Top Gun J&C Restaurant - Review 2

Restaurant: Top Gun J&C Restaurant

Cuisine: Chinese/Asian/Dim Sum

Last visited: February 21, 2010
Area: Richmond, BC

Unit 2020 Excel Centre, 8766 McKim Way (2^nd floor)
Range: $20-30

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

Food: 5 (moved up .5, tried more stuff)

Service: 4

Ambiance: 5

Overall: 5

Additional comments:

• Part of Top Gun Group
• Considered a high end dim sum restaurant
• Traditional and creative dim sum dishes (mostly traditional)
• Japanese sushi and sashimi available
• Cantonese cuisine
• Discount if you arrive before 11am
• Ordering form service
• Busy, but plenty of seating
• Fancy set up
• Private room available
• Breakfast/Lunch 9:30am-3pm
• Dinner 5:30pm-10pm
• Closed Wednesday
• Reservations recommended
• Some parking available

**Recommendation: Steamed Diced Pork & Shrimp Dumpling, Baked BBQ Pork Bun, Deep Fried Fish Ball w/Clam Sauce, Steamed Beef Ball, Fried Vermicelli in Homemade Style, Pea Tips and Geoduck rice rolls, Steamed Sponge Cake, Red Bean Almond Tofu with Amaretto, Fried Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf

Top Gun J&C Restaurant is part of the Top gun Group so it is considered a higher end dim sum Restaurant. It competes at the level of Kirin Restaurant and Rainflower Chinese Restaurant.

So I’ve been here numerous times and this was my second visit for a continuation of Chinese New Year brunches.

The 1^st Chinese New Year brunch review at Top Gun J&C Restaurant.

The dessert at Top Gun J&C Restaurant.

On the table:

Pan Fried Radish Cake 3.5/6

• Or pan-fried white turnip cake. (Not sure what it’s called on the menu) $4.75?
• This is a traditional dim sum dish to order during Chinese New Year; although it is also a common dish all year around.
• It’s made in house and available ‘raw’ or not pan-fried (to give as gifts) during Chinese New Year and other traditional Chinese holidays.
• It’s a bit sticky and gluey in texture. It’s made of shredded radish of Chinese daikon, which is neutral in flavour. It’s not spicy and not really sweet either. The radish cake is very soft and the flavour comes from the bits of sausage, dried shrimps and Shiitake mushrooms they add to the mixture.
• The ones here are good, but I’ve had better. They’re a little firm and not soft and creamy enough and the edges could be fried crispier. I could also use more Shiitake mushrooms in the mixture.
  

Pan-Fried Taro Cake 3.5/6

• $4.75?
• This is another very common dish to have during Chinese New Year that is also available all year around.
• It’s almost like the pan fried radish cake but it’s a bit drier and starchier in texture. It’s more potato like and not as creamy.
• It’s a savoury cake made or shredded taro root (which is basically a starchier potato-like vegetable), rice flour, Shiitake mushrooms, sausage and maybe some ground pork as well.
• I actually think they did a better job with these than the pan fried radish cake, however I’ve had better of these too. These ones were a bit too firm again. They are firmer than pan-fried radish cakes, but even relative to other taro cakes they’re still a little too firm and a bit too dry.

Scallops and Black Wood Ear Mushroom Rice Rolls 4/6

• $7.50
• This is one of their specialty items and I haven’t seen them offered anywhere else.
• They’re a bit expensive, but that’s because there are huge scallops in them! They’re big white fresh scallops, not dried ones. Although it would taste delicious with some dried scallops in there as well.
• I wish I got a picture, but you can see the big round scallops underneath the rice roll skin.
• I’m not sure if black wood ear mushrooms were the right match – the crunchy texture (cartilage like) kind of threw me off with the soft yet meaty scallops. I would have preferred Enoki mushrooms instead.
• They didn’t have much black wood ear mushrooms in there anyways though.
• I found it a bit bland and the only flavour was pretty much the sweet soy sauce and natural scallop taste.

**Pea Tips and Geoduck Rice Rolls 5/6

• $7.50
• It’s pretty much sautéed pea tips and geoduck wrapped in rice rolls.
• This is another specialty item that isn’t offered anywhere else. It’s their in house recipe and not traditional, but still very good and very gourmet. So it’s a bit pricier again.
  

