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Red Star Seafood Restaurant
Categories: Restaurants Seafood Restaurants Chinese Dim Sum Seafood, Dim Sum [Edit]
8298 Granville StreetVancouver, BC V6P 4Z4
Neighbourhood: Marpole
(604) 261-8389
- Price Range:
-
$$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Garage
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Noise Level:
- Loud
- Has TV:
- No
- Caters:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
34 reviews for Red Star Seafood Restaurant
Review Highlights
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"The steamed BBQ pork buns were also quite good, and the..." In 3 reviews -
"Red Star is most famous for their roast Peking duck." In 3 reviews -
"one in Vancouver & the other in Richmond many times." In 7 reviews
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34 reviews in English
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Review from D C.
Vancouver, BC
5/13/2012
Food is top notch - as good as it gets for finer chinese food. Believe it or not, for this category of restaurant, some of their signature items include soy sauce chicken and bbq duck - which is amazing, and can be seen behind a glass partition.
However, depending on the day you go, service is so-so. Some of the waiters are very friendly, but a number are snobby - not as bad as Kirin on Cambie, but enough to mention it.
Dim sum is good, but this place gets incredibly busy. -
Review from Joseph H.
Richmond, BC
3/16/2012
The reason you go here is for the atmosphere and white tablecloth service. The servers wear beautiful tailored vests with golden embroidery. The food is standard Cantonese style restaurant fare. To be honest, you can get almost the same dishes across the street at Daimyo's for about half the price. But you won't get the lovely tablecloth, embossed chopsticks, porcelain, choice of tea, and attentive service.
It was kinda funny the day I went with my family. There was actually at least one server per table of customers. I rarely see that in asian restaurants. Usually it would be something like 1 server per 5-10 tables. I felt like a turn of the century taipan. -
Review from Gabby N.
1/16/2012
Best chinese food in vancouver ever! Well I can't say that 100% because I haven't tried EVERY place in Vancouver. My grandparents have this thing of following managers and servers to different restaurants and this happens to be one of them that we always go to. So for service we always get really good service. They know not to make my grandfather pissed. One mistake and he never goes back despite how good the food is.
I can't believe this one has a lower review than the one in Richmond. The one in Vancouver is 10X better. We've ordered a variety of stuff but there isn't anything that I have disliked. One particular item that I haven't found at any other chinese restaurant is the fried black cod or something like that. It is this deep fried fish with a side of melon and asian like mayo. Super simple but super good!!
Also for price I can't say much the parents always pay the bill. I tried to pay once and the guy literally would not let me pay because they knew my grandfather would throw a fit. *sigh* oh asian grandparents. -
Review from Amy L.
Vancouver, BC
5/13/2012
Horrible service. Rude waitresses. Had a reservation for 7:45 and they made us wait half an hour. Don't waste your time here. Food is overpriced and not worth it. Hostess kept lying to us saying our table was almost ready, that the people were leaving, but they weren't and she just said stuff to make us wait longer.
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Review from BB H.
Burnaby, BC
1/9/2012
OK, it is pricey for dim sum but well worth it. Works out better if there are four of you rather than two as the size of the portions (especially, the pot stickers and shumai) are very big for dim sum. We also ate after 11 am so I'm sure that made a huge diff in price.
Nice white tablecloth, actual chopsticks (not the cheapo kind), and decent service plus fairly wide layout make it as pleasurable a dim sum experience as any in town. -
Review from Anthony H.
Burnaby, BC
4/8/2012
Fast service, love the dim sum, prices very reasonable.
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Review from Jacqueline T.
10/6/2011 1 Check-in Here
Work took us here for a casual get together. There was 8 of us, and we ordered for 12! Portions were big enough to feed probably 15! haha I'm not complaining!
