[Richmond Hill] Jim Chai Kee

Location Review:
270 W Beaver Creek Road
Richmond Hill, ON
L4B 3Y9


Well hidden in a strip plaza on Highway 7 is somewhat of a gem when it comes to wonton noodles. And that's a great thing because I love wonton noodles. So much that it's kind of comfort food for me. And this place just gets it. I have yet to find a place in the GTA with comparability in terms food consistency and speed. I always leave happy and satisfied!

[Richmond Hill] Inatei

Location Review
9021 Leslie St., Unit # 7
Richmond Hill, Ontario

I always get excited when I find a good sushi spot in Richmond Hill (Flashback to the first time I tried Tomo Sushi). To find a Japanese restaurant that isn't all-you-can-eat is hard to come by, and to find one that is half decent is even more difficult. Recently I've heard many people tell me  Tomo Sushi has gone somewhat downhill. I unfortunately have not been able to go back recently to testify the validity of these statements, but true or not, it never hurts to another option to the rainy-day restaurant list. 

Enter Inatei (@InateiJPCuisine). A Japanese restaurant juggling an extensive menu within a modern-chic decor. Aside from just the sushi rolls and bento boxes, they offer a selection of appetizers, robata-yakis (Japanese charcoal grill), whole fish sashimi, and fresh oysters.

[Richmond Hill] Tomo Sushi

Location Review:
9625 Yonge Street
Richmond Hill, Ontario
(905)770-2129




Being an "uptown girl" from Richmond Hill, I always find myself struggling to find good spots to eat. There is one exception though, and that's Japanese cuisine. I find places north of Toronto like Gal's Sushi, Inakaya, Inaho Sushi, are easily better than many of the spots downtown. And now I'm happy to announce one more addition to the uptown list: Tomo Sushi!

[Richmond Hill] Pho Hoang Kim

Review Location:
330 Hwy 7 East
Richmond Hill, Ontario







Situated in the Golden Gate Plaza, the restaurant is right where the former Xe Lua Vietnamese Cuisine  with its iconic pho train store sign used to be. Having been to predecessor restaurant a couple times in the past, I can tell you that nothing has really changed. The renovations and furnishing are exactly the same, and the menu is almost identical. But then again, most Vietnamese restaurants serve up similar dishes anyway. On a Friday night at around 9pm, Rob and I came here to grab a quick dinner. As you read this entry you may  start to notice that I always end up ordering the same things whenever I go have Vietnamese food. I guess I know what I like!

[Richmond Hill] Chili Secrets

Location Review:
9021 Leslie Street
Richmond Hill, Ontario
(Major Intersection: Leslie St. and Hwy 7)





The other day I came here to have dim sum with the family and some family friends. Located just by Time Square, Chili secrets gets lots of traffic for both lunch and dinner service. It serves up a fusion of Cantonese, Szechuan and Shanghai cuisines. The great thing about this place is that they have lots of vegetarian options. Because we had a vegetarian with us that day, we had less meat dishes than usual.

[Richmond Hill] Sushi Tei

Review Location
115 Times Avenue
Richmond Hill, Ontario
(Major Intersection: Highway 7 Rd & Valleymede Dr.)

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Having not eaten sushi for a while, this was a much anticipated meal for me. My blog probably needs this injection of a sushi review as well, since it seems like I had a good dominating Japanese theme going on!

When I found out that Sushi Tei is a Korean-Japanese fusion restaurant, I was immediately skeptical about how much I would enjoy this place. I am a huge fan of Japanese and Korean food individually, but I'm not too fond of is most Korean influenced Japanese food. I'm not saying that all Korean made sushi is terrible (because quite frankly in my opinion Sushi Bong can kick a lot of Japanese place out of the water), just that most of the time I don't find it as satisfying. However, rob had been here before and commented that it was alright so we decided to eat here anyways.

[Richmond Hill] Mitsui

Review Location:
10815 Bathurst Street
Richmond Hill, Ontario
(Major Intersection: Bathurst and Elgin Mills)






I'm on a roll with these sushi posts eh? Well this is actually a delayed post. Somehow a whole bunch of my pictures got archived before I had a chance to go through and pick out the ones I wanted to blog about, so be prepared for some backdated posts!


I actually went to Mutsui around March with Elina on a double date. We didn't actually plan it that way, it just so happened. Feels weird referring to it as that now... Anyhoos, this restaurant is right around where I live, and typically when you live this far north away from the city, there isn't much good food. But this place really exceeded my expectations, and I'm definitely short listing this place to combat future sushi and bubble teal cravings! (yes they serve both, this is heaven!)

