The One BBQ Kitchen 一哥燒臘廚房 — Restaurant in Vancouver

“Jat gor” ? Could this be the ONE?!?

Heard about this place from one of my customers when it was first opened and suggested I should give it a try.

Decided to come by here for a quick lunch while on the way to Richmond. This place is located on Victoria Drive and 54th Ave with street parking available.

The interior is newly renovated; basic tables and chairs toward the front, counter and kitchen with bbq display to the back, neon signs on the walls. I assume the goal to give diners the old school Hong Kong atmosphere or vibe?!?

The server was either daydreaming or had no interest to be working, she literally stood around motionless with her phone. Had to wave her down to order.

Here were the food;

Imitation shark’s fin soup. It was super watery, minimal ingredients and one of the most tasteless soup I had in a long time. Honestly should just scrap this off the menu. 3 item BBQ combo (daily soup & vegetables included). Daily soup and vegetables were a bit bland with a strong presence of msg in the soup. The bbq meats were okay, not a wow factor like some of the foodies exaggerated them to be. Sorrowful rice. This dish was actually created decades ago by a top chef in Hong Kong for the movie “God of Cookery” starring Stephen Chow (For those of you foodies who haven’t watch it before, WATCH it!) Its popularity picked up ever since then. How was this in comparison to its origin? There was too much sauce soaking at the bottom of the rice, the char siu was okay in texture and taste but was cold, rice was cold, the fried egg was also cold, and the piece of “you choy” looked old and wrinkly. As simple as this dish is, every details matter. So it has to come out steamy HOT and delicious (“yit lat lat” not “dong sep sep”). Otherwise its a failed!

Overall, the place is simple and nicely renovated to portrait a bit of a Hong Kong vibe. The BBQ food was okay, they might’ve been better if they weren’t sitting around for so long and lost their heat. The soups definitely needed some hardcore improvement on. As for the sorrowful rice, it’s more like I am sorry I spent money ordering it. As for the service… literally I was being served the bill and ferried my money away, that’s all (It wasn’t even busy!). There was only another table of 2 people besides mine. Definitely need to step up its game before it turns from “the One” to “No One”.

P.S. honestly, some of the so called foodies nowadays can’t tell the difference between a chicken and an egg, other than hyping up places with empty words. Have...

Overall, it is a decent place to eat. a bunch of hit and missed opportunities that would've made the experience more memorable. There will be 3 main factors that will be judged, which include food, service, and atmosphere of the establishment.

Firstly, the atmosphere was alright and provided no special wow factor other than the wallpaper and layout. Everything else seems pretty standard.

When it comes down to the service, it was a bit disappointing due to them making a minimal effort in attending customers. Other than them giving you tea, water, and food, you need to wave them down each time for something. Otherwise they won't attend to your needs. Asking and making sure if the customer is doing alright would be a huge boost for customer satisfaction.

When it came down to the food, it was a mixed reaction. The soup was below expectations and didn't offer much. The char siu was on the more lean and tough side, which I wasn't impressed. The siu yuk (Hong Kong roasted pork) had the same impression where the cut wasn't consistent, and the skin didn't offer the loud crunch. At least the meat was seasoned properly. The next dish that came was the tofu dish that also had siu yuk mixed with it. I was pretty impressed with the tofu as it was soft, maintained its shape, and had a large burst of flavor. Beef with greens was, however, mostly amazing. The beef was tender, offered lots of wok hay (wok essence), and overall was amazing. Green beans, however, weren't peeled properly. We got 2 plates of fried rice, the one with beef and the one with chicken and salted fish. Out of the two, I highly recommend the salted fish with chicken fried rice as it had an insane umami flavor profile from the fish, which matches well with the chicken and rice Lastly, we got fish with corn sauce dish, which proved to be a nice dish. Nice texture and balanced flavor. To round off the meal, we also had red bean dessert, which was also pretty good. Sweet and had an intense red bean flavor.

Overall, it's not a bad place to try out, but it's a hit or miss depending on what dish you choose. But one thing I will point out is I do recommend this place as it offers a good selection of food and a decent dining environment. Bring your family and friends and...

SLOW food & service and bad, bad food.

It was not busy and I wasn’t even greeted with hot tea or water. They had 4-5 people working on the floor and still couldn’t learn to serve customers properly.

Having been in the restaurant industry and having served for 15 years and working in my parents restaurants (both Western and Chinese, front and back of the house and as an adult and teenager), this is just ridiculous. It’s not like the menu is huge nor is there many tables and chairs.. maybe 40 at most?

We had the duck vermicelli noodle soup and 2 cuts of BBQ meat with rice. The duck was served very small and cut terribly. This place doesn’t even serve their meals with a free drink like most HK places. A HK milk tea is an additional $3.50+. The chicken was bland and the rice tasted old and cheap. The only saving grace was the BBQ pork. I don’t think the kitchen has any salt, pepper, spices etc..Everything tasted bland and the soup base tasted like water.

Not to mention, we had waited forever for the 2 most basic dishes. We even had to remind the server that it’s taking a long time for our order. Even the tables beside us and the ones beside them were complaining! They also forgot to give us our house soup which to no surprise, also tasted like nothing and only contained veggies and no meat or bones.

You’re seriously better off going to the food courts of Aberdeen Mall, Yaohan, Pacific Plaza, Empire, Parker Place etc.. or establishments like Van Tea, Deer Garden, Cafe Gloucester, Fat Boy or the sushi place across the street etc.. for the price point and much tastier tasting food. 2 dishes here with taxes and tip came to $40. For food that’s equivalent to a food court, I would have paid $30 maybe and no tip needed, plus I get a drink that’s included.

I had wanted to give them a fair chance for their grand opening as I know how stressful and difficult it can be. But they failed miserably in every sense. Couldn’t score on service, food or price even with a full robust staff.

To the owners, Vancouver is a high competition food scene, if you can’t even do well on any of these, don’t expect to survive. Please do better and read and listen to the reviews of others. I wish...