Bubble Waffle Cafe

«Let’s go for some bubble waffle,» said my 6 foot tall male Caucasian friend who never had some before. I said, «sure but is there a place nearby?» And now here we are, eating some bubble waffles and I just happened to want some laksa noodles. The food was good although a bit greasy. The price is OK if you want to combo up but if not, a bowl of noodles run you $ 9.50.
Go for: bubble waffle and some thai food
Don’t go for: value-​priced rice or noodles

When I don’t have time nor energy to cook, I go to Bubble Waffle and grab their combo deal which includes a bowl of noodles (or veggies), a drink and bubble waffle! Service can be abrupt, but still efficient. In my opinion, this store has the best bubble waffle in Richmond — light and fluffy on the inside and crunchy on the outside!

This outlet is too busy for its own good. People line up early to place their orders of rice or noodles. And the orders take a while so if there are a bunch of people ahead of you, you end up waiting forever.
My first try, I got the chicken and noodle soup. I didn’t like it. The chicken broth tasted like Lipton noodle soup mix. No thanks!
I gave them another try. Hainese chicken and rice. I did enjoy this dish which had a good sized portion of flavored rice and tasty chicken covered with a classic ginger/​onion sauce. All orders come with a drink. I got the lemon iced tea. At $ 9.50, this is a pricey dish, but quality. So I can see this being a once in while treat.

I will stay away from this place after today’s lunch experience. They offer waffle at $ 1 for each if you buy any noodle combo. The cashier lady was mean when I required to pay $ 1 extra to buy a waffle but I lost my receipt after finishing my noodle. Just felt they don’t really care about anything else after you paid. Terrible service and not to mention the food quality was going downhill if anyone works nearby ate there in the past weeks you know what I’m talking about. A business only gets the immediate benefits will be short, that’s all I believe.

Given it’s located in downtown, the price is still affordable.
I stay away from any processed meat and therefore, I only stick with the hainanese chicken with laksa. Lemon Water and the waffle.
Come early to avoid the lineup.

This review is for the service, not the food. The food is pretty good here but service is nothing but horrible. The staff is so unfriendly, especially the woman with short hair at the till.
I requested my drink to have less sugar and less ice and she just ignored it. I’d understand that during busy hours (11:30am-1:30pm) it is difficult to accommodate any requests, but it was at 2:45pm and there was no lineup. At least say something if you don’t want to accommodate any requests. Don’t just ignore your customers. But what really warrants the one star rating is that immediately after I ordered, a gentleman behind me requested extra lemon and less sugar in his drink. She accommodated his request and was chatty and very friendly towards him. Perhaps he is a friend. But a paying customer is a paying customer. Why the differential treatment?!

Just less than a month after opening, with long lines and booming lunch hour business, combo prices here have gone up by about a dollar.
Price hike aside, the quality of the noodle soup ingredients has gone downhill the last few times I ate here. Most of the veggies in my soup had to be discarded because they were the junk stalky parts — as opposed to the good leafy parts they used to serve.
Bubble waffle add-​on (with any combo) is still a great value at $ 1, but lately they try to discourage you from ordering this — every single time — by telling you that the wait time for the bubble waffle is longer than it really is. (They say 20 mins, but then it magically is ready in 5…) I’m guessing they do this to deter the add-​on since it’s probably not worth their time for just $ 1 extra.
I generally feel small price hikes are OK if the quality remains the same or something changes for the better. But raising prices while cutting corners on quality is a big no-​no in my books.
This place used to be my fave lunch option in the past few weeks, but now I don’t think I’ll be going there as often anymore.

The goods:
— Preset manual is covering what I like. The selections are not too bad
— Laksa noodle soup is tasty
— Good bubble waffles
— Okay price for the whole meal + cold drink + waffle, consider it’s @ Downtown
The bads:
— Long wait time — 25 minutes till you get your order, starting at 12:03pm
— Noodle is on the soft side.

A surprising find inside Royal Centre, this is a scaled down version of the Bubble Waffle Café in the Aberdeen Centre food court. While it’s called «Bubble Waffle Café», the bubble waffles are really an afterthought at this location — the main focus is on their $ 8.75 soup noodle combos.
You place your order using a piece of paper with several «steps» with checkboxes:
Step 1: Green onion, parsley, take-​out/​eat-​in
Step 2: Soup base (choose one: Chinese herbal chicken, chicken, satay, laksa, Thai style, Szechwan spicy)
Step 3: Topping (choose one: beef, pork, lamb, fish, veggie)
Step 4: Noodle (choose one: rice noodle, egg noodle)
Step 5: Drink (choose one: iced lemon tea, iced lemon water, iced honey lemon, iced lemon Coke, iced milk tea)
Or if you want to go with rice or roti (also $ 8.75), your choices are Hainanese chicken rice, Hainanese chicken with roti, Hainanese chicken laksa and home made duck breast rice. These dishes also come with a drink.
Lastly, you can choose to add $ 1 for a bubble waffle… Yep, that afterthought of a menu item is where this place gets its name from! With the bubble waffle, the combo comes to $ 10.24 after tax. Oh, and they take credit/​debit without adding an extra charge to your bill. ;)
So far, I’ve had the laksa soup noodle with lamb and rice noodle, Hainanese chicken laksa and Hainanese chicken rice. All were pretty good, but the laksa soup noodle was definitely my favourite. There was a good amount of lamb, quail eggs, beancurd and napa cabbage in the soup. The chicken rice doesn’t compare to a legit Singaporean restaurant, but it’s okay as a midday food court option.
The milk tea and iced lemon tea are great and have a strong flavour. Note that the drinks are made in advance, so I’m not sure if they’d be accomodating if you request less sugar.
Lastly, the bubble waffle is exactly what you’d expect from Bubble Waffle Café. It’s delicious and satisfying, and for $ 1, I can’t imagine ever not choosing to add one to my meal. However, if you want a bubble waffle without a combo, it costs$ 3.95, which is way too expensive for heated up batter.
The service here is friendly and fast. The lineup is huge between 11:30 — 1:30, but it moves quite quickly. I just wish they were open for dinner and on weekends!
Thanks for coming Downtown, Bubble Waffle Café!