As you know, there are so many hole in the walls in Richmond and Happy Date is definitely one of them. It’s also stood the test of time – it’s been around longer than me (and that’s pretty old!). While the inside hasn’t changed much since I was younger, the food here is not so bad.
What brought me here was the Lobster Combo – I brought my family, so we went with the two live lobster and 5 dinner dishes with noodles for $149.99. That’s two whole lobsters and 5 dishes for $150 – super cheap.
At Happy Date, there are two pages of items you can choose from for the 5 dinner dishes. The combo is served with soup and dessert (red bean soup). You can choose what kind of sauce goes with the lobster – we chose the cream sauce.
My parents were blown away from the cream sauce lobsters – mind you, they’ve never had it prepared this way. They don’t normally eat a lot of Cantonese style dishes and I’m glad to be introducing them into the wonderful world that is Chinese food (other than your beef and broccolis and sweet and sours!).
The lobster is prepared nicely, it’s not too overcooked and the flavours from the cream sauce are nice. It’s not too heavy but a savoury treat. I’m normally not a fan of lobster, but I did enjoy this dish.
We ordered green beans and beef stir fry. The dish was good, not too greasy and had enough of the gravy for flavour.
We also ordered braised beef brisket and daikon. Nathalie and Josh loved this dish, this is one of my favourite dishes to order during the winter time, its so comforting!
We also ordered Kung Pao chicken, the dish was mostly vegetables and cashews though. Not too spicy as Kung Pao normally is, but was ok.
I then ordered the deep fried egg tofu with two types of mushrooms. Plating wise, not as appetizing, but flavour wise not too bad. It needed a bit more gravy.
Finally, I ordered deep fried squid. The breading is much thicker than what I’m used to at a Chinese restaurant but it was actually kinda nice to have this crispy outer shell (it wasn’t too thick with batter on the inside). It needed a bit more jalapeno to it, but still a good dish.
The combo also comes with rice, soup (which is just the clear soup you get whenever you go to Chinese places) and red bean soup for dessert (pretty standard as well).
For the price point, I think the value is here. I’d definitely come back again for the lobster. They also have a peking dish combo as well if you’re not a big fan of lobster!
Food: 4
Service: 2.5
Value: 4
Ambiance: 2
OVERALL: 4
