Claypot Hotpot & BBQ Restaurant

Hey everyone!

I went to Claypot yesterday with my family and it reminded me that I still didn't blog about my previous experience yet. I went to Claypot for the first time a few weeks ago and i LOVED it.

First off, I recommend booking a table before going because this place gets packed extremely fast, especially during cold Vancity days.

For parking, I recommend car pooling and drive a small vehicle. The parking lot is very small and the spots are very tight.

This place is an all you can eat hot pot restaurant and everyone over 12 years old costs $20.95, children 4-11 years old costs $14.95. They also have a 2 hour limit for the all you can eat. Below, I've included the order menu, so you guys have a clearer idea of what food they offer.

For drinks, they have three options: plum juice, coca cola, and sprite for $1.50 and it is all you can drink. I prefer drinking plum juice during hot pot because it doesn't have any fizz to bloat up my belly. But the rest of my fam ordered the sodas.

I really like this place because their hot pot is a three tiered tower. the top tier is for steaming (recommend steaming some siu mah, if you like the ones from night market), second tier is to bbq and the bottom is of course for the actual hot pot. The bottom tier has a two way split, so you can have two different soup bases.

Maruwa Sushi Japanese Restaurant

Hey everyone!

As you guys may all know, I am a major sushi fan, so wherever I am I'll always recommend eating sushi. A few months back I actually stumbled upon a Japanese restaurant located in the Ironwood Mall with my bro but for some reason I totally forgot to blog about it! So here it is!

When we first saw the menu, it was very limited. There were assorted combos or individual rolls, sashimi and appetizers for ordering. The lunch menu was like any other standard sushi restaurant, serving the usual types of dishes. The interior was pretty small but its clean and bright. The waitresses were prompt in serving us. 

First off, we ordered the Chicken Karaage. I thought this was one of the best chicken karaages I've tried. The exterior was crunchy and the interior was soft and juicy. It was very mouthwatering and I really enjoyed this alot. The portion was a good size to share among two people. I highly recommend this dish if you were to come here.

Tin Tin Seafood Restaurant

Hey everyone,

Our family loves going to Dim sum during weekends because we designate that time for family time. Last weekend was Moon Cake Festival so booking a table for Dim Sum last minute was probably not the best idea. I had to call up several places until I came across Tin Tin Seafood Restaurant and they had tables available. When we got there, surprisingly we found parking. They have their own parking lot but its not the biggest. When we walked in, it wasn't as busy as we thought it'll be, which was somewhat good, because we were starving.

Tairyou Ichiba

Hey everyone,

After my Portfolio show at my school, we decided to eat somewhere near Metrotown. We came across this restaurant called Tairyou Ichiba. Apparently Phil tried this place with his family a long time ago but he forgot whether it was good or not. I always noticed this place because they have this very unique, traditional looking door. When we walked in, they have extremely high ceilings, which was a shocker to me because from the entrance it looks like it'll have an average ceiling height. Their interior is nicely decorated with Japanese posters all over the walls. At the bar area they also have the food menu at the top but its all written in Japanese words. I don't know the background of this restaurant or whether it is Japanese owned or not, BUT the waiter who was helping us was legit Japanese. There is always free parking along the side streets or there is pay parking at the front of the restaurant.

Uncle Lu

Hey everyone!

Welcome back to Domoiscraving and today we will be talking about Uncle Lu! The chinese wording at the front is exactly like Corner 23 so I assume they have some sort of a relation to each other. I'm not sure if this is exactly true but I heard that the boss of Corner 23 sold that name to another person and now opened Uncle Lu in Richmond to continue the popular Taiwanese chain restaurant here in Vancouver.

This restaurant is located in Continental Centre in Central Richmond. This plaza is usually filled with people because majority of the stores are restaurants. When we got there, we noticed at the front of the restaurant they have a sign up sheet where you can put down your name & number of people & they'll base off that list and give you a table accordingly. Also this place is CASH ONLY! Since their front isn't extremely big, we decided to step out to wait for our table. They taped up posters along the windows showing their signature dishes. Just looking at the images was making me drool already.

When we got to our table, we were given menus and they were probably the nicest looking menus I've seen in a Taiwanese restaurant. Their interior is smaller than expected but because of their tall ceilings, it didn't feel constricted at all. They had lantern decoration light fixtures above and at the back wall they featured this big piece with a bunch of asian words. Because my Chinese only goes to a certain extent, there's no way how I can translate that but at least it looks cool!

Hakkasan Bistro

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Domo Is Craving's team was invited to a dinner event hosted by Hakkasan Bistro. Our invite first started at Canada Berries, which is a local Richmond fruit winery. We went there around 5:30pm for a wine tasting. Their fruit wines tasted amazing and my personal favourite was the Gooseberry. Their staff was very informative in terms of their history, their products & you can definitely tell how passionate they were about their wines. I highly recommend checking them out because they only sell their fruit wines at their Richmond winery. I will include their address at the bottom of my post in case anyone wants to drop by and check them out! I highly suggest trying the Gooseberry & the Blue Queen Dry! The ones I like are not the super sweet ones but if you are the kind who like sweet wines, I recommend trying out their Princess Peach or Princess Cranberry Fruit wine. The Princess Peach wine is also a great sangria mix!
We were also served with appetizers on the side to pair with our wine. I was really enjoying their home grown grapes. They told us to try the grapes because apparently people always say Richmond can't grow great grapes. I can personally say that their home grown Richmond grapes taste amazing and they are extremely juicy and sweet!

Kiriri Japanese Cuisine & Sushi Bar

Hey everyone!

I've been exploring Richmond more often recently and my friend recommended this Japanese Sushi restaurant on Garden City & Blundell Road. I brought my mom and bro with me to give this place a try for dinner. When we first stepped in, we were the first customers to be seated for dinner. From first impression the interior didn't wow me and the fact that the whole restaurant was completely empty..I was quite skeptical regarding how good the food may be. We were given a table that had a "reservation" sign on it so my first thought was..."are they just placing these signs on the tables to make it seem like people will eventually come....?" ANYWAYS, after we ordered our food, more people started to show up so the whole fear factor of this place may potentially be horrible just decreased a tiny bit. By the time our food arrived, majority of the tables were already filled, so I was like OH GOD, we are not the only ones!

First off, I ordered a Miso Soup ($2.00) for my mom. The bowl is extremely small so for 2 dollars, i don't think it's worth ordering.

Shanghai Elan Restaurant

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the lack of blogposts lately. February is always the busiest time for me & Phil because it consists both of our birthdays, Valentines day, and soon to come, Chinese New Year.

So for Phil's Birthday dinner with his family, we ended up going to Shanghai Elan Restaurant which is located in Crystal Mall in Burnaby. Usually for his birthday we always choose to go to a western restaurant, but this year his uncle, auntie & grandma from Edmonton is visiting, so we decided to go for Shanghai cuisine. 

I've been here with Phil's family before and I always thought the food was decent. This time around is no differ. Some of the dishes we ordered this time is not what we usually order, so I was excited to try some new dishes!

First off, we got soup. This is called the Song Sao Fish Soup $12.50. It has heavy vinegar flavoring, so if you don't like vinegar, I don't recommend ordering this soup. Overall, I thought it was okay, the vinegar taste did overlap the majority of the soup so you can barely taste anything else in it.

Next up, Special Crab Meat Sauce with Tofu $18.95. At first glance I assumed this was a spicy dish, but nope, it's just the Crab meat coloring. The crab meat sauce soaked up the tofu and it was just absolutely delicious. Pairing this with white rice was just the perfect combination.