Dim Sum Archives - Page 2 of 2

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″]

In Dim Sum

Shanghai Xiao Long Bao Restaurant: Downtown Vancouver

February 16, 2013

Shanghai Xiao Long Bao Restaurant is located on Richards and Pender. I’ve always passed by this restaurant but it seemed a bit sketchy on the outside. We decided to give it a try as we were spending the day across the street and needed a quick bite.

There’s really no other restaurant like this in a few blocks. It’s a good place to go if you work in the Downtown area.

We were surprised at the interior, it wasn’t bad at all and there was a good amount of people eating here.

Tea

Fried Bun and condensed Milk is Scarface’s favorite item. The outside was crispy and the inside was steaming hot. Really yummy!

Xiao Long Bao ($5.99) was ok, it was passable, but not the best.

Pan-Fried Green Onion Pancake ($5.50) tasted delicious but you probably want some sauce to dip into it.

Pan-Fried Chive and pork ($5.99) nicely fried on the outside, so when you bite into it, you get the delicious filling of chives and pork. Highly recommended.

Superior Fried Rice ($12.99) was packed full of ingredients and the egg on top made it taste extra good.

Little Pork Buns ($6.99) were like the Xiao long Bao since it does have delicious soup inside. Pretty good.

Hot and Sour Soup (Small – $8.99 | Large – $14.99) was really good. Ask them for some vinegar to add to this as it enhances the flavour a bit more.

Marinated Shredded Jellyfish ($9.99) was ok, but it wasn’t as good as other places in town.

Chilled Pork Jelly ($9.99) was alight as well.

Overall, it was decent Shanghainese food in Downtown. Not the best, but the dim sum items are pretty good. If you do work downtown and craving for some Shanghainese food, its a good option.

We Rate Shanghai Xiao Long Bao Restaurant:

Address:
469 Richards St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.shanghaicuisinerestaurant.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=469+Richards+St+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=469+Richards+St,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6B+3A2&gl=ca&t=m&z=16 “]

In Chinese

Cindy’s Palace: Signature Dishes

January 7, 2013

Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited by ChineseBites to try Cindy’s Palace’s signature dishes with a few other bloggers. The service is not representative of their usual service since they knew we were coming.

Cindy’s Palace is located on Nanaimo and 2nd and they invited a few bloggers to try their signature dishes. I’ve passed by several times when driving, but never thought too much about dining here. I actually don’t dine out at Chinese restaurants very often since I know I can get some at home. It was an adventure to see what else is out there.

The interior has many round tables and is busy on the weekend but week day is pretty empty.

Dim Sum Dishes:

Deep Fried Shrimp Cakes are filled with shrimp and breaded. It comes with 3 pieces and is one of their dim sum items. I don’t think it’s available during dinner time. It was packed full of shrimp and comes with 2 different sauces.

Pork Dumplings (Sui Mai) is very plump, so definitely filling and one of those items that are popular.

Shrimp Spring Roll with Wasabi comes with 6 pieces and loaded with shrimp inside. You couldn’t taste the wasabi, which was fine since it would have tasted weird. I really liked this item! Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Crispy Tofu Stuffed with Vegetables in Thai Sauce was not one of my favorite items. The combination of the Thai sauce and the crispy tofu tasted a bit strange.

Dinner Dishes:

Stewed Spareribs in Whole Pumpkin you really need to scrape at the pumpkin to get some of its flesh. The spare ribs were nice but I don’t think the pumpkin added much flavour to the overall taste. Just a nicer presentation.

Pork Toro with Vegetables in housed in a fried wonton-like shell. Not a bad dish at all, you have the tender slices of pork with the vegetables, the sauce it a tad spicy, but isn’t too much to create a fire in your mouth.

Pan Fried Vermicelli with Beef in Black Pepper Sauce has the pieces of fried vermicelli on top and the beef, black pepper sauce, and softer noodles on the bottom. The black pepper is a bit overwhelming.

Lamb & Fish in Hot Pot was kinda like a hazard waiting to happen. There are lots of bones, so it’s really not good for little kids. I had to be like a detective to pick out the bones from my fish. Nonetheless, the soup was very flavourful.

Cindy’s Special Fried Rice was decent. It’s a good item to have at the table since it will fill you up and you can’t go wrong with it.

Braised Pork Hock with Special Preserved Plum Sauce had lots of bone and fat, which I guess is normal for the pork hock. It’s not my favorite dish.