• The geoduck is a type of clam, so it almost tastes the same. It’s chewy and they don’t overcook them here, so they are still tender. They give you lots too and they’re cut in nice bite sized pieces.
• I really liked the pea tips in here. A unique flavour combination that worked well. It was a very hearty stuffing for the delicate rice rolls, but I still liked it. Lots of textures – soft, chewy, crunchy. I liked it! The ingredients held well with the sweet soy sauce you eat them with too.
• Good example of messing with a good thing…and it actually working.
  

**Fried Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf 6/6

• $10.95
• This is also quite pricey, but it’s good and they execution is done really well.
• It was very fresh and made upon order. I liked the presentation as well.

• It’s a pretty big pot of fried rice with pieces of salted egg yolk, scrambled egg, pieces of white meat chicken, baby shrimp, a few minced up Shiitake mushrooms, and sliced Chinese broccoli stems.
• It was very flavourful rice and has the same flavour as sticky rice. It’s not sticky though and the grains are separate. They did a great job with the frying.
  

• The yellow pieces that look like squash is the salted egg yolk. I love these! It maybe an acquired taste though. It’s very dry and very crumbly in texture. It’s quite firm and it has a very potent salty flavour. It almost has a bean like salty texture and tastes like fermented food. Well it is – it’s a salted duck egg (did I lose you!? I didn't want to say it and scare you off...) but it's a preserved duck egg. It’s the same egg they use in the centre of Chinese moon cakes.
  

**Steamed Sponge Cake 6/6

• $4.50
• This is a very popular Chinese dessert served during dim sum.
• The one here is very good! It’s hot, fresh, and made upon order.
• It’s very soft, light, fluffy, and very lightly sweetened.
• It tastes like egg rolls or Chinese egg balls in sponge cake form.
• It has a slight almond-y flavour and I loved the presentation! I’ve never seen it served like this. I ate the middle part…I usually don’t care for this dessert…but this one was great! A lot of Chinese people love it.

Top Gun J&C Restaurant

Restaurant: Top Gun J&C Restaurant

Cuisine: Chinese/Asian/Dim Sum

Last visited: February 11, 2010
Area: Richmond, BC

Unit 2020 Excel Centre, 8766 McKim Way (2^nd floor)
Range: $20-30

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

Food: 4.5

Service: 4

Ambiance: 5

Overall: 4.5

Additional comments:

• Part of Top Gun Group
• Considered a high end dim sum restaurant
• Traditional and creative dim sum dishes (mostly traditional)
• Japanese sushi and sashimi available
• Cantonese cuisine
• Discount if you arrive before 11am
• Ordering form service
• Busy, but plenty of seating
• Fancy set up
• Private room available
• Breakfast/Lunch 9:30am-3pm
• Dinner 5:30pm-10pm
• Closed Wednesday
• Reservations recommended
• Some parking available

**Recommendation: Steamed Diced Pork & Shrimp Dumpling, Baked BBQ Pork Bun, Deep Fried Fish Ball w/Clam Sauce, Steamed Beef Ball, Fried Vermicelli in Homemade Style, Pan-fried Stuffed Tofu

Top Gun J&C Restaurant is part of the Top Gun Group so it is considered a higher end dim sum restaurant. It competes at the level of Kirin Restaurant and Rainflower Chinese Restaurant.

Besides owning Chinese restaurants, The Top Gun Group also owns Japanese restaurants, one being the infamous Richmond Sushi. Maybe this is why they decided to include Japanese food at their Chinese restaurants? Top Gun J&C Restaurant doesn’t only serve traditional Cantonese dim sum, but they also serve a significant amount of Japanese dishes such as sushi, some cones and sashimi. Personally, I rarely order Japanese food here because I think it’s over priced. I actually did on this occasion and based on one of their most popular roll, it was very mediocre. I would rather go to a Japanese restaurant and it would be better and more affordable.

I’ve been coming to Top Gun for years now and it’s one of my family’s go-to dim sum places. The food is excellent, they accept reservations, service is great and atmosphere is nice…what more could I ask for? I also like the fact that I can choose my own tea, it is extra ($1.20/person), but it’s worth it. For this occasion I was here for my 1^st pre-Chinese New Year brunch.

