A 15 year pho house on the city’s densest food street, a herbal tea shop whose owner sold her own handbags to keep it open, and a sushi belt that only started turning after the ball pit closed for the night.
Richmond has lost eight food spots in recent months, and the list runs from mall food court stalls to a luxury hotel dining room.
Here is who is gone.
1. Pho Hoa Richmond
The Alexandra Road location that doubled as a Jazen Tea outpost has permanently closed, with a final day of service on July 26.
The earliest online trace of the unit dates to 2009, putting it past 15 years in Connaught Plaza. The chain itself is not going anywhere, with locations across Metro Vancouver and the US.
Address: 180-8500 Alexandra Road (Connaught Plaza), Richmond
Full story: Pho Hoa’s Richmond closure
2. Meet Herb
The healthy herbal tea shop on No. 3 Road announced in late July that it was shutting down at the end of the month.
Owner Ziki Li had sold her own luxury bags to keep it afloat, a fight local creators and Richmond News both covered.
The goodbye is not financial: she is leaving Canada for personal reasons.
Address: Shared unit with Chirpyhut, No. 3 Road (across from Canadian Tire), Richmond
Read what happened to Meet Herb
3. Szechuan Tales
The modern Sichuan restaurant on Leslie Road closed quietly, discovered by locked doors at dinner time and a teardown already underway inside.
It opened in 2022 with a sign reading 新派川菜, new-style Sichuan cuisine.
It closed holding a 4.5 star average across 643 Google reviews at a listed $20 to $50 a head.
Address: 8111 Leslie Road, Richmond BC
More on the Szechuan Tales closure
4. Happy Lamb Hot Pot Lansdowne
The Lansdowne Centre location closed on July 21 and has since been stripped back to a shell, with only the exhaust hoods left hanging.
It is a relocation rather than a straight goodbye, moving to 8251 Alexandra Road, where the new room is set to be the only Happy Lamb in Metro Vancouver running a grill menu alongside the hot pot.
Address: Lansdowne Centre, 5300 No. 3 Road, Richmond BC
Inside the gutted Lansdowne unit
5. Broli Kitchen
The Asian-Italian fusion spot inside Blundell Centre shut down after about five years, with its Google listing flipping to permanently closed on May 29.
Chef Zhuang Li spent a decade as a sous chef at the Sheraton Wall Centre and cooked at Provence Marinaside before running pasta and pizza through an Asian lens here.
The pork belly pizza was the repeat order.
Address: Blundell Centre, Richmond BC
The story behind Broli Kitchen
6. Jiang Jiang
The Xinjiang stall in the Parker Place food court is now wrapped head to toe in plastic sheeting, with the timing pointing to early July.
It opened in 2021, which put it at about four years, and it was the court’s window into Northwestern Chinese cooking, running lamb skewers, grilled stuffed buns, and big plate chicken.
Jiang Jian has now been replaced by Jing Noodle House, offering Wuhan noodles.
Address: Parker Place food court, 4380 No. 3 Road, Richmond BC
7. Bruno
The flagship dining room at the Versante Hotel is permanently closed, dark for more than a month before the formal goodbye landed on June 29.
It opened in August 2021 alongside Richmond’s debut luxury boutique hotel, running 6,000 square feet with an 18 seat communal table and a signature saffron shellfish tagliatelle.
Sister bar CASK is still open and Bruno is now taken over by a new concept called OVA.
Address: 8499 Bridgeport Road, Richmond
Why Bruno closed after five years
8. Mino Sushi Conveyor
The revolving sushi setup that ran out of Mino Club Cafe lasted roughly four months.
A notice on the glass gave the timeline in English and Chinese: open until June 21, closed permanently on June 22.
By day the room was a kids indoor playground, and after the ball pit shut at 5PM staff curtained off the play structure and started the belt.
Address: 120-8171 Ackroyd Road, Richmond BC
The sushi belt that ran after the ball pit closed
Eight closures in a few months is a lot for one city, and the food courts are turning over as fast as the storefronts.
For more new and upcoming food spots in Metro Vancouver, take a peek at our tracker here, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.