Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle

Restaurant: Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle

Cuisine: Taiwanese/Noodle Shop

Last visited: January 30, 2010
Area: Richmond, BC

Unit 2800-4151 Hazelbridge Way (In Aberdeen Mall)
Range: $10-20

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

Food: 2

Service: 3

Ambiance: 3

Overall: 2

Additional comments:

• Specializes in Taiwanese beef noodle and soup bowls
• Taiwanese/Chinese (China) chefs/cooks
• Fresh, made upon order
• Homemade, everything made from scratch
• Handmade noodles, dough etc.
• Prepared in small batches
• Large selection of drinks (bubble tea, brewed tea etc.)
• Selection of desserts (shaved ice, Frappe Bliss)
• Large selection of tradition Taiwanese snacks
• Very long line ups at peak hours
• Open/display kitchen
• Lots of seating, quick service
• Popular to locals/Chinese
• Lunch and dinner
• Offers snacks and bubble tea
• Private room available
• Open 7 days

**Recommendation: Noodle topped with ground pork sauce, Pan fried ground pork cake

Chef Hung is getting slammed left, right and centre.

Yes, it’s a bit overpriced, but they do give you a lot of meat. Yes, it’s not worth the long line up, but it might be worth checking out if there is no line-up and if you’re still curious. Yes, it’s overrated, but do I regret trying it? No, because I still had to see what the hype was about; and when there’s a 30+ min. line-up for over a month now…they must be doing something good right?!…errr maybe not…nonetheless I tried everything I wanted to try to make sure I wouldn’t have to line-up again to give it another chance.

For me it was a cross of Taiwanese and Shanghainese food, and in this case I could get better of each cuisine elsewhere. The broth just wasn’t as flavourful or rich to match the authenticity of Taiwanese or Shanghai cuisine. They’re charging a couple dollars more than Japanese Ramen Noodle places and a lot more than Wonton Noodle places and the food is surprisingly bland. The portions are really deceiving because it’s a big bowl with not a lot of noodle, yet a significant amount of meat. The noodles are deceiving too because although they don’t give you much, but they really expand and fill you up fast. You have a choice of either flat noodle, thin noodle or vermicelli and most people seem to be getting the flat noodle.

I do appreciate how everything is homemade and fresh, but the flavour just wasn’t there. It is a relatively quick eat – after all the line-up doesn’t die down during dinner. They’re not rude about it and there’s a lot of staff so the food comes fast and they don't hesitate to ask when you need your bill.

On the table:

Champion beef shank with noodle in soup 2.5/6

• Champion beef shank with noodle in soup $10.95 – Flat noodle
• For $10.95 I should be getting either a big portion, or really amazing noodles and soup. I got neither. This is their hot ticket item and it was only ok. That’s kind of embarrassing.
• If I only order this I’d be really disappointed because this itself isn’t worth the wait. The bowl is big, but not the portion too.
• The broth was very basic and light and almost watered down in taste. It wasn’t very flavourful and the beef taste wasn’t as potent as it looks for sure.
• The noodles were great though. They’re cooked in small batches just until al dente. This is a tricky word – al dente is actually more “undercooked” than one may think. So these noodles come across as undercooked but they’re not. They’re chewy, hand made and it absorbed the flavour (as little as it had to offer) of the soup well.
• They do give you a lot of meat though. The beef shank is quite tender, could be tenderer, and the fat is almost interwoven in layers.
• They also have 2 slices of seared beef which is individually hand seared with a torch. This part was good as well.

**Noodle topped with ground pork sauce 3/5

• Noodle topped with ground pork sauce $6.95 – Flat noodle
• Beef is their specialty, yet this pork noodle bowl was better! I still like it better at other authentic Taiwanese places though – like Lao Shan Dong in Burnaby, or even Zephyr in the Sky in Richmond.
• This noodle bowl is only supposed to come with a little soup, just enough to wet the noodles and then some. The soup again is a bit bland although it looks rich. It’s sweeter, saltier, thicker and richer than the soup in the beef bowls.
• They give you a lot of ground pork which is quite tender and lean. It’s actually quite chunky and not minced like other authentic Taiwanese places would serve it. It’s pretty good though, very marinated, but not saucy and it could have been saucier. I think there were bits of tofu in it, but it wasn’t apparent.
• I do like the al dente chewy and slightly hard noodles. Although I think the thin noodle would have matched the dish better since the meat was ground.