The dessert portion of this post: Top Gun J&C Restaurant - Desserts..

My Chamomile Tea - individual servings $1.20/person.

Top Gun's XO Chili Sauce.

On the table:

**Steamed Diced Pork & Shrimp Dumpling 5/6

• $4.75
• This is a nice change from the classic shrimp dumplings or “har gow”
• These are stuffed with celery, minced pork, ham, mushrooms, parsley, carrots, shrimp and maybe some water chestnuts. There are no nuts in them…the ones with nuts are another kind of dumpling.
• I liked the ones at Dragon’s View better, but that’s another kind.
• These are good, but the skin was a little dry although nice and thin. There was lots of stuffing and it was crunchy, juicy and nicely prepared.
• The flavour of the stuffing was a very dominant parsley flavour that was overpowering though. It’s also expensive for only 3.

**Baked BBQ Pork Bun 6/6

• The picture shows them cut, but they’re served uncut $4.75
• This is one of my favourite dim sum items. I LOVE these buns. You may already know from my posts about it at Rainflower Restaurant.
• These are better than Rainflower’s. They’re pretty famous here.
• The topping is a sugar and butter topping. It’s baked so it’s nice and crispy and crumbly and tastes like streusel. The bun part is good here as well and it’s nice and soft with lots of salty and sweet barbeque pork stuffing. The barbque pork was nice and lean too.
  

**Deep Fried Fish Ball w/Clam Sauce 4/6

• Deep fried fish ball wrapped in tofu skin with clam sauce $5.25
• This was my 1^st time seeing and trying this dish. I liked it!
• The clam sauce is definitely exotic. It’s very potent and it’s preserved so it has that strong salty flavour. It’s slimy and not meat because the clams are small. It has a strong seafood flavour and it was so unique.
• I wasn’t a fan of the fish ball because they put orange peel into the mixture so it had that slightly bitter flavour that I didn’t like.
• I like the fish ball with the clam sauce and I loved the crispy tofu skin wrapped too.

Steamed Chicken Bun 2/6

• $4.50
• There was too much bun, and not enough meat and stuffing. The stuffing was chicken, mushrooms, ginger and I think some ham.
• I like steamed chicken bun, but I did not like these because the ginger taste was very strong. They had pretty big pieces of ginger in them too and I think they should have minced it up more. They were big enough to bite into and even pull out of the meat.

**Steamed Beef Ball 6/6

• Steamed beef ball with tofu skin. Served with Worcestershire sauce $4.75
• I rarely eat these because usually they put orange peel in them as well and I hate that. These ones don’t have any, so I liked them!
• They did not look good (relative to other places they didn't). They looked really hard and they shouldn't, but they actually surprised everyone! They were really tender! It was very soft and juicy and I thoroughly enjoyed them.

Steamed Rice Roll with Shrimp & Chives 5.5/6

• Served with Hoisin and peanut sesame sauce $5.95
• You may know already, but this is one of my favourite dim sum dishes. I still like the one at Ocean King Congee & Noodle best.
• The rice rolls are excellent! Made in house, great texture and very thin, fresh and delicious, however I wasn’t a fan of the massive dried shrimps. A lot of people may LOVE this because they’re more expensive, but I found them distracting. It took away from the rice roll and made it not as delicate.

Pan-fried Stuffed Tofu 5/6

• Pan-fried stuffed tofu with black bean sauce $4.95
• This was deep-fried, not pan-fried.
• The tofu was nice and crispy although some thicker parts dried out in the frying process. I loved the texture of the crispy outside and soft tofu on the inside.
• It was “stuffed” with shrimp on top that was cooked perfectly.
• There was lots of flavour because the sauce was a black bean and onion sauce. It help onto the tofu very well.

Pan Fried Shredded White Turnip 4/6

• Pan fried shredded white turnip with fish cake $9.25
• I’ve never had this dish so it was interesting to try. It’s one of their in house dim sum dishes.
• The fish cakes were rough in texture and I wasn’t really a fan of them.
• You have to like turnips and celery to like this dish. There’s a very strong celery flavour and they use the delicate parts of the celery stalk to make it.
• The sauce tastes like a soy based sauce infused with celery and turnip flavours.
• There’s also slice of juicy mushrooms in it, but I wish there were more.

