Gyubee

Two Summers ago, we were back East visiting Quebec City and Montreal.  We've been there before and it is always a pleasure to revisit the sights and sounds.  Naturally, we also had some excellent eats, particularly in Montreal.  Changing it up a bit, we made our way to Ottawa as well.  Strangely, this was our first time in our Nation's capital and well, it was fine.  TBH, Quebec City and Montreal are much more interesting.  Sorry Ottawa.  However, we did try Gyubee for the first time in Byward Market.  We came away mighty impressed with AYCE hybrid Japanese grill.  I say hybrid because they feature quite a few Korean items as well.  Finally, we get a location in Richmond and of course, we made our way out to try it!

So they do have an online wait list, but all of your party has to be present to be seated.  You have a 2-hour limit and they enforce this diligently.  If you are arriving at peak times, be prepared to wait for an hour plus.  So we got right down to eating and ordered everything we could.   Yes, Gyubee is a Japanese Grill, but in reality, it is Korean-style.  Hey, nothing wrong with that as we had some Banchan (Kimchi, Tofu, Spinach & Sprouts) and Takoyaki.  I wasn't a huge fan of the kimchi as it was more sour than spicy.  Furthermore, this was not the version with shrimp paste, so there was no complexity to the flavours.  Otherwise, the rest were pretty typical.  Takoyaki was decent being soft and fluffy.

I'll get right to some of the cooked dishes before I talk about the meats.  These included Bibimbap, Steak Cutlet, Nagoya-Style Chicken Wings and Tantan Noodles.  No joke, the Bibimbap was really good.  From the chewy rice to the delicious veggies, the bowl just worked.  We had enough gochujang for sweet spice and also a runny egg yolk for silkiness.  Steak Cutlet was okay being a touch chewy.  Wings were great, they were crispy with lots of flavour and juicy meat inside.  Tantan Noodles were forgettable as there was an absence of spice and nuttiness.

As for the meats, I'm not going to cover all of them because it got chaotic at the table with everything hitting the table at once.  I'll talk about my favourite cuts including the Prime Kalbi.  These fatty slices of short rib grilled up well and were buttery soft.   The same could be said about the Black Pepper Kalbi as it shared mostly the same properties except with a more robust bite.  I also enjoyed the Pork Belly as it was a good mix of fat and meat.  It cooked up buttery and had great flavour.

There were some items served in tin foil containers that cooked on the grill for designated minutes.  These included the Sake Clams, Butter Corn, Salmon and Enoki Mushrooms.  Really enjoyed these as the time suggested on the tin foil lids were exact (as long as they weren't pushed off to the side of the grill).  Clams came out buttery and sweet while the corn was also sweet and even more buttery.  The salmon was cooked just enough and was flaky.

Unlike the location in Ottawa, the one here in Richmond does not serve Melona for dessert.  Rather, they have Chapman's Sundaes in addition to their fantastic Crème Brûlée.   For this one we had the crème brûlée was not torched enough, but still featured a crunchy sugar topping.  The custard was rich and creamy while purposefully sweet.  Overall, our meal was decent, but somehow, I enjoyed the one in Ottawa more.  Maybe with some time, they will get up to speed and I won't be thinking that.  I do wonder if the higher prices here (generally $10.00 more than Ottawa) would make this not "worth it".  It is $50.99 on weekdays and $53.99 on weekends for adults.  This is quite similar pricing to AYCE hot pot at Chocho, so it isn't outrageous.  I guess it depends if you want the variety and actually can eat your money's worth.

The Good:
- Pretty good meats
- Service was pretty efficient
- Their Crème Brûlée is pretty good with all things considered

The Bad:
- Crazy busy with a long wait time
- Is it worth it? Depends on what you are looking for

Kumo Sukiyaki

Almost 2 years ago, I had visited the original location of Kumo Sukiyaki out on Anderson Road in Richmond.  It was a decent experience and the 3-level AYCE pricing was fair for what we got.  For those who are unfamiliar, Japanese Sukiyaki refers to sliced beef (sometimes pork), vegetables, tofu and noodles cooked in a shallow iron pot with a broth consisting of shoyu, sugar and mirin.  We checked out their newest location on Alexandra Road taking over from the shuttered Kazuhan.

