Where to Eat in Richmond, British Columbia in 48 Hours

8:00PM

Our first stop on our food adventure is a restaurant called Haroo Korean Homestyle Cuisine, they are known for their authentic homestyle recipes. The restaurant is tucked away upstairs in the Golden Village neighborhood among other popular restaurants like Dinesty Chinese, Top Shanghai Cuisines, and Suhang Restaurant which you may have heard of.

What makes Korean dining so wonderful is the banchan (or small dishes) that comes with your meal prior to your main dishes. These can range from stir-fried mushrooms, doljaban muchim (seasoned seaweed), oi sobagi (stuffed cucumber kimchi), myulchi bokkeum (dried achovies), kimchi, kongnamul muchim (beat sprouts) and many other dishes. You’ll generally find a larger selection of these plates the more authenic the restaurant gets.

One of our favorites were the salad with a fruit puree dressing that was sweet and tangy. What’s great about eating at Korean restaurants are all the complimentary small plates you get with your meal.

The picture above is the kimchi fried rice with a sunny side egg on top. This is a classic Korean dish that is super flavorful. It’s generally made with Napa cabbage (kimchi), a sweet onion, garlic, soy sauce, butter, sliced beef, spam, pork and salt to taste. We highly recommend getting this dish when you make your visit, it’s not to spicy if you’re worried about needing a glass of milk after every bite. We pretty much licked the plate clean.

This is one of our favorite spicy soups called soonduboo or spicy tofu soup, a spicy profile of about 4/5. You get a myriad of vegetables and protein like anchovies, shiitake mushrooms, kelp, onions, garlic, tofu and green onions. The best way to eat this is to take a scoop of the soup with your spoon and muddle it in your rice bowl or taste it to get the right amount of soup to rice.

This is the most recognizable Korean dish (LA Galbi) most people can identify and boy was is tasty. The meat was tender, sweet, garlicky and full of flavor. What makes “LA Galbi” LA? Well, to answer your question, LA galbi is an American variation of the tradition preparation of galbi that was adopted from immigrant Korean communities in Los Angeles. It is prepared in the same way as regular galbi, except that the ribs are cut differently. Because most American butcheries cut ribs rib-eye style, instead of the thicker chunks of individual ribs Koreans typically do in their own country, Korean homes and restaurants in L.A. made galbi with these thinner cuts of beef with several ribs.

For our last dish, we ordered the Korean seafood pancake called Haemul Pajeon. It’s a savory pancake that’s filled with carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, bell peppers, hash browns, scallions, octopus, and other delicious seafoods. The batter gives is a crispy exterior outer layer and the middle tends to be creamier. This dish pairs extremely well with makgeolli (milky Korean rice wine) or soju (Korean vodka).

One of the best experiences in Richmond is walking around at the Richmond Night Market tasting a myriad of street food surrounded by the bustling of people crunching down on tornado potatoes, nomming on hot Takoyaki balls and ripping apart sizzling bbq off the grill, but what happens when it’s not Night Market season? Well, you can thank Bubble Queen for opening up a store front in Richmond with its popular Bubble Waffles and fresh fruit Bubble Tea. The popular asian snack called Bubble Waffles have been a major hit at the night markets and now you can get it pretty much 24/7. At first glance when you step into the store, you’ll notice the outrageous amounts of fresh fruit along the glass case, on top of the shelves, behind the shelves, falling from the sky you name it. What separates this bubble shop from rest is the selection of fresh fruit bubble tea, smoothies, hot and cold teas, milk/yogurt teas, and the huge candy bar selection from KitKat, Ferror Rocher, Oreo, Crunch, White Chocolate Hershey’s, Maltesers, Coffee Crisp and many others you can combine with the bubble waffles.

We recommend getting mochi in the Bubble Waffle.