Spicy Stage Cafe

I’d give this place about 3.5 stars.
We came here for lunch on a recent visit to Richmond. They have a lunch section where they serve noodles and then a hot pot section for dinner. I like the mix and match system here. You choose your broth, then your noodle, then two toppings or more for an additional price. The «meals» also come with a drink which is awesome.
I decided to switch it up and ordered a laksa with rice noodles (my mom said it was their specialty or something), fresh fish slices, Japanese fish rolls and mushrooms. My brother had the extra hot broth, my dad had the fish broth with parsley and thousand year egg and my mom had the fish broth– all with rice noodles (and toppings I don’t remember… I think everyone ordered fresh fish slices though.) We also ordered some shrimp cakes as an appetizer.
My laksa was weird and inauthentic. It was a strange color and didn’t have the creaminess of real laksa. It wasn’t a soup to drink– it was literally just a broth for the noodles. Now this makes sense for the place, but doesn’t make sense for laksa. However, the rice noodles and toppings were great! I loved both fish options. Turns out, ordering the extra mushroom topping was stupid because all of these come with TONS of veggies. Unless you’re a vegetarian, I’d suggest skipping the veggie toppings.
My brother’s broth was very very spicy in my opinion. I just want to warn anyone considering ordering it.
My dad’s broth was easily the best. Neither of my parents’ broth were spicy. I know this place is called Spicy Stage Café, but I regret not ordering their choices. The spicy broths were just way too busy.
I liked the shrimp cakes. The lady told us they were made in-​house, but unfortunately, my mom was right when she said it didn’t have the chewy springiness that we love in shrimp cake. It was still a fairly good dish though.
The place is clean and the service is good here.
I think if I had the fish broth with parsley and thousand year egg, this review would be 4 stars. However, I just sampled it from my dad’s bowl. My broth dragged this review down. I’d say its good, but not quite 4-​star very good for me yet…