Dim Sum Archives - Foodology

In Chinese

Yue Restaurant 鮑粵軒: Dim Sum and CNY Specialties in Richmond

January 24, 2020

Yue Restaurant has been a staple in Richmond and best known for their Hong Kong–style dim sum along with Cantonese dishes for dinner. They have won countless awards from the Chinese Restaurant Awards to Vancouver Magazine Awards.

A few years ago, they relocated to Alexandra Road and the space is stunning with a decent amount of parking. During peak dining times, it might be a bit tricky to find parking.

We were invited to try a wide variety of items from their dim sum menu as well as some Chinese New Year specialties.

Interior

Th interior is large and there are lots of round tables in their main dining area as well as private areas.

Dim Sum menu

Award Winning Dishes

Yue Restaurant has 3 award winning dishes on the menu – Steamed Prawn Dumpling, Baked Durian Tart, and Singing Beef Brisket and Rice Rolls in Pot.

Steamed Prawn Dumpling 水晶蝦餃皇

In 2015, their steamed prawn dumplings won Chinese Restaurant Awards Social Media Choice for Best Steamed Prawn Dumpling. There are lots of prawns inside without too much filler and the rice skin in a good thickness. I love eating this with XO sauce or spicy sauce.

Baked Durian Tart 泰式榴槤撻

This isn’t a dish for everyone, but if you love durian, its a must. In 2016, this won Chinese Restaurant Awards Critics’ Choice for Best Durian Eggtart.

I actually don’t see this on the menu that often at other dim sum restaurants, so it was nice to see a baked durian tart on their menu. The tart had a nice crunch with the creamy filling.

Singing Beef Brisket and Rice Rolls in Pot 啫啫牛腩腸粉煲

Another winner in 2017 at the Chinese Restaurant Awards Critics’ Choice for Best Stewed Beef Brisket With Rice Roll. It was really good as well. The beef was tender and the rice rolls had great flavour.

Steamed Prawn and Spinach 柳葉鮮蝦菠菜餃

Each order comes with 3 dumplings per order. The exterior skin is green in colour due to the spinach. The prawn and the spinach inside was very delicious. Also excellent with XO sauce.

Steamed Spare Ribs with Pumpkin 金蒜南瓜蒸排骨

Can’t go wrong with juicy steamed spare ribs. A staple dish in Cantonese dim sum. It’s something my parents order every single time.

Steamed Pork Dumpling with Crab Roe 蟹籽切肉燒賣皇

Another classic dish that is a must. There is a good ratio of pork and shrimp in the mixture, plus not too fatty either.

Deep Fried Shrimp and Cheese Spring Roll 蒜香芝士春卷

There was a lot of shrimp in these big spring rolls. I was very surprised by the size. The exterior was very crispy and the shrimp filling had a nice bounce.

Pan Fried Turnip Cake 臘味煎蘿蔔糕

An order of turnip cake has 3 big pieces. You can also cut them in half so you have 6 if you want a smaller piece. I did find it was a tad salty.

Pan Fried Sticky Rice with Dried Seafood 老茶居鳳凰煎米雞

Hidden inside this thin omelette is the pan fried stick rice.

Baked BBQ Pork Bun 鮑粵軒焗餐包

Another great item is their baked BBQ Pork Bun. It has a good amount of delicious BBQ pork inside the delicate bun. Highly recommended.

Steamed Rice Rolls with Beef 香茜牛肉腸粉

Their rice rolls are unique here as the ingredients are spread throughout the roll rather in the centre like other restaurants. The beef version was pretty good. Just pour a bit of soy sauce on top to add extra flavour.

Steamed Rice Rolls with BBQ Pork and Corn 金粟叉燒腸粉

Similar with the beef rice roll, but this has the BBQ Pork and Corn. Also very delicious and generous amount of ingredients inside.

Steamed Rice Rolls with 3 Kinds of Mushroom 香素三菇腸粉

You’ll definitely want to add some soy sauce to this one aw well. It has a good amount of mushroom flavour and good for mushroom lovers.

Steamed Egg Yolk Bun 黑金流沙包

The buns are freshly steamed and had the hot egg yolk custard in the centre. Just be careful eating it as it can just squirt out. I actually like to rip it in half and then eat it. It takes some skill to do that, so don’t be to aggressive with the bun.

Baked Egg Tart with Milk Puff Pastry 酥皮焗鮮奶葡撻

This is a treat as well. I’m surprised this hasn’t won any awards. Very crisp flaky pastry on the outside and smooth egg custard in the centre. I also like how it’s smaller and bite size.

Pan Fried Vermicelli with Beef and Bitter Melon with Black Bean Sauce 豉汁涼瓜牛肉煎米粉

I’m not a fan of bitter melon, but some people are. It was a solid dish with different texture throughout the dish.

Pork Hock with Maggi Sauce 美極豬手

The pork hock is cut up into smaller pieces and isn’t too salty either.

Fried Squabs 紅燒乳鴿

The fried squabs were ok. It’s hard to beat the ones from Hong Kong. Lovely presentation, but I would have liked the skin to be a bit more crisp.

Pork Rib in Special Spicy Sauce 將軍過橋骨

This is one big pork rib and it reminds me of a bridge. This is one of the Chinese New Year Specialty dishes. Some parts of it were quite dry and not as tender as I would have liked. With the amount of spicy sauce, it was quite salty.

Deep Fried Bean Curd Sheets with Prawn and Chives

Not too oily and it has a good amount of filling inside.

Tao Jiao Peach Resin Cake

A fun little dessert to have all by yourself, but if you have to, you can share too. It’s not too sweet and its the perfect little bite to end the meal.

Lychee and Sweet Olive Jello

I also enjoy this type of dessert too. Not sweet and very floral tasting.

Chinese New Year Specialties

Yue Restaurant is offering Chinese New Year specials between Jan 20 and Feb 9, 2020 for dinner time.

Yue’s Appetizer

The appetizers has a variety of items from jelly fish, baby octopus, surf clams, smoked salmon and braised beef shank. It’s a good item to order during dinner as guests can snack on it.

Braised Dried Oysters and Dried Black Moss in Bean Sauce

One of my favourite Chinese dishes. It’s so saucy and so good assuming you like black moss and oysters.

Final Thoughts

Overall, dim sum at Yue Restaurant was really good. I was pleasantly surprised and would definitely make a trip to dine again. You can’t go wrong with dim sum. We tried a lot of items and they were either average or exceeded our expectations.

Make sure you call ahead of time for a reservation as weekend dim sum rush can be a bit crazy.

Address:
110-8351 Alexandra Rd, Richmond, BC

In Chinese

New Mandarin Seafood Restaurant 時代文華海鮮酒家: Instagram Worthy Dim Sum in Vancouver

May 5, 2019

New Mandarin Seafood Restaurant recently opened their doors near Kingsway and Gladstone right beside the new T&T Supermarket. There is ample parkade parking and if you make a purchase, your parking is covered.

