We were lucky to check out the space and the food prior to their opening during a media event.
The concept is easy – you order from the front, sit down and wait for your order to arrive. Your order is served on a sizzling hot plate, still cooking as it arrives. This gives you the control of how well done you like it.
While the concept may not be groundbreaking, Pepper Lunch incorporates local ingredients including BC steelhead salmon that is sashimi grade and Canadian Certified Angus Beef for it’s steak dishes.
Pepper Lunch’s first Canadian location is located right in the heart of Richmond, BC – a city well known for it’s delicious Asian eats.
We tried the Rib Eye Steak, Beef Pepper Steak, Kobe Style Burger and Salmon Pepper Rice.
I started off with the Rib Eye – this gigantic piece of meat is flavourful, tender and with the marbling of the fat makes for an all around delicious meal. They lightly pepper the steak and add some vegetables to the side (corn, carrots and green beans). One of the managers suggested we added our rice to the hot plate so that it would become more crispy and soak up the juices from the meat (great idea!). Also another pro tip passed along: place your meats on the vegetables to keep them from overcooking (also, another perk is that your veggies will taste like delicious meat afterwards!).
Another delicious add on they have are two sauces: honey garlic and spicy soy sauce. I slathered my steak in the honey garlic sauce because I’m a big fan of garlic.
The Kobe Style burger was also very tender and moist!
Our table decided to share two more dishes: Beef Pepper Steak and Salmon Pepper Rice. The Beef Pepper Steak is more a popular and traditional type dish and was quite nice itself.
The Salmon Pepper Rice was the champion between the two dishes though, as the salmon had a nice aroma and meaty, tender taste. We were told that the salmon is BC caught and also sashimi grade.
We were also told that they have this great machine that washes, drains and cooks rice for them automatically, which sounds like something I need at home!
There is already an enormous buzz around Pepper Lunch’s opening and I’m sure it will be a big hit here in Vancouver. I definitely look forward to their real opening and getting my paws on their other flavours and also another salmon dish!
For more information, check out: http://www.pepperlunchcanada.com
