Bubble Waffle Cafe — Restaurant in Richmond

The good thing about this Bubble Waffle Cafe is location. Ironwood has limited choices for Chinese food in the evening as Danny’s kitchen within the same mall is closed at 6. Bubble Waffle Cafe has taken off from being a food court spot to a franchise in Greater Vancouver it is now. However the food remains food court quality. I am convinced now that I have visited their Richmond Centre and Ironwood locations, I shouldn’t have expected more than that. I ordered Boneless Hainanese Chicken with yellow oil rice. There was two pieces of broccoli, a teaspoon-ful worth of grinder ginger sauce and a sweet-sour chilly sauce on a small saucer with it. The soy sauce had already been drizzled onto the chicken so there was not a third sauce presented. So, the whole plate looked complete. The taste was disappointing, though. The chicken was obviously a drumstick de-boned, skin on. When I sank my teeth in the meat, I felt a little tough, tougher than what I would normally expected for Hainanese Chicken. Oh well, I didn’t mind too much as I like chicken. The chicken did taste a little bland. I had to add lots of ginger to step up the taste. Anyhow let’s move on to the rice. It was the most disappointing part I would say . The rice was dry even though there was a generous amount of oil on it as it looked shiny and yellow enough. Could the rice be days old? Or was the rice old when it was bought from the supplier ? The rice grain broke down into small pieces in my mouth. Normally rice is softer , moist, & chewy . This rice was nothing like what I know about rice. My friend said if the rice was exposed in air for too long it can be dried up and maybe that was what happened. Couldn’t eat more than a few spoonful of rice (sorry I was a good waster for this meal) . Luckily I still have the broccoli. Last time when I had Hainanese Chicken rice at their Richmond centre location, the chicken was just as bland, & the rice tasted the same but not this dry. In short , the taste was consistent throughout these 2 locations. Conclusion after having Hainanese Chicken Rice at Bubble Waffle Cafe twice : don’t expect too much. Although their price was great, just go somewhere else for authentic Hainanese Chicken. There are plenty of places in Vancouver with better recipes, but be prepared to pay a bit more. I’d go for their fish broth noodle next time. P.S. the wait time for Hainanese Chicken rice was generally about 10 minutes longer than any other...

This review is for the Ironwood Mall location. In my opinion, it’s current Google rating is too low when I think back about the food quality and service experienced tonight. This location is a sit down restaurant type of place with 12 to 15 tables. We ordered the standard Hainanese Chicken with Rice and Hainanese Laksa Chicken with yellow noodles. Both dishes were really good - we thought the dishes were flavourful and came with decent portion sizes. For the $11.68 meal it also included an ice lemon tea that quenched our thirst. We paid the extra $1.50 add-on price for the standard bubble waffle - it arrived at our table hot and tasty. The girls working tonight were great - explaining the different offerings and combos available and towards the end of our meal there was a small line up out the door. This location met all of my expectations for fast friendly service, with good food, served with fresh ‘n Hot Bubble Waffles. They were so good we bought four Bubble Waffles. I would say out of the 3 or 4 Bubble Waffle Cafe locations we have visited this one so far is #1...

We are the only customer during dinner time. Their services are same as last time, no greetings, no smile, no thank you, not following instructions, rushing us to take orders and ignoring us whenever we try to ask for napkins, we need to use our own.

​2 of us had tried their....

smoked duck on Ramen with tom yum kung soup --- it's not spicy, only sour, not much ingredients inside..

pork jawl meat and sliced lamb on flat rice noodles with minced pork fish soup --- way too much deep fried garlic inside the soup + soup base was too salty --- they put shredded lamb, not sliced lamb --- the soup base taste different than the Richmond center branch

2 ice lemon ribena --- i asked for less ice, but they gave me less drinks, only 2/3 full.. ---1 of them half glass of ice inside.. --- it's tasteless with a lot of lemon seeds inside.. I almost choke myself

Original bubble waffle --- i asked for extra crispy, but it's Soft and cold

They charged me $1.20 + $0.50 more for the drinks, without let us know,...