SpeluncaVancouverSince July 30, 200945 Reviews
(3)- Food
(3.2) - Service (3.2)
- Value (2.8)
- Ambiance (3)
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(3) (3.2) (3.2) (2.8) (3)The food I don't have particular gripes with. In fact, the crispy fried oysters were quite well done. also acceptable were the duck and beef curries. portions tend to be on the small side and thus value suffers. what was clearly unacceptable were the following: server asking you "are you ready for your check" in a militant fashion without mentioning dessert as well as a second person who couldn't remember what to pack for take-out and haphazardly directs the server to include other people's food as well. from other tables presumably.
nightmare for $80 and two people. go elsewhere.
Preamble: packed house on a weekday for four
Food: four dishes, one chicken, beef, pork and veggies. Beef was probably "marinated" with either corn starch or baking soda but whatever it was, had enough Szechuan flavor to numb the tongue (this was ordered mildly spicy) yet flavorful and enjoyable. Didn't like the pork (more like chopped spareribs that had too much bone and too little meat) or chicken (cold dish that was somewhat fatty) as much. The vegetable, a garlic "ong choy", was very fresh, arguably the best dish of the bunch.
Service: not the friendliest..even for Richmond
Value: $20 per head for four dishes with three pops and a beer.
Ambiance: tight seating and loud. If you can accept these features then it shouldn't be a problem. Just don't go there on a first date.
Preamble: late dinner for two on a Thursday
Food: I always love to try the seafood Jampong at different Korean places. If people can't make a decent seafood noodle soup, that's a pretty big mark in my books. This one was spiced appropriately, noodles weren't soggy, had that nice deep red color to the soup. a truly superb bowl would have fresh seafood, but that is really being optimistic as nine out of ten places would err on the frozen side.
Service: extremely friendly and courteous
Value: appropriately priced in range of most other Korean places
Ambinace: neat idea taking it out of the famous Korean drama. bathroom facilities were clean (Richmond restaurants need that extra remark!)
Preamble: casual dinner for four on a Friday night
Food: those who ordered burgers didn't think it didn't differ much in quality compared to places like Cactus or Earl's. I chose to the mushroom caps as an appetizer and got a fairly unpleasant surprise. They plated in escargot-type fashion with each mushroom buried under a mound of cream cheese. I think there was supposed to be crab in there somewhere.
Service: fairly busy night (although not a Canucks game) so some leeway should be given. generally efficient service.
Value: burgers for $8-9 in this day and age is not bad, even if it is a pub
Ambiance: it's a pub so dim lighting is to be expected. the multitude of old TVs is a little offputting however, in the era of HD. there aren't many good pubs at all in Richmond so if they bothered spending a bit of money on remodeling it'd probably do them alot of good.
Preamble: weekend gathering of six to a new restaurant three weeks old
Food: appreciated the taste-testers that, while not on the menu yet, could very well be. one that was especially good had beef, shrimp, radish, carrot strips and mushroom on top of a leafy veggie that had a very good sweet and sour mix with good texture.
of the menu items, i shared a seafood pancake and spicy chicken bbq with rice. pancake had a pleasing crust overlying a slighty soft yet not greasy inner filling. the spicy chicken, although a tad oversalted, went well with the rice.
Service: very friendly and courteous throughout the meal
Value: shade over $13 each for dinner. portion size more than adequate to fill our appetites.
Ambiance: comfortable seating, cozy without being cramped. able to talk freely without lots of surrounding noise.
Preamble: tail end of lunch hour on a Friday with a party of six
Food: compared to other AYCE Japanese places it is not the worst. Some items like the scallop cones and chicken teriyaki would not be totally out of place in a La Carte menus. This, however, is offset by some terrifically dubious items like their rolls (all) and tempura.
Service: plenty of tea, at first fairly pleasant but we ran into the same usual AYCE problem where they only gave half of our last order. This was resolved with relatively little verbal bloodshed.
Value: shade under $14 for AYCE lunch everything included..
Ambiance: slightly better than your typical place
Food: we were amazed at previous ratings given that the fish was stale, ikura even worse, and virtually every piece of nigiri sushi had to have a cucumber slice on it.
Service: one waitress refilled tea constantly while another didn't seem like she was in a very good mood..and showed it.
Value: what seemed to be an inexpensive menu was showed a poor concordance in value as the portion size was extremely small. Not only was this a problem with nigiri sushi, but also the appetizers like salmon tataki and cooked food like beef yakisoba.
Conclusion: very disappointing experience. there are just too many other sushi places in this city for me to be bothered to come back.
Food: biggest Shanghainese pork dumplings in Vancouver and Richmond probably. tons of juice, although the wrap is slightly thicker than what I am used to. Beef noodles are also a fan favorite there.
Service: friendly, efficient
Value: I can and have taken a group of purely guys on empty stomachs to eat our fill. Total tab usually is <$10 each.
Ambiance: recently repainted, looks brighter and cozier. Not to bring a first date to, mind you.
Food: known for its waffles, this place is run by aunties who are middle-aged and thus make much better food comparatively to most of the other Richmond places. also recommend the icy slushes. a taiwanese place, their drinks are also slightly different, but not in a bad way.
Service: if a little sparse sometimes when the place is full, certainly enthusiastic and polite.
Granted, free mackeral is a nice touch and there hasn't been a Korean place that I've been to ever that has given that as an appetizer. However, I have also never gone to a Korean restaurant where they charge $23 bucks for essentially Kim Chee and Spam luncheon meat in some sort of nebulous soup. Amazing..
still no challengers to the throne. soup base and noodles are still the best, period. the lean pork was never really that good and they could learn from how the chinese make their pork but be that as it may, does not detract much from the excellent taste of this bowl of ramen. service was friendly and efficient.