Steamed Chinese Melon with Vegetables was a good veggie dish for a Chinese meal. You always need a veggie dish for sure. I like how it’s served in the melon bowl.

Steamed Chicken with Mushrooms on Rice in Lotus Leaf, I didn’t enjoy this dish. It was a bit dry and the flavours didn’t really pop out.

Stir Fried Prawns with Special Tea Leaves has a cool presentation, kinda like a cornucopia, but with prawns and tea leaves. I enjoyed this dish. But then again, I enjoy most prawn dishes anyways. The tea leaves added a subtle flavour to the prawns but not a large amount.

Deep Fried Squid with Salt & Pepper was sub par, it really needed more salt, garlic and spice to enhance the flavour.

Baked Pumpkin Pastries tasted really weird as a dessert but did look cute.

Glutinous Rice Balls with Sesame Paste was crispy on the outside and had the gooey sesame paste on the inside. I did enjoy this item.

The dishes at Cindy’s Palace can be a hit or miss, but pretty good offerings for dim sum or dinner. It’s in a strange place, but not bad.

We Rate Cindy’s Palace:

Address:
1796 Nanaimo St
Vancouver, BC

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=1796+Nanaimo+St+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=1796+Nanaimo+St,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5N+5B9&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

In Chinese

Golden Ocean Seafood Restaurant: Signature Dishes

December 29, 2012

Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited by ChineseBites to try Golden Ocean Seafood Restaurant’s signature dishes with a few other bloggers. The service is not representative of their usual service since they knew we were coming.

Golden Ocean Seafood Restaurant is located in Kerrisdale on West 41st street. They serve dim sum in the mornings and the usual dinner at night.

We were able to sample a few dishes from their dim sum menu and other dishes on their dinner menu. You usually won’t be able to have dim sum items at night, so keep that in mind when reading this review.

The interior has lots of seats and is typical of a Chinese restaurant.

Dim Sum Dishes:

Breaded Shrimp with Deep Fried Egg Plant comes with 3 pieces and has the eggplant on the bottom and shrimp paste on top. Its a staple dish of all that order dim sum. One of my favorites since I love all dishes with shrimp.

Breaded Shrimp with Deep Fried Tofu is another great item. The deep-fried tofu on the bottom was crunchy and paired well with the shrimp.

Steamed Shrimps & Fungus Dumpling is another must order item. I’m sure most people order this item when they go for dim sum.

Mini Egg Tarts was pretty average and nothing too special.

Egg Pastry with Dried Shredded Coconut was quite sweet and sticky, I didn’t really particularly like this item very much.

Deep Fried Green Tea Sticky Rice Ball with Sesame are vibrant green and didn’t taste very good.

On the inside, you can see the black sesame.

Dinner Dishes:

Honey Garlic Spareribs and Deep Fried Shrimp Balls was pretty good, the honey garlic spareribs were nicely flavoured and slightly sweet. The deep-fried shrimp balls was a strange combination, but they tasted good too.

Crab with Special House Sauce it also has noodles underneath that soak up the natural crab flavour. Delicious!

Deep Fried Duck Wrapped in Taro tasted alright and definitely had more taro than duck. it was crunchy on the outside and soft in the center.

Stir Fried Beef with Steamed Buns was delicious and the beef in the stir-fry was very tender. You grab the bun and put some of the beef inside.

Steamed Tofu & Egg White with Diced Seafood & Meat was really good! It was delicious and best eaten with rice.

Dried Garlic & Enoki Mushrooms with Pea Tips was something I looked forward to because it was vegetables. I do love meat, but I also like vegetables more. With all Chinese meals, a dish of vegetables is a must.

Deep Fried Sole Fillet was crunchy and tasted ok. I never really liked deep fried fish since it really takes away from its delicate texture and flavour.

Baked Tapioca Pudding was ok, but not super amazing. On the inside, there is red bean paste.

Tofu Pudding comes in a cute container. The texture was a bit dense, but I didn’t mind at all, it just means it stays together a bit more when you’re scooping it up. I may just slightly have an addiction for tofu desserts. The tofu itself isn’t sweet, so you need to add some ginger syrup to it.

Overall, the food alright but nothing crazy amazing. Some dishes were outstanding and some were not very good. Nonetheless, it has always been a neighbourhood favorite for dim sum.

