Noshwellmenu

[rating:5]

When Aberdeen Centre in Richmond re-opened a while ago, Case and I were curious to see how it would turn out. Years later, the mall still feels like some sort of failed experiment. There are some ridiculously popular stores such as the Japanese dollar store, Daiso — yet there are some retails units that remain unoccupied, leaving some parts of the mall feeling abandoned. The food court on the upper floor seems to mimic this model. Now, the food court isn’t typically where one would go to find great food — but Wo Fung Dessert is no ordinary fast food joint.

First off, the name itself is a misnomer, so don’t let it fool you — Wo Fung Dessert won’t serve you any dessert, unless in some twisted way you consider deep fried meats a kind of dessert. What it does serve is some of the best noodle soup and fried chicken wings around. We first heard about this place as a recommendation from my sister in-law.

It’s not hard to spot the place — it’s the one with the line ups. Go there, wait patiently and you’ll walk away happy.

I order rice noodle soup with Barvarian sausage and beef brisket. Case usually gets the rice noodle soup with assorted beef tripe and curry fish balls. Depending on our mood, we also order some fried chicken wings or fried squid. The whole meal gets washed down with a nice tall plastic cup of iced lemon tea — Hong Kong style.

The soup is awesome. It’s strangely cloudy, which would normally put us off, but the flavour is on point. You get your choice of vermicelli, wonton noodles or rice noodles. We like the rice noodles, because it doesn’t soak up all the soup while we eat. Each noodle soup comes with your choice of two items — everything from tripe to fish balls — It’s Hong Kong street food at its finest.

What these guys are really known for is their fried chicken wings and fried squid. People walk out of there with boxes and boxes of this stuff. I’m not sure what they put in the batter — I’m convinced that Crack is one of the ingredients — but whatever it is, it’s seasoned well and super tasty. The meat is tender and moist, while the batter remains crispy and is surprisingly not that greasy. KFC doesn’t have anything on the Wo Fung, I’m telling you.

Case and I always get a nice refreshing iced lemon tea to round off the meal. It’s basically Chinese tea, slightly sweetened with slices of lemon dunked in for a bit of zing — just the thing to take the edge of the fried food. Our whole meal is usually under $15. The food court isn’t typically a place we’d recommend for good food, but Wo Fung Dessert throws down the gauntlet with some great homemade soup and deftly fried chicken.

The Details

Aberdeen Centre
Unit 3220 — 4151 Hazelbridge Way, Richmond
604.233.1132
aberdeencentre.com

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