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Floata Seafood Restaurant
Categories: Restaurants Seafood Restaurants Chinese Dim Sum Seafood, Dim Sum [Edit]
180 Keefer StVancouver, BC V6A 4E9
Neighbourhood: Chinatown
(604) 602-0368
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Garage, Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Noise Level:
- Very Loud
- Ambience:
- Casual
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
50 reviews for Floata Seafood Restaurant
Review Highlights
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"We had the sweet soy bean curd for dessert which was soft..." In 3 reviews -
"We also had siu mai, sticky rice fried rice, shrimp..." In 5 reviews -
"...time at the wedding, but I couldn't recommend this place." In 3 reviews
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50 reviews in English
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Review from Kenneth E.
Vancouver, BC
4/29/2012 1 Check-in Here
That's just for the convenience of not having to lineup! Though it's usually busy, the fact that it's western Canada's largest restaurant -- 1000 seat capacity --- , if you're in the mood for average dim sum and not picky, this is the place to take your out of town guests to lol.
Came here for dim sum, don't recommend the sew mah and the leaf-wrapped rice w/ pork stuff, a bit salty.
Perhaps their dinner is better; they seem to host a lot of association dinners, wedding banquets...
One tip i ask for is to ask for seating near the bar/kitchen entrances area---that way you'll get service and your bill on time. otherwise, no one is gonna see you in the middle of the ocean.
And park on the very top 3rd floor of the parkade so you don't need to take the stairs/elevator.
they actually do delivery. -
Review from Christian H.
Vancouver, BC
4/15/2012 2 Check-ins Here
Having been around the Asian community for the past three years, I was quite disappointed with Floata Seafood Restaurant. The dim sum was unimpressive and nothing all that special.I didn't see a very big variety of dim sum plates going around. What they did have was good, but again, a disappointment on the varieties. It is times like this, I miss Malaysian dim sum in Kuala Lumpar. The prices were good and cheap, but as my hopefully future mother-in-law would say, "Good no cheap, cheap no good." She nails it on the head. Apparently, they service less variety with cheaper prices early. Then, they have higher prices and more varieties. The service was okay, not rude, not overly special. The atmosphere was average. It was a good place for meeting up with friends, but not for a truly special event. So, try to enjoy your time together and get a some mediocre dim sum...
And as always, Have Fun!!! -
Review from M M.
Vancouver, BC
4/5/2012
I went to Floata a couple of years ago with a friend on a Sunday afternoon and had heard so many good things about it, I was so excited because I never have dim sum.... BIG disappointment. Wahhh...
It took FOREVER to get anyone's attention and they sat us in a corner. No one came by with carts, so I flagged someone down, but he literally broke into a run and went into the kitchen. I checked my mirror, nothing on my face, my hair was ok... what was the problem??
I got someone else to take our order, but by the time we got any of our food, it was either cold or oversalted. Not impressed.
When a friend mentioned he wanted to go on a weekday afternoon, I literally made this face D:
Sun Sui Wah is so much better, why would he want to go to this dump? Then he said he went every week, the food is really good.. so I trusted him. And I am glad I did. The place got a swanky new makeover, everyone is smiling, the food was piping hot, no one ran away from me and we left happy and full.
The only weird thing: one of the servers kept trying to pawn off this gross plate of random fried fish on us.. at LEAST three times.. but hey, if that's the only thing I'm complaining about, pat yourself on the back, Floata! -
Review from Annie W.
2/26/2012
My relationship with Floata is one that can be firmly linked to a single attribute: Convenience.
I don't particularly like dim sum, but my grandmother does and so I often go with her. She is very old and Floata is the closest dim sum joint within walking distance from her place. Sure we could walk a little further to some of the better places, but when you're 85 every extra block counts.
I will say one thing about the staff at Floata, while they may not be all that prompt or polite to the average customer, they do know how to show some respect the elderly. It's always nice to see the waiter fuss over her a bit, advise her on where to sit so the carts don't bump her, and remember the type of tea she likes.
I'd say the food is pretty average. Won't blow your socks off, but its definitely tasty enough to satisfy and very reasonably priced. -
Review from Ramon V.
10/4/2011 1 Check-in Here
Give me a break, Floata. You've been here for so long, but you're still trying to pull the wool over our foolish eyes. I'm wise to dim sum like a mother is wise to basement ne'erdowelling.
