Joyful Congee & Noodle Cafe 喜悅粥麵美食 — Restaurant in Richmond

This restaurant offers traditional Hong Kong-style congee and curry.

At first, I do not expect too much for its quality due to the restaurant’s appearance. However, I found that the food from this restaurant is more than excellent but fascinating. I ordered the “Steam Rice Roll with Chinese Donut” and the “Shredded Salted Pork Congee.” Its taste is the same as the one I can get in Hong Kong. This is a big surprise because much of the food here in Canada will somehow be localized. But these two items are made by the traditional receipt, which instantly bought back many good old memories.

Indeed, it also provides various types of rice rolls and snacks that serve with congee (for example, sticky rice wrap, pan-fried radish cake, pan-fried taro cake, chestnut cake, XO radish cake, soya sauce fried noodle, and fried vermicelli).

I also tried its curry beef brisket with steamed rice a few days later, and they are as good as the congee. And it is a surprise that later I notice they also have the HK-style imitation shark’s fin soup and dace fish ball with lettuce. Having all these food under the same hood and at a bargain price is not easy. It is highly recommended for...

If you check their menu, you’ll notice several variations of “imitation shark fin soup” (碗仔翅), including versions with bamboo fungus or fish. One might expect this to be their signature dish—especially since even the simplest version costs $8.50, a price point for what is supposed to be Hong Kong’s basic street food. However, disappointingly 90% of the time they only serve the most basic version.

For unknown reasons, It took over 20 minutes to prepare the soup in a very busy food court, which only heightened my expectations—expectations I soon regretted. The soup turned out overwhelmingly salty, yet completely lacking in depth, just one dimensional saltiness with no flavour; the cornstarch hasn’t fully dissolved, leaving visible clumps throughout, there was barely any shredded chicken and mushrooms, and the imitation shark fin was overcooked to the point losing its texture.

Honestly your 6 y.o. nephew could make it better than this restaurant. I just don’t know why they list the 4 soup variations along with the 4-5 other items in their front menu, like they are the...

Based on the price point, the food is decent here. I can see people here gave a lower rating for this food stall or their food. Based on my experience today, the quality was quite decent.

I ordered preserved eggs and salty pork congee, steamed rice rolls with Chinese donut, shrimp rice rolls and pan fried soy sauce noodles. All of them tasted delicious. And yes I agreed with someone who wrote a review here and talked about the thicker rice rolls. Normally we have thinner ones but I didn’t feel the thinner rice rolls had any issues. They were still smooth and soft and tasty. Don’t compare them with ones you eat at Kirin Chinese restaurant, Empire Seafood Restaurant or other bigger Chinese ones. This is only a small food stall running by a family.

I just hope they can maintain their quality and don’t go worse. The food here is affordable. Local people come here for food. If you expect something that has a higher quality, then...