It's cool to see successful food chains like Papparoti or The Ramen Butcher pick Vancouver as a place expand into when considering North America. Continuing that trend is Pepper Lunch, which is actually using Richmond as its first North American location. Pepper Lunch has more than 200 outlets in Japan and Asia! (Q: it's pretty hard to not wonder what's Pepper Lunch when there is tons of advertisement along the Canada Line!) Pepper Lunch is a DIY fast service concept type of restaurant that specializes in a type of teppanyaki. The idea behind Pepper Lunch is that you get to cook your own meal atop of a sizzling iron plate - steaks, pastas, curry rice, and their signature pepper rice are all potential ingredients you can play with. (Q: it actually isn't a new concept to Vancouver. There is a place like that in the Aberdeen Foodcourt called Teppan Kitchen.) We knew the Pepper Lunch Canada was coming soon, and we had actually thought that Pepper Lunch opened for a few days already (Q: we tried to go last week but missed the soft opening on Sunday). When we went to check it out, we discovered that we actually went on Pepper Lunch's official grand opening day. In addition to opening later in the day (1pm, because there seemed to be a special tasting event happening before the open), a line actually started building up. It took us a little while to get in. (Q: again, thanks to my luck, we were 4th in line before the line got massively long.) [caption id="attachment_5182" align="aligncenter" width="625"] Inside Pepper Lunch[/caption] The decor and concept is interesting. I wasn't quite expecting Pepper Lunch to look so much like a fast food diner similar to the likes of Denny's (Q: I didn't get the same feel. I just thought it is like a typical Asian fast food place?). There are a lot of booth seats and individual tables for couples that could be put together, but overall the space isn't terribly large. (Q: I think the 2 big booths in the middle of the restaurant took up unnecessary amount of space but I guess good for bigger parties.) Instead of a sit-down dinner kind of place, Pepper Lunch is optimized for quick turn-over of customers (Q: reminds me of HK like Cafe de Coral) . You order up at the front before being seated (Q: it is weird in that you have to be seated like a proper restaurant). In a matter of moments, your water and drinks are put in front of you and your meal follows shortly afterwards (Q: like SUPER FAST service). If it wasn't such a busy first day, I think our meals would have been out even faster! [caption id="attachment_5183" align="aligncenter" width="625"] Menu[/caption] There are actually a lot of options to choose from. You first have the option of going with their signature Pepper Rice, Premium Steak, Chicken/Salmon, or Combo. If you opt for the Pepper Rice, there are 10 variants to choose from, ranging from types of meats to curry/no-curry, and etc. (Q: I overhead the salmon is sashimi grade salmon sourced locally. I'll be interested in giving that a try next time!) With premium steaks, the variability comes from the weight and cut of steak. Chicken and Salmon is pretty standard, and the combos are really for if you want it all (i.e. kobe burger steak and angus beef or chicken and salmon). (Q: AHHH TOO MANY OPTIONS! It is so hard to pick when everything looks so good!) Rather than go too crazy with our first try with Pepper Lunch, Q and I decided to go with a Pepper Rice and a Premium Steak dish. [caption id="attachment_5172" align="aligncenter" width="625"] Beef Pepper Rice ($8.95)[/caption] Q ordered the Beef Pepper Rice. In essence, a Pepper Rice dish is a dish of meat with spiced rice that's thrown on a super hot iron plate. In this case, we've got some delicious sliced beef. So what are you supposed to do with this? Well, you're actually supposed to go about cooking it yourself. Just like Teppan Kitchen in Aberdeen Centre, there are instructions on how to cook this on the side of the little paper oil guard thing. (Q: I just let my meat sit and sear! I got a nice crispy browning on the beef...DELICIOUS) [caption id="attachment_5177" align="aligncenter" width="625"] Cooking Pepper Rice[/caption] The beef and rice don't really come with anything beyond slight seasoning and pepper - the idea is that you are supposed to add your choice of sauce as you're cooking it. Each table has a honey brown sauce and a garlic soy sauce. I'm a fan of the garlic soy sauce! (Q: I hardly added any sauce. The meat and rice taste so good on their own! The garlic soy sauce is the better choice too I think but it is more salty than garlicky. I highly recommend trying the dish without additional seasoning!) I had a couple of bites of the Beef Pepper Rice, and I can say that it is better than the similar dish found at Teppan Kitchen. The beef is very tender and tasty, and the rice soaks up all the nice fat and juice coming out of the beef as it cooks. I also love pepper, so the peppery rice and meat is awesome. (Q: I could just eat the rice on its own! I am sure some butter is added along with copious amount of black pepper. It is a great vessel on its own and to mop up the deliciousness of the beef. The addition of sweet corn is great as it counter the bite from the pepper. It is just a great dish to eat!) For myself, I got the Kobe Style Burger Steak w/ Egg. (Q: he will never able to resist the option of adding an egg when presented.) [caption id="attachment_5174" align="aligncenter" width="625"] Kobe Style Burger Steak w/ Egg ($13.95)[/caption] Unlike the thinly sliced beef with the pepper rice, this thicker burger steak comes already slightly cooked. According to the instructions, you're supposed to spread the special butter (Q: browned butter) across the meat and then flip it over. Pepper Lunch also provides some sort of sweet onion sauce to put on the steak. Pepper is definitely their theme! As the meat gets close to being done to your liking, you're supposed to throw the meat on top of the vegetables to avoid over-cooking. I actually found that a bit tough, as the oil was splashing all over the place. (Q: ladies, be warned) [caption id="attachment_5178" align="aligncenter" width="625"] Cooking Pepper Steak[/caption] The Kobe Beef Steak was delicious - I found it tastier than the beef from the Beef Pepper Rice (Q: I disagree!). The steak was quite lean, making it quite soft to eat - I didn't actually have to use a knife at all to eat this steak (Q: I think that's because of the high fat content...NOT LEAN). The high temperature of the iron plate added a nice outer crust to it, which added a nice little crunch factor to the burger steak. I'd be quite interested to try their regular pepper steaks! One disadvantage of cooking meat on this type of iron plate is that the fat and liquid gets stuck on the plate - it did give me a really fatty taste when I ate a piece of steak straight off the plate. I can see why rice is included as well! Overall, good dish! (Q: it is an interested addition of the onion sauce. It tastes good on its own with the sweetness of the cooked onion but I don't think the burger patty needed any more sauce?) I think Pepper Lunch is a neat concept and the quality of food (the beef seems to be pretty good quality) is pretty good. It's definitely more of a casual kind of place to eat and perfect for if you're in a rush - we managed to order, sit down, shave off our meal, and pay in a good 40 minutes. (Q: the service is attentive which is typical of a Japanese restaurant. Our water were filled constantly. When guests leave, all the staff shout out thank you in Japanese. One thing about eating here though is that the rest of the day, you would smell like teppanyaki. Ladies, be warned not to wear your best cashmere sweater or it will absorb the smell or have oil splashed on it!) In case the attached instructions aren't enough, here's a fairly long video on Youtube by Pepper Lunch that gives a bit of background to Pepper Lunch and instructions on how to cook your meal. I actually wish I had seen this video before visiting! [video url="https://youtu.be/r7G31eBjrSQ" poster="http://www.pepperlunchcanada.com/images/slider1/1.jpg" title="Pepper Lunch Canada"] (Q: I would definitely come back again for a quick yet amazing lunch! There is parking in the back! Be sure to check this place out!)
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