Cattle Cafe

[Don’t have a Cow, man!]
Popped by for a quick work day lunch. I typically frequent Deer Garden as my coworkers seem obsessed with the idea of Do-​It-​Yourself noodles — I needed a change and Cattle Café was nearby. The place was nicely decorated and almost empty so we were seated rather quickly. I ordered the Yin-​yang rice which was baked rice topped with a marinara meat sauce on one half and a cream of corn and mushroom sauce on the other. The portion was quite large and I had trouble finishing it (But I did). It was very tasty and hot and exactly what I didn’t need before an afternoon meeting. However At a mere $ 10 with a drink, it’s good value.
However, the one thing that irks me about this place is the service. Despite the fact the resutaurant was only one third full, service moved at a snail’s pace. The coke I had ordered with my meal and the rice itself took a while. I notified the waitress who seemed genuinely disinterested and replied with a rehearsed «it’s coming».

As far as HK cafes go, Cattle café offers value for for your money. It’s a place I’d go knowing what to expect — comfort food at a decent price. However, don’t go with high expectations on service or you might have a cow.

It’s ok in a pinch for lunch. The food has weird flavours that you would not normally get in the dishes that you would get elsewhere.
Still, friendly staff and fast.

Dropped by late in the night at cattle café for a quick and cheap meal that would fill me up. Modern atmosphere and a good place to chat. I ordered #1: the rice noodles with sausage, imitation crab meat and fish tofu in laksa soup, my girlfriends custom ordered in miso and original soup base — each with a complimentary drink
NOMS:
— My hk milk tea was one of the richest I’ve ever tasted in Vancouver… A very pleasant surprise
— customizability of ingredient and soup base
— original soup base was freshest and most well prepared
— colossal portions makes it well worth the $ 8.99
DISNOMS:
— they claim for no msg in their food but I was thirsty the entire night
— cash only
— miso soup base tasted out of an instant pack
OVERALL:
Mediocre food but huge portions. Not sure if it’s for me, but this is the place to feed a hungry bunch!

Cattle Café is mildly more commercial and easier on English-​speakers than some of the other restaurants nearby. It serves lots of Hong Kong cuisine (meaning odd baked things and pasta dishes that have slices of deli ham in them). I’d recommend sticking to the basics and just ordering a noodle soup with some side dishes. I got to try a few different kinds (the fish broth, the szechuan spicy broth, laksa) and they were all unique and punchy. Be ready for the spicy options to be pretty darn spicy.

My favourite place to go to after a vacation, a night out or a cold day.
Their noodle combo is a great deal for $ 8.50. You choose your own soup base, noodles, 2 items, and a drink plus you can pay extra for certain items.
I like the parsley & thousand egg fish soup, malay laksa or the peanut&chili soup in combo with beef brisket, bbq pork, fish tofu or pork liver always with vermicelli.
They have a large selection of other dishes like most HK-​style cafes most of which are all quite delectable. Especially their bubble waffles, french toast and baked dishes.
This place does get packed so try to go a bit before lunch or dinner time to get a seat quicker.

If you want the decent meal but the $ 10 hot pot is out of your range, one very decent alternative is the $ 7.50 noodle soup. The portion is about the same size as the hot pot, but you don’t get the 3 side dishes or rice.
The fish past noodles are ridiculously long. I’m not sure exactly how they manage to do this without snapping them, but each noodle is easily 1m or so. Try not to slurp the whole noodle from end to end or you’ll choke to death before doing so.

Had the laksa… soup base was perfect. A bit spicy but that is how i like it :) Got 2 x orders of the chicken wings and they are wonderful as well and a great deal at $ 2 for 3 pieces.
Pretty much exactly the same as Deer Garden.

This is another one of our favorite Asian comfort food restaurants that we visit every time we are in the Vancouver/​Richmond area. It’s smaller than some of the other cafes in the area, but as wisdom says, don’t judge a book by its cover. It is every bit as good as the other larger restaurants nearby.
One part of its menu is similar to Deer Garden where you custom order your soup noodle. Other than that, it also offers the basic Hong Kong style café food like baked or grilled items.
One of my favorites is their baked pork chop with rice. The pork chop is all tender white meat, lightly breaded and fried to perfections, then topped with a yummy tomato sauce. The sauce is really good, without a heavy tomato paste flavor like some other restaurants. It is really comparable to what you’ll find in a good café in Hong Kong!
Service here is a notch above similar Chinese restaurants in the area. In fact, I find the employees here really pleasant and friendly. I will definitely revisit this restaurant the next time I’m in Richmond and I’ll gladly recommend it to anyone seeking some Asian comfort food in a small, intimate, and friendly atmosphere.