We decided to come here on a Friday at noon for dim sum since I saw that they had some pretty unique items on the menu. How can I resist not coming here? We made reservations an hour before we came but we still had to wait a little bit for the next available table to be ready.

Interior

There are lots of large tables and many VIP rooms and tables as well. For a Friday, this place was busy!! I can’t imagine what the weekend looks like here. The ceilings are high, lots of TV screens and a HUGE LED TV too.

I can see this place being a space for a lot of wedding receptions as they already have strobe lighting set up.

Do note that from the main entrance, there are a few steps to get to the front desk and main dining area, instead of going down the stairs in a treacherous manner, use the mini lift. Thats what we did for our stroller.

Dim Sum Menu

Ordering

What I found unique about this place is their ordering system. You can either fill out the form with pencil and give it to the staff to input into the computers or you can scan the QR Code at the table and input your own order to ensure no mistakes. It’s great because you know the price of each item as well as your whole meal will be prior to the dishes arriving.

Of course this app isn’t for everyone. I know my parents would not want to order with their phone as its such a strange concept. Some of the dishes are named differently in the app and on the paper ordering menu, so just beware. I submitted the order through the app and when the restaurant gets it, they print out the ordered items like a receipt and tape it to your table. They cross off each item as it arrives.

Rose Honey Sweet Potato Swan Crisp

This is all edible and very cute. Definitely a fun item to order as the whole table will want to take pictures of it. The exterior is very crispy and it reveals the sweet potato mixture inside. I didn’t taste much of the rose or honey in this dish. Nonetheless, it still tasted very good and I was surprised.

Panda Egg Yolk Steamed Bun

No pandas were hurt in the making of this egg yolk steamed bun. It’s a fun item to order for the table if there are kids or big kids at the table. It’s very delicious and has a decent amount of the salty egg yolk inside.

Steamed Black Garlic with Egg Yolk Sui Mai

I thought it was awesome that dish has a whole quail egg inside with the gooey centre. It was well executed and one of the favourite dishes of the meal.

Steamed Truffle Sui Mai

When this dish arrived, you can really smell the truffles. A good combination with the sui mai which I haven’t seem many people do for this dish. Highly recommended too.

Crispy Shrimp Dumplings

This was on the menu too and it’s interesting to see these deep fried instead of steamed so I was very curious about it. It does add a crispy texture to the dumplings but was missing something. Maybe like some sauce to accompany it.

Steamed Special Hot and Sour Meat in Soup Dumpling

This was like a Xiao Long Bao but filled with hot and sour soup and a chunk of meat. It was surprisingly really good and it has a kick of spiciness. If you have a very low spice tolerance, you may not like this. I personally really enjoyed this!

Steamed Carrot Buns with Mashed Taro

This is another cute steamed bun. You can tell your kids to eat their vegetables and be delighted that it doesn’t taste like a carrot. I found this bun to have a small amount of mashed taro inside so it felt like a lot of bun to get through. I wouldn’t get this again.

Steamed Beef Ball with Black Fungus

4 comes to an order and it was a pretty standard beef ball. Nothing too interesting. It is a staple dim sum dish for my family as we always order this during dim sum.

Steamed Cordyceps Flower with Chicken Rice

This was a filling dish on the menu with a bed of hot rice and topped with the chicken, cordyceps flower and veggies. Make sure you pour the sauce over the rice so it can soak up all of its flavours.

Moon Rabbits

This was a cute dessert made to look like rabbits. It tasted like a subtle coconut pudding. Decent but nothing spectacular.

Soufflé Topped with Almond Flake and Blueberry

This was a beautiful and big looking dessert made mostly with egg whites. On the outside, there are the slices of almond and in the centre there is a small spoonful of blueberry jam.

They cut it up into 4 pieces but it can serve a lot more than that. The taste was very bland and fell flat. It was missing something and we wouldn’t order this again.

Final Thoughts

It was a bit annoying to see some dim sum dishes come with 4 pieces and some other with 3 pieces. As a table of 4, sometimes we would have to half items or someone would be left without a piece and ordering another basket didn’t seem logical. Nonetheless, there are some very aesthetically pleasing dim sum that taste good too, and a few that were flops. My favourite items of the meal were the black truffle sui mai, Steamed Special Hot and Sour Meat in Soup Dumpling, and the black garlic quail egg sui mai.

Address:
4650 Gladstone St, Vancouver, BC

In Bakery

Good Mong Kok Bakery: Take Out Dim Sum in San Francisco

January 8, 2019

Good Mong Kok Bakery is a popular spot for homemade dim sum and baked goods in this tiny shop. They are located in Chinatown in San Francisco. As we arrived on a weekend in the morning, there was already a long line up. Since we wanted a small snack and had some time to kill, we thought we would give this place a try.

Don’t forget to bring cash.

Line Up

Everyone self-organizes themselves into a line, so you just need to ask around to find the end of the line. The line up was long when we were here but it moved at a decent pace.

Interior

The space is very small and cramped inside and it is to go only as there are no seats. Dim Sum and buns are pumped out constantly from the shop. When you get your order, don’t forget to ask for utensils if you’re eating it nearby.

If you come later in the afternoon, they sell out of popular items so don’t come here too late or else you’ll be out of luck.

Shrimp and Chive Dumplings

It comes with 3 pieces each and it’s very very affordable. The skin was a bit thicker than what I normally like, but the shrimp and chive filling inside was good.

Sticky Rice Ball

The big round thing on the right side if a big ball stuffed with sticky rice. Something interesting that I haven’t seen that often.

BBQ Pork Bun

The BBQ pork bun was big and had a good amount of filling. Sweet and meaty. Highly Recommended.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I thought this Good Mong Kok Bakery was ok because I come from a city that has some of the best Dim Sum in the world. If you’ve never had dim sum before, you’ll enjoy this place. Just know its not very typical to have dim sum for take out. I personally prefer to sit down at a restaurant to have dim sum.

Address:
1039 Stockton St, San Francisco, CA

In Dim Sum

Fisherman’s Terrace Seafood Restaurant: Dim Sum Madness in Richmond

August 11, 2018

Going for dim sum on a long weekend is crazy. You need to book ahead of time to ensure you get a seat. Even with a reservation, you’ll have to wait. It’s definitely no guarantee. The family and I headed to Fisherman’s Terrace and there was definitely along line up of people waiting to have their name be called. We arrived early for our reservation and waited patiently. Since we have a very common last name – Chan, there was another group that took our table which turn out also had a party of 5 too. They really should be relying on the phone numbers that were given.

Nonetheless, the manger sorted it out and got us a table soon after.

Interior

The space is large and they have tons of tables here for large groups. It’s always a family affair here.

We waited a while to eat, so we ordered a lot for 5 people. The results of ordering when you’re hangry.

Shrimp Dumplings

An order comes in 4 pieces in a bamboo steamer. There are pieces of shrimp inside the rice skin. Very delicious and I like to eat it with XO Sauce or hot sauce.

