Best of Richmond’s Eat Street

Options on Eat Street range from high-end fine dining to cheap and cheerful noodles bars, Hong Kong-style cafes, and all-you-can-eat hot pot joints. While there are any number of great restaurants here, these are our favourites (google map with locations and addresses available here):

1. Michigan Noodles
The light congee base is soothingly creamy. Try it with pork liver, mixed seafood, or ground beef with peanuts for a quintessential Chinese breakfast.

2. McNoodle
Richmond’s original Hong Kong-style noodle shop. The al dente noodles have a perfect snap, the housemade stock is decadently rich, and the ethereally light wontons are plump with sweet shrimp.

3. Kam Do
Though they stock a variety of Hong Kong-style baked goods, Kam Do is best known for their traditional “wife cakes,” flakey pastry pockets filled with sweetened winter melon. They sell out daily.

4. La Amigo
There is a subset of Hong Kong cuisine that essentially takes Western food and runs them through a Chinese comfort food prism, resulting here in baked pork chop rice dishes, béchamel rich seafood pastas, and coconut laced curries. Their sweet, creamy Hong Kong-style tea is lovely over ice, and the beef chow fun and the Shanghainese wonton soup are winners.

5. Jade Seafood
Superlative dim sum: stir fried daikon cake in hot sauce, steamed mushroom dumplings, and prawn rolls with pickled ginger and century eggs

6. Deer Garden
The line ups are crazy, and the restaurant is the bane of fellow mall tenants for taking up so many parking spaces. For $8 bucks, choose your soup, noodles, and topping and get a drink to boot. Crowd favourite: clean and sweet fish soup base with bak choy and sliced brisket.

7. Big Chef
Along with the crab with duck egg sauce, the soy chicken baked in a clay pot, and savory egg custard are also delicious. The owner is a real firecracker-you’ll see her protecting her restaurants’ parking spots from Deer Garden patrons with a knowing glare.

8. Sun Sui Wah
Anchoring one end of Eat Street, the Richmond location offers stellar dim sum and a delicious dinner service that is grounded in local, seasonal seafood. Their king crab feast is the original and still the best.

9. Viva City
A hidden gem, with a dim sum service that opens at a 9am like a true Hong Kong restaurant. Everything is prepared with care and a focus on freshness. Civilized, well priced, and exceedingly smart service-it’s no wonder many locals make it a regular start to their day.

10. Claypot Hotpot
All-you-can-eat pricing is incredibly popular with families. For about $20 a head, plus upticks for certain items, you choose from a vast range of thinly sliced meats, seafood, vegetables, and various side dishes. The housemade meat balls prepared from beef, pork, or fish are particularly popular.