Ah, Cattle Café…
In search of late night eats, my friends and I decided to make the trek to Richmond for a late dinner.
Cattle Café is very similar to the Deer Garden Signatures restaurants you can find in Vancouver and Richmond. I’m not sure if they’re owned by the same people, but both restaurants offer customized Chinese-​inspired noodle soups. You pick a soup base, two unique ingredients, a type of noodle, vegetables, and you can get all this in a combo with a beverage. Price-​wise, it’s a great deal because the servings are very generous.
This evening I happened to go with the Malay Laksa soup, Japanese ramen noodles, Sliced Beef, and «European Weiner.» The soup base was really tasty actually. It’s almost like a creamy curry base that’s flavorful and pleasantly spicy. I chose the «European Weiner» because I was expecting some sort of European-​style salami, although what I received was a single Schneiders-​esque hot dog-​style weiner you might find at Mom’s backyard soccer barbeque. I probably would not order it again, but it was tasty enough… I guess?
I knock off a star for Cattle Café because of the service. While our male server was really nice and reasonably attentive, we were later badgered by a female server who told us she wanted us to pay about mid-​way through our meal. Okay, fine. She later came back at 12:50am (the restaurant’s hours on the door said that they close at 1:00am) and told us that they were closed and strongly insinuated that we had to leave. TACKY AS HELL, especially since one of us was still working through her bowl of soup. It’s extremely unprofessional and downright rude of somebody who works in the service/​food industry to do something like this just because they want to start their closing procedures early so they can go home. We had already paid and my friend was still eating, so I really don’t know why they were kicking us out.
Cattle Café is also cash only, so make sure you bring cash with you.

Cattle Café is as good as it gets for the special noodle combo.
Granted, the parking along Alexandra Rd is pretty bad, so I would suggest coming here before the lunch rush (11:30am) or even later in the evening (8pm).
My go-​to soup base is always the Laksa soup base with beef brisket as one of the toppings. It’s so good.
There appears to a continual debate over which restaurant is better: Deer Garden or Cattle Café.
In all honesty, they are both pretty kick-​ass places. It’s like comparing a ⁹⁄₁₀ restaurant with a 9.5÷10 restaurant.
Put a place like Deer Garden or Cattle Café in a city where Chinese food isn’t as good (see Calgary) and it would get an automatic ¹⁰⁄₁₀ in anyone’s eyes.

I had the peanut and chilli soup with instant noodles, slices of beef briskets and beef balls. It was amazing. Compared to Deer Lake, the bowls are smaller, but there are more soup base options. The fried turnip cake was kind of spicy but it is worth it because it was so flavorful.
LOVE IT! I will definitely come back to try out other options!

Cattle Café is located below Deer Garden Signature which is also famous for their fish soup noodles. However, Cattle Café seems to focus more on the contemporary theme and a good variety of Chinese café style foods. I like Castle Café over Deer Garden especially during busy times, as Cattle Café never have the crazy line up that Deer Garden seems famous for.
Cattle Café’s main feature is the very popular fish soup noodle where you can choose how to put together your noodle soup dish by choosing the soup, the type of noodle, and the the toppings. The combinations are almost endless as there are many items for each ingredient. If noodle soup is not your dish, there is a good variety of rice and pasta dishes.
Another aspect that differentiates Cattle Café from Deer Garden is the service. The staff at Cattle Café seems less pressured or stressed. Service is still quick and efficient, but just not rushed like at Deer Garden.
I highly recommend Cattle Café. Please note they do have a few other locations around town, but this one on Alexandra Road in Richmond is my favorite.

On this rainy Friday, Sophia and I decided to get some Taiwanese café goodness at Cattle Café in Richmond.
We both ordered the specialty set menu noodle combinations with milkshakes. I went for Mango and she got Strawberry. It was tasty and had a good consistency and blend.
With the choose your own beef noodles, you choose your type of soup broth, two toppings, and noodles. Sophia went with a peanut broth, beef brisket, fish cakes, and udon noodles. It had a solid peanut taste.
I ordered satay soup with beef brisket, beef balls, and rice noodles. The broth was really hearty and not too spicy. It was a big bowl and portion yet we both wanted more noodles.
After a full meal, we still had to get some egg waffles. There were very crisp, delicious, and better than Bubble Queen’s. It was a pretty solid meal all around.

