Prataman Express — Restaurant in Richmond

If you’re looking for the original owner of the Prata-Man restaurant on Capstan Way, look no further! He’s here! The restaurant and this stall is not related!

The owner (older gentleman that runs the till) sold his restaurant 3 years ago due to not being able to find enough staff to accommodate the restaurant size (probably due to the pandemic), so he humbly has a food stall here at this food court. I hear the restaurant on Capstan Way is no longer what it used to be due to change of ownership and chef’s.

I prefer this set up as he specializes only in the best dishes, which is the Hainanese chicken rice, the curry beef brisket, roti with curry sauce and the Malaysian milk tea. Sometimes when a menu is too large in size, it diminishes the quality. With having a few items on the menu, you know it’s going to be good!

The taste of the seasoned rice, house soup (full of collagen/creamy taste due to the bones from the chicken they debone), and everything else was just perfect. Like old school cooking back from the 80’s. The chicken is tender and barely any bones you have to deal with. It comes with a generous size of the ginger/green onion and sweet chili sauce. They were so kind to cut the takeout box lid in half without us even asking so my boyfriend and I could have an extra “plate” as we dined in. $24 fed us both and we were so full. I think he gave us more rice as he asked if we were new customers. Just like a caring father :)

Please note, the Malaysian milk tea does not have pearls, and is served sweet with rock sugar. It has a great balance of tea and floral taste.

The owner is very generous with his portions and is like talking to a relative, super cheerful and kind, and you can see his staff in the back kitchen working diligently. The food court is also air conditioned in this hot weather compared to the other food courts in Richmond with lots of seating and cable TV.

Because this food court is growing in crazy popularity, take your food to go just in case!! Or go early!! Eat at Aberdeen, Lansdowne, Yaohan or a local park if the weather is nice. Chances of finding a seat at prime time is rare, or you might have to share with another party. They also sell out if you come end of day, so call them earlier in the day and they will save you your order.

Help support this small business and they are worthy of a nice tip! I hope they stay around for a long time. Keep up...

Prata-man is located in the bustling empire centre food court. The parking situation here is a bit challenging, especially for the few spots directly in front, so you might be better off parking your car in the garage or taking transit.

I ordered the half hainanwse chicken with 2 bowls of oil rice. The chicken itself was thicker cut than other places and it had gelatinous skin. I found the chicken to be tender but didn't have a lot of flavour on its own. It really shines once you add the scallion and sweet chili sauces. The oil rice was flavourful but not as fragrant as others that I've tried (e.g. City One Cafe). It also came with a side of chicken broth which had a lot of white pepper in it.

I also ordered a small order of curry with beef brisket. The beef was very tender and there was so much of it along with some potatoes. The curry itself was very flavourful with a hint of coconut milk.

Total cost including tax came to $36.00 for two people. We are bigger eaters and were stuffed from this!

Service was really good here, though its almost impossible to eat in the food court. You may be better off taking it to go and eating it at Lansdowne...

the food here is INCREDIBLE, every single thing was perfection. my favourite was probably the insanely flaky, buttery roti dipped in that delicious delicious curry. the inside was airy and steaming and the texture was so chewy and it was actually one of the best things ever, especially when you wrap some of that FATTY TENDER FALL APART BEEF FROM THE CURRY. obviously the hainanese chicken and rice were unbelievably yummy as well—the chicken was probably the best i’ve ever had, and i’ve had my fair share of hainanese chicken. it was all thigh and meat, it wasn’t dry at ALLLLL, and the skin was ABSOLUTELY DIVINEEEEEE I TELL YOU. the rice was also soooo good and warm and well steamed, but the flavour got toned down just a tad bit because of all the other dishes, but im not complaining because it made the perfect pairing with everything. everything was served piping hot, and words cannot expressed how much i loved this meal, you can really tell how much care was put into perfecting every bite. it was also extremely fairly priced for both the portion and the...