Hestia Kitchen + Bar: Asian fusion restaurant in Richmond
I am the planner in my relationship but every now and then I do force my husband to plan a date 🙃. One of the restaurants he wanted to check out was Hestia Kitchen, but he took me to the Kitsilano location which is more of a takeout place and when we arrived, 50% of the menu was sold out or not available 😒. So I guess eventually he did take me to Hestia Kitchen (Richmond location) and we also dined here with 2 other friends.
Hestia Kitchen + Bar‘s concept is fine-dining without the price tag. This is a concept that certainly sounds good to me! We tried to order most of their popular dishes and here is how our experience went.
Hestia Kitchen + Bar
4351 Number 3 Rd #160, Richmond, BC V6X 3A7
The vibe
The entrance of Hestia Kitchen is really cool because they have all these lit up walls of liquor. But upon close inspection, I think they should display better/more expensive liquor options on their walls 😅. Still a cool look, nonetheless.
The inside is very spacious and it can fit a lot of tables. There is also a high ceiling and there was still a fully decorated Christmas tree when we ate here. Lighting is kind of dark so not the best for photo-taking.
I was very intrigued by this metal egg that was in the middle of our table when we arrived 🧐. When we opened it, it turned out to hold 4 sets of cutlery!
Food and drinks review
Prices are listed in CAD and rounded to the nearest dollar for simplicity.
Cocktails ($16+)
There were quite a few fun cocktails on Hestia’s menu so we ordered the following:
- Tipsy seagull ($18): 2oz | Baijiu (chinese spirit) + chambord + midori
- Sake sour ($16): 3oz | sake + yukon jack + di saronno + ginger syrup + egg white
- Beach under lavender haze ($18): 2oz | empress 1908 indigo gin + pineapple juice + lavender
- Fruli strawberry beer ($9)
I liked my cocktail (sake sour) but I can’t say I was surprised because I usually like sour cocktails with egg white. My husband ordered the tipsy seagull and I was very curious because it uses baijiu and that is a spirit I don’t often see in cocktails 😯. The taste was quite strong with a slightly fruity after-taste.
Truffle fries ($11)
For food, we shared everything but we started off with a classic and can’t-go-wrong order of truffle fries. It came with ketchup, truffle aioli, grana padano and chives. Tasted good and it met my expectations, although I wish the portion was larger for $11.
Roasted pear arugula salad ($15)
I’m not usually a salad girl but we ordered it and my body really needed it 😂. I thought this salad was ok – portion was big enough to share with 4 people – but it could have done with a bit more balsamic glaze and more feta cheese (tasted a little too dry).
Wagyu bolognese ($27)
To share, we ordered this wagyu bolognese pasta, which I think is a good price for wagyu but also not a good price. What I mean by this is that I often find wagyu an eye-catching ingredient on the menu, but when it’s used in bolognese where the meat is all chopped up, the value of wagyu is kind of lost 😣. Like you can substitute it for a lower grade meat and it won’t change the taste that much (in my opinion).
Regardless, this pasta uses brant lake wagyu and a decent smoked tomato sauce.
Seafood linguine ($29)
Out of all the dishes I tried, I actually like this seafood linguine the most 👍. It has big prawns, minced salmon, scallop and this yummy duck yolk sauce, which I thought was kind of unique. It had a lot of good flavour and creaminess to the pasta also.
Scallop risotto ($27)
Moving into their most popular signatures, we have yet another pasta dish – the scallop risotto. This dish comes with around 4 seared Hokkaido scallops and a pumpkin-based risotto.
I felt this dish was ok but lacking a bit of that punch in terms of flavour. The pumpkin risotto was sweet and pleasant, but a little bland. The scallops were great.
Steak + bone marrow bowl ($36)
The last popular item we ordered was this steak and bone marrow bowl. It comes in a Korean-style hot stone bowl and has a generous bed of rice and veggies under slices of top sirloin. On top, they place a big bone marrow for you to scrape off and mix into the bowl.
I felt this dish was quite fun and hearty 😋. For $36, I do think it is worth it to get bone marrow, steak and the amount of carbs included – a very filling main entrée.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐
We had a nice dinner at Hestia Kitchen + Bar in Richmond.
In terms of food quality, I think it is decent and I do see a lot of their dishes using premium ingredients (wagyu, bone marrow, seafood, etc.) as their positioning statement suggests. Portions are also big if you compare to most fine-dining establishments. So given the food quality, portions and the prices, I do think Hestia Kitchen half-delivers on their promise for fine-dining without the price tag. For the price, the food is worth it.
However, I do not think they are a fine-dining establishment. I think fine-dining can be pretty pompous sometimes but I do think the finesse of fine-dining is that everything is in balance on a plate. There is nothing on there that shouldn’t be. In this area, I don’t think Hestia Kitchen has reached to this level yet.
But hey, if you want fancy looking plates of food with premium ingredients and a reasonable price, Hestia Kitchen would be a good choice to check out. Just make sure you go to the Richmond location!
Sincerely, Loewe