To those who do not know yet, last Friday was the opening ceremony for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. During the next two weeks, in addition to my regular food/restaurant blog posts, I will try to do photo essays of the city, specially of the Downtown Vancouver/Yaletown area and probably some of the other installations across town. Sorry, no Cypress or Whistler… I mean, you can watch the sport events themselves in TV and news you might not necessarily see the rest that Vancouver has to offer. And that brings the topic of this post…
In the last week or so, I have been receiving emails asking for suggestions on places to eat, things they have to try, restaurant they should visit and so on. And it goes all ways, some for cheap, something they should spare no expense and so on. The commonality of the request is the Downtown/Yaletown area of town. I tried my best answering those emails but, as explained in my response, in my opinion, Yaletown is full of expensive restaurants where the focus is not always in good food. Instead, I suggested expand a little bit more. Based on the couple of emails I have replied, I thought I should compile what I have written and put it in a post.
Update: The topic of price gouging has popped up in the comments section. I thought I should include some links here, as a caveat emptor for out of town customers. I love Vancouver but despise that restaurant owners is taking advantage of the Olympics to obtain additional revenues.
- An article in The Globe and Mail from Alexandra Gill, the newspaper’s food critic.
- A site maintaining a naughty or nice list of restaurants.
- An article (and video) from CTV.
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Tagged as:
Breakfast,
Dinner,
Lunch,
Olympic Games,
Random,
Richmond,
Vancouver
HK BBQ Master
4651 No 3 Road
Richmond, BC

I know, I know… Those who have read this blog for some time knows about my issues Richmond, specially that of bad drivers and bad parking. However, there are times were we have to just deal with it. In my case, it has to do with Mijune who enthusiastically wrote about Maple Castella, a bakery in Richmond. Being such a dedicated food blogger, I decide to, oh, well, just deal with it. However, as if destiny was not in my side, when I arrived, they mentioned they pumpkin bread so lauded by Mijune wasn’t ready yet and, if I wanted one, I had to come back by around 2:00 p.m. With almost 2 hours to “burn”, the question was… What now? How about lunch? While I could have gone to places nearby, reality is, I wanted something different. OK, in Richmond where about half of the restaurants are Asian, sometimes it is not a matter of different. Instead, it is a matter of finding what puts you above the rest. In the case of HK BBQ Master, I have heard it offers the best Chinese BBQ meats. That was good enough reason…

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Tagged as:
BBQ,
Chinese,
Richmond
G-Men Ramen
1101-3778 Sexsmith Road
Richmond, BC

After the hard drive of my main computer died two weeks ago, I spent some time working off my backup/traveller computer. While it was workable, it simply does not have the apps I need. After going back and forth, I finally got a replacement hard drive (though technically, it is not a replacement at the same time; won’t go into details). The “catch” was that I had to go to Richmond and, after picking up my hard drive, I was looking for a spot for lunch. One place I wanted to go for some time, specially after some raving from some fellow bloggers, was G-Men Ramen. OK, since I was in Richmond, I might as well make the best out of it!

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Tagged as:
Ramen,
Richmond
Mambo Cafe
3020-4151 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC

I have mentioned one too many times, I have no love for Richmond (*). Sure, there are some good eats but, darn, those crazy drivers… To add to that list, I must also say those crazy architects. Yes, I must be nuts because I drove to Aberdeen Centre rather than taking the Canada Line. But, in my defence, I also went picture taking that day. Why the architects? Because of the darn parkade! It is among the most poorly laid out parkades I have ever seen (and I have seen one too many). I will spare you with the details other than to say there was such a back-up, to the point it was even getting to the street and, as a result, took me several lights just to enter the parkade plus almost a dozen minutes to find a spot. Of course, those crazy Richmond drivers do not help…
Anyway, because it took me longer than expected to find a parking spot (OK, not really, it just took me time to go to the higher levels because most people did not want to go past the second parking level or far from the mall entrance) and it was noon (originally I wanted to go somewhere else for lunch), I thought I might have lunch there as well. Most people must admit, despite it is a food court, they have hell of good options. Wo Fung Dessert, anybody? Of course, that is just one example and the other stands are not necessarily the best but, c’mon, it beats some fast food chains… (On that note, it is “funny” there is a Triple O’s there…). While I could have gone to those places I knew of, there were two problems: It meant I won’t be writing about it and the most problematic issue… There were really long lines! So, I after a quickly browsing the stands, I settled for Mambo Cafe.
(*) – I guess I should start visiting other places as well. Coquitlam/Port Coquitlam/Pitt Meadows? White Rock? Abbotsford??? (Yes, all the way to Abbotsford for pizza!).

