Tang Vietnamese Restaurant: Vietnamese hot pot in Richmond
Tang Vietnamese Restaurant & Bar in Richmond is an upscale version of what used to be Pho99. They have modernized their menu while keeping the Vietnamese street food options and adding a large selection of cocktails.
I came here with 3 friends to check out their special items like Vietnamese hot pot, seafood and cocktails! Here is how our experience went.
Tang Vietnamese Restaurant & Bar
8611 Alexandra Rd Unit 180, Richmond, BC V6X 1C3
The vibe
Tang has a patio and a pretty large indoor dining area. The inside looks pretty fun with different coloured lights, a karaoke area and a lit up bar in the back. We came during Christmas time so there was also some Christmas decor.
Seats were spacious with plush chairs and booth seating.
Food and drinks review
Disclaimer: All of our food and drinks were free as part of an Instagram collab, but as usual, I will include my honest review and opinions. I have included the prices in this review for your info. Prices are in CAD and rounded to the nearest dollar for simplicity.
Beverages ($11 each) + Cocktails ($15 each)
Our server recommended 2 non-alcoholic drinks for us:
- Coconut coffee ($11)
- Tang dessert ($11)
I liked the coconut coffee – it was similar to a Viet coffee but in a slushie texture and it was sweeter because of the coconut.
As for the tang dessert, we were told it has durian in it so I was a little nervous to try it. On the menu, it doesn’t say there is any durian in it so if you don’t like durian, beware! I am not a big fan of durian, but I found the dessert drink to be fine and even when I tasted some of the actual durian topping, it also tasted fine to me too. It wasn’t that smelly because it was mixed with a lot of different fruits also.
For cocktails, we chose:
- Pina colada ($15)
- Mai tai ($15)
The pina colada was quite good and tasted exactly how I expected. The Mai tai tasted very strong but after we mixed it, it tasted better.
Signature viet butter garlic beef ($20)
We were very interested in this dish because it immediately made us think of the butter beef from Phnom Penh in Chinatown. Sadly, the one from Tang doesn’t taste better than Phnom Penh’s, but it was still pretty good.
The beef is sliced pretty thin but still easy to pick and pull apart. I did like their combination of cilantro, garlic, and sauce and I think it is worth the price – still quite yummy!
Lotus rootlet papaya salad ($26)
Our server also recommended this papaya salad that has lotus roots, shrimp and pork belly.
I didn’t think much of this salad but I was quite surprised when I tasted it 😳. It was sweeter than I thought and all the vegetables and the shrimp chips had a nice crunch to it. Also, I was surprised at how much meat was in this salad – I thought it was only vegetables. All in all, I liked this salad more than I thought I would and it was a huge portion.
Charcoal scallop skewers ($5/pc) + Charcoal salted prawn ($23/6pcs)
For skewers, our server recommended the scallop and grilled prawn skewers. Both are grilled over charcoal.
I really liked the presentation of these skewers but I did like the scallop skewers more. I found them to be tastier than the grilled prawns because the prawn skewers had some sort of lemongrass in them perhaps and it made them taste kind of “perfumey” or “floral” to me.
Betel leaf with vermicelli veggie tray ($26)
Out of all the dishes, we all agreed that we liked this the most! My Vietnamese friend vouched for its authenticity as well 👍.
The betel leaf is wrapped around grilled beef, making it juicy and smoky with a distinct fragrance from the betel leaf. They also paired it with a strong-flavour shrimp paste sauce and your classic pickled veggies and vermicelli.
Beef rib banh hoi ($26)
My second favourite dish of the night were these beef ribs. Similar to the betel leaf platter from before, they serve it with these flattened rectangular portions of vermicelli noodles, veggies, and some fish sauce. I felt the beef ribs had a really tasty sauce and the meat was tender.
Seafood hot pot ($26)
The star item Tang really wanted us to try was this individual hot pot that comes in either beef or seafood toppings. We got to try the seafood hot pot with a Thai-style tom yum soup base.
It came in this interesting shaped pot and lid which has a fire burner underneath so it can keep everything hot for awhile.
Although the say this is an individual hot pot, I think it can feed way more than 1 person (at least 2 adults). But I did notice that the only real seafood in this seafood hot pot were the shrimps. Aside from the shrimp, there are only veggies and imitation crab meat.
I also felt like the whole set up was kind of gimmicky even though it was fun to try it out and put our noodles in and other toppings. I feel like maybe a regular bowl of pho would taste better and some of the individual toppings like a couple of lotus roots are quite expensive ($6).
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐
We had a fun and filling dinner at Tang Vietnamese Restaurant & Bar in Richmond. There were definitely a few dishes we felt were delicious and worth the price, these include the betel beef platter, beef ribs platter, butter beef and the scallop skewers.
Things I would likely not order again is the individual hot pot – at least the seafood one. The beef one may be better and again, I think their regular pho looks good too.
All of the drinks – non alcoholic and cocktails – were yummy and fun. They also have shots on the menu if you and your friends are looking for a drinking spot.
Service was great and our server did a great job recommending different dishes for us to try from the menu because there were so many options.
Sincerely, Loewe