I didn't even get to see the menu.. but what we ordered was more than plenthy... and the variety was plentiful. More than what I'd order for my own family chinese meal. I guess money wasn't a problem! But from what I've heard is... its a little bit more on the heftier $ sign. (They change your plate if it gets a little bit dirty - you know you're paying labor in the price of the food!)
Peking Duck, 2 crabs (one deep fried, one saucy), chicken, veggies, steamed fish, steamed leaf rice, noodles, tofu,Sweet and Sour Rock Cod, lettuce wraps.. and so much more!!
The only thing memorable about my meal was the Peking Duck. But I love peking duck everywhere... but I do agreee.. the quality, was there. Less fat, and so flavorful.
Nothing else really jumped out at me (meaning.. its A-OK for chinese food) Rock Cod was pretty good.
All in all.. maybe I'll come back to try their dimsum. But unless someone is treating me.. I can get the same quality (or maybe better) for less else where. And when I come back.. i'll just order multiple orders of duck! haha :D yummm!~
There is limited free parking underground. If its all filled.. its $1 for an hour of parking. Place is clean! But again.. not memorable. -
Review from JImmy L.
3/10/2012
This is one of the better chinese seafood restaurants in the Vancouver area. This is always chosen by my relatives and family every time we come in to Canada!
This place is great for any type of family dinners. The seating is very massive so its great for large parties as well as small.
Pros: Delicious crab and duck dishes that make your mouth water as you are about to eat!
Cons: tad pricy so don't forget the checkbook or credit card!
parking is hard if you are meeting a large group of people can find parking in the side streets but there is a parking garage if it gets really busy
the wait time could be long if you have a large party (this place gets busy quick!) -
Review from Justin L.
Ultra popular dim sum palace. Too popular -- gets loud and crowded. But dang, the food is great. In particular, I think the chefs do a great job with their RICE NOODLE dishes. Yes, those thin almost translucent white sheets that can be wrapped around Chinese donut and dipped in sweetened soy sauce, wrapped around shrimp or BBQ pork, or just curled up into thick "noodles" and stir-fried with scallions and soy sauce. The latter is expertly prepared here at Red Star.
RICE dishes are also wonderfully flavorful: spare-ribs on rice pot, chicken on rice pot, sticky rice, etc. And speaking of chicken, the SOY SAUCE CHICKEN is one of the best in town.
And then there's the soft tofu for dessert, which the servers ladle out from enormous pots that they push around... Okay, now I'm hungry again.
Expect premium prices for the location and quality of food and professional service. Just try to not let the crowds get in the way. -
Review from Allen W.
6/27/2011 3 Check-ins Here
Visited for a family dinner last week and enjoyed it. I noticed some complaints on yelp about prices which I cannot speak to as I didn't open a menu.
Food arrived quickly and had really good flavour -- roast duck, fresh crab, fresh prawns, ong choi (super spicy), a spinach/egg dish, a beef dish ... and my mind forgets the rest. I just remember there was a ton of piping hot food and it all tasted good.
Service was friendly and on top of everything, above average for most Chinese places. I think they changed my plate about 3 times during dinner due to the shellfish shells.
It's on my list of places to visit for dim sum -- hopefully, it will be as good.
Parking is available in a public pay lot from the alley behind restaurant. -
Review from Larry L.
7/28/2011 1 Check-in Here
Since the last time I was here, they did a few things to improve what I thought they should have done to improve.
The bathroom was fixed.
I know that this is a wierd way to introduce a restaurant that is popular with the locals and has good reviews throughout (mostly), but it's an important one.
To me, the quality of the food can be seen in the way they maintain the establishment. This is most important in the kitchen and the bathrooms.
If they are both well kept and maintained then I tend to feel a bit safer about the conditions that the food is cooked in.
Most Chinese restaurants are not well kept and it's sad to say this, but have you checked into the kitchen of one of your local favourite spots lately?
For the last dinner that I was here for, there were some improvements and that's all a good thing.
The food was decent but I know they had better dishes on the menu.
