Fu Yuan Fast Food

First off, if you are looking for INSTANT FAST food-​court style Chinese food, then go to the other joints at Richmond Public Market. The owner actually cooks your food fresh to order, so this is not a place for pick 3 Items with Rice. Do expect at least a 15 min wait for your food. Don’t have the patience and can’t wait that long? Go somewhere else. For me, the food is worth the wait.
At first it does look like a $hit-​hole-​in the wall, and I would skip this place for others in the mall. But upon trying their food, it has since been my #1 go-​to point, and I would go as far as to say this is a hidden gem.
The head cook/​owner is my man. (he’s the tall skinny guy). I’ve been visiting this place for years, and I drop by probably 2 – 3 times a week. The owners (husband and wife) are very friendly and usually have a nice chat with me. For less than $ 7 you get a plate of authentic, delicious and genuinely portioned plate of food. For Szechuan/​Northern Chinese food in a food-​court style setting, I go to no other place here in Richmond.
They make 3 different daily specials items everyday, outside of their usual menu items. My favorite is their Szechuan spicy pork ribs marinated with potatoes, topped with parsley and served with rice. Again, this is one of their daily special items, so it’s not on their menu. You’ll have to ask them if they have it for that day.
For the menu items I go for:
-«Soya sauce marinated slices of pork with egg, veggies»
-«spicy soup with slices of beef or fish fillet»
-«Ma Po Tofu»
-«Spicy Chilli Chicken with Assorted Peppers’
-«Deep fried spicy tilapia with pickled veggies and ground pork inside belly». -«Fish balls with soup»
[All items are served with rice and complimentary tea.]
For the Chinese impaired, I also like how their menu is displayed numerically with extra-​large pics of each menu item. So you can easily call out which number you want.

After the Wonder Wok assortment for dinner, I had to drop by and get some Ma Po Tofu and dumplings from Fu Yuan Fast Food. This is by far my favourite place here now and has taken the No 1 spot in this mall for me over the Chongqing place in the opposite corner (they lack service and smiles).
The lady remembers me and I asked about their new menu layout which she was quite proud of. She told me she took the pictures of the food and loves to take pictures of food like I do.
She’s read my reviews…
I usually get dumplings here, nothing special, but the price is right.
The Ma Po Tofu was spicy and you can ask for pretty much any dish spicy.
Great consistency and the owner loves to take pictures of food. She is a foodie and the service if friendly.
Lovely little take out gem.
** these places are what you would normally call hole in the walls if they were an actual restaurant on the street.
There are some dishes that are good and some that are, well, not so good, like the dumplings.
However, you have to put things into perspective and realize that the food they serve here are for the classes and not the hyper rich nor the Foodies who love to debate about which olive oil tastes better with a crisp tuscany loaf.
This is what you call grub, and I love the no frills basics that these places present.

* Sad *
I don’t know what is funnier:
1) Guy looking like he is sleeping below a sign that says «fast» food:
2) The awful dumplings they called xiao long bao which were thick skinned, had no soup, stuck to the paper on top of Styrofoam (were these steamed or microwaved!!!), and were served with only vinegar and no ginger:
Actually nothing funny. It was just sad. :(