We stumbled upon the Chef’s Playground Eatery when searching for a place for lunch. This little restaurant is right at the heart of Steveston Village in Richmond, BC. With so many restaurants in the area, you might walk by this hidden gem without realizing it! Their unique signature drinks and well executed West Coast dishes were delicious and reasonably priced. We loved our meal and will definitely come back to try their brunch and dinner. Take a look at what we ordered for lunch during our first visit.
Lunch at Chef’s Playground Eatery
For lunch, we ordered two starters and a main to share. The two menu items that stood out for us right away were the Brussel Sprouts N’ Cauliflower and the Honey Thyme Butternut Squash Soup. Between the two, I loved the Brussel sprouts and cauliflower more. The balsamic glaze gave the dish a sweet and tangy flavour which makes you want to keep popping these veggies into your mouth. The crispy onion strings provided a good contrast of texture to the soft cauliflower. I did find this dish to be on the salty side.
Mr. Chau basically polished off the butternut squash soup with the house-baked garlic toast by himself because this was his favourite. The soup has a strong butternut squash flavour with a hint of the thyme and roasted garlic. If there was one thing I could change, it’d be the bumping the garlic flavour on the garlic toast.
For main, we got the Sticky Ale Back Ribs with Canadian pork back ribs, roasted potatoes, coleslaw, pale ale BBQ sauce and spicy apple mustard. If you’re looking for the fall-off-the-bone type of ribs, these were not it. So while I was a little disappointed that I have to work at removing meat off the ribs, I did fall in love with the pale ale BBQ sauce. This house-made BBQ sauce is smokey, sweet and just the right amount of tanginess. It’s seriously finger-licking good! I also liked that their roasted potatoes had really crispy skins.
Signature Drinks at Chef’s Playground Eatery
The signature drinks sounded really interesting so we got a couple to try. Mr. Chau got the Iced Chai Latte with rum. It tasted like a chai latte at first then you get hit with the rum after. Even though the flavour was good, it was a bit too strong for me.
I got the Apple Ginger Smash which as apple, sage and ginger beer. I’ve never had sage in drinks before and it works surprisingly well here. The drink is really refreshing. You also get a hint of spiciness from the ginger beer which I liked. You can add whisky to this drink which I didn’t as I was driving. For only a dollar more, I definitely recommend getting this over sodas.
Final Thoughts
I’d definitely recommend the Chef’s Playground Eatery as we thoroughly enjoyed their food and drinks. Do make a reservation ahead of time if you plan to go as they get quite busy during prime time for lunch. And one more thing, I notice that the ventilation in the restaurant isn’t that great. My clothes and hair smelled like food after lunch and this is probably because of their open kitchen.