Why just an a-ok rating? A-OK is still pretty good, but I think it was combination of dishes that were ordered tonight that missed out on the better ratings. Next time I come, I'll have to make sure I get to order what I like.
Their Dim Sum is very good and for that I'd rate it 3.5 to 4 stars.
Parking is available underground which is a bonus.
And did you know that before this building was here, it was the place of the original White Spot? -
Review from Stephen Y.
Richmond, BC
12/2/2010
For me, unless friends really want to come here or I'm in Vancouver and all the bridges leading into Richmond have collapsed and can't drive the opposite way, I wouldn't come here for dim sum or dinner. Don't get me wrong, the food is decent/average, but for the price, it isn't worth it....not when I'm 10 minutes away from far better offerings.
Ambiance (3.5/5) : Nice, clean typical Chinese seafood restaurant. There is the crazy noise on weekends during the rush hour of fellow dim sum patrons, but that's okay. The hanging Peking duck makes me drool.
Food (3/5) : Okay, their Peking duck as mentioned before, is pretty good and I would definitely order it. However, the rest of their dinner offerings is just par for the course and pricey. Dim sum is much like dinner, average...and average in this town is okay, but there isn't much value here as the price per serving is on the high side.
Service (2.5/5) : Service is often slow and unremarkable.
My recommendation, go somewhere else unless someone is paying for your meal....Listed in: Dim Sum - Noisy deliciousness!
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Review from Vincci L.
On a Sunday afternoon, the two of us didn't have to wait too long to get a table. They did put us in the farthest corner of the restaurant, which made it hard for us to get service at times.
We got BBQ pork buns, a bean curd and shrimp roll, shrimp spring rolls, siu mai, and a seafood e-fu noodle. Food came quickly. The BBQ pork buns were very good, soft buns, and the filling was lots of lean pork, not like other places where pieces of fat are within. Everything else was good. The e-fu noodles were a bit bland, and lacking seafood.
Tea was constantly refilled, service was decent. Prices are a little higher than usual. Free parking underground. -
Review from Annie W.
9/28/2010
Yummy Dim Sum! :D
My family's favorite place to eat Dim Sum!
Service: above average
Price: average
Parking: free, along the street
Food: DELICIOUS!Listed in: Best Chinese Restaurants in…
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Review from prista c.
12/27/2008
This Chinese restaurant is located conveniently close to Vancouver International airport, and is a great place for those in transit to stop by for some satisfying dim sum.
Not knowing any written Chinese can be a bit of a handicap when trying to order. You are given an order slip with a list of menu items (unfortunately, it's written in Chinese) as well as a pictorial and Chinese/English menu with matching numbers. Once you've decided what items you want on the English menu, you find the corresponding number on the Chinese order slip and circle the quantities you want. I recommend an easier approach to ordering- just call over a waiter and start pointing to the pictures of the items you want and let the waiter figure out what to put down on the order slip.
The food itself is very good. Dim sum, for me, is all about the different ways of eating shrimp. All the various shrimp fillings and preparations were quite tasty and brimming over with juicy shrimp bits. The rice flour wrappers/noodles were not as tender as some other dim sum places but this place scored on the filling. The steamed BBQ pork buns were also quite good, and the buns themselves were soft and fluffy. There was quite a large selection of dim sum, with some stuff I'm not quite so familiar with.
If you are looking for some good dim sum, or starving off the plane, this place is located within a 5-minute drive of the airport and is a great place to start or end your Vancouver visit.Listed in: Visiting Vancouver/Whistler?
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Review from Claudia L.
Burnaby, BC
1/28/2009
Dim sum comparable to that of Victoria Seafood Restaurant downtown. Red Star is a long-standing dim sum restaurant from way back when I remember the staff here used to think I was a little boy because of my Chinaman bowl hair cuts my mom like to give me -_- [enter childhood traumatic experience here]
Food: It's good but not outstanding and as a regular dim sum goer, I feel it's a tad overpriced without justification. I would rather drive over the bridge to get true deliciousness in Richmond.