Dozo (Closed)

Review Location:
230 Commerce Valley Drive East
Richmond Hill, Ontario
(Major Intersection: Hwy 7 & East Beaver Creek)





Under a month ago, a dozen of my friends and I came here to celebrate two birthdays. Not exactly the best place to come before a night of drinking, but this was the close by to where we were going after. I also suggested this place because the atmosphere is really nice here. The decor of the restaurant is fairly trendy, and gives off a calming ambiance with its comfy padded booth seats and dim glowing lights. With it's pink and purple colour scheme, and scattered strands of beads hanging from the ceiling, it almost reminded me of a lounge.

Kim Po Vietnamese Restaurant

Review Location:
550 Hwy 7 E
Unit 6162A (Times Square)
Richmond Hill, Ontario
(Major Intersection: Leslie & Hwy 7)




The other day I cam here for dinner with some of my friends. I've been here once before a couple years ago, and the place definitely cleaned up both in decor since my last visit. Everything looks much cleaner and more like a restaurant. The one thing they didn't bother to renovate was probably the washroom. Gross and neglected like most Asian places. Luckily, the food got better since I last came too. Out of the 6 of us that went, half of us ordered vermicelli and half of us ordered pho.

HiPot Hot Pot

Review Location:
350 Highway 7 East, Unit 105
Richmond Hill, Ontario
(Major Intersection: Valleymede Dr. & Hwy 7)





For mother's day this year, we decided to go have all you can eat hot pot for dinner. Unconventional yes, but for whatever reason my family just has a soft spot for hot pot! This was the first time I've been to this place, and was pleasantly surprised right when I walked in. Usually when I think AYCE hot pot, I picture a really unorganized, crowded, and busy restaurant with poor quality food and sticky table tops. But this was nothing like what I listed. The place was very spacious and clean. We were all very comfortably seated, and there was ample space on the table for all the plates that would come.

[Richmond Hill] Inaho Sushi

Review Location:
155 East Beaver Creek Road
Richmond Hill, ON


The other day, my friend Jenn and I went here on a weeknight to get some dinner. I've never been here despite it being in existence for a while. I guess I never noticed these small little restaurants next to the bigger East Beaver Creek chain restaurants. When we arrived, the first thing I noticed was that it was a family run business. It is literally run by like 2 people. (okay maybe 3 if there's someone inside washing the dishes). The one waitress attended to all the tables, and surprisingly, the service wasn't the least bit jeopardized. The place wasn't packed, but there was still a good 70% occupancy. She was very friendly and didn't seem like she was flustered with all the people she had to serve. Impressive. The second was the chef. He was Japanese (yay, bonus points!), but there was only one of them serving the entire restaurant. That being said, the food took a bit longer than I would've liked. It also probably explains the smaller menu and the lack of options compared to most other Japanese restaurants. I wouldn't suggest coming here if you were starving.

Bombay's Chutney

Reviewed Location:
Unit H1, 1070 Major Mackenzie Drive East
Richmond Hill, Ontario

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The other night I went out for Indian food with some of my friends. I haven't had a great deal of Indian cuisine experiences under my belt, so I just wanted to disclaim that I don't have much to benchmark with, aside from my own personal preferences.

The restaurant is located in a plaza that has quite a bit of oriental restaurants, so I was curious to know whether this place would be run by oriental people. However, it wasn't, and I was greeted with Indian servers and soft Indian music in the background upon entering. The restaurant was small with not too many tables, but I noticed throughout dinner that there were more take out orders than sit-in customers anyways.

"Aloo Tikki" -Potato patties served with curried chickpeas & tamarind chutney

This appetizer was basically a glorified potato patty. It was crispy on the outside, and mushy on the inside with some ground up vegetable bits. It went well with the tamarind chutney which had a bland watery texture, with a bit of a spicy sour kick. I think my faouvrite part of this dish was actually the chickpeas. It had a nice curry taste and some crunch  from the raw onions. Was an okay dish, but nothing too special.

"Non-Veg Thali" -An assorted platter of Tandoori Chicken, Rice, Naan, Dal, Raita, Papadum (cracker), Pickle, Dessert, and your choice of beef/chicken/lamb curry

Left to Right: Dal, Curry Beef, Raita, Dessert

Naan

I ordered this platter and shared it with one of my friends. It's kind of like a sampler with small portions of everything.  It came in these metal plates and bowls. After talking to my Pakistani co-worker the next day, she told me that that's actually how traditional Indian meals are served. I have to admit I was a little impressed after that. The food in general exceeded my expectations. Nothing was unbearably potent in spices, but was definitely not underflavoured. I really enjoyed the raita which was a yogurt sauce mixed with spices and vegetables. It was refreshing, and something you don't find at a lot of places. My favourite part of the platter was actually the naan. This naan was HUGE! Most places I've been to serve naan that is roughly a teacup plate size, and are a perfect circle shape. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but the naan here was larger than my dinner plate (measuring almost the size of legal paper) and triangular in shape. The naan was really well toasted to a crisp on the outside, but had fluffy soft, almost airy dough on the inside. Easily the best I've ever had, and probably my favourite part of the entire meal. The friend I shared this platter with commented that she really liked the rice. It was stiffer than Oriental rice and had more texture to it. Unfortunately we forgot to eat the dessert at the end, so I can't really comment on it. But I dipped my naan in there by accident thinking it was a sauce and it tasted similar to condensed milk. I imagine it would be alright. Despite being a sampler, my friend and I were both pretty satisfied after. I would recommend this to anyone who doesn't have a go-to Indian dish and wants to try a variety of items.