We Rate Golden Ocean Seafood Restaurant:

Address:
2046 W 41st Ave
Vancouver, BC

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=2046+W+41st+Ave+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=2046+W+41st+Ave,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6M+1Y8&gl=ca&t=m&z=16 “]

In Dim Sum

Din Tai Fung: Michelin Star Restaurant in Hong Kong

November 23, 2012

Din Tai Fung is an award winning restaurant from Taiwan. There are branches all over the world. Din Tai Fung has been around since 1958 and then in the 1980s they began selling Xiao Long Bao, which made them very popular.

The location in Hong Kong is located in Tsim Tsa Tsui in Silvercord and has won a Michelin Star. Also, Open Rice has awarded them Best Restaurant Award of 2012.

It is popular amongst locals and tourists. I came here since I heard they had the best steamed pork buns. I actually came here about 4 times during my Summer vacation. I was crazy addicted to this place.

The interior is nice and has lots of seats. When we came around 11am, it was quite empty.

By 1:20pm, this place was PACKED. It’s best to come here around noon since there will be tables left.

Soy Sauce and Vinegar is at the table and you can use it to flavour your dishes.

I added the soy sauce and vinegar in my ginger for the Pork dumpling.

Juicy Pork Dumplings (Xiao Long Bao) are so good! We had to order a few baskets to satisfy our cravings.

Vegetarian Dumpling was another one of my favorites. I know it doesn’t have meat, but it really enjoyed the minced vegetables inside.

Shrimp and Pork Sui Mai was OK. I really didn’t take a liking to it that much because of the overcooked shrimp.

Drunken Chicken was good. There was a good amount of meat between the skin and bone.

Shanghai Smoked Fish wasn’t our favorite item. It had bones inside.

Drunken Chicken Feet with marinated vegetables is not for everyone. It has a bit of alcoholic wine taste to it, but some people love it.

Shredded Vegetable and Tofu has a touch of sesame oil. I really like this dish since I have a bit of an addiction to sesame oil.

Hollow Spinach in Garlic

Marinated Jelly Fish

Pork Jelly

Shrimp Fried Rice is yummy too but it is a bit small, so you may need to order more. It was a little bit oily, but I really liked it since there is so much filling in it.

Braised tripe was good, but its not for everyone. Some people may get scared of the look.

Large Hot & Sour Soup was my favorite soup! Yum!

Pork Slices with garlic sauce

Wonton Soup

Noodle with Minced Pork Sauce

Braised Beef Noodle Soup

Fried Beancurd Puff with Vermicelli Soup

Overall, all the dishes were pretty good. One of my favorite restaurants when visiting Hong Kong. When you come here, you must have the Steamed Pork Buns! Its the one thing that everyone orders.

We Rate Din Tai Fung:

Address:
Shop 130, 3/F, Silvercord,
30 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Website:
http://www.dintaifung.com.hk/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=30+Canton+Road,+Tsim+Sha+Tsui&hnear=30+Canton+Rd,+Hong+Kong&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

In Causeway Bay

Unicorn Restaurant 麒麟閣酒家: Afternoon Tea in Hong Kong

September 29, 2012

Unicorn Restaurant 麒麟閣酒家 has been around for 30 years providing guest with delicious Chinese food for large banquet style events or just for regular dinner. The restaurant is located inside the Lee Theatre Plaza in Causeway Bay.

Since they do hold a lot of wedding receptions, you may see the exterior overly decorated in white and pink.

Even if you are going for regular Dim Sum, they probably are setting up for the banquet in the night-time. I don’t know who Yoko or Smith are, but hopefully they had a good wedding.

Steamed Beef Ball

Steamed Pork Buns

Pan-fried Radish Cake

Spinach and celery

Durian Pastries

Coconut red bean cakes

Lettuce and oyster sauce

Spare ribs

Duck and BBQ Pork

Vermicelli noodles with vegetables

Barbecued pork fried rice noodles with barbecued pork the Seto powder

Steamed sponge cake

Spring Rolls

Taro Pastry

Egg Tarts

Overall, Unicorn Restaurant has a comfortable environment with attentive service. Its in Causeway bay and close to a lot of shopping areas and the MTR. It was a great place for my relatives to have tea, food, and chit-chat. The food was pretty solid with no complaints.

