Taiwanese Cuisine aka "Chopsticks"

Marinated Beef wrapped in Pancake

Restaurant: Taiwanese Cuisine (In Chinese it's called "Chopsticks")
Cuisine: Taiwanese/Shanghainese/Chinese/Asian

Last visited: October 15, 09
Area: Richmond, BC
#1118-3779 Sexsmith Rd
Price Range: $10-20

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 2
Service: 3
Ambiance: 3.5

Overall: 2.5

Additional comments:

• Taiwanese/Shanghainese/Chinese dishes
• Stick to ordering Taiwanese dishes
• Comfortable, clean setting
• Taiwanese owned/operated
• Some really cheap items
• Extensive menu
  
• Clay pot specialties
• Good for large groups
• Some handmade noodles
• Some dim sum items
• Some lunch/dinner specials
• Some bubble tea flavoured drinks, but no pearls
  

** Recommendation: Fried rice cake, clay pots ( I didn't order any, but if I were to go back I would, everyone had them on the table)

The food is alright, but it's nothing to rave about or really to complain about. Given that this was a Taiwanese restaurant they had a large selection of Shanghainese items so I thought it could have been an unexpected specialty of theirs. They even had a handful of Cantonese items so it's more Asian than Taiwanese specific. We were craving Shanghainese food so we ended up ordering Shanghai dishes. Next time I would stick to ordering Taiwanese dishes, it's definitely not the place for authentic Shanghainese cuisine.

Depending on what you order, your meal can be really really cheap. The first time I went we ended up spending $12+ taxes and tip between 6 people and we ordered liberally. Two years later I am here again and this time we ordered about 4 dishes between 3 people and the bill was $22! You really can't beat that and we had a couple leftovers.

On the table:

• Steamed Pork Dumplings or "Xiao Long Bao" 2/6
• A thin dumpling stuffed with juicy pork and soup 8pcs for $5.95

• This is an authentic Shanghainese dish and it was definitely better at a Shanghai restaurant. The dough for the dumpling was made in house but it wasn't as thin as the authentic ones. This takes an experienced master - to be able to keep the wrapping thin yet strong enough to hold the hot soup from the steamed pork filling inside.

• There was hardly any soup in these and they were a bit smaller than usual. The flavour was ok but they should have held much more soup.
• It's served with vinegar for dipping, but there was no ginger in the vinegar and there should have been.

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• Marinated Beef wrapped in pancake 1/6
• Slices of beef wrapped in a scallion pancake with raw green onion and cucumber $4.95

• This is a Shanghainese/Taiwanese dim sum item or appetizer, but again it wasn't done well here. It was bland, the beef was too fatty and too much tendon giving it a weird crunchy elastic texture. The scallion pancake also wasn't flaky enough. I think it was the frozen kind that you fry up and serve.
  
  

  



• The beef they used wasn't well marinated, it was dry. This type of beef is quite popular in Cantonese dishes, but I don't like it to begin with so it was hard for me to appreciate this. Regardless, it was still too dry. I prefer when they use a shredded type of braised beef and a saucier marinade. It tastes so much better than the way they make it here.
• The one at Chen's Shanghai Kitchen is better
• Fried Chive Pancake 3/6
• 2 fried chive pancakes or "Asian style pita pockets" stuffed with sauteed chives, black wood ear mushrooms, glass vermicelli noodles, and a little scrambled egg. It was only $3.95 for 2

• I actually thought this was going to be the scallion pancake that was wrapped around the beef roll, but it wasn't. The English translation didn't do it justice so I was lucky enough to have someone that could read Chinese do the ordering with me.


• The pancake was like a pita pocket except much more dough-like than bread like. It's handmade and it has a crispy exterior and very soft interior. It could have been a bit thinner though, it was a bit too thick and made this dish extra filling.


• The filling wasn't crunchy, but nicely sauteed. It was a bit bland though and they could have used some more soy sauce or salt to give it flavour. They were stuffed decently and were very fresh and hot. Everything is really minced up so you can't really tell what you're eating, the chive flavour stands out the most for sure.
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• Fried Rice Cake 3/6
• It's pan fried rice cakes with pork, bamboo shoots, Taiwanese cabbage, Shiitake mushrooms and preserved pickled vegetable (which is the stems of a Chinese mustard green). It was only $6.95 for a huge portion!

• This is typically a Shanghainese dish, except they made it very Taiwanese/Cantonese here. It wasn't authentic Shanghainese, but it was still good. This means it's a lot less oily and saucy than the traditional Shanghainese version. They also use more veggies and different kinds.
  
  

  



• I love theses rice cakes. They're really chewy and kind of sticky. It goes great with the crunchy veggies and juicy plump mushrooms. The flavour is good, and it's wasn't that salty. It has a little pickle-ish/tangy flavour from the preserved mustard stems. I just wish that the pork wasn't so fatty. That's really typical of this dish though, the pork they use is always so fatty no matter where you go.
  

Luck's Gourmet

Restaurant: Luck's Gourmet

Cuisine: Chinese/Shanghai/Asian
Last visited: October 29, 09
Area: Richmond, BC
Unit 2088 - 8700 McKim Way (In the Admiralty Mall food court)
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Additional comments:

• Family owned and operated
• Specializes in Chinese/Shanghainese cuisine
• A few items not available on menu
  
• Fresh, made upon order
• Take-out
• Small selection of desserts
• Very cheap
• Cash only

** Recommendation: n/a

I haven't tried enough of their menu to make a fair judgment, but what I ordered was good and it will make me go back to try other items.

I actually wanted to try their steamed pork buns aka "xiao long bao" but they didn't have any. A lot of their English translations are off, so it's hard to know what to order or what they're trying to describe.

On the table:

• Sesame Seed Pastry 4.5/6
• It's under "sesame seed pastry" as a dessert on their menu board. It is not a dessert! I was lucky enough to have someone translate so I wasn't in for a surprise. It was only $3 and it was huge!
• This is actually an Asian style sesame seed pancake or crepe stuffed with ground pork and raw cucumbers. It's traditional Shanghainese. It's a meal in itself although it's considered a snack.
• The dough for the crepe is made in house and it's hot and fresh because you have to wait at least 15min. for it. The crepe is delicious and it's pretty thick. It would be more salty than sweet, it's almost like puff pastry. It has multiple layers and the outer layers are nice and flaky. It's soft and chewy on the inside and has a crispy filo-like exterior. It's a Shanghainese style roti with less layers than the Malaysian style roti. They pan fry it so that the sesame seeds taste all nutty. Surprisingly it wasn't that oily or greasy.
• The inside of this sesame seed pastry is filled with relatively lean ground pork with an Asian soy-based pork gravy and some raw cucumbers. It was so good! The cucumbers are crunchy although they do semi-cook from the steam of the meat and pastry.
• I only wish it was a bit saltier. It looks really saucy, but the sauce could have been saltier. It's probably not the best out there, but it's excellent for a hole in the wall place like this and you probably won't find a better deal! I'd order it again for sure.
  

• Tasty Twist Idea: It needed Hoisin sauce or something. I actually ordered something with Hoisin sauce at the stand next to it so I ended up dipping my pastry into the Hoisin sauce. That made it a 5/6! It made it taste like a Peking Duck wrap.