Pork and Shrimp Dumpling

Another classic dim sum with a mixture of pork and shrimp. There are good sized pieces of shrimp and there isn’t too much fat mixed in.

Bean Curd Rolls

Inside of the bean curd is a pork mixture and it is delicious. It has 3 pieces but it is cut up so there are 6 pieces.

Shredded Chicken Salad

This dish is served cold and has some deep fried wonton crisps, shredded chicken, and veggies. There is a prominent sesame oil taste to it too.

Pan Fried Stuffed Eggplant with Shrimp Paste

There are 3 pieces and they cut it up in half to share with more people around the table. The eggplant is deliciously tender and the shrimp paste is good too.

Beef Rice Roll

There are 3 rolls to the order cut up into pieces as well. It is served with a soy sauce and it is delicious, I like how the beef is mixed with water chestnuts to give it a nice crunchy texture.

Deep Fried Glutinous Rice Dumplings

There are 4 pieces cut in half, so a total of 8 pieces. It is deep fried till a nice golden brown on the outside and filled with a savoury pork filling, which is delicious.

E-Fu Noodles with Spinach

We got the noodles off their other menu and you can tell its a lot larger than the other dishes. The noodles were soft and tender with a nice savoury taste.

Deep Fried Chinese Donut in Rice Roll

This is served with a hoisin and sesame sauces. The donut was a bit dry this time around

Braised Duck and Tofu Curd

Another dish from their regular menu of duck and tofu curd. If you have some rice, it goes well with it.

Assorted Veggie and Mushrooms

We needed some vegetables in our meal, so we oreded this with some peas, cabbage, broccoli and mixed mushrooms.

Durian Mochi

Durian mochi isn’t for everyone as some love it and others hate it with a passion. It’s soft and fluffy in texture, but some may think it stinks like skunk. I personally think it’s more like a sweet onion.

Final Thoughts

We definitely ordered a lot for 5 people, but thats what happens when we’re hungry. We totally had enough for left overs for the rest of the day. Fisherman’s Terrace is busy on weekends, the food quality and prices are fair. Don’t forget to make reservations.

Address:
4151 Hazelbridge Way, Richmond, BC

In Chinese

Pink Pearl: 4 Decades of Dim Sum

April 28, 2017

We were invited to Vancouver’s longest-running Chinese restaurant – Pink Pearl for a culinary journey of Dim Sum. Signature dim sum dishes representing different decades at Pink Pearl was prepared by Dim Sum Chef F.K. Jiang and his team. We were taken on a tour of 4 decades of items featured in past menus from the 1980’s to 2010’s.

13 different dim sum dishes were featured and some dishes brought me back to my childhood. The event was co-hosted by Gojoy Berries, Stephanie Yuen and Chinese Bites.

1980s

I remember the good ol days when there were more carts roaming around Chinese restaurants and all the guests were scarily fighting over the last sui mai. Lots have changed since then and there are only a handful of restaurants left where they will push around the carts. Pink Pearl still has push carts, which is great.

Liver & Pork Dumplings

This was an interesting dish and I felt like it should have stayed in the 80s. The chalky taste of the liver with the dumpling didn’t blend too well, but yet again, I’m not a big fan of liver.

Duck Web Wrap

The webbed duck feet were wrapped in a sheet of bean curd and there was also ham and mushrooms inside. It was ok, but it was tricky to eat as the duck feet would slide out of the wrapper.

Shrimp Toast

This was another item you don’t see as often. You have the shrimp paste on top of toast and then deep fried. The toast did get a bit oily.

Pan-Fried Half-Moon Dumpling

The dumpling is served with a light refreshing broth. The dumpling was ok but it had minimal filling.

1990s

Mini Steamed Pork Bun

A classic item and you can’t go wrong with a mini steamed pork bun. I liked it.

Black and White Sweet Sesame Roll

This really brought me back to my childhood. I don’t see this as much anymore. As a kid we would pretend they were film canisters and unroll the “film” and then eat it. It was a tradition and I totally forgot about it until now.

Lotus Wrapped Stuffed Sticky Rice

The sticky rice was really packed full of ingredients and it was pretty good. It was easy for 2-4 people to share one basket.

2000s

Steamed Shrimp Dumpling

A very popular item ordered for dim sum. A classic and you can’t deny this.

Steamed sticky rice roll

This is an item that I normally don’t order, it’s like carb on carb. It tasted good.

2010s

Steamed beef rice roll

Steamed beef rice roll is something we are all so familiar with. The minced beef in the centre is delicious. You add some sauce on top of the rice rolls to add more balanced flavour.

Steamed shrimp rice roll

Similar item to the above but with shrimp instead of beef.

Wok-fried lotus roots & fresh mushrooms

A decent dish but it didn’t mesh too well with the other dim sum dishes. It was a good way to incorporate the gojiberries, but I was more use to the dried gojiberries.

Gojoy gojiberries gelle

A nice sweet touch to the end of the meal with this gelle, which was pretty good.

Final Thoughts

Overall, it was good to see some of the different dim sum dishes thought out the decades and there were some interesting dishes that stayed in the 1980s. Starting May 1st, Pink Pearl is showcasing their ‘4-decades of Chinese dinner’ with a 4-month long campaign to benefit Food Bank and Sowers Society. You can find more information on their special dinner menu on their website.

We Rate Pink Pearl:

Address:
1132 E Hastings St, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.pinkpearl.com/index.php/en/

In Chinese

The Deluxe Chinese Restaurant: Dim Sum in Richmond

April 16, 2017

The Deluxe Chinese Restaurant is located in Richmond just off of No 3 Road by Aberdeen Mall. We were invited to try their dim sum items on the menu and of course I couldn’t say no. This restaurant just opened up recently and they serve up dim sum, sushi, sashimi, and regular Chinese dinner items.

The dining room is large and they also have a few private rooms too. I can imagine a lot of weddings, birthdays and other celebrations here.

Dim Sum

There was no shortage of dim sum during my visit. It was pretty damn epic. Of course they knew we were coming, so they made sure all the food arrived at the same time.

Ha Gau (Prawn Dumpling)

This is a classic item to order at dim sum and it comes with 5 pieces in each basket. The skin was a decent thickness and the shrimp inside was very delicious.

It’s always something I order no matter where I go. You can pair it with XO sauce or spicy sauce for an extra kick of flavour.

Truffle Siu Mai (Pork & Shrimp Dumpling)

They do their siu mai a bit differently with the added truffle. The dumpling is still delicious. 5 pieces per basket too.

House Special Wild Rice Noodle Roll

Inside the pinky rice roll due to the wild rice are crispy fried vermicelli surrounding each piece of shrimp. There are 9 pieces to the order.

Baked Portuguese Tarts

These unique looking baked Portugese tarts were amazing. The flakey crust and the silky smooth egg mixture. Yum.

Garlic Prawn Spring Rolls

3 pieces in an order served in a cup. The spring rolls were crisp on the outside with the prawn mixture inside.

