IKEA 99-cent 10-Piece Meatball Dinner Promotion Feb 17-20

I first caught wind this nationwide deal perusing RedFlagDeals. I've always known IKEA had a restaurant, but have been warned to stay away and save my money. But 99 cents for 10 meatballs and mash? That's pretty safe to try I guess, so I went to line up at the Richmond branch of Ikea at about 6:30PM.

The lineup was pretty massive and it took a good 25 minutes before I even got to the cash register to pay for my food. I must say the management there prepared for this very well as there were staff there handing out free "Daim" candies to the people in line. These are Swedish chocolate covered hard caramel candies that they sell at their food section for about $7 per 400g bag. These were pretty darn good. Next time I have a chocolate fix I may come by and pick up a bag.

Since it was questionable if I would make it through the lineup again if I was still hungry, I got 2 plates of the meatball dinner. The choice of sides were mash or fries. I got one of each, and just so I don't feel like a total cheapskate, I also got one of their regular priced pieces of garlic bread at a whopping 50 cents :-P

Each plate of meatballs came with a ladle of thin gravy and a scoop of lingonberry jam. So was it worth the wait? The meatballs were tender and very mildly spiced. They reminded me of the Michelina's frozen dinner stroganoff meatballs. You could tell they were highly processed and slightly freezer burned. Not surprising since you can often pick up the frozen dinner versions for 99 cents too. IKEA also sells these meatballs frozen at their Swedish Food Market. You're basically paying them to rip open these bags and heat them up for you.

The thin gravy did not add much to the meatballs and were severely lacking in flavor itself. Although the fries were not oily, they were all limp and not crisp at all - even the ones not smothered in gravy. The mash potatoes were just that: potatoes. I could not taste any salt, butter, or garlic. Definitely go for the fries here. They were not good fries by any definition, but were much better than the mash. The garlic bread was soggy and didn't have much garlic taste either.

The saving grace of the meal was the lingonberry jam. This was sweet, tangy and delightful, and tasted like a mix of strawberry and raspberry jam, minus the seeds. This went well with everything: the meatballs, fries, and mash were jazzed up nicely with this fusion of sweet and savory. I love this stuff! I have a lot of jam at home already or I would have picked up a jar from their Swedish food store.

Unfortunately, you're not given nearly enough jam to go around. I had to resort to salting my own fries, shaking my own pepper and adding vinegar to make the flavors more palatable. The whole meal reminded me of a frozen dinner, and I guess at 99 cents, that's acceptable. Would I pay the regular $4.99 for a plate of this stuff again? I'm kind of torn. If they let me get more jam, then yes. Otherwise, probably no.

Now the jam left me with a bit of a sweet tooth, but the lineup was too long for me to go get a piece of dessert from their somewhat wide and tasty looking selection. Luckily, they also have a "Bistro" downstairs that featured frozen yogurts for $1 - and 10 times shorter lineup. I noticed that they also sell self-dressed hotdogs here for 50 cents each and they were going at quite a pace. I will have to come back some other time to try one.

The yogurt was very large for $1, and very smooth and creamy. It was just the right amount of sweetness and thoroughly enjoyable. I will remember these in the summer when it's sweltering and I need a frozen treat.

If you happen to miss this 99-cent 10 piece meatball dinner deal, they also have a 15 piece meatball meal promotion that will last until April from what I heard. It's also a pretty safe price point to try if you want to see what their food is like.

Pros:
-cheap 

Cons:
-cheap
-you get what you paid for, pretty much just reheating frozen foods for you.
-mostly flavorless food, requires some self-assembly (seasoning)
-more of a cafeteria than restaurant. You bus your own tray and get most of your own food.

Notes:
-ample parking in IKEA lot
-prepare for a LONG lineup if you're going for the 99-cent deal this weekend

Website and Menu:
Richmond, BC: http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/store/richmond/restaurant
National: http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_CA/IKEA_Food/restaurant.html

Empire Seafood Restaurant

I've been to Empire twice before.  Each time, it was because my dad found an ad in the newspaper for what he considered a good deal on a seafood set meal, and this time was no different. Well, financially, it was a lot different, because this time I didn't have to pay! Some relatives flew in from overseas, and I get some good company and a good meal. Hooray!

The last two times here cost me $40 and $30 per person respectively for their king crab and lobster dinners. Neither of those experiences really wowed me. It was comparable to other Chinese fine dining in the lower mainland. They do have some unique flavors compared to other expensive Chinese restaurants I've been to, but nothing worth the price point in my opinion. Each time, the centerpiece of the set meal, the seafood, had an underwhelming portion, while the rest of the meal was good and tasty. Lo and behold, we had more of the same this time around.