Steamed Spare Ribs 3.5/6

• Steamed spare ribs in black bean sauce $4.25
• The ribs were quite tender and juicy, but they were also very oily and so was the sauce they were sitting in.
• The flavour was great with lots of garlic, but it just very oily. They could have used more black bean sauce too – it tasted like garlic sauce.

Sticky Rice with Diced Pork 4/6

• $4.95
• This came with 2 larger sticky rice rolls except for the standard 3.
• It was stuffed with ground pork, mushrooms and maybe ham…and there was no egg – which I missed.
• It was saucy, not dry, and very flavourful.

Pan Fried Vegetable (Yue Choy) 3/6

• Your choice of Baby Chai Choy, Yue Choy, Chinese broccoli, baby Bok Choy, A Vegetable, Green Lettuce, Spinach, Broccoli $8.50
• I’m not sure what “A Vegetable” is…but we choice You Choy.
• It tastes like spinach but crispier, firmer and juicier. It’s also has a slight mustard taste.
• I think this is expensive and it was actually quite oily.

Chicken Feet & Chinese Herbs Soup 3/6

• Chicken feet and Chinese herbs soup in hot pot $8.95
• This does not look so good, but it’s a very “Chinese-y” dish older people would order. They love soup…and chicken feet.
• It’s basically a chicken soup that’s slightly bitter. There’s definitely some ginseng in it. It tastes like it’s “good for you” soup.
• It’s also a little bit sweet because there’s gogi berries in it.
• I only like the soup part.

**Fried Vermicelli in Homemade Style 5/6

• Stir-fried vermicelli noodles with shredded barbeque pork, prawns, bell peppers, eggs, onions and bean sprouts $14.80
• This tastes better than it looks. It was sweet from the ingredients, savoury and tangy. I think they used ketchup or sweet and sour sauce in it because it had a great flavour that surprised everyone.
• It wasn’t oily, but the scrambled eggs were a bit overcooked and dry.

Peter Roll 2.5/6

• Prawn tempura, cucumber, avocado and tobiko $10.95
• This is one of their most popular items and rolls. A lot of table ordered it.
• I could get something much better at a Japanese restaurant and for the price it isn’t worth it.
• The roll is very bland and almost too dry. There isn’t enough sauce and there’s nothing unique about it.
• The prawn tempura was freshly fried and crunchy, but they gave so little of it and they used the rice to make the roll look bigger.
• The only good part is the presentation.

The dessert portion of this post: Top Gun J&C Restaurant - Desserts.

Rainflower Restaurant - Review 2

Restaurant: Rainflower Restaurant - Review 2
Cuisine: Dim Sum/Chinese/Asian
Last visited: November 11, 09
Area: Richmond, BC
3600 No 3 Road
Price Range: $10-20

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

Food: 4.5 (gone up because I've tried more dishes now)
Service: 3
Ambiance: 4.5
Overall: 4.5
Additional comments:

• Considered a higher end dim sum restaurant
• Traditional and creative dim sum dishes
• Discount if you arrive before 11am
• Some hit and miss dishes, most are hits
• Ordering form service
• Busy, but plenty of seating
• Spacious, fancy set up
• Serves dim sum and dinner
• Private rooms/banquets available

**Recommendation: Rainflower shrimp dumpling aka "har gow", Pan fried prawn with basil, fried spicy leatherjacket fish, items with prawns are pretty good

So I've now had dim sum at Rainflower Restaurant on numerous occasions. It is quickly approaching as our go-to dim sum restaurant. The more I try at the restaurant the better my recommendations get because I'm working my way throughout their menu. By giving a 2nd review I'm also able to notify diners when the quality of a dish has changed since restaurants can change recipes/menus/chefs/cooks often.

For my 1st review on Rainflower Restaurant

On the table:

• **Pan Fried Prawn with Basil 6/6
• 10 huge prawns pan fried with fresh sweet basil and green onions $7.80

• Wow! These are amazing! My first time ordering and now it's going to be a staple dish on the table whenever I go back.
• There's a few basil leaves and a mix of onions and green onions. They're not caramelized, but nice and crunchy. You get 10 prawns and they're really really big. Besides the prawns the sauce really makes this dish. It's so flavourful you almost want to eat the shells too.
• It's a honey soy based sauce, but it's not thick and it tastes amazing! It's sweet, salty, tangy, spicy and the prawns are perfectly tender. It's spicy because there's lots of freshly cracked pepper cooked into the sauce. It's not that reduced, which is ok because the flavour is so intense and aromatic at the same time.