Marinated Beef Crispy Pancake 2/6

• Marinated beef wrapped in crispy pancake $5.95
• This dish is much better at Shanghainese restaurants.
• It was a homemade crispy pancake/crepe rolled with marinated beef slices, green onions, cucumbers, and Hoisin sauce.
• It looks better than it tastes. The pancake part was good and crispy and there was lots of filling, but the dominant taste was raw green onions.
• I could barely taste the meat, and it was very crunchy but there was too much onion and they needed more cucumber. It was slightly spicy from the onion overload.
• Overall it was a bit dry although not oily, but I needed more Hoisin sauce for sweetness and more flavour in general.

Fried Chives Pancake 1.5/6

• Fried chives pancake (2 pcs) $3.95
• This was stuffed with vermicelli, chives, and scrambled eggs.
• The pancake was a very thin crepe and not crispy but soft. It was quite floury and left a powdery layer on my lips.
• The filling was a bit oily and bland with a slight white pepper taste. If anything else it tasted like sautéed onions, with just the natural flavour of the onions and nothing else.

**Pan-Fried Ground Pork Cake 4/6

• Pan fried ground pork cake (2 pcs) $3.50
• I think this is the best thing I ordered and it was worth it. If anything I would come back for these if there was no line-up and it was convenient.
• They dough is homemade and it’s very crispy and thin almost like dumpling skin but more doughy.
• It was the most savoury, but not necessarily flavourful and I wonder if it would be more flavourful than the beef cake. After all the pork noodles were more flavourful than the beef was.
• The pork was really juicy and when you cut into it the juice even leaks out. It reminded me of those Pan-fried Shanghai Pork Buns.
• They’re very crunchy too because they mix the pork with green beans.
• They’re made completely in house and you can watch them doing it. They’re very oily though, but I would order them again.

Pan Fried Sliced Radish Cake 1/6

• Pan-fried sliced radish cake (2 pcs) $3.50
• Ok, no. I like the sliced radish in pastry they serve for Shanghai dim sum better than this.
• I really like radish too, but this was just really bland and fishy tasting. It was fishy tasting because they put some dried shrimp in it as well as Chinese mushrooms although it was way too little and you couldn’t taste them.
• It was packed with filling and really juicy and crunchy, but the dominant flavour was just fishy.
• This was also very oily and I preferred the pork version hands down.
  

Dessert

Mango Shaved Ice 4/6

• $3.50
• This dessert is from Frappe Bliss - a franchise, so they just bought the machine that makes it.
• There is an actual store front for Frappe Bliss in the Aberdeen food court upstairs and it’s better there because you get more variety for toppings. Toppings here are limited and +$1 each.
• This dessert is still amazing and it’s a pretty decent bowl for the price.

Shanghai River - Review 3

Restaurant: Shanghai River - Review 3

Cuisine: Shanghainese/Chinese/Asian/Dim Sum

Last visited: January 24, 2010
Area: Richmond, BC

7831 Westminster Hwy
Range: $20-30

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

Food: 5

Service: 3

Ambiance: 5

Overall: 4.5

Additional comments:

• Known as the best/Richmond's most popular Shanghai restaurants
• High end Shanghainese Restaurant
• Hit or miss items - but when it's a hit it's a big hit!
• Busy/Crowded/Line-ups all the time
• Reservations recommended
• Menu in Chinese and English - some pictures
• Shanghainese staff in front and in kitchen
• Very popular to locals/Chinese/main stream/tourists
• Should go with at least 4-8 ppl - how the menu/portions are designed
• Visible "Xiao Long Bao" (famous steamed pork dumplings) making station
• Private dining room available

**Recommendation: Steamed mini pork dumplings "Xiao Long Bao", braised eggplant with chili sauce, deep fried crab with chili & garlic, hot and sour soup, fried rice cake with pork

This is my 3^rd visit to Shanghai River since I started Follow Me Foodie. As mentioned in my previous posts I have been here before I started blogging as well. They been quite consistent on all my visits so therefore my ratings haven’t changed. The more I try the better recommendations I can give you and I can also track if the quality is still there.