Atmosphere & Staff: Located in a upper scale community, the service here is obviously better than discount dim sum restaurants with a matching atmosphere. Traditional and clean. -
Review from Tim L.
1/1/2010
When I first got to this listing to write my review I was curious as to how it was sustaining such a high rating. I mean I am reviewing purely based on dim sum, perhaps their evening seafood is better? Then I noticed it.
Anything 4 star and up seems to be from a non-Local. Ok technically I no longer spend the majority of my time in Vancouver, but I grew up here so I'll consider myself a local.
Anyways, I can't figure out what all the hype is about this place. I came here because my Grandmother had heard from many people how amazing it was here. So along with the family and a friend we got here and surprisingly avoided most of the crazy lineups (which I also don't understand).
All I have to say is that if the food here doesn't appeal to:
1. My 88 year old Grandma who has far too many years of dim sum experience.
2. Me, who's more forgiving when it comes to progressive new dim sum dishes
3. My parents who keep kosher (yes I know that's odd) and avoid practically most dim sum dishes since they all contain either shrimp or pork
4. My friend who's recently gone pescatarian
We represent a pretty wide array of tastes and not one of us found anything that blew us away for this place to be worth the time spent waiting for a table or the prices that you pay for the dishes.
As Claudia L stated in her review save yourself the trouble. You're just 10 minutes crossing over the bridge into Richmond for a selection of far better places to get your dim sum fix.
On top of that the dim sum order sheet we got was all in Chinese, I had to ask the waiter (my grandma's eyes aren't that great and my parents still want me to learn to read) what the items were. At least for me I know what the dishes are in Chinese, it's just that I can't read the characters.
I didn't ask but I sure hope there's an English version of that menu, otherwise all of you out there who don't understand Chinese are going to find this restaurant to be an extremely unfriendly place to eat.
The regular menu however seemed to have both English & Chinese so let's hope that they do have an English dim sum menu somewhere.
Paying for the bill with cash seemed to take much longer than necessary, it seemed like they were waiting on collecting a few more tables worth of bills to process before coming back. So we finally got change after 10 minutes of waiting.
Couple this with the restaurant just being in a super busy hard to find parking area / bad parking lot situation and there's really no reason to come here. -
Review from Annie M.
Vancouver, BC
Dim sim prices are a bit expensive and not too much selection. Services are slow.
Much more restaurants in Richmond are better than Red Star. -
Review from Paul M.
Burnaby, BC
12/27/2011
I would give 0 stars if I could. Made reservation, got there on time then proceeded to wait 1/2 hour in very cramped, busy, loud environment and still not seated. What is the point of taking reservations?
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Review from Dominique N.
2/13/2010
A friend once said (at our wedding), "This meal is like us showing our domination over the sea creatures" That's a pretty accurate description of Cantonese cuisine. And Red Star is the best of the bunch.
My (Chinese) grandparents live in Richmond and normally hate to go anywhere outside of Richmond. But we make the mini-trek over to Red Star on Granville because it is THAT awesome. Vancouver and Richmond are chock-a-block with fantastic Chinese restaurants - this is the awesomest.
The dim sum here is good (as other reviewers mentioned) but it's their banquet style seafood that really stands out. If shrimp are in season you must try their simply, boiled drunken shrimp (called that because the shrimp are alive and "drunk" on wine, before being boiled alive at your table...a little harsh I realize but no different than Western style lobster). The shrimp are so fabulously delicious that they just need a little soy sauce and oil as accompaniments. Their crab is also equally good.
Another good dish is the honey mini spareribs. Delicious - it's not the most authentic dish I suppose, but I can never pass them up.