I love, love, LOVE dim sum, yet there are many pet peeves that have surfaced from years of weekend feasting. Off the top of my head:
- The lone-plate-that's-made-three-laps-around-the-banqu et-hall-drop-off while you're sitting down.
- The charge for tea, whether you're drinking it or not.
- The impossible-to-flag-down waiters.
- The "small", "medium" and "large" identifiers on their scorecard, but everything you order is checked off in the "large" box.
- The carts which never come to your table.
- The items that are marked as specialty items on the scorecard, only to realize that they're $16 plates when the bill comes.
- The tiny hot sauce that you have to beg for.
- The glass of water that you have to beg for.
- Cart items that are kept secret from you.
- Mystery pricing.
- The items you order directly from the waiter that never show up.
- Coke = glass full of ice with a squirt of Coke.
- Large screens with strange content. Usually the security camera footage, or somebody's wedding video.
Floata has all of these features and more, and I leave spending $30 on a mediocre meal that would have cost $15 elsewhere.Listed in: Yelp's 30-day Challenge
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Review from Larry L.
Updated - 12/19/2011 1 Check-in Here
This review is for the Dimsum we came for. Just the two of us, so we knew we would only be able to eat certain dishes. I was curious about their Har Gow which got a middle of the run rating.
The skin was a bit thick, yes, but it held together. (you must let it sit for a bit before you take them out of the bamboo steamer or it will fall apart). The size was just right.
The squid was so so. Deep fried, greasy and probably better appreciated the next day... :).
Fresh, that day, the crispy batter fell apart from the squid. Flavour wise it was average.
The rest of the dishes I would give them a 3 star rating.
Overall, it was average. I have to admit, that I've had better, and there is better in Chinatown, but this location was convenient with parking and time.
My lunch companion was of course much better than average. She was 5 stars all the way!.
Unfortunately for me. I was probably a 2 star rating. I'm always shy and too self conscious around what I deem near perfection.
Maybe it's time to do the banquet dinner here soon.Listed in: Mojofoodies -Chinatown, ASIAN SHOPPING CENTRES, Cantonese Food
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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8/19/2011
Oh Floata Floata Floata. What banquet for over 500 would exist without you?
All those Chinese… Read more »
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Review from Michael W.
10/17/2011 1 Check-in Here
I love me some Dim Sum and was really excited to be here.
I am kind of a Dim Sum snob being from Manhattan so I was trying not to hold you to a higher standard.
But the food was only ok here.
The dumplings were not bad but I kind of think you skimped on the filling a bit. I had way too many grissly and unedible bits in the pork dumplings.
The Taro balls were nice but a little too bland.
The long rice noodles with shrimp seemed like they were a little old.
The Chinese broccoli was a little tough and the ends were extremely acidic tasting.
The beef soup had WAY WAY WAY WAY too many organ pieces in it I think I had a whole lung cut up in mine.
Thai sticky rice was not bad.
I never saw the turnip cake cart go by and I was there over an hour :( That is my favorite dish too.
So what's up with charging for tea. I never asked for it, it was just placed at my table and then you charge for it. If I order it then fine but just saying even in Manhattan they give you free tea.
An extremely disappointing start to my Vancouver trip. -
Review from Alice A.
11/13/2011
Once again, the reviews for dim sum places in Vancouver on Yelp don't seem to be reflecting reality.
I got there last Saturday around quarter to 12, there wasn't a waiting list, so I got seated immediately. At first I was a little worried that could be a bad sign, but soon the banquet hall quickly filled up with customers.
My tea order was promptly served. My friends were running late, so I sat and waited for a while, taking in the hustle and bustle of a typical dim sum restaurant. Lady servers pushing their food carts along the main aisles yelling out their dim sum in Cantonese. People chatting over tea and food. This scene deserves the first star on my rating - the authentic cultural experience. I love it.
When everyone came, we went all out and ordered everything our stomaches craved. Service was good, and I would go as far as to say very friendly for a Chinese restaurant. There was even a bit of banter between the managers in black and our table. Second star.
Food was good. I would go back. There was a variety of shrimp dumplings to choose from, all good, so we didn't even bothered with the standard har gow and siu mai portions. Normally I don't care for the fried turnip cake, but it was so good, I ate two. Char siu sho (BBQ pork in pastry) wasn't hot like I usually like it but it was deliciously flakey and savory. Our tea pots were constantly topped up. Third star.