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Tagged as:
Chicken,
Food Court,
Richmond
Golden Spring Schezuan Restaurant
160-4200 #3 Road
Richmond, BC

I was debating if I should put this post up or not. First, because, well, this is hard evidence I was in Richmond (No, I won’t admit I was there!). Second, it is because I was with co-workers and… It would be strange to put this. After debating a little bit, I thought, hey, if no faces were shown it ought to be kosher, right? OK, there it goes!

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Tagged as:
Chinese,
Richmond
To those who do not live in Metro Vancouver, see you tomorrow, there is not much to see here! ^_^;;; OK, OK, just kidding… Two weeks ago, a new metro line in Vancouver opened: Canada Line. This metro line connects Richmond Centre, Vancouver Airport and Downtown Vancouver. There has been controversies, lawsuits and detractors but this post is not related to any of these. Instead, this is about the end result and my first ride through the system. So, enjoy this photo essay!

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Tagged as:
Photo Essay,
Richmond,
Vancouver
Pajo’s Fish & Chips
Four locations in Metro Vancouver
3500 Bayview Street
Richmond, BC

Timothy’s Frozen Yogurt
3800 Bayview Street
Richmond, BC

On the BC Day long weekend, I decided to drive around to places I don’t usually have the opportunity to go (lots of reasons) or choose not to go (too far of a drive/crazy traffic). One of those places is Steveston Village, known for its seafood restaurant. Being mostly a fishery area, you would expect most, if not all the restaurants be selling seafood, right? Actually it is, except for a pizza shop here and an Indian restaurant there. With such stiff competition, you can only survive by providing or doing something “better” (or at least different) from the competition. To me, at first sight, the notable difference from Pajo’s is its location. But, would the fish and chips be better than the rest?

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Tagged as:
Fish,
Richmond,
Seafood
Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games – Where to Eat?
by KimHo on February 14, 2010 under: British Columbia,Comments,Random,Restaurant
To those who do not know yet, last Friday was the opening ceremony for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. During the next two weeks, in addition to my regular food/restaurant blog posts, I will try to do photo essays of the city, specially of the Downtown Vancouver/Yaletown area and probably some of the other installations across town. Sorry, no Cypress or Whistler… I mean, you can watch the sport events themselves in TV and news you might not necessarily see the rest that Vancouver has to offer. And that brings the topic of this post…
In the last week or so, I have been receiving emails asking for suggestions on places to eat, things they have to try, restaurant they should visit and so on. And it goes all ways, some for cheap, something they should spare no expense and so on. The commonality of the request is the Downtown/Yaletown area of town. I tried my best answering those emails but, as explained in my response, in my opinion, Yaletown is full of expensive restaurants where the focus is not always in good food. Instead, I suggested expand a little bit more. Based on the couple of emails I have replied, I thought I should compile what I have written and put it in a post.
Update: The topic of price gouging has popped up in the comments section. I thought I should include some links here, as a caveat emptor for out of town customers. I love Vancouver but despise that restaurant owners is taking advantage of the Olympics to obtain additional revenues.
Read more…!
Tagged as: Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch, Olympic Games, Random, Richmond, Vancouver