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.

Mayuri Indian Cuisine

Restaurant: Mayuri Indian Cuisine

Cuisine: Indian/Vegetarian
Last visited: January 17, 2010
Area: Surrey, BC
12677 80th Avenue
Price Range: $10 or less

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

Food: 4 (Coming from an Indian perspective)
Service: 3 (very nice, just very slow)

Ambiance: 2

Overall: 4

Additional comments:

• Family owned
• Authentic (for North Indians and myself, but if you ask a South Indian person the menu is but the execution is not so much)
• Serves South/North Indian cuisine
• Specializes in South Indian cuisine
• All vegetarian
• Popular for dosa (20 varieties, not 30 as advertised)
• Lots of homemade Indian bread options (about 9)
• Lots of starches
• Big portions, good value
• Dairy free options
• Gluten free options
• Vegan friendly
• Extensive menu
• All ages
• Seats 50
• Busy during lunch
• Fully licensed
• Dine in/Take out
• Catering and party hosting available
• Open Mon-Thurs 11am-9:30pm
• Open Fri-Sun 11am – 10pm

**Recommendation: Mysore Masala Dosa, Mysore Cheese Dosa, Thali, Marsala Chai (It’s especially good here). These recommendations are mine as well as from Indian people that eat there. They used to offer these amazing raw banana pakoras; it’s still on the menu but sadly not offered.

This is about my 5^th visit to Mayuri Indian cuisine. It’s not really a hole in the wall but it is kind of in the middle of nowhere between industrial complexes. My Indian friends introduced it to me first and since then I have brought my non-Indian friends as well. The vegetarian and non-vegetarian friends liked it and for most it was their 1^st time. Everyone was more awe’d by the overall experience rather than the food itself, but nobody complained about the food – except some dishes were a bit too spicy. I like spicy, so it was fine for me.

I am quite familiar with North Indian food (home cooked and restaurant) but not South, so from my “Indian” perspective and the perspective of my Indian friends Mayuri is considered a good restaurant for South Indian cuisine. They do serve some North Indian food, but I would classify them much more as South Indian. Everyone orders dosas and they have some South Indian rice specialties that are hard to find elsewhere.

For me, a restaurant has got to be good if your friends of that culture keep bringing you back. Also you know it’s authentic when you’re the only non-Indian in there, and I’ve been the only non-Indian all 5 times. Personally, I think Mayuri Indian cuisine does a fine job. It serves great food, made upon order and at a great value. Don’t underestimate the entirely vegetarian menu, I get so sleepy every time I finish eating here – the portions are big and they’re heavy in starches.

I’m going to treat this review like South Indian cuisine for beginners…

On the table:

**Mysore Masala Dosa 5/6

• Crepe stuffed with Potato Curry, Filled with Spicy Special Sauces $7.45
• I’m still so sleepy and full from the dosa…
• Dosas are huge; anywhere you go you’ll find them this big. It’s really unique looking and don’t be overwhelmed by the size. It’s only the middle that has about a bowl and a ½ full of potato curry, the rest is just the crepe. It’s still incredibly filling though.
• The potato curry is spicy, not too salty and flavourful. It’s not saucy or soupy, but very creamed and thick although there is no cream. It’s almost like a mashed potato curry but with some small tender chunks of potato. There’s also onions, ginger, garlic, carrots, peas and spicy Indian spices, but you can order it mild.
• The crepe is made of lentil flour and it’s really thin and crispy until you get to the part where the potato curry is. When it gets wet or touches sauce it becomes flexible and almost chewy.
• They put a thin layer of tomato paste on the inside giving it a tanginess. It’s also seasoned generously with garam masala (freshly ground Indian spices) and some chili powder. It’s quite salty in the beginning, very aromatic and then the spiciness hits you just after.
• With the combination of the spicy crepe and spicy potato curry, this dosa had my nose running – but I like my heat so it tolerable for me. I did have a hard time tasting the other food after though and had to allow a break in between…and some water.
• The dosa is served with sambar (lentil soup described below) and 2 kinds of chutney: coconut and ginger.
• The coconut is sweet and there’s dried coconut flake in it. It’s not that creamy and very light tasting and makes the dosa mild if it’s spicy.
• The ginger chutney was more like chili chutney. It was bright red and very spicy, but still good.
• If you’re adventurous and want to sample everything then order the Mayuri South Indian platter, that’s what I did my 1^st time. I didn’t really like the extras, so I just order the dosa now.
• South Indian Platter includes:
• 1 dosa (Chose your own dosa for $1 extra)
• Idli: steamed rice cakes, almost like polenta in texture. It’s bland like plain rice is but it’s used as the ‘bread’ for the soup.
• Vada: a deep fried donut similar to a honey crueller from Tim Horton’s but it’s savoury not sweet. It’s not salty either; it tastes like the deep fried denser version of the Idli. It’s quite bland and very filling.
• Sambar: lentil soup – this is good! But it com es with any dosa, not just the platter and you can order it separately too.