Finally when we finished our soy bean curd dessert after a very long and leisurely chat, we called for the bill and it worked out to be $16 + tip. Very reasonable. We paid, chatted some more while the servers busily got the place ready for an annual dinner and dance. We were never told to leave, they basically just worked around us and left our table last to clean. Fourth star.
And here's the reality, regardless of their reviews on Yelp, I think Floata is and will be doing all right. -
Review from mei s.
8/31/2011
We were looking for a good chinese restaurant in the old chinatown. My brother-in-law somehow found this place advertised on some flyer so we went. Funny thing, as we walked from our hotel over here, we picked up some "hanger ons." they sniffed out the asian family heading to chinatown and figured they'd follow us to see where we ended up. lucky for them, they picked the right family.
this place was awesome. very good food and very friendly service. i wish we had found it for dim sum, but we thought from the exterior, it looked "fake".
for dinner, we ordered malaysian crab (which was not what we expected), baby bok choy, shrimp walnuts and chinese broccoli, lobster with bday noodles. We had wanted to order clams but was recommended against doing so by the waiter, how's that for service?
we were not hungry before getting there but we had to "check" our dinner meal off of our to-do list for the day. so glad we did. great place. huge dining hall that they sectioned off for dinner, otherwise, it would look very odd. -
Review from Sean L.
7/27/2011
FRAUD!!
We have 2 tables for dim sum, and the manager put some dishes on one of our table saying that the other table ordered that for you. At first we thought really is, then we found out it's not. So we confronts the manager, and he just walks away without apology. CHEAP BASTARD!!!
The dishes that he put on our table is BAD!! The veggie is bitter & yellow, which is LEFT-OVERS!!
THINK TWICE before you want to have dim sum there.... -
Review from Nicole F.
6/29/2011
Our last day in Vancouver and being a dim sum hound I just had to try it in North America's 2nd largest Chinatown. The hop on hop off bus people recommend this place.....too bad I didn't have my yelp app with me to guide me to a better place. The service is sporadic as many have testified. But when I go for dim sum I am used to service being hit or miss...it's all about the food for me. And this is where Floata disappoints.
The skin on the dumplings was the stickiest I have ever had. We could barely get the har gow out of the container. A big glutinous mass...plus, it didn't seem to have enough scallions or garlic - very bland.
The gai lan came out cold and at 7 bucks for a small plate of chinese broccoli it better at least be hot and have nice flavor. Only positive was that it wasn't too oily....but definitely not special. The worst was the curry squid which had zero curry in it - but rather Chinese 5 spice powder. -
Review from Theresa W.
Vancouver, BC
1/30/2011
I've never been here for anything other than dim sum, but I can't help it - I love me some cheap dim sum. If you head here before 11am, your dim sum is all one price of $2.75 (except for rice rolls, which are $3.30). If you get there around 9:30ish they serve deep fried dough fritters in rice rolls, but I guess they run out closer to 10am.
Even if I arrive at 10:40am, I'm still able to get all my favourite items before the 11am cut off. The best thing that Floata has: the tri-mushroom rice roll. This is by far the best restaurant in the city that has them. Be alert though, this seems to go fast (sometimes faster than the shrimp rice roll).
Another fab item is the koon tong gau (large dumpling in soup with bamboo pith). Because the items come out on push carts, be wary of the deep fried cart. Those items get pushed around the restaurant quite a few times, I'm fairly certain.
Overall, the service here is good, the bathrooms are clean and large, and they're huge, so there's always room for early dim sum. Note they don't accept credit cards on orders less than $10.
Tri-mushroom rice rolls everyone! Try it!Listed in: Dim Sum!
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Review from David L.
Updated - 5/8/2011
Sinking down like a submarine. Well, almost. I came here for another banquet dinner. I had some high expectations because the last few times I've eaten at this restaurant, the dishes were really good. What's really keeping Floata from hitting the very bottom is their fresh and quality ingredients and better than average service.
Unfortunately, almost all of the dishes were on the bland side, except for the first dish of meat and seafood. There wasn't a single dish that made me say, "wow". However, almost all of the ingredients, especially the vegetables were looked and tasted very fresh.2 Previous Reviews: Show all »
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7/19/2010
The quality of the banquet dinners are amazing. In my opinion, better than Sun Sui Wah and Kirin in… Read more »
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Review from Simon K.