Finally unlike most Chinese restaurants that have icky red bean soup as dessert (which is usually thinned with water beyond recognition) this place makes tiny pastries and cookies for dessert. They have mini sesame cookies and almond cookies. A perfect end to a delicious seafood feast. -
Review from Charles H.
12/4/2009
This is way you go to Hongkouver for (even though the Canadian custom doesn't believe me). Premium Dim Sum that's worth driving 3hrs from Seattle for. The wait is long and the food is great, and the service? exceptional for a Chinese restaurant, our table never ran out of hot water for our tea. BBQ pork buns, rice-cake? in a bowl, and ha-gow (steamed shrimp dumplings) are stand outs. Just stay away from the mushroom noodle. And the scantron ordering system is pretty nifty and time saving too.
OMG, why is is so hard to write a coherent Dim Sum review. -
Review from Dontcallmeafoodblogger D.
West Vancouver, BC
11/26/2011
The dim sum served here is above average. The service is good once you get the attention of the servers. The location can't be beat: We always seem to end up having dim sum at this restaurant when our intent is to try out a dim sum restaurant in Richmond. Driving from West Van to Richmond via Granville would always put us in front of Red Star at the peak of our hunger. 4 out of 5 times we never make it to Richmond...but that may be for the best. The 1 out of 5 times that we did manage to out-duel our hunger and make it to Richmond, we were utterly disappointed with the dim sum we had at Sea Harbour.
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Review from Curtis L.
1/3/2011 1 photo
Our friend brought us here for a dim-sum lunch during our day trip this past Saturday. She made reservations but there is still a wait. Lobby was jam packed with people and it looks like it's one of those places you better be able to speak Chinese or you will never get a table. Place is cramped and barely room to walk around therefore no cart service except for the dessert tofu. The food was tasty and the items were larger than normal. They used whole shrimp where normally is a paste. A few items were on the dry side but overall, it was good. The price is on the higher side but is fair for what you get. They are on the nicer side so expect above average service. Overall, they did a good job and you should give them a try if you don't know where else to go.
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Review from saul m.
11/8/2009
As my brother-in-law's cousin is a chef de cuisine there, I have been to both of their locations...one in Vancouver & the other in Richmond many times. They have always been excellent.
We reserve a table since we usually go in a large group. We usually start with a crab meat seafood soup...just the best ever. Then we continue with seafood. My brother-in-law's cousin usually prepares a surprise dish or 2 for us.
This is a higher price range restaurant, but the food & service have always been excellent. The atmosphere is dressy casual.
Some advice...dim sum on Sat. & Sun. @ any good Chinese restaurant in Vancouver or Richmond is EXTREMELY BUSY. For better service & a more relaxing time, try going to dim sum weekdays. -
Review from marianne w.
4/22/2010
I have a lot of relatives in Vancouver and we came here for dinner while I was in town. The food here is awesome! Everything was tasty and fresh. Recommended for anyone who is looking for some good chinese food! This place definitely will not let you down.
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Review from Grayce E.
3/17/2010
I came across this restaurant review while looking around and thought I'd quickly put in my two cents. Is the food good here? Yes. I haven't been here for over 6 months but for a while there it was considered one of the better chinese restaurants in Vancouver. My family from Hong Kong prefer eating here when they are visiting. However, having said that, the restaurant's popularity means service is at times hard to come by. I've heard stories of people making reservations and still needing to wait over a half an hour. So, while the food is good I do agree with other people who say you might as well go somewhere else than deal with a very busy restaurant environment.
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Review from Susanne J.
Hope, BC
6/17/2009
Maybe we should call this place Two Star instead of Red Star. The experience definitely made me reluctant to revisit...