The first order of business is to choose your AYCE menu from 3 options: $28.99, $38.99 and $54.99 per person.  There is also a soup fee of $9.90 per table (which is less than they charged at the old location).  We got the top tier which included more premium meats and also a wider choice of small dishes.  These included Wakame Salad, Tako Wasabi, Kimchi, Fried Chicken Wings, Takoyaki and Ebi Tempura.  All of the orders was through a tablet on the table.  All orders were sent directly to the kitchen.  This is a major improvement over the system we experienced at the Anderson Road location.

Onto the beef selection, we got all of them which included Pork Belly, Angus Beef Short Plate, AAA Top Blade Eye, Wagyu Beef Chuck Flat and Wagyu Beef Short Plate.  We had many orders of these since they were sliced thin.  That also meant they were quick to cook and super tender to eat.  Every one of them were good and the ones with more fat had more of a meaty flavour.  My personal favourite was the Wagyu Beef Short Plate.

There was also a selection of veggies, noodles and tofu to choose from too and we got them all.  Really enjoyed the mushrooms the most as well as the noodle bundles since they soaked up the broth.  Naturally, we also cracked some eggs so that we could dip our cooked meats into.  That's right, you dip the cooked meats into the egg.  This gives the meat extra butteriness and also cools down the meat.  Don't forget a bowl of rice too as it goes real well with the sweet and savoury meats coated in egg.

For dessert, there was some sliced Pineapple, but also a choice of one Melona fruit bar.  We had one each of the honeydew and the mango.  Actually, the Melona reminded me of my visit to Gyubee out in Ottawa.  Such a nice thing to finish with after subjecting our mouths to hot food.  I found the overall experience at this location of Kumo to be superior to my initial visit to the Anderson Road spot.  I liked how they addressed the ordering accuracy by employing tablets and also reducing the setup fee.  However, I think they should just add that into an all-inclusive price.   Although we had the highest tier of AYCE, I feel you can still have a satisfying meal with the $28.99 menu.  With that, it is a great value and of course you will be stuffed!

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

The Good:

- Meats were tender

- Nicer setup than the original location

- Ordering system is efficient

The Bad:

- Should include the setup fee in an all-inclusive price

- Parking lot is insufficient for the amount of businesses

The Fishman

After my initial visit to The Fishman back in 2022, I really wanted to go back.  For a place that almost exclusively features fresh (mostly live) seafood, the prices are surprisingly reasonable.  Couple that with expert execution and just outright deliciousness, you can see why they are always busy.  This time around, I am incorporating 2 recent visits into one blog post.  I got to sample a few more items this time and you know what?  I love The Fishman even more so now!

On my first return visit, we started with the Jumbo Prawns.  These could be had in 2 different preparations - Sichuan or Salted Egg Yolk.   We chose the former and they were fantastic.  When they said jumbo, they weren't lying.  These giant prawns were deep fried perfectly where the shell was crispy and edible while the meat had a firm snap.  They were naturally sweet and a bit briny but the Sichaun peppercorns added numbing spice.  There was some earthiness to the dish from the use of cumin.

Next we had the Wok Fry Clams with Black Bean Sauce that also came in a pretty large portion.  Although there were a few unopened clams, most were opened and cooked well.  We didn't notice much sand either.  The clams were buttery with an appealing chewiness.  There was plenty of sauce, so we could spoon it out with the shells.  I thought the viscosity was on point.  As for flavour, there was enough fermented saltiness and garlic.  However, a bit more spice would've made it perfect.

For our larger dish, we selected from the fresh sheet and had the Live Boston Lobster with black truffle cream sauce and yee mein.   This was indeed a generous portion as there was plenty of yee mein.  It was perfectly cooked as it wasn't overly soft (despite it naturally being on the softer side).  The black truffle sauce was earthy and creamy but I wasn't sure it necessarily went with the lobster.  I felt it was delicious on its own, but ultimately overshadowed the sweet lobster meat.

To get some balance in our meal, we got the Stir-Fried Crown Daisy with red fermented tofu and Thai chili.  This was absolutely delicious as it made me go for seconds, thirds and fourths.  You see, I'm normally not a fan of crown daisy due to its pungency.  However, the liberal use of Nam Yu (red fermented tofu) helped balance the natural taste of the vegetable.  It was also cooked properly where it was completely wilted but still had crunch in the stalks.

Normally, the Sea Scallops come in an order of 4, but they only had 3 left.  Well, we weren't going to let that small detail from ordering it!  Turns out that it was a great move since they were so good.  Each scallop was large and super sweet.  They were buttery and had the contrasting chewy mantle surrounding it.   As expected, there was vermicelli underneath to soak up the natural juices.  On top, we found plenty of garlic and scallion that offered up aromatics and pungency.  Some sweet seafood soy helped flavour the dish.

