Cafés
A small specialty bar in Empire Centre near Aberdeen Station that takes coffee and matcha equally seriously, with careful pour-overs in a tidy, minimal room. Free mall parking makes it an easy weekday stop for Golden Village office workers.
Anyone who cares how matcha is prepared learns quickly that most places treat it as a sweet drink with green coloring. Weighing it, sifting it and whisking it properly is a different proposition, and a bar that takes tea as seriously as espresso is worth finding. Sunny M Specialty Coffee & Tea sits in Empire Centre on No. 3 Road, a short walk from Aberdeen Station.
Richmond's specialty coffee has mostly landed inside malls rather than on a high street, because that is where the foot traffic is. The city ran on chain drip and bubble tea for a long stretch, and the bars that arrived since have followed the towers and the office population rather than trying to build a cafe street from nothing.
The Golden Village stretch of No. 3 Road is dense: malls stacked against each other, offices above them, and a large weekday population working in the surrounding towers. A mall unit is a painless stop in a way that a street-parked cafe on Alexandra Road never is, and the Canada Line puts Aberdeen and Lansdowne stations within a few minutes on foot. Weekday mornings are the calm window here. Once the office crowd comes down at noon the whole corridor tightens up, and a small bar feels that more than a food court does.
In the Golden Village neighbourhood of Richmond.
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Other cafés and nearby businesses in the Richmond directory.
A busy Hong Kong-style cafe off Hazelbridge Way known for late hours and an enormous menu of rice plates, congee, thick toast and milk tea. The kind of place Richmond families end up at after a movie or a long day of shopping.
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A Taiwanese cafe on Alexandra Road, family-run since 1987, serving tea and coffee alongside a full menu of rice and noodle plates. Old-school, unhurried and open late, it predates most of the Golden Village restaurant strip around it.
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A small scratch bakehouse tucked into President Plaza that bakes everything on site using French technique. Croissants are the draw, especially the double-baked salted egg yolk custard one, alongside cream puffs, cakes and matcha or black sesame pastries.
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A twenty-year Vancouver Hong Kong-style cafe that finally crossed the bridge to Alexandra Road, doing the full cha chaan teng repertoire of baked pork chop rice, macaroni soup and milk tea. Open past 11pm, which suits the Golden Village crowd.
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Taiwanese cafe in Continental Centre that works as both a bubble tea stop and a full sit-down meal. Rice and noodle plates, hot pots and popcorn chicken alongside a long drinks list. Open late, which makes it a default after-movie spot.
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