Today we were at YVR airport, but we weren’t leaving on a jet plane.
This is Fairmont Vancouver Airport’s latest Popup: Wonton Mama, a retro Hong Kong street food style pop-up, imagined through a Chinese-Canadian lens. This is in partnership with Sharon of MAMAintheKitchen, with support from Vancouver’s beloved superstar Chef: William Lew of Pacific Reach.
They have recently teamed up and came out of a partnership with Richmond Hospital. Working together on the hospital’s cafeteria and in-house food program, to provide patients and their loved ones wholesome, nutritious, and delicious food in their time of needing, recognizing that food can help to heal. This Popup now plays off that vein, giving back to the hospital $1 for every transaction made.
Wonton Mama opened on March 20th and we were there for the very first seating. They will be running three days a week, Fridays through Sundays from March 21 to April 18, 2026.
Also worth mentioning is that seeing as they are offering hand made dumplings in Richmond during their month long stint, you can find them as part of Tourism Richmond’s famed Dumpling Trail for a limited time.
Wonton Mama embodies the nostalgic and vibrant flavours of Hong Kong’s street food culture with the fresh, locally rooted spirit of the BC coast. Each dish is prepared using MAMAintheKitchen‘a line of bottled sauces.
For those locals interested in attending, be aware that your parking will be reimbursed, so long as you have spent at least $50 on you meal. And good thing too, because after this 2 hour service our parking at the short-term lot ran up at $67 and change.
There was plenty of care put into the setting. Sharon went so far as to source actual paper lanterns and red lamp shades from Hong Kong, to help transport the scene. She wanted to show guests what a restaurant can be in Hong Kong, bringing back to flavours she had during her childhood. The space was sectioned off by wooden fencing that certainly made this pocket of neon light and clattering porcelain feel like you were transported. I appreciated the matching red stools and how they lend themselves to actual outdoor Hong Kong market seating. However, I found the plastic uncomfortable when seated for an extended period of time.
I am going to preface my review of the food by stating that the menu is love letter to Hong Kong-style cuisine. There are enough similarities to pluck nostalgic strings, but these are ultimately recreations and something completely and all their own. For those familiar with Sharon and Will, the menu embodies their spirit and heart on a plate. And I think they have successfully provided a unique product and concept that has not been seen anywhere else.
We started with some drinks, they have wine, beer, and specialty cocktails meant to compliment the food, all from the Fairmont bar.
The Central Lycheetini was like an espresso martini with the add on of lychee in place of sweetener. Café Patrón, lychee liqueur, and fresh lime. This one wasn’t for me. I found the bold flavours of robust coffee, smokey tequila, and candy lychee too contrasting of one another. It was like they were battling within my mouth and it wasn’t a cohesive sip.
The Star Ferry Highball was like a spritz, light and bubbly with sake, white sour plum, fresh lemon, blackberry, and soda.
My favourite was the Victoria Park Sour with Hendrick’s Gin, elderflower, fresh citrus, and cucumber. It was light and refreshing with vegetal notes, and offered a great pause in-between all the bites of spice.
As for the food, we would be trying a larger, more extensive menu that covers what they have been working on at Richmond hospital and what is available at the Popup. However, not everything below would be available publicly or a la carte.
The Popup will be offering noodle and dumpling combos with a reservation only tasting menu. The combo set has you picking between 3 different noodle and/or dumpling pairings, a classic Hong Kong snack, and a side. They are as follows.
You start by choosing your noodle and dumpling pairing from the following. All of which were large portions, with plenty of noodle to leave you full, or as a base to have with all the snacks and sides to follow.
Shrimp Wontons and Noodles in a spot prawn broth. I liked how I could make out the meatiness and taste of whole prawn within each dumpling, and that there was excess wonton wrapper around the edges, which is my favourite part for its chew. Therefore, this was my favourite of the three dumpling choices, and the bowl I would choose.
The broth was on the lighter side, whereas I would have liked more richness and depth to help flavour all the noodles. Thankfully each serving is topped with MAMAintheKitchen‘s shrimp garlic chilli oil and golden chives, which helped in this regard. Without it I found the bowl bland, with it the fishy chilli offered a good burn. You can also ask for a side of vinegar should you need more acid for your tastes.
The Mushroom Dumpling Curry Lo Mein in light soy and cilantro was on the sweeter side from the mushroom and fragrant with curry spice. I found it pretty neutral compared to all the punchier flavours, and therefore made for a great base with its thicker chewy noodles. As the vegetarian option, I found this least exciting.