On the next visit, we went for something similar to the scallops and went for the fresh sheet again with the Irish Razor Clams.  These were steamed in the same manner as the sea scallops.  Hence, the flavour profile had the sweet saltiness of the seafood sauce, the brightness of the green onion and pungency of the garlic.  I felt the sweetness of the razor clams to be equal to the scallops but maybe with more brininess.  Vermicelli was al dente and super delicious.  Clams were buttery with some bite.

We went big with the Spicy Fish Hot Pot with the ling cod option.  This was a massive bowl of food as it took up like one quarter of our table.  It was filled to the brim with tender and buttery slices of ling cod.  The fish was supremely fresh, sweet and had a taste of the sea.  It was sitting in a fairly spicy broth, but it was balanced as we could still taste the fish.  There was some Sichuan peppercorns in there for some numbing effect. We found some glass noodles, sprouts and tofu as well.

We also got a lobster for this meal as well with the Salted Egg Yolk Whole Lobster with sliced rice cakes.  Although the lobster was fried perfectly with a crispy starch exterior and bouncy and sweet meat, the salted egg yolk was a bit too dry and crumbly.  Don't get me wrong, it was still delicious with the nutty salted egg taste.  In fact, there was many discernible pieces of salted egg yolk.  However, it wasn't a sauce per se and didn't season everything equally.  This was due to the fact they used hard salted egg yolks.  Normally, this dish employs soft, almost watery salted egg yolks to create a sauce.

Going away from seafood, we went for some BBQ Skewers in chicken hearts, pork intestine and chicken knees.  I thought these were well-prepared too.  The chicken hearts were still juicy despite the charring on the outside.  They were well-seasoned with some spice, saltiness and earthiness.  Same could be said about the chicken knees as they had a nice crunch while still being moist.  The intestines were a bit more dry, but still had a moist interior to contrast the slight crispiness of the exterior.  I didn't find them particularly gamy as the seasoning did help mask it.  So these 2 revisits to The Fishman only helped validate what I already knew - they dish up fresh seafood in a delicious manner.  Considering the portion sizes and the quality of the seafood, I find the prices reasonable.  If you haven't checked them out, I recommend that you do!

The Good:

- Fresh seafood

- Delicious

- Reasonably-priced

The Bad:

- That parking lot is woefully insufficient

- Super busy at peak times, make sure you have a reservation

- Salted egg yolk should use liquid yolks not hard yolks

Lu Charcoal Grill

It isn't very hard to find Northern Chinese BBQ skewers in the Lower Mainland.  There was an explosion of spots in the past 10 years starting with Happy Tree out on Kingsway (there are more, but this is the most well-known one).  For me, it has been awhile since I've had Chinese BBQ skewers.  This is partly because you can really start spending a pretty penny when you over-order.  That is quite easy to do when there are minimum amounts such as 5 or even 10 skewers of specific meats.  Recently, I visited Lu Charcoal Grill in Richmond that not only has no minimum per skewer, their pricing is rather reasonable too.

Unlike many other skewer spots, you do not order from a menu or order sheet.  Rather, you walk up to the refrigerated area where all the skewers are ready for you to choose.  Take as many or little as you want, pass to the servers and the kitchen will seasoned and BBQ them.  As you can see in the picture, there is a good selection including pork intestines, spicy beef, beef tongue, chicken gizzards, pork rib, chicken wing, beef, lamb, chicken, pork belly, chicken heart, chicken cartilage, enoki, chives, tofu, steamed buns, bread, corn, sausage, chicken feet, snake fish and beef aorta.  Not only are the prices reasonable, I felt that the amount of each skewer was more than sufficient.

Once BBQ'd, the servers bring the skewers out and place them on the platter that is kept warm with lit tea candles.  I thought the skewers were more or less cooked properly keeping the meat tender while having a slightly crispy exterior with caramelized spices.  My favourites included the pork intestines as they were tender with a chew.  Loved the thick cut.  Beef tongue was also good with a tender chewiness.  Good amount of spice and seasoning on it.  Chicken wing featured rendered skin and juicy meat.  Also enjoyed the chicken heart and chicken gizzards as they provided an appealing chewiness while not being dry.  I wasn't as enthused about the corn though as it wasn't plump.