We Rate Unicorn Restaurant:

Address:
22/F., Lee Theatre Plaza, 99 Precival Street,
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Website:
http://www.unicornrestaurant.com.hk/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=Lee+Theatre+Plaza,+99+Percival+Street,+Causeway+Bay,+Hong+Kong,&hnear=Lee+Theatre+Plaza,+99+Percival+St,+Hong+Kong&gl=ca&t=m&z=16 “]

In Chinese

Super Star Seafood Restaurant: Graduation Buns & Elephant Dumplings

September 26, 2012

Super Star Seafood Restaurant (or some called it Red Star Seafood Restaurant) is located on Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui. They have various locations in Hong Kong and even one location in Richmond, BC. My grandfather took us to this location for some afternoon tea as it is one of the older location where all the celebrities dine.

As you walk upstairs, there are various awards and photos displayed.

There are lots of seats and can accommodate huge parties. We ordered a lot of dishes since we had a party of 7.

Crispy Whitebait and Peanuts come complementary at the table. It is very crispy and delicious! It’s quite famous and can be purchased in packages to take home.

Salted Peanuts came to the table too. It’s something to nibble on when you are waiting to order.

Graduation Buns (Steamed Oats and Milk Bun) was a special item in the Summer since everyone was graduating in the city. It was very cute!

We realized that after you take the top off of the hat, it looks like old grandmother buns.

This inside was a nice and creamy. It was not too sweet and was a lovely dessert.

Deep-fried BBQ Pork and Vegetable Dumpling in Elephant Shape.

It was very very cute and great for little kids to devour.

Congee with assorted items. You can design your own congee and add anything you want.

Roasted Chicken with Shrimp Chips

Hainanese Chicken

Braised Vegetables and Geoduck.

Jellyfish and Ham

Assorted Mushrooms and Bok Choy

Pineapple Buns were very unique here.

If you look inside, there is BBQ pork and bits of pineapples!

Steamed Rice Rolls

Steamed Shrimp Dumplings

Steamed Spare Ribs

Steamed Meat Balls

Steamed Fish

Rice and minced meat patty

Sui Mai

Sweet Fungus Soup

Daily Soup

Red Bean Dessert

Overall, the food is pretty solid with great service. I would definitely come here again. The prices are a bit higher, but its a good place to go for a large meal with the family.

We Rate Super Star Seafood Restaurant:

Address:
1/F, Tsimshatsui Mansion, 83-97 Nathan Road,
Tsim Sha Tsui

Website:
http://www.superstargroup.com.hk/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=Tsim+Sha+Tsui+Mansion,+83-97+Nathan+Road,+Tsim+Sha+Tsui&ll=22.297792,114.172239&spn=0.010701,0.019269&hnear=Tsim+Sha+Tsui+Mansion,+83-97+Nathan+Rd,+Hong+Kong&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

In Chinese

Pelican Seafood Restaurant: Dim Sum + Hello Kitty Mango Pudding

April 6, 2012

Pelican Seafood Restaurant is located on Victoria Drive and Hastings Street. It’s a favorite amongst people in the neighbourhood for dim sum. I came with the Vancouver Gastronomical Brouhaha group to just chow down on some dim sum. It’s always better to eat with great company!

By 10:30am, this place was packed! Unlike traditional Dim Sum restaurants, they do not use carts to push around the food. Instead, you just order it off a piece of paper and it comes to your table. For some people, they may like it, some don’t. It’s just personal preference.

Durian Pastry cane give a lot of people mixed feelings. Some people love durian, some people hate it. Durian is the fruit with all the spikes.

I personally don’t mind durian at all. The pastry was flakey, but the durian was a bit small, so the flavour wasn’t as great as it could be.

Egg Yolk Bun are just the chinese steam buns but filled with custard-like filling.

I didn’t like the texture of the interior because it was pretty gritty. You could taste a lot of the clumps.

Radish Cake is lightly fried on the outside and has a lot of pieces. Good taste too.

Eggplant with prawn puree is one of my favorite dishes.They make it great here! The eggplant is slightly mushy with the savory prawn puree on top. The sauce accompanied the dish nicely too.

Egg Tarts comes with 3 pieces per order. Sometimes if you order multiples of a dish, they combine it together. I’ve never really been a fan of egg tarts.

Rice Rolls with Beef and Parsley is just the steamed rice roll wrapped around a mixture of beef and parsley. It’s another one of those dishes you must order.

Meat Dumpling is crispy on the outside and has a savory meat filling.

Beef Meatballs is one of my favorite items. Who can turn down meat? I sure can’t. hahaha I like dunking the meatballs in worcheshire sauce.

Sticky Rice is wrapped up in leaves and is quite fragrant.

