There is a new spot in Richmond where ordering a single main unlocks an all-you-can-eat buffet parked in the middle of the room.
That spot is Taoke, which just soft-opened on the second floor of Aberdeen Centre in late June.
(currently they are closed for maintenance and will grand open on July 9)
It takes over the old Chef Hung unit, and it comes from the team behind Pearl House, a longtime Taiwanese chain.
The concept is an interesting one.
Your main is either an individual hot pot or a sizzling hot plate, and the list to pick from is long.
The sizzling steak mains run from $42 up to $59 for a lobster tail.
In between sit the aged sirloin, chuck eye, T-bone, smoked duck, and lamb rack.
Each steak comes on a cast-iron plate with a choice of carb, two sides, and a sunny-side-up egg.
The hot pots let you build your own with a soup base, a carb, and a protein, from sliced pork collar at $40 up to marbled beef slices at $52.
The prices sit higher than most spots for a reason.
Ordering any of these mains is what gets you into the buffet at the center of the restaurant.
The buffet leans Taiwanese and deep-fried.
There is fried squid, popcorn chicken, sweet potato fries, coconut milk rolls, and takoyaki.
A bamboo steamer keeps a rotation of xiao long bao, siu mai, and mantou going.
You will also find Taiwanese sausage, greens, fruit, cherry tomatoes, edamame, soup, hot tea, a drink dispenser, a self-serve coffee machine, and a freezer of ice cream and cake.
If you would rather skip the main entirely, the buffet on its own is $33 for adults and $20 for kids.
A few things are worth knowing before you go.
Dining time is capped at 90 minutes.
You can pack your main to go, but the buffet items cannot leave the building.
We tried Taoke anonymously with a few friends over the soft-opening window, and the verdict is mixed.
We ordered the aged sirloin with a sunny-side egg and a mushroom sauce, a pan-seared chicken thigh, and a hot pot, which got all of us into the buffet.
The mains were decently done, the sirloin holding a proper char without fighting the knife.
The problem is the portions (unless you’re a big back).
Each main felt like a full dinner on its own, so by the time we reached the buffet we had room for maybe one plate and a single dessert each.
The buffet itself landed at average, the fried items and dim sum fine but nothing that pushed past fine.
For us, one plate and a drink did not justify the premium over a normal main, and the $33 buffet-only route did not tempt us either.
And you have to consider this when there’s ChoCho downstairs, which has its own AYCE concept.
All of this could shift once they iron out the kinks past soft opening.
The restaurant is currently temporarily closed as they prepare for their grand opening on July 9th.
Taoke joins other recently opened Richmond food spots like CK Tea C, Jiawei Big Bowl, and Wharf & Flame.
For more new and upcoming food spots in Metro Vancouver, take a peek at our tracker here, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
Address: 4151 Hazelbridge Way, 2nd floor, Aberdeen Centre, Richmond