Friday, December 30, 2011

Bubble Waffle Cafe: a little excitement, a lot of disappointment

Drum roll please! 'Cause Amy and Lulu are bringing the co-blogs back! 

AMY: While scouring the streets of Richmond on a rainy day in search of lunch, Lulu and I decided to give Bubble Waffle Cafe a try. I noticed that the older place was replaced with Bubble Waffle Cafe a couple months ago, but haven't had the chance to try it. When we arrived, the place was packed and had a few people waiting outside. I took that as a good sign...who would line up for bad food? It wasn't long before we were offered a seat, but immediately I noticed that their chairs and tables were quite  dirty and cheap looking...nothing like what a new restaurant would look like. Well, can't judge a book by its cover, right?
DIY Noodle Combo $7.50 + tax (includes hot drink)
AMY:  For my noodle combo, I chose the vermicelli in original fish soup, with pork intestine and fish ball with shrimp. The first couple sips of soup were pretty good, but that slowly diminished as I went on eating. It wasn't particularly bad or anything, just nothing special. There was good amount of noodles and vegetables, as well as pork intestines. The fish balls with shrimp were very disappointing -- bland and boring. I was expecting a savory, juicy center...but all I got was some mush that didn't even taste like shrimp. Overall, I didn't really enjoy this dish as much as I expected to, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't stomach it.

LULU: Wow, I would not have known that those were fish balls with shrimp if Amy hadn't mentioned it. I agree with the fish balls being unsatisfactory, since I was totally expecting hot flavoury stuff gushing out when I chewed on the fish balls. 

Beef Teppanyaki Rice Meal   $7.50 + tax  (includes hot drink)

LULU: I myself had the Teppanyaki Rice pictured above. This was pretty much the reason we decided on coming to Bubble Waffle Cafe -- because I wanted to try the infamous teppanyaki rice. When you order the teppanyaki rice, you get to pick from a variety of sauces and I went with their House Special Soy Sauce. As my rice finally arrived at my table, I was more than excited to try it. The smell rising from the rice was mouth watering. After my first bite, I was very disappointed. The meat tasted very bland. Hoping to make my dish more tasty, I asked the waiter for more sauce. Even after that, the whole dish still tasted pretty bland. The looks of the teppanyaki rice was definitely not representative of its taste. 



AMY: For a restaurant that names themselves "Bubble Waffle Cafe", their bubble waffles are quite disappointing. I've never had "real" bubble waffle (ie. ones from Hong Kong), but these are not any better than all the other ones I have had. I like to have a very chewy center, and these barely had anything in the middle. 

LULU: Having live in North Point, Hong Kong, where the best bubble waffles in Hong Kong are rumoured to be, I have higher standards for bubble waffles. The bubble waffles here are not terrible, but  can certainly be better. Nonetheless, who would complain if it was on the house? 


(notice Amy eating her noodles in the back....)

LULU: On top of the food tasting mediocre, the service was disorderly. The waiters and waitresses seemed constantly confused. They messed up the orders for the table beside us, and also came back to our table twice to ask the same questions about changing our orders. Not to mention, the place is extremely crowded and people keep bumping into each other. Just making my way to the washroom from my table, I bumped into one waiter and got stepped on by another. I was surprised to make it out the restaurant alive. Amy also had a little incident of her own, when she made a waitress squeal just by getting up to leave. The waitress couldn't stop in time and almost spilled.. that would've been bad... 


If you're looking for a place to pick your own noodle combo, save yourselves a trip here and head over to Deer Garden. Although Deer Garden offers less options (toppings wise), they win hands down in terms of quality and quantity. Plus parking here is a giant pain...


Taste: ★★☆☆
Environment: ★★☆☆
Service: ★★☆☆
Price: $


Bubble Waffle Cafe
138 - 8131 Westminster Hwy 
Richmond, BC 

Bubble Waffle Cafe on Urbanspoon

2 comments:

  1. LOL, when I came here I was disappointed too, since everyone was raving about the bubble waffles here. ):
    btw, do you know if the Teppanyaki here similar to the one at Aberdeen Centre?

    ReplyDelete
  2. @KayCe

    I've tried the Teppanyaki at Aberdeen when it first opened, and it was much much better than here!

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...