Location: Boston Steakhouse   
8171 Alexandra Road, Richmond, BC

Author: My Husband

10 years ago, a Vancouver resident could arbitrarily point in any direction, head in that direction, and find a HK-style café no more than a few blocks away. Now, she would be hardpressed to find any unless she pointed in the direction of Richmond. OK, that may have been a slight exaggeration, but it should be very apparent to any long-time resident of this city that these once-ubiquitous “cha chan tang” (茶餐廳) establishments have steadily declined in number over the years, and are almost in danger of going the way of the dodo.

This reason for the decline can most likely be ascribed to the changing Asian demographic in the lower mainland; the number of residents originating from Hong Kong has steadily declined while the number of new residents originating from the Chinese mainland has increased. Interestingly (and serving as a corollary to the statement above), the number of Northern Chinese Cuisine restaurants has exponentially increased over the same period of time.

My wife and I like eating at 茶餐廳s from time to time; it is not the quality of the food, service, or ambiance that compels us to do so. No, it is the sense of nostalgia that does it. The taste and smell of the food evokes good memories of our first taste of “western” cuisine when we were little kids. The food also brings to mind memories of good times spent with friends when we were teens, and of the period in time somewhere between high-school and University where “worries” centred around grades and the wooing of members of the opposite sex. And on a more practical note, not to be forgotten is the value-for-money factor, which at these places tend to be fairly good.

Last November, Christina and I had a hankering for some 茶餐廳 food, so we went to Boston Steakhouse in Richmond for dinner. We don’t usually post about meals taken at places like this because there’s really nothing very interesting about the food. However, that evening, Christina had something sufficiently different that we thought it worth writing about.

This is the dinner Christina had:

A rib-eye cooked on a hot stone. For our Vancouver readers, yes, this is somewhat similar to the style of dining at the Stone Grill.

It came with sides of fries and steamed vegetables. Black pepper sauce is provided in a gravy boat.

It was all part of a set dinner that included a cup of HK-style tea, a bowl of HK-style borscht, a bun, and dessert.

For those of you not familiar with HK-style tea, it is a concoction of 1/4 evap. milk and 3/4 strong tea. Each establishment has its own secret tea blends, which is why the taste of the teas vary from restaurant to restaurant. A good friend, whose family owns the famous chain of “Hononolu Cafés” in HK, let on that the blends usually include both black and Chinese (!) tea leaves.

Also for the benefit of those not familiar with HK-style “borscht”, the soup isn’t actually made with beets. Rather, the soup base is made with tomato paste, into which bits of cabbage, carrots, and cubes of beef are added.

As for the quality of the food, it really isn’t anything to write home about. The beef was of a grade that didn’t provide much flavour, but the veg. and fries were pretty good. Food quality is not one of the reasons you would choose to eat at a 茶餐廳, but we thought it was reasonable for the cost (approx. $25 for the set). Recent reports from people who ate @ Boston (in 2009) indicated a drop in food quality, but we haven’t eaten there recently and cannot validate.

Be that as it may, for those of you in Vancouver who haven’t had a chance to try HK-style “western” food, you may just want to do so before they all, like the dodo, go extinct.