Wing Kee Restaurant in Richmond

Suanne and I had just sent off our boys for summer camp. They will be away for a full two weeks in Vancouver Island. While they are away, Suanne and I took the opportunity to scoot off on a vacation on our own.

We did not want to go far for dinner because we had to get to the airport in just a couple of hours. We drove down to Granville in Richmond and found this place called Wing Kee.

Wing Kee (also known as New Wing Kee) is located on the south side of Granville between Buswell and St Albans. From the outside, it looked very plain. Not really caring what we wanted we went in ”¦ and found a gem of a place.

Wing Kee seems like a Cantonese place as everyone speaks impecable Cantonese here. I am not sure about you but I swear can make out the difference between a Mainland China Chinese and non-Mainland China Chinese. Here, the customers speaks, dresses and behaves very much like the “older” generation of Chinese immigrants ”¦ i.e. the folks from Hongkong who migrated to Vancouver in droves in the 1990s before HK were reverted to China.

One thing I observed too ”¦ that it seems like they are expert foodies here and ordering unique dishes food that we had never quite seen before.

We ordered from the English menu. I so wished I could read Chinese as the special dishes are pasted on the wall, just like they do in old China. Expert foodies ordered from these on the wall while we ordered from the English menu. Sigh ”¦ the English menu had chop suey on it.

I leave the ordering of Chinese Tea to Suanne. She ordered “Heung Peen”. I can’t really tell one type of Chinese Tea to another. So ”¦ can you tell me your favourite type of Chinese Tea and tell me why you like it? We will try to order different types next time.

Besides “Heung Peen”, Suanne sometimes orders “Tit Goon Yum” and “Gook Bow” (that’s in Cantonese).

Suanne and I ordered two dishes. The first one was the Egg White Spinach. We decided on this by pointing to the neighboring tables and not from the English menu. It was an excellent dish.

The dish contained a mish mash of eggs ”¦ century eggs, salted eggs, and egg white. We especially liked roasted garlic cloves which balances out the slight saltiness from the eggs. The broth too was great. This must have been only of Wing Kee’s specialty as quite a lot of tables ordered this.

Wing Kee boasted that their Hongkong Style Fried Crab is “Best Taste in Town. Guaranteed!”. It is written on the walls and on the front of their menu. And since we see quite a lot of tables also had crab, we ordered that too.

This one costs $11.80 per pound. We ordered 1 crab and it came at almost 3 lbs and also quite meaty too. It is slightly spicy and surprisingly very moist. We enjoyed this a lot and highly recommend you try it for yourself.

They gave free dessert which we appreciated a lot.

Besides crabs, I see a few tables ordering lobster too. I had no idea how much that will cost as it is served in quite an elaborate manner — it came in something like three separate servings.

The meal costs $53 including tips and taxes. It’s quite expensive don’t you think? However, I highly recommend Wing Kee.

All right ”¦ starting tomorrow, I’ll start in a new series. This will be a series of our 2 week vacation to Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York City. Stay tuned.

Read more of Ben and Suanne’s food and travel adventures on their Chow Times blog.