Steamed Pork Spareribs

Lots in this basket and there was a good amount of meat in each piece.

Country Style Steamed Honey Comb Cake

One of my favourite Chinese desserts. It’s slightly sweet and it’s not too sweet. A good asian amount of sweetness. We don’t really like our dessert overly sweet.

Green Tea Glutinous Pancakes

On the inside is mango and the green tea glutinous pancakes rolled around it. It was ok, but not my favourite dessert.

Steamed Creamy Carrot Custard Buns

A sweet custard filling inside these are great when its hot and fresh.

Steamed Buns with Mushroom & Taro Roots

Very cute concept of having the bun look like a mushroom, but I didn’t like a lacklustre taro root filling.

Shredded Chicken with Cucumber

This dish was one of my favourites too, but it does have quite a bit of sesame oil. Served cold and it also has crunchy taro strips to give it more of a crunchy texture.

Pumpkin Congee with Sparerib

I love congee and this was very savoury with all the ample amount of meat inside. I would order this again.

Preserved Egg and Pork Congee

A classic and what I instantly noticed was the amazing amount of preserved egg and pork. Very impressive and I would order this again too.

Soy Sauce Chow Mein

A good dish to share among the table. Nice texture and flavour as well.

Singapore Fried Noodles

It had a good amount of ingredients in this fried noodle. The texture of the noodles were a tad on the dry side, but it was still enjoyable.

Nigiri

They surprisingly have nigiri on the menu with tuna, salmon or hamachi. Each piece is pre-sauced, which I didn’t like as much. I personally like mine with a slight dab of soy sauce to keep the natural flavours of the fish.

Tamago

They have pieces of tamago as well, but it was missing something. It’s really hard to find a place that makes a good tamago.

Speciality Japanese Rolls

For a Chinese restaurant, they had a good selection of specialty sushi rolls. Still strange to see sushi here when you order dim sum.

Mango Roll

They craft them nicely, but the rice ratio is a bit much. When they roll it, there is a slight flaw. The mango roll was refreshing with their thinly sliced mango, which is in season.

Dragon Roll

Dragon roll has alternating toppings of eel and avocado. Inside is salmon and asparagus. It was good but it was a tad pricey.

Salmon Oshi Sushi

It has tobiko, salmon, sauce and layers of rice. Delicious but it had a bit to much rice and also it still doesn’t compare to Miku, where this type of sushi originated from.

Final Thoughts

A good spread of items for dim sum, but I would stick with the classic. There’s nothing inherently wrong with their sushi or sashimi, but the flavours don’t blend as well when you go from congee to a California roll. Their dim sum is solid and I really fell in love with their congee.

We Rate The Deluxe Chinese Restaurant:

Address:
4260 No 3 Road, Richmond

In Chinese

Empire Seafood: Dim Sum + Dumpling Trail

September 26, 2016

Empire Seafood Restaurant is located in Richmond on No. 3 Road and New Westminster Hwy. Surprisingly, I haven’t been here for dim sum before. With so many amazing dim sum restaurants in town, this is one of the popular ones to go to.

We were invited by Tourism Richmond to experience the Dumpling Trail. Empire is one of the restaurants features in the trail for their diverse selection of dumplings from crispy to chewy to all types of textures.

Interior

Dumplings

Shrimp dumplings (Har gow) are a staple in Chinese dim sum. The dumplings are filled with shrimp and wrapped in a tapioca starch pastry. It is them steamed in a bamboo basket.

It comes with 4 pieces in each order. I enjoyed the bounce of the shrimp inside and the skin was a good thickness. Best eaten with some hot sauce or XO sauce.

Pork and Shrimp Dumpling (Siu Mai) is a dumpling stuffed with pork, shrimp and then topped with roe. It is wrapped in a yellow wrapper. It is also steamed in a bamboo basket.

It comes with 4 pieces too. Good mixture of shrimp and pork inside without too much fat.

Taro Dumpling (Wu Gok) is made with steamed mashed taro with mushroom, shrimp, and pork in the centre. It is deep-fried so it gets the wispy texture on the outside. It comes with 4 per order too. You typically get this cut in half before eating.

A nice texture since you get the crunch from the outside and the savoury filling inside.

Fried Pork Dumplings (Ham Siu Gok) has a crisp crust on the outside and inside the the minced pork centre. The filling is pretty good.

Other items

Spring Rolls come in 4 pieces but are cut up into 8 for easy sharing. These are deep-fried and filled with a delicious shrimp centre.

Chicken Feet is a staple in dim sum but not everyone can stomach it. I grew up with chicken feet at most dim sum meals, so this isn’t out of the ordinary for me. It has a nice sauce and essentially you are eating away at the skin and cartilage.

Spareribs with squash comes in one serving in a bamboo basket.

Shrimp Rice Roll comes with 3 pieces and are cut in half. The shrimp is nice and fresh, good colour and tastes great when you pour the soy sauce over top.

Veggies

Pea tips in broth is a delicious dish. The sweetness from the pea tips is really good. Do be careful of bugs since I did find a caterpillar in my portion.

Sweets

Egg Custard Tart is a bit different here since they add some coconut into it. It was good, but unexpected as we devoured these.

Egg Yolk Bun is pretty good here too. The steamed buns have a week yolky centre. Very delicious and you can’t leave here without one.

Final Thoughts

Empire Seafood has some pretty solid dim sum and good prices. Just be aware that they do charge for tea. So don’t be surprised when that pops up on the bill. Try to make reservation in advanced and try to go earlier in the day before some key items run out.

We Rate Empire Seafood Restaurant:

Address:
London Plaza, 5951 Number 3 Rd #200, Richmond

Website: http://www.empirerestaurant.ca/esr/dimsum/

In Chinese

Sun Sui Wah: Dim Sum in Richmond

August 13, 2016

Sun Sui Wah is a popular dim sum restaurant in Metro Vancouver. They have locations in Vancouver and Richmond. We came to the Richmond location with Chinesebites to check out a few of their popular dim sum items. I’ve never been to this location, so I was excited.

A large enough menu for dim sum. Lots of choices!

The interior is large and can fit quite a lot of people. They also have a few large screens for viewing sports games.

Baked BBQ Pork Pastry is topped with sesame seeds and crisp on top.Comes with 3 pieces, but you can easily cut them into bite-sized pieces to have 6 pieces. Good ratio between the pastry and filling.

Deep Fried Squid doesn’t have that much of a crunchy texture. It was ok, but could have used more seasoning.

Shrimp Rice Roll is another classic item to order. It has 3 rolls and cut into 6 pieces. You will want to drizzle some of the soy sauce over the rice rolls to add more flavour.

Bean curd wraps with fish paste was pretty good. I love bean curds and fish paste. a delicious combination.

Donut Rice Roll has dried pork floss on top and little green onions for colour.

Rice Roll with fish paste is a good version of the classic rice rolls. I actually really liked this.

Beef Rice Roll is another classic. Delicious as usual.