We waited for a bit to get seated in the cavernous room despite my friend having some pull there, then we waited again for someone to come by and take our order after lots of waving, arms up in the air, trying to get some attention. Fortunately my friend spoke Cantonese, can't imagine what it'd be like for me without her. We ordered too much food: seabass, lobster with creamy noodles, scallops and snowpeas. I do love my seafood and the dishes were pretty delish, albeit kinda cold. You usually can't go wrong with dishes like these, I've never had a bad lobster or sour seabass. When her husband arrived a little late he ordered something too, but his food took so long he sent it back. No one likes to feel ignored. Why else go to a restaurant if not to be served? I can cook up a decent meal at home. In the end I'm not sure how much it all came out to since my friend was generously footing the bill, but for what I imagine the cost of the dinner was I think you could probably pick some place better. -
Review from David L.
5/11/2010
Red Star is most famous for their roast Peking duck. You can even see it behind a glass display area. Their duck is delicous and I always order it everytime when I visit this restaurant. Their dim sum is good quality but a bit pricier when compared to other restaurants. I'd rather go to Kirin for dim sum to be honest. Seating and ambience of this restaurant is good. I really like their geoduck and other stir fry dishes, but they're a little more pricier than many East Vancouver restaurants. The quality of the dishes are quite consistent.
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Review from Tom D.
Vancouver, BC
9/10/2010
Always serves great food. A little expensive but you get what its worth. Place is very accessible. Make reservations or you will be seated late or at the farthest corner of the restaurant.
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Review from Law C.
8/11/2009
I came here for dinner a few weeks back with my dear friend, Sarah O. the Elite. I was telling her all about how the Cantonese do it with the blanched live shrimp and the soy jalapeno dipping sauce. They do it pretty well over here. Compared to Cantonese banquet restaurants in the SF Bay Area where I'm from, Red Star is pretty solid. The prices are actually not bad for the quality you're getting. These types of restaurants are typically better for large groups since the serving sizes of dishes is big and you want to try a lot of different dishes. So roll here with a big group. You'll see a lot of family gatherings and the such. I always hear about how Vancouver has the bomb Chinese food and this place is definitely solid.
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Review from Oliver K.
6/2/2010
We are Tourist from the US, we wanted to try some local Chinese food. My friend recommended us this restaurant. First, of all the food was decent tasted great, however service could have been better.. In the order 2 items was never served and instead of apologizing they blamed it on us saying dessert items have to me called before they serve us. The funny part was we order 2 dessert items and one Porridge (jook).
The porridge nor our custard tarts never arrived. One of the dessert item we received, How in the world they can say, " we need to ask for our dessert item" when we already received one of them.
Food taste good but price is alright.. i would try this again someday. -
Review from Harry C.
2/8/2010
OMG the Dim sum here is the is sooo good!!! even better than what we have back in LA or SF.... its true how they say all the famous HK chefs migrated to vancouver back in 1997... this one restaurant definitely carry the best dim sum :))
Their portions are large and each dim sum is huge compares to asian size, and slightly more filling than what we have in LA. Remember to ask for their XO sauce and Chilly hot oil without the oil... i love it!!! -
Review from Jason W.
Vancouver, BC
3/16/2010
The service was slow and poor and the food was not anything to write home about. Based on the other reviews, maybe we just went on an off night, but given the huge number of great Dim Sum places in the area, we probably won't be returning.
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Review from M W.
10/17/2010
Came here on vacation. Remembered from my last visit that Vancouver's Dim Sum was even better than the Dim Sum in Monterey Park in California. This place didn't disappoint. Came here on recommendation from SPA owner who just emmigrated from Hong Kong. She was right. The local Cantonese crowd loves this place. My friends and I got there at 10:30 am and it looked empty, but shortly after 15 minutes the crowds appeared and there was standing room only. It was just like a hot spots in Monterey Park and San Gabriel Valley. Portions are generous and the staff are very friendly. They also offer pairings on the best teas to have with the entrees you may order. Dim Sum portions are generous and taste fresh. A la carte was good too. My friends ordered hot and sour seafood soup. They said it was sooooo good! Generous on the seafood and the right combination of hot and sour. Will definitely visit this place again if I'm every in Vancouver again.