Pan Fried Rice Flour Roll were ok, but I wish it had more stuff to it.

Spring rolls comes in 4 pieces per order, but the picture has 2 orders.I liked them because they had shrimp inside.

Prawn Dumplings (har gau) are my favorites! Or anything with shrimp is my favorite.

Taro Dumpling (wu gok) is super crispy on the outside with soft taro on the inside.

Steam Pork Bun (Xiao long bao) were not very good. The skin was quite thick so it did take away from the flavour of the meat.

Mango Pudding comes in really cute shapes.

Our second order of mango pudding was quite cute too! They really know how to impress the kids. I thought the taste was ok, but it could have had more of a mango fragrance to it.

Overall, the food was good with a few hit and miss items. The service was ok, but there were times where one of the managers or servers were quite rude.

Words of Wisdom:

Decent prices
Rude service
Parking lot in front but usually full at peak hours
Lots of MSG or salt in food

We Rate Pelican Seafood Restaurant:

Address:
1895 E Hastings St
Vancouver, BC

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In Dim Sum

Dinesty Chinese Restaurant: Steamed Pork Dumplings (XLB) Is Addictive

March 29, 2012

Dinesty is a Chinese restaurant in Richmond best known for the Xiao Long Bao (Steamed Pork Dumplings). They have been know to have amazing food and great prices.

Since the last dinner didn’t go so well at Po King with my parents, I decided it was time for me to decide where to eat. After luring them with delicious internet photos, they agreed to take me here.

Once you enter the restaurant, you’ll see a wall of teapot and little dim sum toys. They are glued to the shelf, so don’t think about stealing them.

Told you there were mini dimsum toys.

For a Tuesday dinner, this place was packed. My mom was super surprised and excited at the same time. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for a table. I’m pretty sure the weekends are crazy to get a table.

The best part about the interior is their open kitchen. You can see everyone cooking in the kitchen. It reminded me of watching a reality show on Food Network or something.

Look at them making the Xiao Long Bao. I was excited.

All your utensils and plates already at the table.

Steamed Pork Dumplings ($6.50) comes in 8 pieces. The skin has a nice thin layer, but still keeps the juice locked up inside. They were pretty good! My little sister couldn’t get enough of these.

Comes with a vingar and ginger dip for the dumplings. I love dunking it in this sauce.

Marinated beef with soy-sauce wrapped in pancake ($5.50) is crispy on the outside and has a great flavour overall.

Cold Wined Chicken ($7.50) was good, but it did have a bit of a strange taste with the wine. If you are into the whole cold chicken type of thing, this may just be for you.

Stewed Chicken Leg in Brown Sauce ($6.50) was good, but most of the meat was closest to the drumstick. The meat was quite tender too.

Noodles Topped with home-made Meat Sauce ($6.50) is similar to the Korean Jajangmyeon. You mix everything together really well and just eat it. The dish was ok, but the sauce was a tad bit salty and needed to be more thick and chunky.

Fried rice with scallop and egg whites ($9.95) I liked it. It had a good mixture of ingredients and it wasn’t too oily.

Steamed shrimp scallop and pork dumpling ($7.50) was definitely not as good as the XLB. Even though I really like seafood, the taste didn’t wow me. It just tasted so fishy. It also comes with 8 dumplings.

Steamed Pork Dumplings ($6.50) we also got more of these because we really really liked them!

Almond Tofu ($2.75) was good, but the picture on the menu was pretty misleading…it had more fruit and when this name out…it seemed like there were only a few pieces.

Overall, the food was great and at good prices. The service was really good as well. I love their menu since it’s so easy to read and has PICTURES! I’ll definitely ba back to eat more steamed pork dumplings!

Words of Wisdom:

Steamed Pork Dumplings (XLB) is a must!
Very busy, so best to make reservations
Most dishes under $10
Good service

We Rate Dinesty Chinese Restaurant:

Address:
8111 Ackroyd Rd
Richmond, BC

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In Burnaby Cariboo-Lougheed

Yan’s Garden Chinese Restaurant: Dim Sum in the Suburbs

January 24, 2012

Yan’s Garden serves up Chinese food and is popular in the suburbs for their dim sum on the weekends. They have been here for a while and doing fairly well in the neighbourhood. They even cater to the Koreans nearby by having a Korean menu too.

M and I came here since we haven’t had dim sum in a few months, so it was time to try this place out.