In addition to the skewers, we also had a variety of dishes including the impressive Seafood platter.  It consisted of scallops, shrimp, clams, abalone and cuttlefish.  I think these are usually separate orders, but they combined it all into one platter.  The seafood got plenty of garlic and that meant things were flavourful.  Underneath, we found a mess of mung bean noodles, that had soaked up all of the delicious garlic and seafood juices.  That was probably even better than the seafood!  However, let's be real, this was all about the seafood and they were cooked just right with butter clams, scallops and cuttlefish.  The abalone was firm with its classic chew.

So we also got the new Tomato Egg Noodle Soup served in a hot claypot.  This came out bubbling and was filled to the brim with tender lai fun and a wealth of fluffy egg and tomato.  I thought the broth was not particularly tomatoey but it did have the aftertaste.  It was more mild and brothy with equal parts savouriness and sweetness.  I found the noodles to be fairly al dente while slippery.  The fluffy egg is what made this dish as it added so much texture.

Another bubbling claypot was the Seafood Pork Claypot with sauerkraut.  At first, I was confused why the broth was tangy, but double-checking the ingredients yielded pickled napa cabbage.  That made things rather appetizing and helped lighten the heaviness of the pork belly.  In that sense, the broth was fairly light and was not devoid of various flavours.  Cabbage was tender while not overdone and the shrimp on top were meaty and sweet.

Accompanying our skewer and seafood fest, we had some smaller plates to supplement as well.  This included the Chicken Nuggets and the Fried Stinky Tofu.  Although the chicken was heavily battered, it wasn't as dense as it appeared.  Rather, the exterior was crunchy while giving way to tender chicken.  It was fairly well-seasoned too.  As for the stinky tofu, it was indeed pretty sharp.  I don't mind eating it as long as it isn't super pungent.  This one was bordering on that, but I did enjoy the aroma and crispiness.

As our defacto veggies for the meal, we had the Garlic Cucumbers and the Deep Fried Taiwanese Cauliflower.  Crunchy and full of garlicky spiciness, the cucumbers were a nice interlude between skewers.  As for the cauliflower, they were crispy with some peppery salt.  They were fully cooked, but still had a crunch.  Overall, the food at Lu Charcoal Grill was tasty and well-priced.  It is a little more on the rustic side, so don't expect refinement.  But that is the draw here.  The food isn't complex, but it is served in generous portions and is generally delicious.

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

The Good:
- Fair pricing
- Generous portion sizes including the meaty skewers
- Seafood is fresh

The Bad:
- Tomato soup could've been more impactful
- Possibly put some saran wrap over the skewers to keep them fresh?

Win Win Chick-N

Boy, I haven't been back to Win Win Chick-N in quite some time.  In fact, I don't even recall the last time I visited the Steveston location.  When I was doing my fried chicken quest (I stopped because my bloodwork came back horrible), I had went to the Main Street store (which is not there anymore).  This time around, we were here to sample some classics as well as their Summer Sliders.  Yes, it isn't Summer anymore, but they are still available until October 21st!

Let's get right to the Chicken Sliders!  There are 5 choices including BBQ, Szechuan, Mango Tajin, Honey Dijon and Original.  Beyond these flavours, if you just look at the sliders, you'll notice that they are pretty large with 2 whole chicken strips.  These were crispy with moist breast meat.  I liked the batter as it was well-spiced and seasoned.  My favourite flavour of the bunch was the Szechuan with its salty spiciness.

If these sliders aren't big enough for you (it would be hard to finish even 2 of them by yourself!), then you can go outright to the Fried Chicken Sandwich.  As you can see, it was pretty large too with enough moist chicken to occupy every bite.  I've actually had this a few times before and it is a solid sandwich.  The toasted brioche paired well with the crispy spiced batter, mayo and lettuce.  You won't go hungry with this one.

Of course we couldn't visit Win Win without ordering some Fried Chicken right???  We ended up with original dark meat pieces with drums and a thigh.  Unlike some of my previous visits, the chicken was pretty juicy.  I like how the batter (much like their other items) was flavourful with some spice.  But I still dunked it into their peppery gravy because it just made the chicken even better.  Good for the fries as well.

They also have some pretty good sides too including the Filipino Mac.  Consider this a version of Filipino spaghetti (but with macaroni).  It was sweet as expected and yes, the sliced hot dog wieners were there.  Surprisingly, their Poutine was super legit with crispy house-cut fries (and they were still crispy even with all the gravy), real cheese curds and of course, the gravy.  I would recommend this as a must order.