I came today, Saturday, to bring my grandma, and my brother for a good dim sum lunch, and also an update for myself in regards to this place that has been here so long, and the last time I even stepped my foot in the place was about 7 years ago, for a Sunday morning, after a good hangover at the club, so I needed a sane tongue to finally distinguish if this place was good or not, to my standards.
To start, this place has been around a good time, ever since this huge mecca of a parking lot was raised here in Chinatown. On the third floor of the parking lot, this restaurant for any Chinese restaurant in Vancouver is huge. This place is probably one of the biggest in the city, and able to be sectioned off due to the retracting walls. Even in my circle of friends and family, they have dodged this place due to price and quality of food, so I had to come and see if it was true, or not.
I can say for a Saturday, at around 11:45 am, it was not too busy, still had to wait about 5 minutes for a table, but this place is so big, that they are capable of dealing with crowds. This is a dim sum restaurant that pushes carts, and does not use the paper sheet to mark down what you plan to order. The one thing I have to start to say is, the food is not bad, actually to my palate, it was just right in taste. We did not have many plates, and the odd thing was that sometimes when you run a restaurant of this size, I noticed that the carts do not always get to your area. By the time the carts that missed us, came back, they would be empty of what food we wanted at the time of excitement for the particular item.
We had more dessert dishes, than the typical savory plate, but what we had would make me come back one more time to see if the service can step up to what food they are serving. The spare ribs, and the tofu dish I had did hit the spot, and even the 'haw-gow' dish was good.
The good thing about this place, knowing that it is in Chinatown, is that there is parking. They give you an hour free, then you will be charged $1 per 1/2 hour. There is some work that needs to be done, but I do see an improvement to what others have said about the place.Listed in: Great Dim Sum Joints in the…
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Review from Randy E.
Vancouver, BC
11/12/2010
Just finished dinner at an awards show hosted at Floata restaurant. The food was awful. An insult to asian cuisine!
To top it off, the bathrooms were disgusting. One of our servers was doubling as the washroom attendant!! Nice. -
Review from Dawn L.
Vancouver, BC
10/3/2011
Absolutely the worst service I have ever received in my life and the worst part was that the biggest culprit was one of the managers. There was not enough food, had to wait 20 minutes for 4 barely stocked dim sum carts to roll around. Our teapot was empty for 30 minutes and when we tried to get the manager to help, he argued with us and proceeded to ignore us, even when we were merely trying to get the bill. And when the bill came, they tried to charge us "Tea money" for a 15 month old and a 3 month old and the invisible 6th person at our table. I wouldn't even recommend this restaurant to my worst enemy.
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Review from Maxine H.
10/8/2010 1 Check-in Here
I was so excited to get dim sum on my trip to Vancouver. I mean having the 2nd largest CHINATOWN in North America I had to try right? After asking around and looking at reviews I decided to try out Floata.
The bf and I got there just a little after 11 and the place was fairly empty (not a very good sign). We were promptly seated, got our tea, and just waited for the cart ladies. After 15 minutes no ladies, not even one, came by our way. WTH?! We looked around and there was only ONE lady pushing around a cart. NO FRIGGIN WAY?! Just as we were thinking about leaving one of the supervisors came by and asked what we wanted. We got the hargow, siumai, sticky rice in lotus leaf, and cow stomach. All which he brought piping hot to our table. Now that's what I call service.
The hargow and siumai was the BEST I've had anywhere. Stuffed to the max with shrimp and other goodies. They were huge and delicious. The sticky rice and cow stomach was mediocre. I think the one's at NBC Seafood in Monterey is much better.
Half way through our meal, around 12-1230, the place started to get busier. And it wasn't till then we saw more cart ladies and people walking around with the day's specials. If only it were like that when we got there. I mean first impressions are everything right?
Overall the place was okay. Not as great as I had expected, but then again maybe my expectations were TOO high. -
Review from Chris E.
8/6/2008
As a testimony to how good this place is, my friends and I used to drive up here from Seattle after playing mahjong all night. While the dim sum in Seattle is pretty good, it doesn't hold a candle to the places in Richmond.