Spring Roll comes with 3 pieces cut in half so it is easily sharable. It has shrimp inside.

Har Gow AKA shrimp dumplings are a staple among Chinese Dim Sum. Most tables would order this. The shrimp inside is soft and has a nice bounce to it. One of my favourite items at any dim sum. It goes well with XO sauce or hot sauce.

Deep-fried glutinous rice dumpling stuffed with pork comes with 3 pieces and was pretty standard.

Daikon Cake with XO Sauce needed a sauce to dip into…perhaps more XO sauce.

Duck webbed feet with taro isn’t for everyone. Some may find it gross and creepy since you’re basically eating its skin.

Stuffed Treasures has 3 pieces of green bell pepper, tofu and eggplant topped with fish paste and black bean sauce.

Steamed BBQ Pork Bun has 3 pieces as well. Comes piping hot and a good a mount of pork filling inside. I would definitely share a piece with a friend since it can be filling.

Tripe with ginger and onion was tender and had a good texture to it. Another item thats not for all.

Beef Tendon in BBQ Sauce was like jelly.

Xiao Long Bao comes 5 to a basket and were ok. Skin thickness was ok too with piping hot soup.

Sui Mai is the classic pork and shrimp dumpling and was average as well. It isn’t too fatty.

Deep Fried Taro with meat filling is crispy on the outside and the meat mixture on the inside is always delicious.

Mini Sticky Rice comes with 3 to an order. Another staple item to order in dim sum.

Halibut Collar has a good amount of spice to it and was a dish I wouldn’t think about ordering for dim sum.

Creamy Egg Yolk Bun comes with 3 pieces and the delicious egg yolks hide inside. Super delicious.

Egg tarts are small, but come with 4 on one plate. You definitely want to eat it right away when its warm. I kinda prefer the smaller egg tarts since you want to save room for other items on the table. I just wanted a small taste of the golden yellow custard.

Overall, a good place to get dim sum in Richmond. You will find the classic dim sum items and a few different items that they specialize in.

We Rate Sun Sui Wah:

Address:
4920 Number 3 Road, Richmond

Website:
http://www.sunsuiwah.ca/

In Dim Sum

Kirin: Dim Sum in Richmond

August 1, 2016

Kirin Seafood Restaurant is a popular Chinese restaurant in Metro Vancouver and they are always packed on the weekends for dim sum. What better way to enjoy the weekend with family by devouring a table full of dim sum?

I came here with ChineseBites to their Richmond location to try a few of their dim sum items on their menu.

Sui mai here has steamed prawn and Sakura Farm premium pork dumpling topped with flying fish roe.

A classic dim sum dish that always needs to be ordered. The sui mai was juicy and had a good texture from the pork and shrimp.

Steamed Prawn Dumpling is another must have item on the menu. Densely packed full of shrimp in the little dumplings. I love anything with shrimp.

Pan Fried Pork Belly and Preserved Vegetable Bun is very soft and has a good taste. No one can say no to pork belly. I know I can’t.

The ratio between the meat mixture and the bun is very good.

Steamed Tofu Puff Stuffed with Minced Fish and Dried Shrimp. I enjoyed it. When you bring tofu and shrimp together, its always a good combination.

The xiao long bao is a steamed pine mushroom and pork dumpling. It was surprisingly really good here. Lots of broth inside and the skin was a nice consistency and not thick at all.

Braised Assorted Cow Offal in Chef’s Special Sauce in a Casserole is not for everyone. You need to have acquired a taste for eating innards.

Sparerib in Black Bean Sauce on Steamed Plain Rice Roll in a Casserole was pretty good. The savoury spare ribs on top and then the delicious sauce drips onto the rice rolls.

Steamed Abalone and Chicken Bun has a good amount of filling too.

Sticky Rice with Pork and Dried Scallop Wrapped in Lotus Leaf. 3 come in an order and its a small portion, which isn’t bad at all. The pork and dried scallop mixture in the centre is always so yummy.

Deep Fried Tofu with Minced Pork was a bit oily and heavy for dim sum.

Deep Fried Prawn Dumpling was deep fried but it wasn’t as oily and heavy as the deep fried tofu.

Steamed Green Onion and Chinese Donut Rice Roll Topped with Bread Crumb is on the left of this picture.

Deep Fried Minced Fish and Chinese Mushroom Bean Curd Roll in Steamed Rice Roll is the other. Of the two, this one was my favourite. Drizzle a bit of soy sauce and it will be so good.

Rice Roll had a nice texture between the mushroom and pork. Very savoury flavours and you don’t go wrong with it.

Steamed Pork Liver Rice Roll was interesting with pork liver. Usually its pretty standard with pork or shrimp.

We ended the meal with Thousand Tier Cake, a dessert with alternating layers of salted egg yolk and steamed flour. A nice sweet touch at the end of the meal.

Overall, it was a good solid dim sum meal. You can’t go wrong with any of the dishes. One item that really surprised me was the xiao long bao, it was well made and super delicious.

We Rate Kirin:

Address:
7900 Westminster Highway, Richmond, BC

Website:
http://www.kirinrestaurants.com/

In Dim Sum

Dinesty: Dumpling House in South Burnaby

April 6, 2016

Dinesty has a brand new location in South Burnaby under the Elements building. It is a few minutes away from Metropolis at Metrotown. They are best known for the Xiao Long Bao aka steamed pork dumplings.

Since foodies like to get together and eat, a few of us decided to meet up for the first time at Dinesty. Always good to put a face to someone’s online foodie persona.

Similar to the other locations, you will see a bunch of teapots in display cases when you walk in. It’s awesome to look at because each tea pot is different.

Even if you are waiting in line, staring at those tea pots can help speed up the wait perception.

The space has a lot of large round tables, so its great for families or large groups. Just make sure you put down a reservation ahead of time to avoid any waits.

I always like how they have the kitchen showing into the dining area, so you can see how all your food is put together.

Chinese Spinach and Bean Curd was good. Always my favourite item to order at Dinesty. It also has sesame oil, so that taste comes through.

Marinated Mushroom and Bamboo looks pretty creepy. Taste was ok, but nothing very notable.

Spicy Pig Ears was a pretty mediocre dish. More oily and not spicy at all. I found the similar experience at other Dinesty locations too.

Fried rice with shrimp, vegetables and ham was ok. A tad bland but would fair well with some chili sauce.

Nom. Nom. Nom.

Shanghai Fried Noodles was delicious. Not to oily and had a good mix of veggies and meat.

Wontons with Sour Chili Sauce could have been better. It was more oily and didn’t have much hot chili flavour to it.

Stir Fried Rice Cake with Pork Chop Shanghai Style was pretty good. The chunks of pork chop were flavourful and tender. I would order this again.

Stir fried basa fillet with wine sauce was good as well. Flavourful wine sauce with the tender flakey basa.

We made sure we loaded up with the Steamed Pork Soup Dumplings by getting 3 orders.

