#1020 - 8580 Alexandra Road, Richmond, BC
604-276-2800
Grrr...not sure why and how I ended up in Richmond..."memory loss" has been hitting me quite hard lately...must be aging...hahahahaha! Anyways, since it was early, might as well beat the rush and go for a bowl of soup noodles.
The restaurant was clean and the tables were nicely spaced out. Service, however, was an issue. I was the first customer and there were three servers. On top of the loud music, all three of them were chatting loudly in the bar area, which was quite disturbing...not to mention that I had to wave twice to get their attention just to place my order. Four more tables of customers showed up as one more server came in for his shift...now, it's a chatty bunch of four. Next, with a dirty rag, a server went to the empty table beside me and started to wipe down the wall...WTF??? I was only less than a metre away. I stopped eating and used the menu to cover my bowl while she was cleaning, I was not pleased.
I went for a Noodle Combos of Your Choice 至尊百搭湯麵餐 which included a hot drink. The Milk Tea 奶茶 was awfully diluted. I only took a sip then left the rest.
Knowing me, I had to get the $1.50 add-on (maximum two add-on items with each noodle combo order). First choice was Deep Fried Pork Chop 吉列豬排. The pork was tender and moist. It was well-marinated and cooked perfectly.
The second add-on was Boneless Chicken in Teriyaki Sauce 照燒雞排. The chicken was nicely cooked with a good seared crunch. The teriyaki sauce, however, was overly sweet and salty.
Most of the fish soup noodle 魚湯米線 places offer simple checklists of what customers want and what to eliminate....but not at Cattle Cafe. I had no idea what would be in my noodles except my choices of soup broth (Parsley & Century Eggs Fish Soup 芫茜皮蛋魚湯), two ingredients (Pork Intestine 豬腸, Chicken Ball 雞丸) and the type of noodles (Rice Noodles 米線).
It's cilantro, not parsley...it bugs me when people cannot tell the difference. The soup was boring (no depth), bland (flavorless) and lacked that distinct fish broth fragrance. The limited amount of pork intestines were well-cleaned. The chicken balls were nothing special...just store-bought. The noodles were al-dente.
What bugged me the most about my bowl of soup noodles was the load of napa cabbage 大白菜 (yes, I picked it all out). As many of you know, I take Chinese herbal medications and one of the forbidden items is napa cabbage. Now, being a first timer of the fish soup noodles 魚湯米線 at Cattle Cafe, how would I know if napa cabbage would be in the bowl...nothing was mentioned on the menu (I even took a picture to prove it). I guess I could have returned the bowl and asked for a new one, but after waiting twenty minutes just for a bowl of noodles, I was not willing to do so.
While my experience at the Burnaby location was pleasant (but I didn't write much about it, mainly just posting pictures), the Richmond location was a huge disappointment. This was my first visit to the Richmond Cattle Cafe, and would be my last.