**Thali 4/6

• Two poories, Plain Rice, Flavored rice, Daal, one Fry, one Curry, Sambar, Dahi, Sweet, Papad $11.95 (I don’t know what the menu means by “one fry”)
• This has everything, but the kitchen sink in it! My mom calls it “Indian nachos” lol. I enjoy the variety so if you want to sample everything go for this. However this is more of a North Indian combination platter. I wouldn’t call it authentic North Indian, but it’s a North an d South Indian fusion – essentially its North Indian dishes made by South Indian people.
• You can order each of these items individually as well. It’s meant for one person, but could easily feed 2.
  

• The Thali Breakdown
• Poories 2/6:
• Deep fried whole wheat bread.
• This is deep fried bread so it’s really crispy and almost tasted like deep fried pita bread made out of corn meal.
• I wasn’t really a fan and prefer roti or naan. The poorie is stiffer but as the cool down they taste a bit stale.
• Papad:
• Also known as papadums. These are typically served as appetizers and you eat them with chutney. It’s a thin crisp wafer and they’re very aromatic. Not really spicy but more salty and made with lots of cumin, garlic, salt and pepper.
• Plain rice: is just plain Basmati rice...it was very white though.
• Flavoured rice 6/6:
• I’m pretty sure it was there “hot pongal” rice, but I’m not certain. The description sounds like what I was eating.
• This was delicious. It was rice with moong daal (yellow split pea, similar to a lentil) cooked with black peppers and seasoning. It’s not spicy though. It tastes like a puree of creamed curry lentils and rice. Just think of it as baked beans and rice but with curry instead of tomato sauce. It was savoury and I really enjoy ed it! It's delicious with the raita (which is basically plain yogurt).
• It was like Indian risotto, but mushy.
• Channa Masala 3/6:
• It’s 3/6 here, but when it’s made well it’s a 5/6 for me. This is chick peas cooked in a tomato based sauce. It was savoury and very tangy and simple.
• It’s a North Indian vegetarian dish, and they don’t make it extremely well here, but it’s decent. It’s a small portion, and I would only order it as a main at an Indian restaurant that focuses on North Indian cuisine.
• The one here is a bit watery and not as flavourful. It’s not their specialty.
• Tomato Daal 4.5/6:
• This dish is stewed lentils cooked in tomatoes and Indian spices. It was the most savoury of the 3, very mild, and I really liked it.
• It was creamy (but no cream), saucy and it’s very healthy too. Well they probably use some clarified butter in it, but it doesn’t taste like they use a lot.
• It's not as rich as a butter chicken sauce, but it's similar. It also has some mustard seeds in it, which were great.
  
• The only thing is that it's not as thick as I would have liked it.
  

