Kari House Restaurant — Restaurant in Richmond

I agree with Jamie Rogers. Absolute garbage.

Terrible service that almost felt like racism (I do not understand, the owners and waitress are Asian too) , mediocre to poor food... Don't waste your time and money here.

My wife and I lived very close to Steveston Village, and one day we just decided to try this restaurant out. We were there at around 6pm and was seated promptly, and that was the end of the good experience. After we sat down, there were a few Caucasian families and couples that came in after us. And we were the only Asian couple sitting in the restaurant of about 6-7 tables. The waitress promptly attended to them and offered them water to drink while also holding short conversations with them. While my wife and I sat there, with no water, one menu and ZERO attention even though we were the first to sit down.

We waited for at least 10 minutes, (and if you were purely waiting for 10 minutes, it feels like a decade) and I finally got impatient, and started to raise my hand to get some attention so that someone could take our order.

Finally someone was looking my way! While the waitress was approaching our direction, I was starting to speak, but she just walked pass us without saying a thing, and started to take the order of ( guess who ) a Caucasian couple sitting behind us. At this point I was pissed off, I had the urge of standing up saying really LOUDLY, "Really?! This place is a JOKE!" and just stormed out of the restaurant with my wife. But obviously my wife stopped me from elevating my emotions in this situation. I mean, if the waitress had just acknowledged me, and said something in the sense of "Sorry, I will be right with you, I saw them call me over first." or whatever I would've been fine with it, even though I was already annoyed by the poor service (no water, no attention, long wait to order). After a few minutes, finally she walked over to us, of her own accord, without me having to raise my hand again, which means she did see me raising my hand the first time (which pissed me off again), and took our order without apologizing for what happened and how rude she was.

Kari-House is suppose to produce South-East Asian ( Singaporean, Malaysian ) cuisine, but the food that came out of the kitchen feels like someone just took a few recipes off of the internet and cooked it the first time. We ordered Laksa, Prawn Noodles and Char Dua Pan (Stir Fried Rich noodles ), all of the dishes had basically no taste to it, they have no idea what they are doing... It was just bland and dull, it almost felt like they withheld the salt too. South-East Asian cuisine uses a lot of spices and herbs in their food, which Kari House seemed to lack.

I lived in Singapore for roughly 5 years about 20 years ago. Loved the food there, ate out almost everyday. The food that they are serving in Kari-House are basically the same street hawker food they have in Singapore, but Kari-House cannot even hold a candle to to the street hawker food's quality and tastiness. If you compare this restaurant (Kari House) to ANY Singaporean street hawker on a scale of 1 to 10, Kari House would be a 4 and Singaporean Street Hawkers would 8-9.

Verdict: Terrible service that almost felt like racism (I do not understand, the owners and waitress are Asian too) , mediocre to poor food... Don't waste your time...

I will highlight negative points with *.

Fresh, Authentic. Been going for decades. My Family likes this place, because food is authentic, the ingredients are fresh and the service is warm and friendly.

The spicy level is geared towards caucasian patrons. But also reasonable for most people who can handlena little bit of spicy. I suggest 1, chilli pepper level for most people.

For anyone else that is truly Chinese HK or Malay, Thai and ALL Real Jungle Asians they can handle capsicum(death) level Spicey, then go for 3 chili level. This is just a good amount of heat and enjoyable.

**The price is reasonable but slightly expensive for you get what you pay for though, but shutdowns at 8. Too early.

Big parties should book in advance, this is a small place.

**The Non Alcoholic beverages are fancy but over priced, alcoholic beverages are slightly over priced.

**Domestic beer needs to be under $5 not $6. This is Richmond.

*Our Laksa came with two different noodle types. They didn't ask what noodle we want. None of us ever seen this happen, we do not like when places mix...

Quality is going down I frequented this place for many years and have slowly stopped going because of the disappointment. Service is great but food portion and quality does not compare to the first several years after they opened and they continue to dwindle. I gave them one last chance and I ordered take out of sweet and sour chicken, lemon chicken and yellow beef curry. Those are pretty standard dishes. Nothing fancy about them. What a disappointment... The sweet and sour chicken was runny, the lemon chicken looked sad and spread out and was a snack portion size (see photo), not worth $12+. The yellow beef curry had ok flavor but you had to search for the beef. There was too much potato in it. The prices are a rouse as they price dishes about $2 less than most Malaysian or Thai places but the portions and content are not worth the $2 discount. Sadly I will not be returning and will not recommend this place anymore despite the service and...