The Chilli Chicken Wonton was served as is, no noodles. We got a couple each to try, topped with toasted sesame and fried shallots. The chilli sauce was needed for flavour and was clearly the star of the dish.
After you choose one of these three, you then choose your snack between the following three.
You can stack on more dumplings with the XO Siu Mai. Pork and shrimp filled dumplings topped luxuriously with scallions, fish roe, chilli threads, and MAMAintheKitchen‘s premium XO sauce. All together sitting in a pool of cilantro oil and soy. These I liked and found tasty with their soft meaty centre. This would be my choice from this category.
Although the Spring Rolls come at a close second. Filled with vegetables and served with a mandarin plum glaze for dipping. I enjoyed their crispy exterior that kept. It wasn’t overly greasy and the centre was melty in contrast. I didn’t mind a softer core to more drastically highlight the crunchy fry, however my table mate wanted the mix of vegetables julienned as she found the filling pasty in the mouth. The highlight was the terrific sweet and tangy plum sauce, I could have smothered each roll in more.
There has to be a last pick, and this one just happens to be it, however, if I could, I would order all 3 in this category as great appetizers to pick at and share. The Curry Fish Balls were batched made and scooped to serve 6 balls at a time. Topped with crispy vermicelli, coconut cream, and micro cilantro. It was bold and spicy, served with skewers this was easy street food style.
And your last combo category is “sides”. However, I found these more filling than the snacks and all meaty.
The Char Siu, bbq pork shouldn’t be compared to traditional Chinese bbq style. I found them more like a cross between candied salmon and burnt bbq tips. Sweet from the honey rose petal glaze and salty from the ginger scallion sauce. It was tougher to chew through and I enjoyed it best with some of the noodles above.
The Szechuan Chicken Wings could stand alone. They were juicy pieces of chicken, fried crispy in a mouth-watering mala dry-spice. Not spicy, but zesty and cut with the brightening acid of lemon.
The most filling of the three is the Smoked Duck Bao. This would be my pick. I liked the smokiness of the thick slices of duck alongside curry aioli, pickled carrot and daikon, hoisin, and cucumber. The pickles could have been sharper and brinier for freshness. I would have also liked more cream to bring all the ingredients together, as is it just felt like raw veggies. I liked how the bun was so moist and soft, my table mate thought it to be sweating.
The following dishes are not part of the choose your own combo, but may be part of their set menu.
The “Popo” Turnip Cake was a take on this dim sum dish that I have never seen before. It is dense with deep fried breading, but familiar with pieces of sweet and salty lap cheong and XO hoisin. Dressed up with pickled kohlrabi, purple seaweed, and trout caviar, each two bite brick was hearty and dense. I liked the seaweed garnish for its rubbery textured chew, however didn’t think it matched the over all flavour and theme of the dish. Although neither did the caviar, and at least these two were fishy together.
We had the above served alongside the Salted Egg Yolk Pork Belly Skewer, and the two looked alike with their crispy brown exterior. These fattier chunks of pork were brushed with a sour plum spiced honey glaze and topped with kelp garlic chilli crisp and chicharron. I thought these lush bites were in need of a base. These would have been great in between some of the white bun above, to cut into some of its fatty sinew, which I did like. As tasty they were, I did not get any of the promised salted egg yolk flavour.
For something a lot lighter, the Typhoon Shelter Sablefish was golden eagle black cod, pink scallops, red chilies, fried garlic black bean, serrano, and cilantro. I love the richness of the presentation the scallop shells added, although I found the shellfish combative against the silky white fish. I also thought the zesty crumb and chilli spice was better suited to the scallops than the gentle fish.
And for dessert they dressed up an Egg Tart, adding maple to the custard, and garnishing it with a salted egg yolk tuille. The latter actually tasted like salted egg yolk and I wish they used this as the tart crust as well. Here, it was like a crumbly like biscuit and not flakey, but its flavour didn’t offer much to the actual creamy custard filling.
In short, this was a very exciting meal. It was great fun to be able to rediscover classic Chinese dishes in such a creative remake, each equal parts: causal and dressy. For something fun and the feeling of getting away without leaving the city, this is a great pop up to drive out to.
Fairmont Vancouver Airport
3111 Grant McConachie Way, Richmond, BC V7B 0A6
604-248-3281
fairmont.com
