Chinese Bites has started a new VIP Program this year and I invited to try out Firebird Cafe with Seapotato from Savvy Shopping, Deals & Reviews.

Firebird Cafe is located in Continental Shopping Centre in Richmond. Easy to get to and plenty of free parking around.

Inside the restaurant is very spacious with modern decor. We started our dinner at 6:30pm but it didn't get busy until around 7:30-8pm. This restaurant seems to attract the later crowd.

There's a sheet to mark off for custom fish noodle soups (like Bubble Waffle or Deer Garden). I love these types of menus! Everything is so customizable, I love it!

And on the back there's option for a custom sizzling grill or custom steamed rice.

We decided to order one of each from the custom menu and a few extra things to share.

First up was the Ginko and Pepper Fish Soup with Egg Noodle. Of course, you get to choose the soup base, type of noodles, two toppings, and a drink with your order. It was what it was...very peppery! Most of us couldn't take the heat. But it was very good. Our friend E. loved it so much she drank all the soup!

Most of our order came with a drink. I was having trouble deciding so I asked the waitress what she'd recommend. She said the Signature Milk Tea with Pearls is very popular so I gave it a try. It was pretty good. It's not too sweet. I think Chatime is still my favourite but it's not bad at Firebird Cafe.

All of us agreed that the Baked Chicken Spaghetti in Meat Sauce was one of the best dishes of the night. The chicken was so tender and delicious, V. couldn't stop eating it!

Seapotato ordered the Custom Sizzling Grill - Beef Shortrib and Chicken Wings, a side of fries and garlic sauce. The sizzling grill also comes with a soup of the day and a drink. A pretty good deal for $13.95, if you ask me. The chicken wings were mmmmm-mmmm-good. Nice and crispy. The shortrib was very tender. And the fries were the best! Costco style fries - very crisp on the outside. You can read more about what Seapotato thought about this dish on her blog.

We also ordered a few appitizers - though they should be called side dishes because some of them came near the end of the meal. The Takoyaki while tasty, was a kind of a miss because of the inconsistent texture. Some of them were too gooey than it should be. They came on a bed of fried onions or noodles of some sort - very yummy when you eat it with the sauce the takoyaki was slathered in.

Deep fried squid. They seem to like using tomatos as garnishes. These were also on a bed of fried onions. The squid was a miss for us because it could benefit with some additional seasoning. The batter should be a bit more flavoured but with the dipping sauce, it was better.

Our last appetizer was a huge bowl of Taiwanese Chicken Nuggets. I wasn't expecting that much! I thought the dish would be half the size. There was no fried onion filler in the bowl it was all chicken. The nuggets were delicious! I'm telling you that you can't go wrong with anything chicken at Firebird Cafe. lol

The last item that came was the custom steamed rice with Free Range Chicken and Pork Liver and an added egg on top. We were unimpressed with the egg. It looks like it was microwaved so I'd skip that next time but the chicken was great! Again, Firebird Cafe seems to be good at making delicious chicken. I like how the rice was flavoured from the ingredients chosen. Lovely rice!

Overall, Firebird Cafe was ok. Some things were obviously better than others like the fish noodle soup, sizzling grill and I guess anything chicken. haha. It's another option in Richmond for those who like HK cafe style food.


Disclosure: The meal was provided free of charge by the Firebird Cafe and ChineseBites but the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own and have not been influenced in any other way.