The unfortunate thing about these set meal dinners at a lot of restaurants is that the menus are written in Chinese characters only, and I can't read these for squat. So, I don't really know what to expect and what everything is called. This time, we had the $128 lobster dinner for 6, but we had a party of 5.

I do know what the first course was though, since this is a common starter for a Chinese meal:  Fish Maw Soup. Empire's version had chunks of crab, shrimp and of course, fish maw in a mild syrupy egg drop soup. This soup is always served with red rice vinegar and white pepper powder on the side, and you season it yourself to taste. I like mine with lots of vinegar, and lots of pepper. Empire's version had lots of real crab, and was delightful to eat. A good start to the meal.

The next course was Peking Duck Wrap. They brought the whole roasted duck out and carve it out in front of you on a side table. You get the skin on top layer of meat, and they take away the rest of the duck. My uncle says they often give you the whole duck when they serve this in Hong Kong, either for the meal or to take home. I've never seen any GVRD restaurants offer this with this dish. The carved duck is served along with some fried rice chips.

What you do with this dish is take the duck, place it on a steamed wrap, garnish with scallions and cucumber, drizzle on some hoisin sauce, then roll up and eat. The duck was roasted to a nice crispness, and nicely fat and moist. The wrapper was also of a good fresh consistency.

Restaurants often give you less wrappers than actual pieces of duck and Empire was no different. I guess they expect you to put more than 1 piece in each wrap, but nobody ever does since it makes you look greedy or foolish if you are left with more wrappers than duck. This isn't a huge problem since the duck is very tasty on its own, and we had a lot left over. They probably would have given us more wrappers if we asked, but we didn't want to fill up on carbs.

Next up was the signature Lobster. This was again an underwhelmingly small specimen. It was cooked in a garlic and ginger sauce, and was the same as other Chinese restaurant lobsters in my opinion. I have to admit that I'm rather indifferent to lobster, crab and other crustaceans in general, so I'm probably a little biased here. I often like the noodles that get served in the sauce much more, and it was disappointing to me that this was just the lobster alone. I wouldn't consider this lobster big enough to satisfy 6 hungry lobster lovers.

We then got served a Fish Stir Fry. We didn't know what type of fish this was, and didn't ask. We just know it wasn't cod. The fish was chopped into nuggets with skin-on and bone-in, fins and everything. Stir fried with onions, garlic, scallions, and a ton of oil. This was incredibly greasy to eat and sat on a pool of oil. If that wasn't bad enough, the fish didn't taste very fresh at all, and had a slightly rotten fish taste to it. Surprisingly, my uncle loved the fish, but nobody else had very much of it.


The next dish was Pork Lettuce Wrap.  I've never liked this dish very much and consider it a cheap overpriced item. It's basically ground pork and chicken stir fried with water chestnuts, onion, garlic, scallions and rice cracker bits. Again, you drizzle on some hoisin sauce, and roll it up to eat, but this time it's on a piece of green lettuce.

For the essential fiber portion of the set meal, we got a plate of Bok Choy and Mushrooms. This was a good assortment of tender mushrooms served on a bed of tender bok choy. I think it was slightly under seasoned and could have used a touch more salt, but was otherwise enjoyable.

The carb portion of this set meal was Fried Sticky Rice. Empire's fried rices have always been a high point of the set meals I've had here before, and it was the case again tonight. They really know how to make good fried rice. The rice was of a good chewy consistency, with each individual grain separate but glutinous and not overly oily. This was fried with bits of dried shrimp, scallions, Chinese sausage, shiitake mushrooms and egg. If there's anything that would entice me to shell out the dough for dining at Empire, it's their fried rice.

The dessert though, was just plain Red Bean Soup. For a seafood set meal, this is a disappointing end. I never understood why high class restaurants choose to serve such an underwhelming item as a complimentary dessert. Dessert is the last item your guests enjoy, and I think it pays to give them something spectacular to end on a high note. Would it really hurt your bottom line to throw in something extra like tapioca pearls, or black glutinous rice, or coconut milk to jazz things up a bit? A lot of places also offer a choice of mango pudding or some other dessert, but we've always ended up with just plain red bean at Empire.

Overall, I'd say the dining experience at Empire is more or less the same as its competitors. Your plates get changed often, and staff are abundant. I think they do have above average decor though. You get a decorative plate underneath your utensil plate, and a nice velvet cloth napkin instead of paper. Their restaurant is also large and very well furnished. We walked in at 6:30 PM without a reservation, and was seated and served right away despite the restaurant looking busy and packed. I think Empire is a decent choice for affordable Chinese fine dining. It's not cheap, but doesn't totally break the bank either.

