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Empire Seafood Restaurant
Categories: Restaurants Seafood Restaurants Chinese Dim Sum Seafood, Dim Sum [Edit]
7997 Westminster HwyRichmond, BC V6X 1A4
Neighbourhood: Golden Village
(604) 249-0080
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Noise Level:
- Very Loud
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
15 reviews for Empire Seafood Restaurant
15 reviews in English
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Review from Mastor L.
3/24/2012
I've been to Empire for dim sum and for dinner.
I've never been disappointed with my dishes and I like how they prepare the Alaskan King Crab as well as many of the other dishes, such as the pork belly, and sweet and sour spare ribs. I often think about the crab here. I would say go for the dinner here as I feel that it is better than the dim sum which is pretty standard. I think Kirin across the street actually has better dim sum.
Compared to a lot of competition within a 10-minute radius, this is one that I would definitely recommend. You better make a reservation though, or else your wait will be long. -
Review from Joy H.
1/27/2012
I think Empire is fairly standard dim sum - the location is close by other useful stops (i.e. bank, London Drugs, etc). There weren't any super interesting or unique dim sum (although it is hard to tell since the English descriptions may not really be telling).
No complaints here! Clean restaurant, not too greasy, & not too expensive! -
Review from Juichia C.
6/28/2011
Wow, I thought this was the best dim sum I've ever had in my life. That just shows you how shitty the dim sum is in the US. Hahahahahahaa.
Just like Michelle B, we also came here because Kirin was a 1 hour 45 minute wait. Say what?? Empire has great dim sum dishes, very high quality and the taste is very very authentic.
I didn't experience any bad service dining here though. In fact it was quite fast. They did look like they didn't want to work there, but they still did their job efficiently and refrained from calling the customers any vulgar names. -
Review from Jasmine W.
8/18/2011 2 Check-ins Here
My family always hits this place for dim-sum when we visit the Vancouver-area from the States. Great food, and if someone can tell me if they still do this... 20% off before 11am. Also, the egg tarts are fantastic, be sure to get an order in (before 11am!).
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Review from Vivian Y.
3/1/2009 1 photo
Meh. it was ok. My favorite dish was definitely our 13lb live alaskan king crab done three ways. However, everything else was blahhhh.
The Peking duck, though done well, didn't come with enough pancakes. Same with the lettuce wraps, we were short 2 pieces of lettuce for our table and trying to get a couple more pieces was like pulling teeth.
We also ordered the Hainan chicken(?) The cold chicken served with the scallion and ginger dip - it was undercooked. There were several pieces still bleeding & the meat was translucent. We brought this to the attention of the manager who took the dish away, then came back and said that "oh, it was just those two pieces that were undercooked so I took it away, here you go!"
Um, how about you give us a new one? the cleaver used to chop up this chicken is probably infested with raw chicken juices and there are kids at our table eating from it.
In the end, the offered to heat the chicken up through a wok method of "rinsing the chicken with hot water" so that it will kill the germs and not overcook the chicken.
Ok, fine - chicken was better after that and NOT overcooked which was nice, but my argument is that the person chopping up the chicken in the first place should have seen that the chicken was still raw. -
Review from Katie F.
4/2/2010
2.5 stars.
Food is actually about a 3 star, but decor is a bit older and I hate places that try to change prices on you!
Came here for a private function - I wasn't paying the bill but the person who did got the pleasure of dealing with the lack of fixed pricing, where the room rate varied from $400-$1500 within a single day and depending on who he talked to!
I hate businesses that operate like that - once he found the name of the person he talked to, then the pricing miraculously went back to the original quote.
So even with the booking, the room wasn't actually available at the time agreed upon!
Once those logistics were sorted out, the food served was OK. We had a traditional menu - cold meat appys, bok choy with mushrooms and abalone, soup, chicken and snap peas, deep dried shrimp on a sugar cane stick, shrimp fried rice, noodles, lobster... it was a huge meal and the prices were reasonable.
With the amazing options within a block (Kirin and Shaghai River), this is definitely skippable. The others are worth the wait! -
Review from Charles S.
7/19/2009
The wait was too long for Kirin, so we decided to give this place a shot instead.
We went on a Saturday. It was really, really crowded. The staff situated us at a table in-between what was meant to be a door between two rooms. I'm a bit claustrophobic, so that was a bit uncomfy.
There were some bugs flying around the restaurant. Pretty easily noticeable. I would need to occasionally wave my hands around the food to chase the gnats away.
The food itself was average. The chicken feet was tasteless; the other dishes (shumai, hagao) were alright, but forgettable.
Next time, I'll wait for Kirin. -
Review from Joe L.
Vancouver, BC
8/15/2010 3 Check-ins Here
My parents took us here for my birthday dinner a couple of weeks ago. The small restaurant was packed on a Thursday night so space was a little tight
We order a set menu dinner for 4 among the 5 of us and we had left over to take home. Among the 5 - 6 dishes including dessert, the king crab in cream sauce, fried rice, and bok choy with bean curd sheets are worth the honourable mention. The crab was fresh but the sauce was the best. My partner is not a big fan of crustaceans and he picked the shelly pieces just to suck on the sauce! The fried rice was full of seasoned wok flavour and the bok choy dish was simple but refreshing. I would return just for the fried rice.