Food: excellent mussels in tomato sauce, and even better garlic bread to go along with it. Prime rib and bacon-wrapped scallops was one of the best combinations I've had in a long time. The baby-back ribs portion of the mixed grill was good but the chicken was slightly burnt and overcooked. Did not enjoy the huge buttered broccoli or carrot wedges that came with the meals either, but not enough to detract from the good points.
Service: friendly, not pushy.
Value: about the average range
Ambiance: a rustic look with tons of candlelight. very elegant.
Food: absolutely fell in love with the egg salad bread wheel and the inspired cucumber/cream cheese/marble bread combination. Do yourself a favor and go with a combination of snacks/tea the first time out, you will not regret it. Tea, of course, is their specialty and they have plenty of exotic flavors.
Service: I think people who work in that place love their tea.
Value: $13 for the entry-level combination is a great deal.
Ambiance: it's a tea house! relaxing, comfortable.
Food: yam fries were fairly decent, didn't have much of a yam taste to them but compared to the two burgers thereafter...yikes. dry and tasteless burgers for $13-15?
Service: a little casual but it's not the worst I've seen
Value: again..tastless burgers for $13-15?
Ambiance: I suspect this is why they can afford their food to be of subpar quality. Tourists come into downtown Victoria and they see this great spot to enjoy the pub atmosphere. Too bad they leave with a bad taste in their mouths.
Preamble: early weeknight dinner for three
Food: do not come here looking for tapas, AYCE, fusion, etc. This wife-and-husband-run restaurnt is a sashimi and sushi paradise. I suspect because they only open 3 hours a day 5 days a week that standards of food quality can be maintained. The sashimi is delicate, fresh and sliced properly. The ikura salmon roe is transparent and the best that I've had in years. Bluefin tuna was luxurious without being overly fatty (sorry, didn't realize until after that they were endangered)
Service: the wife acts as the waitress and does an earnest and excellent job. The place is small enough that this is manageable and it helps that she is organized, although sometimes simple things like tea takes a long time or a verbal request to refill
Value: look, you will pay more money here but the quality of food more than makes up for it. It definitely can give Ajisai a run for its money, and arguably, is even better.
Ambiance: very small restaurant, comfortable seating and jazz in the background. All tables reserved, people turned away instantly, even when we were the only ones physically present, as reservations are paramount.
Preamble: busy weeknight out with the guys
Food: I only ate the chicken wings. Tried four flavors, was not crazy about Yukon Jack partially because of an inherent dislike for BBQ sauce and partially because it just didn't taste that good even taking that into account. Really loved the other three however: Toyko, Jamaican and some new lime flavor. Chicken had quite a lot of meat without being overly fatter. No need to use the dipping suaces as each flavor was distinct enough by itself.
Service: friendly, gave refills of pop to my friends quickly.
Value: $20 bucks total tax and tip for shared wings with a beer and pop for good wings is not outrageous.
Ambiance: a few large TVs scattered around but I wasn't overly impressed with the tight seating and poor lighting
Preamble: busy weekend dinner for three
Food: I believe they use a variation of Chinese "lai fun" as their noodles in their Pho. They are extremely smooth and slightly chewy, a definite upgrade in my opinion to regular noodles. The marinated pork and lemongrass chicken were also standouts, although caution must be paid to take the skin off as the latter tends to be somewhat oily. Do not order the pancake-looking picture at the end of the menu, it is like the Korean seafood pancake except soggier and much worse.
Service: I believe I counted three people serving an extremely busy restaurant. I thought initially one waiter's manner was rather abrupt but later on, didn't really mind it too much. Tea, though was refilled after 15 minutes or so when the lid was clearly off. Just a matter of not having enough staff I suppose.
Value: under $7 for a bowl of large pho noodles. enough said.
Ambiance: they moved from No 3 Road over a year ago to this second floor location. Certainly the renovations have paid off as this place is not anywhere close to the slighty unhygienic look of most Pho places.
Preamble: weeknight dinner for 5
Food: very delicately prepared. battered shrimp could've been smeared with a little less sauce but tuna sashimi, cod rice, beef tongue, monkfish liver were all done excellently. somebody ordered a yakiudon at the end that was somewhat soggy, however.
Service: excellent, probably helped by the fact that it wasn't a terribly busy night. refilled tea multiple times, friendly, got in a discussion about Japanese beers to beet with the waitress.
Value: probably could benefit from a 10% discount or so. as said before in previous reviews, the pricing is on par or even more expensive than downtown places.
Ambiance: comfortable, on the dark side
Preamble: busy weekday lunch post golf for four
Food: delicate, tasty, and relatively little MSG compared to other places. Both the dim sum and rice dish were very palatable, and in comparison with having gone to Kirin a few days ago, makes it seem even better.
Service: chinese efficiency without the gruffness
Value: $10/person is not unreasonable for Vancouver dim sum of this quality.
Ambiance: comfortable seating in amidst chaos
Preamble: ordering a pizza to share with the g/f
Food: so the taster pizza is split up into four flavors with a mochi crust. I believe two of the four was downright horrible (tuna and sausage) while one was passable and the last one pretty good.
Service: not much to say about this. They did semi-apologize for the half an hour that I waited
Value: half an hour wait for an expensive pizza that promised Asian flavors but delivered something..else..
