Neptune Wonton Noodle on No 3 Road, Richmond

Having missed dinner, Suanne and I decided that we should go out for supper.  In many parts of Asia, where there are always places to eat at any hours of the day, suppers are meant to refer to the meal after normal dinner time … usually late at night.

It had been many years since we went to the Neptune Wonton Noodle.  This restaurant is positioned as a cheaper version of the Neptune Sharksin Seafood Restaurant and is located just side-by-side to it (on Akroyd and No 3 Road).  This is the restaurant with the green entrance … the more expensive one is the one with the red entrance.

Neptune Wonton Noodle, despite the name is actually more famous for its other food than wonton.  I don’t know if people really order wontons here at all.  It is a popular spot for late night supper and opens until 2AM.

When we were there past 10:15PM, the place was packed — and noisy as expected of such a place.  Walking in, one cannot help but notice the fragrant aroma of herbal soup — which is a specialty of Neptune.

For a busy Chinese restaurant, Neptune’s service is fast and efficient.  More importantly, it is not rude … but then they do not smile much.  At least one does not feel ignored or offended from poor service as one might get from busy restaurants.

They have a well arranged menu, sectionalized by the hour of availability.  It took us a while to figure the sections we should be looking at.  Take a look at the menu at the bottom of this post … they have exotic congee and noodles … like Lobster Congee ($14), or Sharkfin with Tossed Noodle ($13) or Abalone with Noodle Soup ($20).  Well, you get the idea.

Other than these exotic ingredients, most of their other menu items are pretty cheap at less than $10.

We knew what we wanted here … their famous Hot Pots.  This is not the all-you-can-eat hot pot here but specialty hotpot.  A lot of tables orders this for supper — with the Drunken Chicken our favourite.  There are a few hot pot options on the “Chef Special” on the menu.

We ordered the Drunken Chicken Hot Pot Assorted Plate.  The name is kind of confusing but I have you know that this is like a two course hot pot.  This costs $27 and is meant for 2 person.

The “first course” is a consists of half chicken.  I think this is Free Range Chicken that they provided.  It appears firmer, leaner and less fat.

The soup goes changes as we progressed with the meal.  It started off with a clear herbal soup with rice wine and wolfberry (in Cantonese, Kei Chee).  It has a distinctive “tong kwai” (Anglelica) smell to it — absolutely lovely.More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Neptune Wonton Noodle on No 3 Road, Richmond (506 words)

© ben for Chow Times, 2009. |
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Post tags: Cantonese, Chinese, Hotpot, Restaurant Review, Richmond

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