Floata is a beautiful restaurant located in the Richmond (Chinese) area of Vancouver, BC, and they're dim sum is amazing. All the dishes are amazingly fresh, and the flavor is incredible. Fresh items are added to the cart on a constant basis. When here, order the usual dishes, hargow, shiaomai, black bean spare ribs, shrimp rolls.... everything is good; but also be sure to order the black bean spare rib rice... this dish is as good as it gets. If you can afford to spend a little, be sure to also get their lobster butter noodles... so good! Their selection is just awesome. It's virtually impossible to find a dim sum place with a combination of quality and variety in the US.
Not only is the food good, but the restaurant is huge. Waiting for a table never takes long at all. The service here is completely on point, and the staff is always there to clean up your empty containers, and fill up your tea.
Probably some of the best dim sum I've ever had... perhaps on the same scale as Hong Kong. -
Review from Fannie S.
3/25/2009
Okay, this place is terrible.
Decor...the upstairs banquet room was in shambles. Furniture everywhere, chairs stacked up, dirty tables, etc. They were not that busy and it was more than half empty!
Service = okay. At least they had that going for them.
Food = don't bother. I tried their har gow = low quality shrimp. Siu mai = fatty pork. Chicken feet = super salty and overcooked. Custard bun = mediocre at best. Xiao long bao = oh.mi.god. they destroyed it! The meat filling was tough, and it was no where near juicy!!!
Very unhappy woman, I was! Booooo!!! I really wanted to like this place too! -
Review from Gersham M.
Vancouver, BC
7/19/2009
Biggest is most certainly not best. I haven't been here in years and it seems to have stepped a real notch down.
The service was mediocre, we had to wait for quite a while for any food at all to show up then it appeared all at once. Not good. Part of the appeal of Dim Sum when they have the carts is that it's a grazing experience. You see something, eat it, see some more and eat that. Not so when they're all out of sync.
The food was equally mediocre, nothing really of note with a somewhat lacking selection. The skin on the various dumplings and such wasn't properly isolated from the container and kept sticking to it, annoying the piss out of me.
Vancouver has many, many options for Dim Sum. Indeed since the ingredients can often be fresher I'd say this city has better Dim Sum than what I've had in Hong Kong. You can do far better than this restaurant, keep looking. -
Review from Rachael T.
Toronto, ON
11/3/2009
Floata is a dim sum place you can go to expecting to have little waits, high priced dim sum, for mediocre quality. I'm for old school dim-summing where people move the carts around so I can see what is actually being served.
Service is all over the place, with many employees disliking your jobs, ignoring your requests and slamming tea pots on your table.... some days are better than others and I've been here enough to have never experienced great service. I guess the company and the hefty amounts of dim sum make up for that.
I guess when all good dim sum places are packed out the door, you have to settle for floata. -
Review from Sarah O.
3/22/2011
A woman I went with is some kind of VIP here, and the waitresses were flocking to her from every corner of the restaurant so the service was pretty good. I would write a decent review about everything I ate but I have no idea what any of it was called. Anyway, the fresh shrimp spring roll was really tasty. The big plate of fried noodle with saucy thing on top was also tasty. The huge bowl of soft tofu for dessert - not so tasty. Really big place and convenient parking. Well, I guess that is all.
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Review from Veronica P.
5/30/2009
Vancouver has one of the bigger, if not biggest Chinatown's in all of Canada, so I was looking forward to coming here and tasting some of its wares. Floata is the biggest dim sum restaurant in town. When asking one of the locals in the area, he said that the dim sum at Floata was just "okay" and that it was the biggest restaurant in the area. He did tell us, that if you wanted better food that we should head on over to Richmond.
As Richmond was quite far away, we decided to head on over to Floata anyhow. It is typical cart service. The food here was less than spectacular and was not used to what I am accustomed to eating at a dim sum restaurant. The Char Sui Bao was overly sweet and had a strange yet unfamiliar after taste. The XLB (soup dumplings) had a minimal amount of soup, a very thick skin and filling that almost tasted like uncooked rotting pork. The Siu Mai was one of the better dishes, but still nothing spectacular.
The best thing was the egg custard tarts. These were probably the best I've ever had. The pastry was very light and flaky. The custard was barely set, as they had just come out of the oven, not overly sweet and most importantly, not at all eggy. Almost tasted like a Chinese version of a first class creme brulee.
Was hoping for a better experience, but you can't pick a winner everytime. -
Review from Mel S.