Shanghai River is always packed and it’s one of the most popular fine dining Shanghai Restaurants in Richmond and Vancouver. Collecting a wall of awards, this is a restaurant that is familiar to locals and tourists alike.

Speaking of tourists, that is why I came here. I had a friend visiting from Austria and there everything “Asian” is all categorized under “Chinese food,” so I had to show him the difference. It was Shanghai Dining 101…for a European. He liked every single dish except for one…you’ll see which one. He liked the lettuce wraps and surprisingly the hot and sour soup the best!

The food here is Shanghainese; however it’s catered to Chinese, specifically for Cantonese taste buds. Therefore it’s not as saucy, salty or oily as authentic Shanghainese cuisine should be. The food is still good, but if you ask a Shanghainese person – then no, it is not quite authentic. There’s a reason why it’s still packed though so I wouldn’t write it off just because it’s not the real deal.

Shanghai River: Review 1

Shanghai River: Review 2

On the table:

**Xiao Long Bao – Steamed mini pork dumplings 6/6

• A dumpling filled with juicy ground pork meat and pork broth or soup $6.80 for 8 pcs
• This is a staple item when dining Shanghai. I will order it every time I come here and everyone else does the same. The ones here are good, but the ones at Chen’s Shanghai Kitchen have more soup that’s also hotter.
• For more details on these Xiao Long Baos at Shanghai River please click here

**Hot and Sour Soup 5/6

• A small size will generously fill 5 bowls $9.80
• It’s a hot and sour soup made with pork broth, chilies, tofu, shredded pork, bamboo shoots, black wood ear mushrooms, shrimp, carrots, mushrooms, green onions and egg whites.
• The ingredients vary from place to place and so does the level of spiciness. For me, it’s not that spicy and nobody complained about it being too spicy either.
• This soup originates from Szechuan cuisine, but it is often served at Shanghai restaurants. The traditional Szechuan recipe will also have pork’s blood, which I’m not a fan off so I’m glad it’s not in this one. Pork’s blood is solidified and it looks like dark brown smooth slices of tofu when they use it in the soup.
• There are tons of ingredients in this version at Shanghai River. There are more ingredients than there is soup. All the ingredients are different textures of crunchy so you’re chewing quite a bit.
• The soup is sour from the vinegar and spicy from the use of chilies, chili oil and white pepper. It’s not that spicy though, so don’t freak out if you can’t handle too spicy. It would be much spicier at an authentic Shanghainese restaurant in Shanghai.
• The shrimp is not bad and a decent size and we all got at least 2 of them. With the amount of ingredients they used I really think the value is here.
• The bamboo shoots are pickled on their own so it enhances the overall “sour” flavour to this soup.
• The broth is a pork based broth so you still get that saltiness you want in a soup. Great balance of flavours.

Chicken with Wine Sauce 2.5/6

• This is also commonly known as “drunken chicken”. It’s half a chicken that is marinated and steamed in Chinese wine. It’s served chilled. $6.80
• I think they used to do a better job with this. They use to pour ½ a shot of wine/whiskey on it at the table before serving, but they don’t do that anymore.
• This is eaten as an appetizer. This is the only dish my friend didn’t like. Maybe it was because of the way it looks and the taste was unusual.
• The wine doesn’t really cook out in this dish and I think they add a little bit of just the wine before serving. It’s quite boozy and at first it’s sweet and then it gets a bit bitter because it’s too much wine.
• The chicken is very well marinated, but there’s also not much meat. Consequently the meat absorbs the wine easily.
• Since it’s served cold there is a little gelatin on the chicken which is common. It’s supposed to be flavourful, which it is, but the wine was too overpowering overall.

