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During our search for the best Chinese restaurants in town, we made a stop at Uncle Lu in Richmond. It’s the sister restaurant to Corner 23 on Cambie Street.

Food

Suggested by its Chinese name 萬巒豬腳, the restaurant’s signature dish is its pork hock. My mom is really good at making pork hock dishes so I had high expectations. This Pork Hock was legit! The skin was gelatinous, a little bit fatty, while still giving you a bit of a bite. The meat was tender, well-seasoned and flavourful. They could have done a better job plugging the hair out of the skin, though, as pieces of hair were still visible. The dipping sauce added some garlicky flavour, but it was cold. If the sauce was warm, it would help maintain the temperature of the meat, which would make it even more enjoyable.

Their Three Cup Chicken is a dry interpretation of this Taiwanese classic. The portions size was quite big here. The exterior was slightly crispy, the meat wasn’t overly dry. It was gingery with subtle Thai basil flavour. The saucy version could be borderline salty and you would want to eat with rice, but I could eat many pieces of this without craving for rice. I actually quite enjoyed this dry version.

I think there’s room to improve the Beef Wrap. The beef was marinated well, the pancake was crispy on the outside, but the overall ratio was off. There was too much pancake to the amount of meat, and there was too little sauce. The pancake was a bit too doughy for my liking as well.

Of course, we didn’t miss the Taiwanese Sausage. It was meaty, not overly fatty or smoky. And it wasn’t too sweet. The plate came with some thinly sliced garlic. Even though I’m not a raw garlic fan, I ate the sausage slices with the garlic and they worked really well. Garlic was so thin it wasn’t spicy at all. And the garlicky breath afterwards was manageable haha. At least Mr. didn’t complain about it afterwards.

Service

It was a Sunday afternoon, and even close to 2pm the restaurant was still busy with people waiting at the door. The service was prompt and servers weren’t rushing to kick us out.

In terms of the decor, I really like the high ceiling. And it has a classic feel to it.

Final Thoughts

Based on what we tried I thought the food here was pretty good. You should definitely try the pork hock, and I think you’ll enjoy the three cup chicken too. Obviously the menu is much bigger, so this warrants a re-visit in the future.

Uncle Lu 安可盧萬巒豬腳
3779 Sexsmith Road, Richmond
604-370-0250