Vancouver, BC
6/28/2011 1 Check-in Here
Went for dimsum about 11:30AM on a tuesday. Not very busy at this time, was seated right away. Did get packed shortly afterwards, however service was still fast. My favs were the sharkfin dumplings and Chinese donut rice rolls. Quality was decent, nice decor, quick service. However i found price was a bit high especially for Chinatown with many comparable quality dimsum restaurants that have lower prices. I wished they hadthe dimsum carts going around so you can see the food before ordering it.
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Review from Sheila W.
BC
1/15/2009 1 photo
This is my dim sum restaurant of choice to take visitors to for a few reasons. 1) Location: It's an easy walk from the Staduim/Chinatown skytrain station and it's near the Sun Yet Sen gardens. 2) It's huge and you don't have to wait too long for a table. 3) The food is great and there's lots to choose from. 4) You get semi-angry service that I think is an important part of your Chinatown experience.
I've been here a bunch and always with different people and groups of different sizes. It never fails that the host/hostess at the front is short with us. Usually instead of a "please follow me" we get a glare and a beckoning hand motion when it's our turn to be seated. One time we were even led to a table where people were not quite finished eating yet -- we were told "you wait!" and left to lurk over the shoulders of the group as they finished their tea and conversation.
Another time we were led to a table that was then assembled (poorly) with a wooden round being thrown over a smaller square table to increase seating capacity. It wasn't properly secured and we couldn't put any weight on the edges of the table or else we'd flip the tea of the person seated across the table.
This is all part of the adventure. I love shrimp dumplings, steamed scallop dumplings, BBQ Pork steam rice roll, BBQ pork buns, gua lan (those strange, green veggies). If you go on the weekend you'll get the fascinating experience of ordering straight off the carts they roll around the restaurant. Take your chances, point and order "that one." If the cart-lady starts to snicker, you might have just ordered pig stomach or something equally unfriendly to non-Chinese people ... no matter, all dim sum items are inexpensive. Quieter times you'll have to order from the menu. -
Review from Kristen M.
8/11/2010
Solid 2 stars (this review is just for dining in and NOT for dim sum).
Located on the 3rd floor of the building in Chinatown lies Floata restaurant. Apparently it was featured in Vancouver's brochure for Chinatown as one of the places to visit for Chinese food. I came here with a group of buddies for a nice Chinese dinner. It happened to also be one of the only restaurants that was open so we decided to check it out.
We even had our Chinese speaking friends to come in and order our meal for us. The waiter or manager offered us 2 orders of fillet fish with Chinese broccoli (this was off the menu) and in the end we got 1 order and they charged us for 2 orders. We didn't realize it until we had left and looked at the receipts. in the end the food was okay and yes we were ripped off and that was totally not cool. (FAIL!)
The service was prompt and they did accept US dollars for the travellers, but other than that the food was all right and the rip off was mean!
In the end, I wouldn't come back. Don't even bother coming here! -
Review from Aris L.
6/20/2010
The only thing that is good in this restaurant is CHA LIONG..
NOT RECOMMENDED! -
Review from Enrique B.
9/12/2009
I've only gone in the morning, when its cheaper. I only order dim sum.
The place is popular amongst local hong kong chinese, and the food is certainly yummy. I would like to mention that the staff don't smile much, but maybe thats how dim sum works. Its a great cheap place for breakfast with friends. -
Review from Lisa L.
Vancouver, BC
3/28/2011
Love this place! The lines are long for good reason as the food is delicious and authentic. Downside is the service, which can be slow and inefficient. Make reservations on the weekend as this place is always packed.
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Review from courtney j.
Vancouver, BC
11/12/2010
I'm with Randy on this one, we also attended the awards event and the food was gross. Straight up. How the event ended up there is beyond me... there are so many other options of Chinese food in Vancouver so do yourself a favour and skip this one.
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Review from Brian Q.
9/10/2009
This place was recommended by our hotel shuttle driver and I didn't see anyplace better while walking around Chinatown. I came for lunch on a Thursday and there were no dim sum carts so we had to order from the menu.
Pros: AWESOME deep-fried taro root dumpling. The Shao Mai are big, meaty, and flavorful. Chinese broccoli was well cooked. There's a picture menu for those who don't know what to get.
Cons: Typical terrible service I come to expect at dim sum places. We got our first dish but the woman who brought it said we had to wait for our waiter to return to ask for soy sauce and chili. The steamed shrimp rolls were good, but the sauce that came with them was a bit bland compared to what I'm used to.
