Golden Time BBQ

Remember around 8 year ago, when the Chinese skewer restaurant craze became a thing?  Happy Tree was one of the first to be truly successful and for me, I really enjoyed it despite the overly loud K-pop music.  Subsequently, I tried many more and they were quite good, but not really all that different.  So now we have a newer spot in Golden Time BBQ along restaurant road (aka Alexandra Road) in Richmond.  The thing that sets them apart from the others is that the skewers cook at your table on a rotisserie.  It is all due to the metal skewers with gears that fit into rotating gears on the grill.  Ingenious.

So before we got to the skewers, we snacked on some small cold plates including the Preserved Egg & Tofu, Pickled Radish and Kelp.  A classic Taiwanese dish, the silky tofu with a century egg was pretty typical, but not sure about the peppers.  Pretty strong flavours.  Loved the radish as it was crunchy and had a black vinegar sweetness.  Kelp was soft and garlicky.  Due to it being kelp, it was more delicate that full of texture.

Continuing on with more small dishes, we had the Grilled Squid Tentacles and Pig's Ear with Chili Oil.  Texturally, I really enjoyed the squid tentacles since they were appealingly chewy while still tender.  Plenty of savouriness and earthiness.  As for the pig's ear, they were soft with a nice crunch from the cartilage.  The chili oil wasn't as spicy as it appeared, but was still flavourful.

Adding some veggies to the meal, we had the Grilled Eggplant with Garlic as well as the Enoki Mushroom.  Absolutely loved that they did not cut up the eggplant into smaller pieces.  It was butterflied and served whole with a tonne of garlic on top.  Nice soft texture and super tasty.  The enoki mushroom were cooked with some vermicelli and was quite mild in flavour, but was soft in texture while still having a bite.

Some items, such as the vegetables, cannot be prepared at the table, so they are served already grilled.  We got some shellfish in the form of Grilled Garlic Scallops, Grilled Oysters with Garlic and Grilled Abalone with Garlic.  Once again, there was a boatload of minced garlic atop these, but still not sold on the peppers as they were too strong for the delicate flavours of the shellfish.  These were cooked perfectly with the buttery scallops and chewy mantle, soft and plump oyster and bouncy and sweet abalone.

Onto the Skewers, they were brought to our table raw (of course) and then we could place them onto the rotisserie grill.  Once they were done, we placed them onto a separate plate (there is also a heating rack above the grill too).  As you can see, the BBQ does a great job in searing the meat and creating smokiness and caramelization.  My favourites were the wings, lamb, squid and believe it or not, the grilled bread!  Yes, so crispy and buttery...

The last dish to arrive was the Shiitake Braised Pork on Rice.  Although this is a BBQ skewer joint, they didn't mail it in when it came to this dish.  It was so full of depth and meatiness as well as lots of umami.  The pickled greens helped lighten the dish while chewy rice was completely flavoured by the braised pork.  In the end, one can conclude that the rotisserie at your table is a gimmick and it is for show.  However, what a fun show it is!  To top it off, the food is good and that is the most important thing.  

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- Rotisserie for your skewers right at your table!

- Skewers are good

- Good cooked items too

The Bad:

- Gets hot at your table

- Parking lot is insufficient