When they came out, it wasn’t super hot. It shriveled up a bit, so it wasn’t as soupy. Very minimal soup. The day before, I was actually at the Robson location and it was different.

Although, this visit was decent, it wasn’t as good as it could have been.

Camphor & Tea Smoked Duck came with 8 buns to eat with the duck. We were surprised by the flavour of this. Very good smoky flavour and the meat was so good.

We wished there were so duck breast meat on the plate, but it was mostly bone. I think I snagged one of the only plump and juicy breast pieces.

The rest were bony, so you couldn’t devour it without needing to pick out some bones.

Of all the locations, I would say my go to location would be the Dinesty on No 3 Road as it was the first on in Vancouver.

This South Burnaby location still has a few kinks it needs to work out. Some items are a hit and miss, but if you can’t get the steamed pork dumplings right, you gotta try again.

We rate Dinesty:

Address:
104 – 4501 Kingsway, Burnaby

Website:
http://dinesty.ca/

In Chinese

Kirin Starlight: Dim Sum near New Westminster

September 21, 2015

Kirin Starlight is our families go to place for Dim Sum. Since we live in Burnaby, it’s convenient for us to drive to on the weekend. They have several other locations throughout the Lower Mainland.

It gets pretty packed around noon, so make sure you have a reservation or else you might be waiting around 30 mins – 1 hour for a table.

When you get seated, they ask you what type of tea you would like. I usually get Jasmine tea or oolong tea.

Golden Sand Tofu is one of my favourite dishes. It is soft and silky on the inside with crispy exterior and sprinkled with salty bits on top. M always asks for this item at Dim Sum since it’s the one of the few items he can say in Chinese.

Shimp Dumplings (Har Gow) is a must order item. It comes in 4 pieces in the bamboo steamer.

Pork and Shrimp Sui Mai is another must. It also comes in 4 pieces and is a mixture of pork, shrimp and mushrooms.

Make sure you use the XO sauce for the dumplings. It’s pure magic and quite addictive.

Beef Rice Noodle Roll has minced beef in the centre and wrapped with the rice roll. You can pour soy sauce all over to bring it out some more flavour. They also have this in a shrimp version too.

Congee is a great item to order. Its like a soupy rice dish with different protein inside. There’s a lot of different versions too.

Zhaliang is a Chinese donut wrapped in rice noodle. Similarly to the beef rice roll. above. It is topped with pork floss and green onions. You get 2 sauce to dip it into – hoisin sauce or sesame paste.

Spare Ribs with black bean sauce comes in a bamboo steamer. It’s another popular item to order at dim sum. It does have bones in it

Sticky Rice (Lo Mai Gai) wrapped in lotus leaf comes with 3 piece. It’s really good and inside you have things like chicken, shitake mushrooms, preserved Chinese sausage, scallions, and dried shrimp.

Custard buns are a treat at the end of the meal. The filling is a sweet yolk filling inside. It’s super hot, so make sure you don’t bite into it right away. Sometimes these sell out, so if you are dining here later in the afternoon, you may be out of luck.

Most of the food was good, but its is slightly more expensive than other Dim Sum restaurants in Vancouver.

We Rate Kirin:

Address:
Starlight Casino, 350 Gifford Street, Metro Vancouver

Website:
www.kirinrestaurants.com/index.php5?page=starlight

In Dim Sum

Top Shanghai Cuisine 上海一只鼎: Shanghai Cuisine in Richmond

March 21, 2015

Top Shanghai Cuisine Restaurant is in Richmond and we came here for a morning Shanghainese meal. We came right when it opened. Within 30 minutes this restaurant was packed and there was a line forming.

In 2013, they won best Dim Sum restaurant from the Chinese Restaurant Awards.

All around the dining room are lots of pictures of their dishes. It makes you even more hungry when waiting for dishes to arrive.

Salty Soy Milk is one of my favourite dishes to order at a Shanghai Restaurant. It’s a savoury soup with tofu puffs, green onions, tiny shrimp, and a tad of chili oil.

Chinese Donut is a long golden brown donut.Except it’s not sweet at all. It is salted and eaten during breakfast with congee or soymilk.

Wontons with Chili Sauce is another one of my favourites. It has a bunch of boiled wonton and then slathered with chili oil mixture on top.

Xiao Long Bao or steamed pork dumpling comes with 6 pieces per order. The skin is thin and there’s lots of hot soup inside with the tender pork. Eating these are fun because you must not pop the skin or else the soup will ooze out. The way I eat these are just putting it on my spoon, bite a tiny hole into the XLB and sip the soup inside. Then I can devour the rest.

I’m pretty sure everyone orders this! It’s what they are known for.

Pan-fried Pork Buns has 6 per order, the one that arrived for us combined both orders. The bun is much thicker that the Xiao Long Bao, but has similar soup and pork inside. Another top selling item from this restaurant.

Fried Fish in Seaweed Batter was surprisingly very delicious and addictive! It’s very aromatic and pairs so well. The look may not be very appealing, but you gotta order this if you have a large group.

Spring Rolls is a weird thing to see on the menu as it is a Shanghainese restaurant. The spring rolls were pretty average but nothing about it stood out.

Shanghai Pan Fried Noodles had a good amount of vegetables and the sauce tasted great.

Sticky Rice Rolls were wrapped up in plastic wrap and then portioned out. I have never seen it in a restaurant like this. You can eat everything but the plastic wrap. I think they kept it on as it makes it easier to eat without the rice sticking to your hands.

Inside the rice rolls is pickled veggies, Chinese donut and pork floss. Pretty standard fillings. I found this to be rather bland and boring.

Deep Fried Pastries with Daikon was something I haven’t seen before. A deep-fried bun with lots of shredded daikon inside.

Beef Brisket Noodle Soup is a bit hard to share with a big group unless you have awesome chopstick skills. It was really good and the beef brisket had a good depth of flavour.

Overall, the food here is good, but still not the best. My favourite Shanghainese place is still Long’s Noodle House on Main Street.

We Rate Top Shanghai Cuisine:

Address:
8100 Ackroyd Rd #120
Richmond, BC V6X 3K2

Website:
http://www.topshanghaicuisine.com/

In Chinese

Golden Paramount Seafood Restaurant 金百樂海鮮酒家: Dim Sum in Richmond

March 8, 2015

Golden Paramount Seafood Restaurant is located in Richmond close to Richmond Centre Mall. It’s a bit hidden in a nearby plaza. We came here on a media tour with Tourism Richmond to taste the flavours of Cantonese cuisine for early morning dim sum. I haven’t been to Golden Paramount, so it was definitely an adventure.

The restaurant isn’t as large as some other Chinese restaurants, but as long as you have reservations, you’ll be just fine. It doesn’t get too busy on the weekends until 11am.

In true blogger fashion, we definitely filled up the whole table with food. It’s great eating with people who have a passion for food because they have huge stomachs. hahaha.

Steamed Prawn Dumpling comes with 5 pieces in each basket. Pretty standard taste. I love eating these with hot sauce or XO sauce. Mmmmm.

