It was the cute cow chef that first caught my eye. Happily trapped in a purple circle on a bright orange background, he’s the logo of the Hong Kong-style restaurant Cattle Cafe.

It’s one of the 200 Asian restaurants crammed into three blocks on Alexandra Road in Richmond (“Parking is fierce,” says Foodie Tour Host Michelle Ng) and completely easy to miss, except for the cute smiling cow.

Hong Kong-Style Cafe

The key to finding the right spot to dine on this chock-a-block restaurant scene called “Wai Sek Kai” or “Food Street,” is to simply open up the door and take a peek inside. With most of the restaurants in concrete strip malls and bare except for one sign, you can’t judge a restaurant by its storefront here, that’s for sure.

Inside Cattle Cafe, all is modern and sleek, with a circular theme: circle wall designs, crazy circular bench backs and, of course, lots of bubble tea. And the menu makes my head swim in circles with all the options.

Hot Pots, Fish Soup and the Eel Sandwich

It’s difficult to make the final decision on dishes. My solution? Go with a group and share everything. I was with 10 people and our game plan included one of the signature noodle soups, pork chops, baked seafood, an eel sandwich and a surprise dessert.

The noodle soup was a choose-your-own-ingredients decision. We went with the Malay Laksa soup base, sliced beef briskets and basa fillet toppings, and vermicelli noodles ($7.25 including coffee or tea). Baked pork chops with tomato sauce on rice ($8.95) and baked seafood with creamy sauce on rice ($8.95) were our mains—and although it was something that “could have been made at home,” as one of my friends told me—the baked seafood dish was my favourite of the night. Straight up comfort food.

A choice, that was very strange to me, was the insistence that we must try the Unagi BBQ eel sandwiches ($5.75 with fries). I wasn’t sure about this one. But on simple white crustless bread, cut up into four parts like you do for kids’ parties, the sandwiches were incredibly tasty. Like, it shimmied to the top of my favourite sandwich types list. (Hey, all the cool kids have a list.)

Photos by Lori Henry