meat, just chunks of fat in the soup.

This is the Baked Garoupa Florentine with rice. The sauce is similar to the baked seafood on rice that I had at Kam Do. But this had spinach (the Florentine bit) and only had 1 massive fillet of fish. It came out very hot and bubbly and the cream sauce was creamy, flavourful with just enough salt. The rice underneath was just regular fried rice with egg and there was a lot of rice. Actually, now that I think about it, I prefer this dish rather than the one I had at Kam Do. I think this was more richer, maybe because I feel that the cream was not diluted.

Both me and my friend were not able to finish this spread so we decided to eat half and take the other half home. When we asked for take-out boxes from the server, we were informed that each box is 15 cents! I was a bit surprised but what can you do? Our bill came up to be just over $22 for two entrées, two soups, two drinks and two take-out containers. I’m not too sure if I’d come here again, maybe only if my friends really really want to go. To sum it up, the food itself was great, but the service sucks and who else charges for take-out containers!? (Yes I’m a bit peeved.)

Currently looking for another place that serves a good stir-fried rice noodle with beef and shrimp paste (with better service and doesn’t charge for take-out containers). If anyone knows any, please let me know?

Like most pubs, there are lots of TV’s available for those who want to catch a game. For us, we were too busy contemplating what to order! It was dimly lit inside and the noise level was very LOUD. It was hard to hear even the person sitting right besides me! Luckily, the server was quite attentive and patient with us as we try to convey our order to her (by shouting above the noise). The service was pretty good, very fast, and they didn’t ask too many questions, but our table got cleared when it needed to be cleared and drinks refilled when they got low.

So moving on to the menu! It is 39 cents per wing but everyone at the table has to order a drink, either alcoholic or non-alcoholic. We decided not to order any dipping sauces seeing that most of the wings are actually wet. Also none of us attempted to eat the infamous bobby wing, apparently, you need to sign a wavier for it? My friends at the table had loads of funny stories regarding the last time they saw someone attempt to eat those wings.

So that interesting blue concoction over there was the Bobby Wing antidote. I forgot what else was in there besides from milk, but the first taste you have is of the milk. It tasted a bit like creamy (half-sugar) candy at my second sip. The server had explained that it would be really sweet, but it really wasn’t. A bit anti-climatic. The iced tea was ok, mostly ice, but it was refilled once during our feast of wings.

Round 1: (From the spear clockwise) Jakarta Heat, Bula Fiji, Maui Lime, Greek, Outback Cajun Barbeque

The favourites are the Bula Fiji, Greek and Outback Cajun Barbeque flavours.

The Jakarta Heat was a bit too spicy for me, I wasn’t able to taste anything else but heat and so it seemed like an extra spicy buffalo wing. Nothing too special. The Bula Fiji on the other hand was spicy and garlic-y. It was not overly spicy but gave a good kick to my taste-buds. I actually liked the Maui Lime because it was nice and sweet, but my table-mates thought that it was nothing special.  The Greek was very flavourful and a bit salty because of the crystals of salt that were interspersed in the seasoning. The Outback Cajun Barbeque was nice and saucy. It had a really nice classic barbeque flavour and was really good!

Round 2: (This batch was less well organized but starting from the closest and then clockwise) Sweet Thai, Texas Dry Rub, Greek, Bombay Pineapple

Favourites: Greek and Bombay Pineapple.

Sweet Thai was nothing special, it was pretty much like a sweeter and less spicy form of the Thai sweet chilli sauce for chicken that you can get at the grocery store.  The Texas Dry Rub reminded me of the seasoning you get sometimes on “seasoned” fries. The server explained that it was like a Tex-Mex seasoning. The Greek was ordered again because we couldn’t get enough in the first round. And finally the Bombay Pineapple that tasted like Tandoori chicken. I couldn’t taste the pineapple, but some other members of the table could. It was very different in taste compared to the others. Very flavourful, where the flavour really stood out and worked well with the chicken.

Overall, the wings were very moist on the inside and they were all decent sized. No micro-wings here! I really liked that the wings were drenched in the sauces because you really could get the flavour in every bite.

Even though we were pretty full at this point, having a second stomach for desserts is definitely very advantageous for girls . After having the guys say that they don’t want desserts because it’s a girl thing, we decided to order the Chocolate Chunk Cookie A la Mode. It was a very warm, soft, gooey cookie full of chocolate chunk goodness. The ice cream and caramel sauce was a nice foil with the creamy, sweet, cold tastes and textures. So good in fact that the boys decided to stop their ridiculous boycott of desserts and join in. It wasn’t the best dessert ever, but it really hit the spot.

Our bill for the evening wasn’t very very cheap, but it was decent. We ended up paying around $76 after tax and tip for 5 drinks, 90 wings and 1 dessert. I am for sure coming back to try the rest of that wing menu. Any suggestions or favourites that you guys may have? Please let me know in the comments! Thanks!