Happy Day Cafe (Richmond) — Restaurant in Richmond

We've dined here a few times since moving back to Canada 4 months ago.  Whenever we are homesick, we think of this restaurant.

Wife loves her $18.50 "Tomato Ox Tongue with Spaghetti 鮮茄牛脷燴意粉". Exactly the same dish as in Hong Kong.

When it comes to HK fast-food, I usually go for either the Dry Fried Beef Hor Fun 乾炒牛河 or the Satay Beef Fried Hor Fun 沙爹牛肉炒河. This time, I went for the latter. At $18.50 each, it's a little more expensive than elsewhere, but there are reasons why this restaurant is more favorable over the others:

1. For some reason, very rarely do you find this dish in Chinese restaurants. In addition, when it comes to Satay Beef Fried Hor Fun, I always specify "Scrambled 兜亂." Otherwise, the default is to pour the sauce on top of the noodles. That makes some noodles having excessive sauce while some noodles are deprived of sauce. This restaurant understands this request, accepts and follows. Others either didn't understand or chose to ignore. Another, I had to tell them what it means 🤣

2. Like other restaurants, all orders come free with either coffee, tea, or other easy to make beverages. This restaurant also accepts other variants as long as they are in their menu. I usually ask for Almond Milk 杏仁霜. This $4.75 drink is free with the order.

I would stay away from ordering coffee here. Like most Chinese fast-food restaurants in Greater Vancouver, their instant coffee really suck. They still offer what HK fast-food restaurants offered 10 years ago, whereas 95% of fast-food restaurants in HK have since moved to higher grade ground or gourmet coffee. Some even offer Cappuccino or Latte free with the meal. Like I said in my other reviews, Greater Vancouver restaurants are still in the Triassic Period 😝

STAY AWAY FROM "Salted & Pepper Fried Squid 椒鹽魷魚!!"  I was once diagnosed with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver, all because I ate a lot of deep fried food, and this is one of them, except this is even greasier. Don't be like me!!! This time, my wife eats while I salivate 😅😩 Even she complained it's too greasy, and she had to peel off the batter and eat just the squid. But then, without the batter, the squid is...

I've been going to the original location since i was a little kid and was always the go to for a quick and cheap meal. Like most typical HK Cafe they served up bake good, fried noodles/rive, curries and the common fare. This new location is located inside the new mall on the corner of Alderbridge and Garden City with ample parking. Much more modern and clean compared to the old location which now has become residential housing.

We swung by to order take out and got 3 of their pineapple bun sandwich and the Beef Ho Fun. The 3 flavors we got were

BLT: This was quite delicious, loaded with bacon, can't go wrong.

Satay Beef: We enjoyed this one the least, portion of beef was very minimal and made the bun soggy

Luncheon meat, egg and Butter: Our favorite of all 3, the butter makes it super rich but was still flavorful and yummy.

As we wanted to sample these there was no option to get them on their own and only came as a set meal. Which we ended up with 4 separate drinks.

We got 2 hot and 2 cold drinks, lemon tea and coffee/tea combo. All of which were pretty good. I liked the coffee/tea combo, which had a hint of coffee and rich tea flavor.

Pan fried rice noodle with beef: This is one of my go to for all Chinese restaurants, extremely simple dish to make, but also very easy to mess up. Has to have the right seasoning and the proper wok temperature to get the "wok hey" as they would say. Though these noodles did have the nice char i was looking for, the flavor was a but on the bland side.

Overall it was a pretty decent meal and could be a different outcome if we are in. Having these sit in the packaging from Richmond to Surrey could have affected the original taste though I don't think that would have made much difference for the...

Worst lunchtime experience ever, never been treated this bad in a restaurant. March 14/25, we have arrived at 11:15am, breakfast menu till 11:30, we have asked and ordered from lunch menu at 11:18am, my wife’s dish arrived 20 minutes later, next was my turn same dish 6 minutes later……. And that is when fun starts, my daughters order, 10 minutes nothing, we ask stuff, she went check without saying a word to us , and again waiting another 15 minutes we ask again and waitress said she will check….. in the meantime others that arrived after us for lunch getting their food on the tables, I have finished eating and my daughter food finally arrived after 56 minutes from time we ordered, I ask waitress to speak to the manager, not on site till 2 pm she said. I asked for someone in charge, there is no one ( funny and strange) guess restaurants run themselves those days??!!. I asked for my daughters dishes to be taken off the bill to be free since our family lunch was a complete disaster. She said do I want to cancel it , I said yes at that point she took the ordered meal , after my daughter sticks her used chopsticks in it, funny that immediately after that person two tables away got same dish from the kitchen served by same waiters….. disgusting….. have fun eating someone else’s used food. Guess will be reporting that to Richmond Health Department on Monday!!! Went back after 2 pm to talk to the manager, conveniently not working today after been told to come back after 2pm , guess I will be back Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday….. disappointing and disgusting experience….. worst service ever stuff unprofessional and...