Aroma Eatery: Cheap Taiwanese food in Burnaby

If you follow this blog, you’ll know I eat out often. But which places do I frequently go back to for regular meals? Aroma Eatery is one of them.

Aroma Eatery is – in my eyes – a hidden gem. It is a small mom and pops Taiwanese restaurant located on the outer circle building of Crystal Mall in Burnaby. Quickly, it crept into my heart as a spot I like to eat at often because the food is homey, yummy and the prices are very affordable 🥰.

Here is what I always order at Aroma Eatery.

The vibe

The restaurant is small and actually kind of looks like its predecessor (a sushi restaurant) with the wooden bar. They can seat around 5 tables maybe. Chairs are wooden and tables kind of look worn out, the booth seating also sometimes has cracks. So definitely not the most updated, modern, or fancy looking establishment.

Food and drinks review

Aroma Eatery has a regular menu, but what I always order is their special combo for 2 for $37 (it used to be $35). For $37, you can choose an A entree (1), B entree (1), plus a plate of vegetables, a plate of fried tofu, and your choice of miso soup or black tea. This is a really good deal because it’s enough food for 2 people for only $37 🫢!

Their options for entrees include things like the always popular salty-peppery chicken nuggets, eggplant, stew beef, sweet & sour meats, taiwanese sausage, bulgogi and more.

Black tea vs. Miso soup

Kelvin and I tend to go for the black tea because it’s really refreshing and has a little bit of a sweet taste. There have been times where I opt for a miso soup and he gets a tea and we share both. The miso soup is pretty average in a small bowl with some small pieces of tofu.

Between the 2, I like the tea more but on a cold day I’d go for the miso soup.

Salty peppery nuggets

Salty peppery nuggets is perhaps my go-to way to test if a Taiwanese restaurant is good or not. While the seasoning of this dish and amount is pretty good, I would actually recommend choosing the deep fried pork chop instead of this dish.

The pork chop is Kelvin’s go-to pick and it’s listed in the A list for entrees. The seasoning is almost identical to the salty-peppery nuggets except it is in pork chop form. You get quite a bit of pork chop (enough to share with 2 people).

We’ve also tried the braised pork chop option, also in the A list. It is not as deep fried and has a sweet and savoury sauce so if you are looking for something that is not deep fried, this may be a better option. But if you don’t care about that, I think the deep fried pork chop tastes better.

There have been times where some days the pork chop is slightly more lean than other days.

Pineapple shrimp ball

This dish is my absolute favourite at Aroma Eatery – I always order this. For those who are not familiar, mayo, shrimp and fruit are actually a combination that works in Chinese food (it sounds weird, I know). The shrimp has a bit of batter and is lightly fried, topped with some mayo sauce and pineapples. The taste is similar to an ebi mayo but lighter and more fruity.

Anyways, I love this dish and I love mayo. This dish is smaller than some of their other entrees, but I always get it anyways. It is listed in the B entree list.

Fried tofu

This is the fried tofu dish that comes with the combo. A lot of my friends like this dish – the tofu squares are deep fried and they give you this peanut sauce to dip it in. It’s always hot and fresh!

Vegetables

This was the veggie dish on one of the days I went – simply cooked in a nice broth. The vegetable dish actually changes from time to time – it just depends on what vegetable they have that day.

It’s actually quite a big plate of veggies for 2 people and my body is happy to finally have some healthy greens inside me.

Individual orders

If you choose not to order the combo for 2 for $37, this is what an entrée would look like (pork chop and the pineapple shrimp ball). It still comes with 2 side dishes – a soft tofu and some vegetables in what looks like a food tray for children 😅.

Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Like I said, I come to eat at Aroma Eatery often and take advantage of their $37 combo for 2 as my dinner. I’ve also brought several different friends to eat here and over time we’ve tried different entrees in list A and B. Some other notable ones that I liked include: Fish with black pepper sauce, spicy eggplant, satay beef. But honestly the pineapple shrimp ball and deep fried pork chop are still my top 2.

Ones I wouldn’t recommend is the crispy chicken with curry sauce – it had a weird green curry sauce that had edamame in it.

For $37, you get 4 dishes, 2 rices and 2 drinks. I don’t know anywhere else where you can get a deal like this and the food is good. The flavours and style of the dishes are more casual and homey (as if you had a Taiwanese mom and she was cooking for you), which makes me want to return more often because it’s just simple cooking that warms my heart.

Aroma Eatery is cash or debit only and there is usually just 1 server but he tries his best to do everything and manage the pick-up/online orders. If you are ever at Crystal Mall and want to go to a sit-down restaurant instead of their (very good) food court, I recommend to give Aroma Eatery a try and share the combo with another person!

Sincerely, Loewe