There are 2 dining areas in Yan’s Garden. One is very nice and then this side is very dull and super cold. I kept my coat on the entire time since this side was quite chilly. If you can, try to get a table on the other side.

Sui Mai ($2.95) comes with 4 pieces and tasted quite normal and average. It consists of mostly ground pork with some shrimp.

I wish I knew what this was. It tasted like a Steamed Prawn Dumpling, but it looks nothing like it. This had the same wrapping as the sui mai. Clearly I was very very confused.

Pot Stickers came with a vinegar dipping sauce. The inside has some pork and vegetables wrapped in a thin wrapper and pan-fried. This also tasted quite average.

Deep Fried Wontons were crispy on the outside and shrimpy on the inside. I didn’t take a liking to this either. It’s probably because I didn’t like the sweet sauce the went along with this.

Steamed Beef Meatballs ($2.95) comes in 3 large pieces. You can get them to cut it if you wanted them into smaller pieces. This is probably one of my favorite dishes since it has a good mixture of ingredients and its nothing like an Italian meatball. It’s a bit springy and has good flavour.

Deep Fried Meat Dumplings ($2.95) has a very glutenous layer surrounding minced meat and mushrooms. It’s one of those usual items in dim sum.

I personally never liked this since it’s so chewy that it takes so much effort to eat this. In a way, it reminds me of mochi.

Overall, food was pretty average. I don’t think there was any dish that we ordered was amazing. The service was alright, but at times I felt the servers were being way too pushy with selling us the food on the carts.

Nonetheless, it’s still popular in this area for their affordable prices and decent food. I think this time around, I didn’t order the good stuff.

Words of Wisdom:

Pretty average Dim sum
Request to sit at the nicer dining area
Fried squid, egg tarts, eggplant and shrimp is so good
Busy parking lot in the front, you may need to fight for parking spots
Closest Skytrain: Lougheed Town Center
Traditional pushing dim sum carts

We Rate Yan’s Garden Chinese Restaurant:

Address:
9948 Lougheed Hwy
Burnaby, BC
Website:
http://www.yansgardenrestaurant.ca/

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In Chinese

Fortune House Seafood Restaurant: Most Rude Service!

November 14, 2011

BusanGirl really wanted some Dim Sum, so I took her to Fortune House Seafood since it’s in Metrotown. I’ve been there before and I’ve never had any problems here. This visit was quite different and I was pretty annoyed by the horrible service they gave us.

We arrived just in time for last call at 2:30pm since they close their lunch service at 3pm. The hostess was quite rude and told us to order what we wanted as we waited for our table. We shrugged it off since it was a very busy day for them.

When we arrived at the table, we gave the server our order right away. The dim sum took a long time to arrive and the manager kept pressuring us to pay before our orders even arrived. He didn’t say anything, but he kept opening the little receipt folder to check if we paid it. Just to keep things interesting, we did not pay till the end of our meal. He kept making gestures to make us pay faster before we finished our meal.

They even started rearranging their table set up during the lunch service to prepare for their dinner service. A majority of the diners were still eating and seeing the servers move walls and tables around were super distracting. We heard the managers apologizing to other tables but when they approached our table, they told us to pay the bill. Rude much?

Tea ($1/per head) is charged on your bill without them informing you. They have a good selection of tea as well. If you are really really against paying the tea fee, I’ve heard you can just argue with the manager to remove it. I’ve never paid the tea fee when I go with my family…but this time I was charged. We were kinda mad, but just let it go.

Jumbo Shrimp Dumplings ($5.75) were quite large and tasted good. What I like to do is ask them for some hot sauce since I like a little heat.

Fried Mixed Meat Dumpling ($4.25) is not as big as other places I’ve been too. The sticky dumpling skin is not as thick as other places. Also, their filling is very little compared to other places too. What BusanGirl liked about this was that there was little “meat smell”, which she liked.

Steamed Beef Rice Roll ($5.25) is one of the classic items to get. It has nice minced beef in the middle wrapped with a rice roll with soy sauce on top.

Deep Fried Squid ($7.50) made me quite disappointed. For the price, it was small and lacked flavour. It also looked unappetizing too. It tasted alright, but needed some more salt.

Fortune House Seafood is a very popular Dim Sum restaurant to go to but it can get really really busy and LOUD. Make reservations ahead of time.The price is a bit expensive compared to other chinese restaurants in Vancouver. I think it’s really popular due to the location since it is in Metrotown.

Words of Wisdom: