Pepper Lunch Canada – A Quick, Sizzling Hot Meal

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Pepper Lunch Canada – A Quick, Sizzling Hot Meal

July 21, 2015 by Joyce

[Editor’s Note: After being MIA for a month planning and holding the “Joyce becomes Mrs. and Mr. officially becomes Mr. party, we’re back! Hope you didn’t miss us too much ;)]

Pepper Lunch opened its first Canada location in Richmond earlier this year. When it first opened, there was usually a line-up, so it took us awhile before we finally avoided the line-up and checked out the restaurant just a few weeks ago.

Pepper Lunch is a DIY quick service concept and the menu is relatively straightforward. Everything on a sizzling pan. Meat with rice, or just meat, served on a hot sizzling pan and diners have to cook the meat to their heart’s content. It reminds me of Stonegrill except this is a more casual meal.

Food

As first timers, we asked the staff for ideas and they suggested that we tried its signature pepper rice. And we did. For an extra $2.75, I made my Beef Pepper Rice into a combo so it also came with a drink and miso soup.

There was a good amount of thin beef slices, but boy, did they cook fast. It took no time to cook the meat, so I had to stir quickly to mix everything (meat, rice and loads of corn kernels) together.

The basic flavouring of the pepper rice is black pepper, hence the dish name, and that on its own was already quite flavourful. For extra flavours, you are also given two house sauces to add to your plate: Honey Brown Sauce and Garlic Soy Sauce. We preferred the honey brown sauce, which added some sweet and salt to the rice, whereas the garlic soy sauce was a bit on the salty side for us.

Mr. ordered the Pork Pepper Rice. As expected, the pork slices took longer to cook, so they were less over-cooked after mixing everything together. Meat was tender.

Between the two pepper rice, Mr. actually liked the pork one, whereas I liked the beef one. In my opinion, there was more flavour in the beef slices but pork slices were more tender.

Service

Being a quick service restaurant, the service was indeed quite speedy at Pepper Lunch. We ordered at the front entrance, then directed to a specific table and within 5-10 minutes our food arrived on a piping hot sizzling pan. They do refill the soft drinks that come with the combo; or you can ask for a glass of water from the staff.

Final Thoughts

Portion and flavours together, the pepper rice was a good dinner idea starting at $8.50 each. I don’t think you should combo it as the extra $2.75 doesn’t add much value. For a quick dinner, this is not a bad option so I would go back to try other things.