I'd give it 4-stars if it was local to me, but Vancouver is supposed to have amazing Chinese food and this didn't seem any better than what I can get in Dallas. -
Review from Claudia L.
Burnaby, BC
2/4/2009
One of the rare restaurants that can fit hundreds of people for banquets. Great place to book with very reasonable prices for your association or club. They have a stage, A/V equipment and lots of room for your event.
Food & Service: Although I was never really a fan and I would prefer to eat elsewhere, there food and service here has improved a lot in the past few years. I was here for a Rotary meeting and the food was presentable (although a tad salty for my taste) and the wait staff were very attentive and friendly.
During dim sum hours, this place is bustling with a huge Chinatown/downtown crowd but don't worry there are a lot of seats. -
Review from Andy N.
8/25/2009
Caveat: this is a review of Floata's dim sum ONLY, based on ONE visit.
We settled on this place on the recommendation of an Asian bell person at our hotel; I didn't ask if he's Chinese or Vienamese.
Service: typical dim sum service: stoic to glum, with the occasional smile. I suppose people don't go to dim sum to enjoy the waitstaff's sunny disposition. The service was fairly prompt; We did not experience delays reported by others here.
Dim sum: overall, the dishes are very well seasoned; I suppose my "well seasoned" would be JC's "too salty"! In fact, the tables do not have the usual array of condiments of soy sauce and chili paste in oil. When we asked for some soy sauce and chili (before ordering the food), I detected a bit of a smirk from the waiter that seems to say: "I see you're from out of town." None of the dishes we ordered needed any additional seasoning, at least for the four in our party.
The ha cao was the best I've ever had. I'm not a fan of ha cao because they tend to be on the bland side, being composed of shrimp (bland) and tapioca flour (bland). Floata's ha cao is well seasoned, both in the filling as well as in the "skin". It was done right, not over- or under-done; the filling was not soft or soggy (underdone) or tough (overdone). We enjoyed two orders of that. We also had siu mai, sticky rice fried rice, shrimp & cilantro dumplings, fried soft tofu, beef tripe, and a side order of snow pea shoots sauteed with garlic. The tofu is the high quality soft silken tofu, not the denser kind containing more soy bean curd by volume. The snow pea shoots was well seasoned. The beef tripe is, well, beef tripe: a bit of an acquired taste.
The restroom is reasonably clean for such an establishment. (In my experience, these places tend to have slightly to extremely scuzzy restrooms!)
If the service was a bit more smiling, and the restroom a bit cleaner/neater, I would given this place 4 stars. As it was, three and a half stars. -
Review from pete d.
Vancouver, BC
6/7/2010
**Floata serves shark fin soup, I've changed my review to reflect my disgust - see below edit**
I've been here several times over the course of several years for dim sum.
Floata is certainly epic in it's scale - it's a huge banquet hall, with partitions that allow it to be resized. Unfortunately that grandeur isn't echoed in the food. Unless they're run well, really big dim sum places like this tend to suffer from the scale: carts take too long to get around, resulting in poor selection and long waits. So my tip is to poke your head around the corner and check the room - if number of diners is sparse, give it a pass and save yourself the disappointment. Opt for one of the smaller places one block north on Pender St like Garden Villa or Jade Dynasty.
HOWEVER, if you are in Chinatown during a big event (ie Lunar New Year's parade) then Floata's the place to be - the can accommodate larger crowds and therefore have less of a lineup. Anticipating the crowds during these times Floata seems to be on it's A-game and food and service are fast and fresh.
When fresh, the food is typically well prepared and I would imagine they do a top notch job on large banquet events - which given the scale of the room Floata books a lot of.
Prices are reasonable enough.
EDIT:
It has since come to my attention that Floata is one of the few restaurants in this city that serve shark fin soup. I've changed my star rating to reflect my disgust at their support of the cruel and barbaric practice of shark finning.
I will NEVER set foot in this restaurant again and will urge everyone I know to boycott Floata until they completely remove shark fin soup from their menus. -
Review from Chris R.
8/26/2010
Terrible. Just terrible.
Came because it was recommended in my city guide. What a mistake.
Place doesn't even seem clean. The tablecloths reminded me of some seedy hotel.
Service was some of the worst I've ever had. The food carts rarely came around, and when they did there was hardly anything to choose from. And what I chose? Less than ordinary.