Pan-fried Pork Buns 4/6

• A pan fried bun that is made with homemade bread dough and filled with juicy pork $6.80 for 5pcs
• This is usually an item you would order for dim sum and not for dinner, but since it was Shanghainese food 101 I had to order them.
• These buns are made pretty well and you could pop the bun whole if you wanted to. Just like the “xiao long baos” you dip them in vinegar before eating them.
• I could taste the flavour of the meat in these ones more than the “xiao long bao” because these buns have less soup. The soup comes from the fact that the pork filling also has gelatin so as it cooks/steams/fries the gelatin melts and becomes the “soup” or gravy. There wasn’t as much soup as I would have liked though.
• The flavour of the meat has ginger and garlic aromatics, but they’re extremely minced up so you’re not biting into pieces of anything except for pork. I feel like they could have been using ginger oil because it was so subtle. The meatball is really soft, but also not mushy like meatloaf.
• The bottom of these buns are nicely browned and fried and most importantly not soggy from the soup.
• As well as green onions there should be some sesame seeds served on top of these buns.

Duck Meat Lettuce Wraps 3.5/6

• Stir-fried duck meat and vegetables. Served with lettuce leaves and Hoisin sauce $16.80
• And I thought EVERYONE knew what a lettuce wrap was. Nope! Not the Austrian, so of course, I had to order this “typical” one as well.
• Ok rip to the off! $16.80? The portion was so small! There were 6 lettuce leaves! They gave just enough stuffing for the 6 leaves, but the plate looked empty when they served it. Was it good? Yes. Was it great? No. Was it worth $16.80? Definitely not.
• The best ones are still at Kirin Seafood Restaurant.
• What I did really like was the addition of pine nuts! That was their twist which I really liked. I know they’re expensive, but the price still isn’t justified.
• Everything was really minced up including the duck meat and I like my stuffing a bit chunkier. I felt like I was eating ground pork which is kind of a waste of duck meat.
• It’s stir-fried with water chestnuts, green onions, onions, and carrots. It’s savoury from the marinade, nutty from the pine nuts, sweet from the caramelized veggies and the duck.

**Fried Rice Cake with Pork 5.5/6

• Stir-fried rice cakes with shredded pork, cabbage and pea shoots.
• I love rice cakes, so I maybe a bit biased. I really like this dish and it’s common in many Shanghai restaurants. I still think they do an excellent job here.
• The rice cakes are thin and fresh! They’re not the packaged ones or dried ones you see at the grocery store so they're very soft here. These “noodles” or rice noodle patties are made in house. They’re cut nice and thin so they can pick up more sauce. They don’t absorb flavours though because they’re a thicker noodle. It has a creamy texture, but there’s no dairy. They’re smooth and slippery, but chewy and stick to your teeth.
• I liked the use of pea shoots and not many places will do this. They may not use any greens or if so they will use spinach. The pea shoots made it more “gourmet”.
• The cabbage is stir-fried and combined with the slices of Chinese mushrooms they both add a sweet and juicy flavour to the savoury dish.
• The only thing is that it need more sauce and it wasn’t as salty as it should have been. If it were authentic there would have been more sauce because rice cakes need a lot of sauce. I know it looks oily, but that a common characteristic of Shanghainese cuisine.
  

Dessert

Glutinous Rice Balls with Sesame 5/6

• Sticky glutinous rice balls filled with hot black sesame filling. I don’t remember the price, but it wouldn’t be more than $8 for 8pc.
• I’m not a fan of this dessert, but I did try it. For people that like it, it’s 5/6, but for me it’s 2/6.
• It’s fresh, made upon order, and served hot.
• The sticky rice balls are nutty and sweet because they're rolled in a coating of ground peanuts, sesame seeds, coconut and light brown sugar. The dough is made out of rice flour and it’s the same as eating a mochi. It’s very thin, chewy, delicate and sticks to your teeth, but doesn’t have much flavour without the crumbled toppings.
• The sesame filling is made of ground black sesame seeds and sugar so it’s sweet, but not too sweet.
• The black sesame is smooth but also gritty. It has a really deep nutty thick flavor and it’s almost creamy like a crème anglaise.
• They’re pretty small, so you can eat them whole like a mini cupcake. I like the outside better than the inside filling.
• Overall I’m just not a fan of most Chinese desserts though. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

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.

• 


• 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.
• 


• 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.