Samsoonie Noodle & Rice

Noticed a while ago that Man Ri Sung in Richmond closed. I heard that they moved to a bigger location in Aberdeen but I have yet to confirm that. Walked by this new place a few times and decided to give it a try. First thing I noticed that it is opened by Koreans, which is a good sign that the food would be authentic. We went there on Sunday afternoon and there were quite a few tables. 

As the name of the place suggested, they have a lot of noodles and rice to choose from. I was craving bulgogi so decided to order that. The prices are pretty reasonable. 

They have done some renovations compared to the old place but there isn't too many tables available. 

One thing to note, the menu mentioned there is self-serve miso soup with the bulgogi that I ordered but they didn't direct me where I should go. There wasn't any signs letting me know where the miso soup was located. It wasn't a big deal but if they mentioned it in the menu, they should explain it better or just remove that. 

We wanted to try their sushi roll compared to Man Ri Sung's. Theirs is pretty good. First thing I noticed is that it was wrapped pretty tightly. I really don't like it when the rolls are so loose that whey you pick them up with the chop stick, everything falls apart. The ingredients tasted pretty fresh and all went pretty well together. It was pretty good. 

The lunch came with two side dishes which is less than the usual Korean place. I didn't really like that kimchi that much. I wasn't sure if they made it or if they bought it. It was a bit too spicy but not enough sweetness to it. The sweet potato was pretty soft. They didn't deep fry them ahead of them which some restaurants do. The potato was pretty good.

This was the bulgogi and there were a lot of rice on the bulgogi. It was harder to eat the rice on the teppan plate though. I can tell that they didn't want to give you so much meat by filling half the plate with rice. It tasted pretty good though. It was seasoned well. It wasn't too salty or too sweet. I did like that they had a lot of green onions in the dish. 

Calvin ordered the braised spicy chicken hot pot. There were a lot of chicken in the pot but there were all chicken wings. There were a lot of ingredients in the hot pot and it was filling. The hot pot wasn't too too spicy. We did  enjoy it as the chicken had the kimchi flavour too. We thought they would just add the chicken at the end and the chicken would be kind of bland. Overall, the food there is pretty decent. Of course it's still not my top choice, but as a Korean restaurant in Richmond, it would be one of the top choices I go to. 

One thing to note is that don't expect to get really good service there as I find their service is average. 

Le Crocodile - Vancouver, BC

Le Crocodile has been on the list of the restaurants we want to try for a while. We have never gone there mostly because of the price. Boyfriend heard from his classmates that we should go during lunch time because the price is more reasonable. So on the day before we went on vacation, we decided to go there for lunch. Keep in mind that lunch is only available on weekdays.


Boyfriend ordered the Menu Express which was what his classmate recommended. It is a daily Main Course with wild mushroom soup with truffle oil or butter lettuce salad. The Menu Express was $20.

We also ordered the escargot with garlic butter as appetizer. As for me, I ordered the Crab Ravioli. 

Before the appetizer arrived, there was amuse bouche which was a mushroom quiche tart (bottom left of first picture). Although it is complimentary, a lot of work has been put into it. The tart pastry was soft and flaky and the filling was seasoned perfectly, it went really well with the pastry. Although we visited Le Crocodile during summer time, the warmth from the tart definitely started the meal right.

After that, our escargot came. We didn't really the menu in detail when we first ordered and we didn't know that it came with an edible pastry shell. When we first saw the dish, we thought the escargot was actually in its shell. Boyfriend liked it without the shell but I preferred eating it with the shell just because it is less salty. The garlic butter sauce was a bit salty but the escargot was cooked perfectly. 

I have to say this is the best ravioli I have ever had. The sauce was super creamy. There were smoked salmon bits and cheese in the sauce. The ravioli was baked at the top and melted the cheese. I mean who doesn't love the baked cheese. The ravioli filling was also very delicious. The crab meat wasn't overwhelming and you can tell the ingredients of the filling was very balanced. For $16.50, I would say this dish is definitely worth the money. Normally when you order ravioli at a higher end restaurant, you would probably get 4-6 pieces of ravioli. Look at how much pieces of ravioli there were. Of course I wasn't able to finish it because it was very filling. I would definitely recommend trying this ravioli when you go there. 

Each table gets a plate of skinny potato chips with their main course which is very thoughtful. I do enjoy eating those as well. I am not sure if those chips are bottomless as we didn't even finish our plate. 

Boyfriend had the daily main course which was grilled wild salmon. The salmon was cooked perfectly, melting in your mouth.  All the vegetables were also seasoned and cooked well too. Of course I still enjoyed my crab ravioli better. 

After the meal, they gave us a sorbet as a palate cleanser along with their famous Le Crocodile chocolate (Top left of first photo). 

Overall, I really enjoyed the lunch menu Le Crocodile provided. We will probably go there for dinner one day, but not anytime soon.