Steamed Dumpling with Crab and Meat comes with 3 pieces in each basket. Very yummy as well.

Deep Fried Spring Roll with Turnip was strange tasting but thats probably because of the addition of the turnip.

Pan Fried Pork Dumpling comes with 4 pieces. It’s mostly pan-fried on one side.

Preserved Egg Pastry with Pork has its golden top with savoury filling on the inside.

Deep Fried Eggplant with fish Paste is another one of my favourites.

Duck Feet with Pumpkin is not for the squeamish. You’re mostly just eating the skin and tendons of the feet. It’s really all about the sauce. But I do understand it may be strange sucking feet in front of all your friends. Sorry, not sorry.

Beef Tripe in Scallop Sauce it is essentially beef stomach. I haven’t been fond of this type of beef tripe. It’s chewy and slimy.

Beef Tripe with Ginger and onion is fragrant and has a slightly crunchy texture. The texture reminds me of a cats tongue because of all the little bumps. This is the type of tripe I like.

Fried Rice with Scallops and Egg White was delicious. Simple but has a lot of flavour. It’s a wonder what egg can do to a dish.

Stir Fried Sticky Rice was not a favourite. I prefer sticky rice wrapped up in the leaves.

Spare Ribs on Rice Roll in a Hot Pot is delicious. I feel like I’m always the only one that loves this dish. I really like pulling the meat off all the bones.

Bean Curd Sheets with Pea Tips and Consomme is my favourite item. I really just enjoy the sweet flavour of the pea tips. Oh so good. It’s one item I could eat forever and ever.

Pan Fried Oysters is one of their specialties and everyone seems to be talking about them. As an oyster fan, I did enjoy these.

Sweet and Sour Pork was a delight. Good size chunks with not too much fat or breading.

Beef Shanghai Noodles was really good. Not too oily and just the right amount of char from the super hot wok.

Stir Fried Noodles were a bit bland.

Water Chestnut Jelly was a yummy treat at the end of the meal. The right amount of sweetness and the crunchy texture of the chestnuts were great.

Overall, the dim sum quality is decent here. Certain dishes shine here but a few that could have better execution.

We Rate Golden Paramount Seafood Restaurant:

Address:
8071 Park Rd
Richmond, BC

In Chinese

Kirin: Dim Sum at Starlight Casino

November 26, 2014

Kirin has another location at Starlight Casino near New Westminster. They have 4 locations in total. They serve dim sum on the weekends before 2pm. It’s a beautiful space and it can get pretty busy around 10:30am. This time, we went around noon on a cold weekend and there were no lines at all.

If there is a line up, you would wait in this waiting area, but it’s quite nice.

The main dining area is very large and they also have a private VIP area for small groups.

You will be asked what type of tea you would like and I usually get a Jasmine or Oolong.

Aloe Vera Jelly came complimentary as they were doing a promotion with Eastern Airlines. I’m not really sure what the connection was, but yeah for free things.

Golden Sand Tofu is one of my favourite dishes. It is soft and silky on the inside with crispy exterior and sprinkled with salty bits on top.

Pan Fried Rice Rolls is quite good but it is an oily dish. The chewiness from the rice rolls and the salty sauce go well together.

Shrimp Dumplings comes with 4 pieces in the bamboo steamer. One of my favourite dishes.

Sticky Rice has 3 pieces in a container. Decent size especially for the morning

Fried Bean Curd Rolls was one of my favourite dishes that we ordered. It was crispy on the outside and filled with savoury ingredients like mushroom.

Overall, Kirin is a good place to have dim sum, but they do lack a few dishes here and there. The quality is good. The Queenborough Landing Outlet is close by, so you should definitely check it out and try to find a good deal.

We Rate Kirin:

Address:
350 Gifford St
New Westminster BC

Website:
http://www.kirinrestaurants.com/

In Dim Sum

Shanghai Elan Restaurant 上海粗菜館: Dim Sum Time

October 14, 2014

Shanghai Elan Restaurant is located in Crystal Mall. It takes the place of Pittsburg Cafe, which I’m glad closed down since they did had such horrible food. Crystal Mall probably has the most poorly designed parkade as I like to avoid all life-forms there. People drive crazy and there is a good chance someone is gonna mess up your car.

Besides the craziness of the parking, I love Shanghai food and it has never disappointed me. It’s a bit hard to find Shanghainese food in Burnaby, so I’m glad there’s something close by. I came here with my parents for an early lunch on the weekend. It was kinda like Dim Sum but without the traditional type of dishes.

Hot and Sour Soup ($10.50) was what we started the meal with. It was easily sharable with a table of 4. It was thick and contained a lot of ingredients inside.

I’ve always loved this soup since it was a bit spicy, a bit sour and loaded with different textures like bamboo shoots, fungus, and other things.

Shanghai Fried Rice Cake with shredded pork and vegetables ($10.50) it has a lot of rice cake. Good taste and it has a chewy texture to them.

Marinated Beef Wrapped in pancake ($6.50) was ok, but I hated how the pancake was so thick and doughy.

Steamed Chicken and Pork Wonton Soup ($14.50) has a delicious broth but the wontons were tiny and had very little meat in each wonton. I think I’m just used to having those big wontons in soup.

XLB Steamed Pork Buns ($5.50) is a popular dish and almost everyone orders it. Inside there is a light broth with pork encased in the bun. It’s good but it’s still not as addictive as Dinesty.

Pan Fried Chives Dumpling ($5.50) came with 2 deep fried dumplings and sauce.

When we opened it up, I thought there would be more Chives inside. It was a mixture of chives, glass noodles and egg.

Overall, the food was ok, but I expected a little bit more from the dishes I ordered. I prefer their dinner items at Shanghai Elan Restaurant.

We Rate Shanghai Elan Restaurant:

Address:
1687-4500 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=4500+Kingsway+Burnaby,+BC&hnear=4500+Kingsway,+Burnaby,+Greater+Vancouver+Regional+District,+British+Columbia+V5H&t=m&z=16 “]

In Chinese

Grand Palace Restaurant: Dim Sum in Coquitlam

February 25, 2014

Grand Palace Restaurant (富豪酒家) is located in Henderson Mall across from Coquitlam Centre. The mall has been here for a very long time and it gives me a vibe of like the asian mall similar to Tinsel Town. They are owned by the same development company, so that’s why the vibe is similar.

The restaurant and food court are probably the most busiest parts of the mall.

We came around 11 and there was already a line up outside with people eagerly awaiting a table.

My sister and I stared at the tanks looking at the lobsters barnacles.

After about 15 minutes of waiting, we got our table! The dining room was packed!

Tea arrives at the table when you begin ordering. You get one pot of the tea and another pot of hot water.

Fried Taro Dumpling (wu gok) is my sister’s favourite. It is deep-fried to create the extra crispy exterior. On the inside is a savoury taro mixture.

