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/