When I was ready to go, no one would come to let me pay them. I had to go up to the register myself.
One star is too much. If I could do zero I would. -
Review from food lover t.
7/25/2011
one word "YUCK"
worst dim sum place ever. Food is terrible, bland, not cooked and service sucks.
Don't go there guys. not worth your money. -
Review from Jonathan K.
12/14/2008 2 photos
oh-so-close to five stars!
this was my first encounter with vancouver dim sum, and i had high hopes. fortunately, floata didn't disappoint. it's located on the third floor of a chinese shopping mall--park on P3 to enter directly without having to go into the mall (which, other than floata, didn't look like it had anything redeeming).
the dim sum was flavor-packed. i'd go into details except, being an ABC, i don't really know the chinese names of things off the top of my head and i don't know the english names of dishes either. in any case, i'll attempt to sound out the names of the stand-out dishes for me: the siu mai was sooo full of flavor and the cha siu so was also quite tasty--methinks they use butter in making the crust?
the only real disappointment was the the joong--it was waayyy too bean-y and not rice-y enough, making it slightly dry. if you like bean-y joong, go for it! otherwise, avoid.
everything else was definitely up to par with my high expectations. then why didn't i give this place a five? most of the dishes were only room temperature by the time we got them. you could tell they were good, but they could have been great if they were piping hot. we were even seated close to the exit, but most of the food didn't retain their heat well. maybe they need heated carts? or maybe they're sitting too long in the kitchen waiting to be carted out?
service was excellent, and the staff was definitely more chatty and friendly than the ones i'm used to (from LA and SF). there's a projector showing a security camera view of the entrance so you can keep an eye out for incoming guests joining your table (or, at least, that's what we assumed). -
Review from Doris L.
Vancouver, BC
1/23/2011
I haven't been to Chinatown for Dim sum in the longest time. Most Vancouverites know there are much better places to go for Dim sum than Chinatown (like Richmond). Floata just refreshed me on why Chinatown=/= good chinese food. Not in Vancouver anyway.
This is by far the worst dim-sum restaurant I've been to lately. The food is barely acceptable, albeit some dishes were OK. Most of the other ones just tasted like they weren't made with care to flavour or texture. Let's do some examples, shall we? The rice-roll with beef we ordered came out looking like a big sloppy napkin. The meat inside barely tasted like beef. It was just some bad cut of meat that was pounded to death and flavoured to disguise that it's beyond it's "best before date". The steamed barbecue pork buns had an OK bun but the filling was dry and crusty. Plus it really didn't taste like barbecue pork. The colour was the right artficial-red but the flavour was BLAH. We had other dishes that lacked their usual flavour, should you visit any decent Dim sum restaurant for comparison. I figure I'll save us all some time and just list them: Curry cuttlefish (no curry, gross cuttle fish), little steamed buns with pork filling (Shanghai style), har gao (if you can't make a har gao, you ain't a dim sum restaurant).
Other things we tried that were a little better, was this pineapple & beef noodle. It tasted a little strange. It's a weird combination of sweet and sour. The meat wasn't the best but the noodles were done alright.
To top it off, we had to pay parking to eat there. It is 1st hour is paid and then you have to pay something after that. This just means that they subsidize your parking, because everyone knows with the wait and the ordering and the eating and the "Drinking tea", you need more than an hour to get the job done.
Overall, I wouldn't waste your time coming here. It's not worth the trouble.
(PS: there's not really any "service" but this is "old style" chinese dim sum. So to be fair. That's expected.) -
Review from Unicorn Y.
5/23/2009
Recommended by a shop where I purchased some bootleg Hello Kitty pajamas, Floata is known as one of the largest restaurants in Chinatown. As far a dim sum goes, this place is around average but unrivaled in greasiness! English-only speakers may find some difficulty, but overall they're pretty accommodating for individuals who cannot understand dim sum carters' calls.
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Review from Henry L.
3/6/2009
A bank teller recommended this place our first time in Vancouver. But we tried this place our 3rd time back and was satisfied. The quality of the dimsum was better than the stuff you find in seattle. The waitstaff spoke english too for those you don't know chinese. The prices were pretty good for a restaurant of it's size. Seating was quick since there were open tables, and dimsum cart frequency was on the average side. but when they do show up at your table, they won't disappoint, as everything was steaming hot and fresh.