Pork Dumpling (Sui Mai) is always an item ordered in dim sum. The ones here are pretty large and does not contain too much fat.

Minced Beef Meatballs were very bland. The added water chestnuts did not add any extra crunchy texture that its supposed to.

Steamed Beef Rice Rolls was ok as well. The beef mixture reminded me of the minced beef meatballs.

Steamed Pork Buns comes with 3 buns and was quite decent.

Shrimp and vegetable dumping has 3 pieces in an order. The dumpling mixture inside wasn’t mixed together well, so you get the veggies on the bottom and the shrimp on the top.

Seafood Congee was alright. It had lots of seafood hidden at the bottom.

Stuffed Eggplant has 3 oddly shaped pieces. It has the shrimp mixture on top with the eggplant on the bottom. I usually like this dish but this was a bit bland.

Pork Spareribs were yummy. The meat was tender and the sauce paired well nicely.

Shrimp Dumplings (har gow) is a dim sum classic. It has shrimp inside the rice skin. It’s a two-bite dumpling and it was not bad here.

Deep Fried Tofu was horrible. The skin was thick and tasteless and the crumbly topping was very salty. We all agreed that this was a horrible dish and we would not order it again.

Overall, it is a decent dim sum restaurant. There are good dishes here, but if you venture into one of the horrible dishes, it’s gonna taste bad. As long as you stick to the classic dim sum items, you can’t go wrong.

We Rate Grand Palace Restaurant:

Address:
2001 – 1163 Pinetree Way
Coquitlam, BC

Website:
http://www.grandpalacerestaurant.ca/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.google.ca/maps?q=1163+Pinetree+Way&t=m&hnear=1163+Pinetree+Way,+Coquitlam,+Greater+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V3B+8A9&z=15 “]

In BBQ

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro 成都美食: Drool For Peking Duck

November 26, 2013

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro is located close to the corner of Robson and Denman street and have been around for a little bit over a year now. They specialize in fusion Chinese Szechuan cuisine. It’s a family run restaurant and Executive Chef Henry has over 20 years of cooking experience from Hong Kong and Canada.

I came here with a few friends to check it out and we heard they have peking duck, so it peaked our attention.

The interior isn’t too large but it has a row of booths, some bar seats, and some tables near the front. It has a lounge feel to this place as there is a large bar.

Peking Duck with 12 crepes is served with green onions, cucumber, and hoisin sauce. On top of the duck are prawn chips. The duck and the crepes are all made in-house. This is their signature dish.

The skin is nice and crispy with a good layer of meat underneath. Probably one of the best quality peking ducks around town. It wasn’t too fatty either. Super moist and yummy.

You take a little bit of everything and wrap it in the crepe. It’s really good. Highly recommended!!

The second part of the peking duck meal is the lettuce wraps. The rest of the duck meat and stir fries it. On the side, there are 6 lettuce wraps for you to put to ingredients into.

Just roll it up and begin munching away. Delicious! We definitely needed more lettuce wraps since 6 were not enough.

The perfect things to pair with the peking duck is with beer! I ordered a bottle of Tsingtao beer. Asian beer with asian food is a good mix.

Chengdu Special Fried Rice ($12) has house special fried rice with shrimp, chinese sausage, onions, jalapeño, broccoli stem in a spicy Szechuan style. This fried rice was definitely spicy with the jalapeño and Szechuan sauce. It’s finally good to see a fried rice that can pack some heat. If you like spicy food, you’ll like the rice.

Ginger Beef ($11) has crunchy beef in spicy ginger kung pao sauce with onions, carrots and fresh ginger. It’s one of their signature dishes and quite popular amongst guests. The dish was decent.

Mapo Tofu ($9) has soft tofu, spicy ground pork, shrimp, onions, chinese mushrooms and water chestnut.

Szechuan Pan Fried Prawns ($12) has pan-fried prawns in spicy garlic pepper oil. We table had mixed review on this item. Some said it was too salty, but some loved how it had a strong garlic flavour.

Szechuan Green Beans ($8) has long green bean tossed in a spicy Szechuan sauce with ground pork and preserved vegetables. This was really good. A bit oily, but good flavours.

Pumpkin & Red Bean Sticky Rice Cake Ice Cream ($6) nice sweet end to the meal. Its sticky, chewy and a bit sweet. It goes well with the ice cream.

Deep Fried Banana With Ice Cream ($6) has a honey glaze around the battered bananas. A fun dish to share.

Of course there is a fortune cookie. Did you know it’s actually an American invention?

The peking duck dishes are pretty awesome here and would recommend it to anyone. I found the other dishes to be quite average and is a bit more expansive compared to other restaurants.

If you are tired of ramen in the area, definitely come here and try their peking duck. You won’t regret it. Yum.

We Rate Chengdu Szechuan Bistro:

Address:
792 Denman St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.chengdubistro.ca

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ChengduBistro

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.google.ca/maps?q=792+Denman+St+Vancouver,+BC&t=m&hnear=792+Denman+St,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6G+2L5&z=16 “]

In Dim Sum

Long’s Noodle House: Long Story Short, It’s Awesome

May 20, 2013

Long’s Noodle House is located on Main street right beside Au Petit Cafe. Both of these places are very busy and there are line ups during peak hours. I came here for a family lunch as we heard it has some pretty darn good xiao long bao. We made a reservation since it was for a large party. As the traffic was very busy, we called ahead to let them know we would be 15 minutes late. They were very accommodating and the table was still there as we arrived.

There is paid parking in the front and free parking in the street behind the restaurant.

The interior is basic and there aren’t too many seats. Always make a reservation.

Wine Chicken comes in a little cute jar. Inside is a bunch of chicken pieces marinated in wine and is slightly warm. Its one of the popular items on the menu. The pieces were tender and deliciously soaks up the wine flavour. Kids usually don’t like this dish, but its more for older people. My little sister refused to eat it since there’s alcohol.

Yellow Fish with Seaweed is pretty awesome. It has the yellow fish covered in a seaweed batter. The seaweed has a prominent taste and I was surprised it went so well together. Mmmmmm highly recommended.

Crispy rice with salty egg sauce was another strange dish, but it was surprisingly good too. The fried crispy rice is on top and the salty egg sauce is on the bottom. It’s salty, its fatty, its crunchy, and it’s quite addictive.

Xiao Long Bao comes with 6 pieces. It is packed full of soup and really delicious. One of the good XLB in town.

Eel noodle in soup was an interesting dish. I never would have thought of ordering this. It was good and definitely a good items share among the table.

Beef Roll has the five spiced meat, cilantro and cucumber inside. I found it different from other places as the wrap is much softer.

Hot and Sour soup came last and tasted good. This probably should have been ordered early in the meal, but we didn’t mind that we had this last.

Overall, Long’s Noodle House is a great place for some good Shanghainese food. The prices are fair and the food is just great.

We Rate Long’s Noodle House:

Address:
4853 Main St
Vancouver, BC

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=4853+Main+St+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=4853+Main+St,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5V+3R8&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]