"Butter Chicken" -Charcoal roasted chicken simmered in rich tomato butter gravy with dry fenugreek

Another friend of mine ordered the butter chicken dinner. This was really really good. Being someone who doesn't eat Indian food often, I found this dish wasn't too big of an intrusion on my taste buds. It was a creamy consistency, and not too strong on the spices. Being so tasty and paired with that awesome naan, I definitely would come back and order this again.

Puck 'N Wings

Review Location:
10720 Yonge Street
Richmond Hill, ON

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Puck N' Wings is actually a franchise, and I'm not sure where all the other locations are, but I was told that there are about 5 other ones in Ontario. This location used to be an All Star Wings and Ribs so the layout of the restaurant hasn't really changed much. The decor is a little bit more themed now, all decked out in hockey stuff (like hockey sticks as jacket hangers) and had TV's at every angle playing different hockey matches.

In terms of the food, I think it's comparable to a lot of wing places.

Left: "Dry Cajun" -onions, bell peppers, chillies, pepper, herbs, garlic, 

Right: "Sweet Red Chili" -garlic, red jalepeno, chili peppers

The first thing I notice when I eat the wings, is that they are very meaty. Sometimes I go to wing places, and sure they are big, but it's just all batter with very dried up tiny wings on the inside. The ones we had here were really juicy with not too much batter. In fact it's almost as if they just deep fried it with no batter on. And even with such a thin layer of batter, the wings were considerably large! Each piece was around 7-10cm. The sauces flavours and combinations are not as unique as some of the other wing places, but we ended up choosing some typical flavours in the end, and as expected, they tasted pretty standard.

"Black N' Tan Onion Rings"

We also decided to order onion rings cause I was really craving it. On the menu, there was an option of regular onion rings, and these Black N' Tan onion rings. Although I'm sure I would've been satisfied getting the regular ones, we couldn't resist ordering these which had this as a description on the menu : "Not your average onion ring. Colossal Spanish onion double dipped in Canadian beer and Stout batter." And I'm so glad we ordered them. They were in fact quite colossal in size, and had a very prominent beer taste in the batter. AMAZING. I highly recommend ordering this if you like beer and/or onion rings.

Overall a good experience.

[Richmond Hill] Kaori Japanese Restaurant

Review Location:

30 High Tech Road, Richmond Hill, ON

(905) 707-8858 ‎

Edamame and Beer

Appetizers: salad, bean sprouts, edamame, miso soup

Top: Spider Roll, Bottom: Blue Ocean Roll

Sushi Boat

Complementary Turnip and Mackerel Dish

So I've been wanting to try Kaori out for a really long time. Partially because there aren't too many good japanese places in richmond hill, and was hoping this would be a hidden gem to be unravelled.

The location of the restaurant used to be an Outback Steakhouse, and it doesn't really seem like they've made an effort to change the decor inside or out. Definitely nothing special here. In fact, there really wasn't anything special here at all.

The food was a really big disappointment. Since there were only two of us, we couldn't order very much. The appetizers were very very salty. This may be just a matter of preference, but I've had these preserved sardines before (made from the mother of one of my korean friends) and I don't remember it being so salty. Even the vinaigrette dressing in the salad was salty.

On to the actual food. In general, the rice was really dry, and the rolls were not well made. The insides of the rolls were falling out, and each roll did not have a consistent ratio between rice and stuffing. The only thing to commend on was the salmon sashimi, which was cut into good size pieces and was relatively fresh. The rest of the sashimi was subpar. The white tuna and squid had a spongy texture to them, and the white snapper and tuna were drenched in lemon juice, which are signs that they weren't fresh to begin with.

Suprisingly, the best thing here was the complimentary dish that was given to us. It was a stew with turnip and some sort of fish (mackerel?). The turnips were soft, and it was very flavourful. Any koreans out there know what dish this is?

For the price we paid, we both felt that we could've eaten something of a lot higher calibre. We wondered at the end of the dinner if the Korean food here would be better (since the restaurant seems to be Korean run), but we're not sure whether or not we want to come back here again to try.