The meal today was a little less impressive than the last two we had here. Last times, the set meals included an awesome almost western style tangy Pork Rib Onion Stew, and very fragrant Yeung Chow Fried Rice with Taro. These weren't items you typically see on a competitor's menu and I thought they were both incredibly delightful to eat. I was hoping to see these again tonight, but we got a more typical serving of dishes instead.

Pros:
-very good fried rice dishes
-large and adequately staffed
-attentive service
-good decor

Cons:
-small seafood portions
-not cheap
-complimentary dessert could use some choice or pizazz for what you're paying

Notes:
-abundant free parking in mall complex

Peart Castle (Sexsmith, Richmond)

Pearl Castle is another restaurant that we've regularly frequented after Tuesday sports night. It's a Taiwanese bubble tea house, as its namesake suggests, but we come here for the food, which is surprisingly decent and reasonably priced. I find their drinks overpriced, as with most bubble tea joints, and come here exclusively for the food.

As with a lot of Taiwanese restaurants, they offer "set meals" which encompasses an entree with a bowl of rice, some daily appetizers, and a dessert. Pearl Castle offers set meals for under $9. I've been told that their food used to be over $10, but they've lowered their prices in recent years to be much more reasonable prices.

I felt like having fish today, but most meats in Taiwanese cuisine is deep fried,  and I didn't feel like a deep fried dish today. I asked the waitress which fish meal wasn't deep fried, and it turns out there was only one: Sliced Cod with Dried Soy Beans.

I've never seen this item before and wasn't quite sure what to expect. It turned out to be a fillet of cod topped with a puree of soybeans stir-fried with scallions and dark soy sauce. The soybeans were very crunchy and nutty, and complimented the cod well. It was a little on the salty side on its own, but was delicious when mixed with the cod and rice. I enjoyed this dish quite a bit, and the fact that it's healthier than their usual fried meat dishes is a big plus.

The appies today consisted of stir-fried celery, stewed cabbages, and sweet and sour tofu with scallions. The veggies were well-seasoned and very tender. Both were cooked in a nice broth and not overly salty. The tofu was very nice and tangy, and I wish they gave me more than the 5 tiny pieces.

Unfortunately, the dessert have been quite underwhelming here lately. Maybe it's because we come here so late, but we've been getting just a small cup of prepackaged lychee jelly. The first time we came here, we got some house-made sweet grass jelly, but since then it's been this crappy commercially bought crap. I hope it's just because they've ran out for the day, and not defaulting to this to cut costs.

Only Material Boy came out with me today for late night eats. He ordered the Fried Pork Chop with Rice, which turned out to be fried rice. The is your typical Taiwanese fried meat, which some people love but I'm not a big fan of. This pork chop was lightly breaded and not overly oily. There was also a lot of bone, but I guess it's the luck of the draw.

The rice was fried with egg, scallions, grated carrots, and large slices of onion. This was a very large portion, and also very delicious. Material Boy thought it was a bit on the oily side though. He though his meal was too large and couldnt' finish it all. He elected to eat all the rice instead of all of the pork chop, and I think  he made the right decision since the rice was very tasty. This also came with a complimentary dessert, which again, was the store-bought lychee jelly. He also ordered a Mango Slush, which was nice and refreshing, but again, I think is overpriced.

I think the food at Pearl Castle is well-priced for what you get. It's also well-executed, and we're sure to be back from time to time in the future.

Pros:
-good food
-decently priced
-decent portions

Cons:
-overpriced drinks (IMHO)

Notes:
-plenty of free parking in the complex 

Menus: (Argh! blurry pics again...)

Matsuyama

I've been going to Matsuyama quite a bit lately. We need some late night eats after sports on Tuesdays, and a friend has allergies that sort of limit our options. There's nothing safer than just fish and rice, so we normally go for Japanese.

There are plenty of options for late night Japanese in Richmond, but we almost always end up at Matsuyama because they have a cheap late night menu, and while the quality is not stellar, it's the best I've found at this price point. I've always though Matsu was Kishu prices at twice the quality. They're actually a better deal than Kishu since you have to order at least $5 of food for Happy Hour at Kishu, which always means at least 2 items with their pricing scheme.

Today, I decided to sample their line of nigiri. It's something I've wanted to do for a while, but always got distracted by other menu items. At $0.89 each, they are dirt cheap on the late night menu. The ones I ordered today are, starting from left to right on the top row are: spicy scallop, spicy salmon, spicy tako, spicy tuna, tamago, saba, tai, and amaebi. These were all very well made, and not overly small despite the small price tag. The rice was firm, and had just enough tangy sushi rice seasoning, but not overpowering.

