R&H Chinese Food 正点

Being in Richmond around 4:00pm and hungry is the worst situation for me to be in. The reason is because my only dining destinations would be either the food courts, HK style cafes or Bubble Tea restaurants. And if I decide to have a snack at any of those places, it is hard for me to just have a "snack" because I want to eat everything in sight ASAP and therefore ruin my appetite for dinner.

So after sitting in the car with a friend for thirty minutes and pondering over if we should wait another hour for a restaurant to open, we decided to walk around Lansdowne. The both of us agreed that if we decided to go to the food court (which we knew was going to happen), we would limit ourselves to only smoothies and two dishes.

The only food stall that caught our attention was R&H Chinese Food. The food stall appears to be a family run business with the father handling the cash, mother making the goodies, and the sons running the kitchen. When we approached the counter, my friend wanted to leave and just go to Earl's for an early dinner. She is really big on service like myself, and the owner was very miserable and indifferent. I never understand when business owners are not friendly because it is their own business.

XIAO LONG BAO ($5.39).

Rating: 0/5.

The food stall makes their own xiao long bao and dumplings, but the frozen ones are served first. Despite understanding why the frozen goods have to be served first however, it is still disappointing seeing freshly made XLB and knowing it would not be ours. Before we grabbed our food, the XLB was sitting on the counter for a while because the food stall was waiting on the dumplings before ringing the bell.

So when we received the XLB, the buns were served luke warm and the skin hardened which resulted in the pieces sticking together. We managed to save a couple of XLBs from ripping though! Although unfortunately, there was no need to try saving the XLB because the broth tastes extremely salty and MSG laden (usually I do not mind MSG). Furthermore, there is no flavour whatsoever and the skin tastes very doughy. As for the meat, the texture is gritty and there were pieces of cartilage.

BOILED PORK DUMPLINGS WITH CHIVES ($6.39).
Dumplings: 1/5

After the failed XLB, we moved towards the dumplings which are sort of better. The dumplings have a lot of filling but the meat tastes bland and overall lack that "refreshing" flavour from the chives. Furthermore, the dumplings taste neither moist nor juicy, and are very salty and heavy on MSG like the XLB (not as much though).

TOTAL: $12.35

I guess we received a complimentary vermicelli noodle to show that our business is appreciated… R&H Chinese Food is disappointing overall. The cashier is the owner, there were no customers visiting the food stall, the food does not even taste good, and the owners are so miserable looking! I mean, I understand if hired help looks miserable… but really, your own business?

POSITIVES

- XLB is served in a steamer

NEGATIVES

- High prices

- Unfriendly owners

- Poor food and quality

- Salty and MSG laden food

LITTLE THINGS
- Dirtiest food court ever

Food: 1/5
Service: 0/5