We ended off with an Mini Ube Flan Cake.  As you can see, there was an actual flan right on top.  This was quite good with the unmistakable flavour of ube and a purposeful sweetness.  The flan really did it for me with its silkiness and caramel flavour.  Overall, this was a delicious visit to Win Win Chick-N.  Chicken and sides were solid while their featured sliders could be considered full-blown chicken sammies.

*All food was complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- Solid fried chicken with a flavourful coating

- Those sliders are huge

- Good sides

The Bad:

- Um, it is far for most?

Mama's Diner

I'm sure we are all familiar with Korean food in the Lower Mainland.  We have enough of it to get a good sense of what to expect and what is considered good.  However, we don't see much in the way of Chinese-Korean cuisine.  By the name alone, it is pretty self-explanatory, but I would say it is more Korean than Chinese.  There are Chinese influences and interpretations of Korean dishes in my mind.  But then again, there are related dishes that have benefitted from influences both ways.  On that note, Jackie and I checked out Mama's Diner (yep, serves Chinese-Korean eats!) located near the Walmart on Garden City Road.

We began with the usual Banchan consisting of sprouts, kimchi, daikon and garlic scapes.  I loved the addition of the garlic scapes as you don't see it very often.  They were cooked through while being still crunchy.  Our first dish was the classic Tteok Sausage.  This was solidly-prepared with soft and chewy rice cakes that were crispy on the outside.  The sausages were seared enough that there was aromatics whereas the overall texture was still juicy and bouncy.

One of the best tasting dishes was the Sweet & Spicy Squid.  That sauce was so flavourful and appealing where it was completely balanced.  Also, it was bang on in viscosity and just enough of it to coat each piece of squid.  However, the starch batter was a bit gummy where each piece of squid stuck to each other.  So when we picked it up, the batter slid off.  Other than that, the squid was tender with a bite and of course the sauce was fantastic.

Another solid item was the Seafood Pancake.  This was the thinner type where the outside was uniformly crispy without being overly greasy.  As you can see, it was subjected to a proper sear where it was golden brown, but not burnt.  Hence, it was nutty and aromatic with good caramelization.  Inside, the pancake was soft and but not wet.  It had just enough green onion for impact and there was the right amount of seafood.

With our choice of soup, we went for the classic Gamjatang.  This was loaded with big pork neckbones that were meaty and cooked down perfectly.  The meat was fall-off-the-bone tender, but did not actually fall-off-the-bone without us manipulating them.  The soup itself was meaty with some spice and the unmistakable herbal background taste. Potatoes were also soft and delicate while not melting in texture.

We decided on 2 noodle dishes and sure it was a bit defaultish, yet at the same time, we really enjoy Spicy Cold Noodles as well as the Jajeunmyeon. Both were really large portions of noodles  Normally, you see a small clump of noodles, but in the pictures, it is obvious that they skimp.  Texturally, both noodles were chewy, I think the cold noodles could've used a few ice cubes though.  As for the jajeunmyeon, it was on point with enough sauce that had the right viscosity.  Flavourwise, it was impactful but in a mild way.  Nice sweet onion hits.

We ordered an equal amount of rice dishes as well including the Beef Bulgogi Bibimbap and the Kimchi Fried Rice.  There was so much beef in the rice bowl that it ensured every scoop would be 50% meat.  It was savoury and sweet while being tender due to the beef being sliced thin.  Only wish would be the dolset to be hotter so a rice crust could form.  As for the kimchi fried rice, it was tasty.  The rice was chewy and subjected to a good wok-fry.  There was good spice and overall seasoning while pieces of squid were appealingly chewy.

Now the most impressive-looking dish of the bunch, the Mama Hot Plate Special features a cast iron UFO with the featured dish in the middle (Stir-Fried Spicy Beef Intestines), rice and cheese.  On the outer ring we found corn cheese and fish cake.  Loved this dish as there was plenty of tender intestine that was not overly gamy.  Nice spice on it and when mixed with the rice and cheese, it was satisfying.  Overall, the food at Mama's Diner is solid and served in generous portions.  I found the Chinese influences to be quite minimal and hence, things seemed to be how they should be.  Would come back.

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

The Good:

- Apparent flavours

- Large portions

- Nothing seemed out-of-the-ordinary (which is a good thing)

The Bad:

- The dolset should've been hotter