Fat Boy Kitchen: Comfort Food

You know, with a name like Fat Boy Kitchen, it evokes a certain style of food… I mean, don’t expect anything too healthy here. Instead, they focus on hearty meals that fill your belly like noodle soups and rice combos that you’d find at most HK or Taiwanese cafes.

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The Chicken Restaurant: Asian Fried Chicken

The Chicken Restaurant is a newish Asian fried chicken place (who would have guessed with that name, huh?) that opened up on Imperial St. in Burnaby.

Chirpyhut Fried Chicken (Burnaby): Meteorite Chicken

So, Chirpyhut – known for their “meteorite” chicken, recently opened up in Burnaby. It seems like covid has really pushed the desire for people to eat fried chicken.

Northern Cafe & Grill: Serious Hole-In-The-Wall Diner Eats

I’ve been known to frequent hole-in-the-wall joints. In fact, some of my favourite places to visit are down-to-earth eateries where the owners love what they do and are unpretentious about it. Well, I’m happy to say that I’ve found a new place that meets these standards. I suppose “found” really isn’t the right word as Northern Cafe has been around since 1949. But I can hardly be blamed for not visiting until now… tucked away on the second floor of a building supply store – you seriously are not going to come across this place unless you were intentionally trying to find this place (or if you happen to work in the trades).

Regal Mansion Cuisine: Dim Sum in City Square

Regal Mansion Cuisine is the new, upscale Chinese restaurant that took over the former Kirin location on the top floor of City Square. We were in the area in mid-December and decided to try the place out for dim sum. Tables were pretty spaced out and they had the usual temperature checks before entering that we’ve become accustomed to at many of the larger Chinese restaurants.

Grand Crystal Seafood Restaurant: Dim Sum and Lobster Sticky Rice

One of the things that we’ve missed a lot during the pandemic is going out to enjoy dim sum.. I don’t mean the crowded restaurants or the loud din from the hustle and bustle of the kitchen mixed with the incessant tableside conversations that sounds more like screaming matches instead of civilized discussions. No, it’s mainly about the food.

Z&W Shanghai Kitchen: Mui Choy Kau Yuk and Xiao Long Bao

In mid-March, right before the whole coronapocalypse closed up all of the restaurants in town (other than take-out), we dropped by Z&W Shanghai Kitchen on West Broadway, near Arbutus. For the longest time, this location used to be the home of an all-you-can-eat Japanese place. Upon walking inside, we immediately noticed the improvements to the decor… including the elegantly adorned wall.

Dragon Group Seafood Restaurant: Tasty Dim Sum in Richmond

Dragon Group Seafood Restaurant is located on the busy corner of Alderbridge and Garden City Road in Richmond – and I’ve got to say, they have a really confounding parking lot – I kept driving around trying how to find how to get into the parking lot before figuring out I had to enter from the backside (that’s why she said).

Sea Fortune Restaurant: Dim Sum in Richmond

Sea Fortune Restaurant is one of the countless Chinese restaurants located in Richmond. And like most Chinese restaurants, you can rely on these places being open during usual western holidays such as New Year’s Day… which is exactly when we chose to visit this place.

Ken’s Kitchen: Fairly Average Eats

Ken’s Kitchen on Kingsway has been around for quite a while and is typical of most average Chinese restaurants. We were in the area on a January morning and decided to stop by for some comfort food (ie. carbs).

Shun Feng Seafood: Slow but Tasty

There’s about a jillion-and-one places to get dim sum in-and-around Vancouver and we’ve barely scratched the surface. But that’s not for lack of trying! We decided to drop by Parker Place Mall in early November and try out Shun Feng Seafood. First off, is it just me or is Parker Place dead? A lot of the mall tenants seemed to be closed up when we visited but the parking lot was still super busy.

Dong Tai Xiang Shanghai Dim Sum: Pan Fried Pork Buns

Recently, I noticed a place called Dong Tai Xiang Shanghai Dim Sum open up on Cambie Street in Vancouver. Normally, I’m more of a Cantonese-style dim sum goer but there are certain specific Shanghai dim sum dishes that, when done properly, are amazing. One of the more well-known Shanghai dim sum dishes is the pan-fried pork dumplings (alongside the similar steamed pork dumplings) which is famous for the hot and soupy filling that’s found inside the dumplings.