  

• Paneer Butter Masala 6/6:
• Paneer cooked in rich creamy sauce is how the menu describes it. I think they did a great job with this dish.
• Paneer is a cheese, but I question if it’s homemade here – I doubt it. It’s an Indian cheese similar to cottage cheese but firm, not hard though. It’s a very hearty cheese (almost like chicken) but mild in flavour.
• The dish tastes like butter chicken, except made with paneer. The sauce is a tomato based sauce and it is not spicy at all. It’s a bit tangy, but not as tangy as the channa masala.
• This dish has no dairy, but probably some clarified butter to give it that richness.
• Sambar 6/6:
• Thick lentil vegetable soup. I really like the sambar here. It’s not too watery and very flavourful. The beans are slowly cooked so they break down into the soup.
• It’s not really a spicy soup, but almost like tomato based vegetable soup made Indian style.
• Traditionally, you can order idli (those rice cakes) and break pieces of it into the soup and let the patties absorb the flavours of the soup.
• Sweet/Rice Pudding 1.5/6:
• The rice pudding didn’t taste like it was made that day. The rice was hard and it seemed almost pureed and very bitty. It was too sweet too and had no rose water or cardamom.
• Achar 1/6
• This is definitely an acquired taste for sure! I’ve never liked it and I always give it a chance. It’s the most sour and salty thing you’ve ever tried…not a fan.
• You’re supposed to have a bite of it in between chews of everything else, but I’m still not warming up and I don’t find it enhances anything. It kinds of breaks everything up, but I’ll let my water do that.

Mango Lassi 4/6

• It was a bit on the watery side and it was made of mango puree (not fresh), ice, and yogurt. It wasn’t too sweet and I liked it, but I’ve had better.

Imperial Chinese Seafood Restaurant

Restaurant: Imperial Chinese Seafood Restaurant

Cuisine: Chinese
Last visited: January 15, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Waterfront/Downtown)
355 Burrard Street
Price Range: $30-50

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

Food: 2
Service: 4

Ambiance: 3

Overall: 2.5

Additional comments:

• Fine dining Chinese cuisine
• Popular for larger groups
• Popular for dim sum
• Popular to people working downtown/white people
• Known for seafood, I think Kirin is better
• Expensive feels more like "tourist trap" to me
  
• Spacious, 2 floors
  
• Dim Sum/Lunch/Dinner
• Dim sum 11am-2:30pm daily
• Seats 300, 2 floors, Private rooms available
• Set menus available (variety of price ranges)
• Open everyday for lunch-dinner
• Cash/Visa/Mastercard

**Recommendation: I wouldn't really recommend anything...the food is edible, but for what they're charging...nope. There's better.

Imperial Chinese Seafood Restaurant has the reputation for Chinese fine dining – it competes at the level of Kirin, but doesn’t come close to delivering. For me it’s expensive Chinese cuisine for white people or business people in the area. There are Asian people that eat here, but it’s likely due to convenience…or maybe they get a discount? I don’t know, but the food is very mediocre. If I’m going to be paying top dollars for Chinese food I would resort to Kirin over Imperial Seafood without hesitation.

I came here for a very casual banquet style dinner so the food wasn’t top of the line, although it was fancier than what you would order on a regular night. We were a table of about 15 so everything was pre-orderd and portioned out for us to make things easier. The dishes we had are representable of a lower-end banquet

food, so I can’t speak for their gourmet dishes. I think most of the food we had shouldn’t even be on the menu.

Imperial Chinese Seafood Restaurant offers around 5 versions of chow mien and 5 versions of fried rice from low to high price points. I think they should just make 1-2 versions of each, and stick to the gourmet versions. If they aim for a fine dining audience than people will pay for it…but the quality has to be there. What’s the point of serving food your restaurant doesn’t represent? It’s very misleading.

I will only briefly comment on everything because if I wrote with my usual details you’ll be here until tomorrow.

On the table:

Roasted Peking Duck with Crepe 1.5/6

• The skin was crispy, but also very fatty and oily. This version had a little bit of duck meat to it too. I like the one at Kirin much better.
• The crepes tasted too floury.
  
• I didn't get to try the shrimp crackers because they didn't serve them to us...I don't know why...
  