• Marinated Conch in Japanese Style 3.5/6
• Marinated conch, masago and red and green seaweed.

• I didn't name it, but that's the name it's under on the menu.
• This dish is not traditional Chinese so I don't think it's a very popular item for people to order. It's definitely a fusion dish you would expect to see at an Izakaya place rather than a dim sum place.
• It was more like a conch salad to me. It's served cold and there's not that many ingredients, but it's very fresh in ingredients and flavours.
• It doesn't have a fishy taste besides the masago, which they give you tons of.
  
• The conch is almost like squid but it's more tender and maybe even more chewy. It's sliced into bite sizes and mixed with a generous about of yellow masago (cod roe) and crunchy fresh green and red seaweed.
• The dish is nice and salty and has a variety of textures, from crunchy to chewy, and even a little slippery.
• I liked it because it was different and interesting to try, but I wouldn't order it again unless there were more people who wanted to try it. It's pretty big too.
  
• 

• Shredded Chicken in Sesame Sauce 3/6
• Some other places will use jellyfish in the recipe. Instead of jellyfish, Rainflower makes it crunchy by using pickled vegetables, celery, cucumber, and wonton crisps. Served chilled $.650.

• The wonton crisps got soggy though because rather than using them as a garnish they mixed them with all the other wet ingredients.
• There was also almost no sesame sauce. The dish is usually drizzled with sesame sauce you can see. It was very lightly marinated and the flavour came from the natural juices of the ingredients used. It was salty and tangy and still good, but much better with sesame sauce...which is expected for this dish. It's in the name of it right?
• Barbeque Pork & Golden Corn Rice Roll 1/6
• Pieces of Chinese barbecue pork and corn wrapped in a rice roll $4.68

• This was the most disappointing dish I've ever ordered here. It is way better at other places.
• The stuffing in these rice rolls were clumpy, which is a good indication that they weren't fresh. The barbeque pork pieces were very fatty and not fresh. The quality was very poor and you can see it in the picture. The pieces were so fatty they were white and not even red. The corn kernels were frozen, which is ok, but they overcooked them and they got soggy.
• Seafood Bean Curd Skin Roll 2/6
• Fish/seafood paste wrapped in bean curd and steamed in a clear seafood broth/sauce.

• This was one of their monthly specials at the time...but it was nothing special...
• It was basically fish paste, the same thing they use for fish balls, but rolled into logs and wrapped in sheets of bean curd. It came with this "sauce" that was thicker than a broth, but thinner than an actual "sauce". It was savoury but very light tasting and one dimensional in flavour.
• Baked BBQ Pork Buns 2.5/6
• This is my 2nd review for this dish. They changed the recipe and they improved the filling, but not the topping. I gave it .5 higher because nothing really improved, but I would eat these ones before the original ones.

• They have a lot more filling than they use to so there's a better ratio of filling to bun.
• They changed the topping from a "Pineapple Bun" topping to a "Mexican Bun" topping. (These are just what the translations are, but there' not pineapple/Mexican ingredients used). The pineapple bun topping is more crumbly and crunchier, while the Mexican topping is softer and crumbly. However they didn't make a good Mexican topping here because it wasn't crumbly. It looked really fake. Maxim's, the Chinese bakery, does a much better job with this topping.
• To see the original version with the "Pineapple" topping: (scroll to Baked BBQ Pork Buns)
  

• 
• Steamed Black chicken Wrapped in Lotus Leaf 2/6
  
• Steamed black chicken marinated and cooked with Chinese herbs and Gogi berries $5.80

• I'm not a fan of this dish, but the older generations usually are. So for me it was a 2/6, but for them it was a 3/6. It has a very Chinese herbal flavour and tastes like chicken cooked in tea.
• Black chickens are also a lot bonier and there's not much meat on them, but a lot of skin...that isn't crispy. So overall this dish had flavours, textures, and appearance that didn't suit me.

For my 1st review on Rainflower Restaurant