The saba in particular was very sweet. It was the first time I had saba and I will be ordering more of it the next time I'm here. The amaebi was also very sweet, as it always is when I get it here. The spicy nigiri were all dressed in a mildly spicy sauce, with a spinkling of sesame seeds and occasional chili seed. The spicy scallop was also rolled in tobiko as is the norm with chopped scallop rolls. In retrospect, I probably should have ordered the regular version of the scallop nigiri for variety. Nothing special to note about the tamago - it was pretty standard. The The only one I didn't particular care for was the tai. It tasted flat and the soy/wasabi didn't help it out much.

Cheema started with the crab + tobiko salad. This is basically just finely minced imitation crab on a small bed of cucumbers, smothered with mayo and topped with tobiko and more mayo. It is served in a large bowl and a very large portion for a mere $2.95. This is the dish to get if you like california rolls and don't want to fill up on rice. It will satiate any hunger pangs - guaranteed.

She then had the chopped scallop roll, which was pretty standard fare. Chunks of scallop rolled in mayo and tobiko. It is pretty well made here, and a popular item when we visit.

Several people ordered the oyster motoyaki, and we see this a lot as they are very tasty here. The mayo is mixed with tobiko and chopped spinich, both of which add a very pleasing taste and crunch. Matsuyama motoyakis are awesome and never sit in a pool of oil. These points combined pretty much makes it mandatory to eat all the mayo, which is not something people normally do with motoyakis. It's a credit to the chef when every mototyaki ramekin I've seen consumed here is pretty much cleaned completely of mayo. It's not so great for our waistlines though...

It is also worth noting that the motoyaki ramekins are raised and hollow at the bottom, so the portion is not as large is the picture would suggest.

Material Boy decided to start with the ika karage. Even though it's only $3.95. I've always found the portion for this to be a bit disappointing. This is the late night portion pictured, and though I've never ordered the regular menu version, I hope it is a more generous portion than this. Matsuyama does make this pretty well though, as the ika we've had were always tender and crispy, but never too oily.
 
He finished off with a plate of assorted nigiri (hokigai, tamago, chopped scallop, crab salad) and unagi roll. I don't like hokigai, so I can't comment on these. The crab salad roll is pretty much the same as the crab + tobiko salad, or basically california roll filling. It is worth nothing that the late night unagi roll here is the same price ($2.95) as the other rolls. This makes matsuyama one of the more affordable places to get unagi, which is often quite expensive. It is also a popular item when we visit Matsuyama.

Others in my party ended up with sushi plates as well. Backhand ordered 4 salmon nigiri, spicy tuna nigiri, spicy tuna roll, avocado roll, and a spicy tuna cone. He remarked that the salmon nigiri looked unusually large today, and it indeed looked larger and fresher than the ones we usually get. Let's hope this becomes the norm from now on.

Blunt had a plate of chopped scallop roll, unagi roll, and dyanmite roll. He had no complains about his food. I've always wanted to try their alaska and dynamite rolls. I'll have to remember the next time I'm here.

It was unusual for everyone to have ordered sushi today. Normally, the donburis are a very popular item for our group. At $4.75, they are a great deal and many people just order a don end up completely full.

Another nice touch I've noticed is that if you order the chicken or beef teriyaki rolls, they give you extra dipping sauce on the side. It's attention to detail like this that sets Matsuyama apart in my opinion.

Material Boy has remarked that he noticed that the scallop used in the rolls don't taste so fresh to him, and that the chicken in the rolls and donburis often have a bit of freezer burn. I haven't noticed these, but I don't eat as much high quality Japanese cuisine as he does, so I'll defer to his expertise. I find the taste and texture of both here to be satisfactory.

All in all, Matsuyama is a great place to unwind after a late night of sports. It's affordable, delicious, and clean. The place does get very busy, which is a good thing in terms of keeping a high turnover of fresh meat, but not so great when it comes to parking, waiting for tables, and getting staff to take orders or refill your tea. At times, it can seem to be slightly understaffed. Still, I highly recommend it for good, cheap late night eats.

Feb 11, 2011 Update: Pics of Alaska Roll and Agedeshi Tofu

Pros:
-cheap late night menu
-quality remains high despite low pricing

Cons:
-can be difficult to find parking at peak/late hours. Carpool if possible.
-despite being a large restaurant, can fill up completely even during late night
-staff can be overwhelmed and forgetful at times

Notes:
-open late with late night menu
-has daily specials

-small parking lot, hard to find street parking on foodie street (Alexandra Rd)

Menu:
 

Late Night Menu (Better one can be found on Urbanspoon link below)

Menu 1

Menu 2

Menu 3