• 

Stir-fried Broccoli with Mushrooms and Dried Scallop 3/6

• The broccoli was tender and there was lots of dried scallop which was great – that’s what gave it an extra 1/2 point – otherwise 2.5/6.
• It's a pretty saucy and flavorful dish - common at many Chinese restaurants.
  
• I don’t like how they used canned straw mushrooms and I think it really cheapened the dish. Serve it with Black Chinese Mushrooms or Oyster Mushrooms and just charge more.

• It’s a simple sauce that’s not too salty, but it’s made out of stock and corn starch.

Sautéed Sliced Chicken, Snap Peas & Squid 2.5/6

• Everything was tender, but it was lacking some veggies other restaurants would include like celery, carrots (there were a few decorative ones). This is a bit on the oily side too.
  
• 

Shark’s Fin Soup with Shredded Chicken

• I don’t eat shark’s fin, so I didn’t try the soup. I used to love it, but then I went to Shanghai and visited the aquarium there, I got all anti-shark’s fin. I won’t preach on here.
  

• I could see quite a bit of Shark's fin in the soup though.

  

• Tasty Twist Idea: Add half a shot of Crown Royal to a bowl of shark’s fin soup and it really enhances the flavour of everything. I did try a sip of the broth with it and it was really good! (It was a friend’s idea and I thought he was crazy at first)

Sautéed Crab with Ginger and Green Onion 3/6

• There wasn’t enough sauce. Parts of it were juicy and maybe it was the way they portioned it out, but it was lacking flavour.
• I did try just the ginger and green onion sauce from the “head” part of the crab and it was quite buttery and tasty. I wanted more.

Duck Lettuce Wraps 2/6

• This was a very bitty lettuce wrap filling. It was too minced up and I couldn’t tell what I was eating. I like the one at Kirin much better.
• There wasn’t much duck, and the duck there was wasn’t very tender.
• It had a very smoky flavour overall, it really stood out and I wasn’t expecting it.
• The Hoisin sauce they used almost enhanced the smoky flavour. I don’t think they use a good brand of Hoisin sauce. The standard is Lee Kum Kee Hoisin sauce.

Soy Sauce Chicken 2.5/6

• The meat was really tender and slippery; however it was a tad on the salty side. I didn’t find that the soy sauce absorbed into the meat, it was just kind of on the outside of the skin.

Steamed Cod with Green Onions 2.5/6

• The fish didn’t taste fishy and it was pretty good, but there was a lot of MSG in the dish. It was skinless and boneless so it was very easy to eat.

  

Shrimp & Scrambled Egg Fried Rice 1.5/6

• The shrimps were frozen, and I think the execution was pretty poor.
• The eggs were over cooked, but at least it wasn't oily.

Soy Sauce Chow Mien 1.5/6

• Talk about laziness…mind you it was getting late, but still! Just because we’re not seeing it at the table doesn’t mean you should bring it out like this. I don’t care if you’re plating it at a separate table in the back – I felt like I was at a cheap Chinese food buffet.
• The noodles were like food court noodles. Barely any bean sprout or green onions. I don’t even think Imperial should put it on their menu. It doesn’t represent the image they try to aim for and they don’t even do a good job with the dish.

XO Chili Sauce 4/6

• I love XO chili sauce. The one here is good, but a bit on the salty side. There’s lots of dried scallop with is great.

Dessert

Mango Pudding 4/6

• This was actually the best part of the dinner. It wasn’t even THAT good, but it’s because everything else was so blah that this stood out.
• It’s served with some evaporated milk and it gives the pudding a slight creaminess and sweetness.
• They use real mango in it because I literally had the stingy mango parts to mine. Not necessarily a great characteristic, but at least I know it’s real.
• It was very pureed so I had no mango chunks, although I do like mango chunks in my pudding.
• It wasn’t too sweet and I would have rather eaten 3 bowls of this and gotten full off that rather than some of the other very average to poor dishes.