I came here for lunch with my 4 year old daughter and ordered the usual faves :
* Parsley & Century Egg soup base, with chicken balls, fish tofu, and rice noodle. Plus, a side of crab claw balls (+ $ 1.50) and a regular cold drink (+ $ 1.00).
* Peanut & Chilli soup base, with basa fillet, fish tofu, and instant noodles. Plus, a side of chicken wings (+ $ 1.50) and a regular cold drink (+ $ 1.00).
And, when my daughter accidentally spilled her drink all over the table, they came and cleaned it up pretty quick AND gave her a new one, free of charge! That’s above and beyond for us. Now, that’s awesome service!
Just one of the reasons we keep coming back here. The food is awesome and the service is great!
High chairs, yes. Please note, straps are broken or missing.
Strollers, I wouldn’t recommend it – at all.

Everytime I come here it’s always busy but turnover is quick enough. I ordered:
Chicken and ham in a coconut sauce with rice (it was creamy and flavourful with plenty of meat but I didn’t know they had mushrooms — I don’t like white button mushrooms =b)
Total = ~$ 6.75
filled my stomach and with an extra $ 1, I got a cold lemon tea =)
Service is alright, the waitress spilled the noodle soup onto the table and my friends chair — luckily no one got hurt.
Overall, good selection of food — next time I wanna try their «make your own noodle soup» option!

Being now a regular at this place, I must recommend several other dishes that are quite good.
We’ve noticed that during the lunch rush, it comes in waves, so if you time it right, it will minimize your wait time. 12:30pm seems to be a safe bet.
Back to the dishes. Their baked seafood dish is quite good. Lots of seafood (fish, mussels, squid) in a cream sauce, baked in a casserole dish with fried rice. Even better, they have a ‘half-​half’ rice, which is half baked pork chop and half baked seafood all in one dish. For my indecisive days, this is the one to get.
There’s been a recent price increase of about $ 0.25 per dish, which isn’t too bad, since you could still get lunch there for just under $ 10.

So, after waiting for my slumbering wife to get out of bed, it was a bright and early 2PM in the afternoon and I needed to get some food in my belly as my tapeworm was getting hungry.
We got there at 2:45 and it was packed! Waited about 10 – 15 minutes to get a table and lucky for me, just in time for the 3pm specials.
They have the create-​your-​own bowl of noodles that are great. My wife ordered the spicy thai soup for the broth with enoki mushrooms and beef. The broth was really good and had a decent amount of kick. I should have ordered noodles but I was stupid and wanted to try something from their 3pm menu.
Not to say my baked pork chop on rice was terrible, but compared to the noodles, it was a bit of a let down. Too much rice and there wasn’t much to the sauce (very little onions or anything else). The pork was okay, not dry or anything but there wasn’t much of it.
That said, my lemon iced tea was quite good and refreshing and the meal itself wasn’t expensive at all. $ 17 including taxes and tip.
I would go back again for their noodles and maybe try some of their other specials.

My friend and I just had manicures and pedicures done, so we were wearing flip flops in the middle of November. Hmmm… where to go eat dinner where there is no dress code and not get laughed at? Cattle Café!
Surprisingly good service. I’ve been to the Metrotown location before and expected the same service, but the waiters/​waitresses at the Richmond location are pretty friendly.
I usually order the Noodles with 2 toppings with a drink for $ 8, but decided to try the fish and tofu mini hot pot this time. It really hit the spot on a cold night. She had the pork chop with rice. The sauce had pieces of bacon in it… you can’t go wrong with bacon!
Both of us thoroughly enjoyed our meals!

This is a good place to go for causal lunch. You can pick your own combination of topping, soup base and noodle.
Under $ 10 for soup of noodle with drink. What you can expect more?

I’ve been coming here, like, every week. At one time 3 times a week.
I’ve tried the place down the street and the soup there just doesn’t cut it. Not like this place. I like the combo’s and the mix and match but it’s the soup that gets me. It speaks to me in a language that I don’t understand but I do enjoy! Just like my Jen! hahaha.
Tonight I brought Grandma, last Saturday, my buddy and before that another friend.
Tonight was for dinner. I decided to try the fish filet with creamy pesto sauce and rice. Not bad for HK café style.
However, it’s still the soup that makes it worth it to come here. The Laksa or the Szechuan!
The dinner stuff I had brought it down to a regular level. The service is still ok, and I think Granny enjoyed it, although she does prefer Japanese over anything else.