The dinner was set at $128 and I think that's a pretty good value for a party of 5. -
Review from Tim L.
9/9/2008
Located right across the way from Kirin, this is another popular spot for dim sum. Unfortunately having tasted Kirin, you may not want to go back here.
Albeit dishes are *slightly* less pricey here and there is plenty of room so seating of small groups (4 or less) is usually not that long of a wait. There's ample parking down in the plaza and staff typically can explain dishes to you in English. -
Review from Alice T.
5/29/2011
I would give no stars if I could. The service people are jerks here. I have never walked out of a restaurant before but this is the worst I have ever experienced. We waited almost an hour after ordering and our food never came out. I kept watching people who came in after us get their food. I asked 2 waiters to check on our food and after assuring me they will I watched them turn around and do something else. I never saw them go back to check on my food. I had my 2 year old daughter with me and she was getting hungry. So unacceptable. I just got up and left. Wasted my time.
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Review from Michelle B.
12/25/2010 1 Check-in Here
We came to this place because Kirin Seafood had a hostess with poor service skills. It was not meant to be! We truly enjoyed this restaurant. Hostess seated us in 5 minutes even though we didn't have RSVP. Dim Sum was great. Fried tofu with garlic was awesome. Porridge soup was served perfectly, in cold winter rainy afternoon. My family devoured beef with flat noodle. Little pricey but was worth it! The meal makes an out-of-towner dining experience a nice one. Please no bitchy hostess...
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Review from Shirley L.
5/28/2010 2 photos
Went with my family. We got there around 2:45. Apparently they close down the kitchen at 3:00pm. We were informed to order ASAP so that they can cook it before the kitchen closed.
We sat down, they asked us what type of tea we wanted and brought it to us. They kept coming over to rush us to order within the span of 3 minutes. We placed our order, they printed it out on a receipt to make sure they got the order correct. Within the next 15 minutes (after the kitchen had closed), they asked if we wanted to order more over three times. Apparently 7 items for a mid-afternoon snack did not suffice. We declined the numerous offers and she rushed us to pay, even before all of our food came, because she said the cash register was to be closed - even though customers kept streaming in.
Otherwise, the food was good. But, it was twice as expensive as dim sum of equal quality in Seattle, given the current exchange rate. So, it was good but not THAT good for the price. But the wait staff was helpful, just the hostess was a little rude and pushy.
Oh, and one last thing, we had some bad company as one of the other customers who ordered a buttload of dim sum just for herself decided that she was lonely and engaged us in conversation multiple times. She tried time and again to convince my mom to immigrate to Canada. -.- -
Review from Stephanie C.
1/24/2011 1 Check-in Here
We came here when we visited my family in Richmond, BC. LOVE it the dimsum. Loved everything so much.. their la mai fan AND bo jai fan were both so addictingly good. Couldn't stop eating. Awesome dim sum too!
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Review from SJ E.
7/6/2009
Didn't have a reservation for either Shanghai River or Kirin on a Sunday lunch hour, so we walked to the nearest place for food. BAD idea! The dim sum was okay quality. But the service was the suckiest ever. We had asked the waitress to cut up an item, she walked away without a word or smile, came back with a fork and a knife and just threw them on the table and walked away. WTF was that?! All the waiters or managers looked like they did not want to be there. Pray first before you eat here.
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Review from Rachael T.
Toronto, ON
12/17/2009
Two full tables of people (just like a big family dinner !) and getting two 10 course meals PLUS peking duck!
Let me think about this:
1. Peking Duck - nicely sliced, but not enough wrappers for pieces that we had to order another half dozen wrappers.... I think for every one piece, there should be one wrapper... and for a giant table, there should be two plates of onion, cucumber and dipping sauce.
2. Mushroom + peashoots - nicely done
3. Chicken pieces with snow snap peas - well cooked and hot
4. lobster - plentiful and high in ginger flavour as described
5. Pork belly - very fatty (like it's supposed to be?).. but the meat at the bottom was tender, I would not eat the fatty party
6. Chinese scallop, and shrimp soup - the shrimp was very small, but there was an abundance of it, and lots of flavour
7. Thinly sliced fish with cured ham and mushroom and gai lan - the gai lan was crunchy, the ham was VERY salty but that gives the fish flavour. With the mushroom, everything goes together well.
8. Peking duck bits with lettuce wraps - once again, not enough wraps! what's with that... and there was not too much duck flavour, which I find to be lacking in other restaurants with this dish.
9. Fried rice - not enough "meat"...... looked like a giant plate of rice with very tiny bits of other stuff....it was okay.
10. fried tofu cooked with egg and brocolli.. the tofu had good texture, instead of being soggy like it can get sometimes.
11. Dessert - it was a clear sweet soup with the fungus and dates - sorry I know that sounded gross but that's what I've been told it is. Overall - too sweet.
Seems like I have forgotten something, but overall it was a very traditional large meal for under $30 per person.
MMMmmmM I love big chinese meals :)
