Vancouver is known for their dimsum, so of course we had to make our way to one of them. Chose Empire in the Richmond area as our first meal off the plane. We literally landed and ubered our way over with all our luggage because Richmond is really close to the airport and further out than where we were staying in Downtown Vancouver. We had made Saturday lunch reservations via their website, but got through security and baggage claim sooner than expected so got there early. They were able to accommodate and seat us within ~20 minutes. Love that they take reservations! The hostess and servers were all friendly and wonderful, and our dim sum dishes were delicious and generously portioned!! Can't go wrong with whatever you order so I won't list it all. Empire doesn't have the push carts - you mark a menu and they bring the dishes out to you. Would definitely recommend this place if you're in Vancouver. It's about 40 minutes from downtown. read more

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Empire Seafood Restaurant is located at 5951 No 3 Road, Richmond, BC Food : 5/5 Service : 5/5 Ambiance : 5/5 read more

Empire Seafood Restaurant - Seafood Near Me - Richmond, British Columbia

It's the Cantonese thing to do. When we go on vacation, we need to eat Chinese food. I had planned on visiting another restaurant, but, was told that Empire was a good bang for the buck. No push carts here. You order off the menu and someone appears from the back about 10 minutes later with your food. The dim sum was good. We liked everything that we ordered. My wife ordered the gai jaat, something that has disappeared from the dimsum menus in the 626. It was good. The steamed rice roll with Chinese donut and dried shredded pork was another winner. It was a good experience here. The price was on par with the food in the 626 after conversion. Parking is free when you register your license plate at the tablet up front. There is a parking patrol who does issue tickets. I can see myself coming back here. read more

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Loved the noodle rolls with fried shrimp and scallions!!! And the wrapped rice with Chinese sausage but the rest was underwhelming read more

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We love coming here because of the food and vibrant energy. You feel like you're dining in a DimSum restaurant in Hong Kong. The food is tasty, the service is efficient, and you can talk as loudly as you want ;) We usually dine here for dim sum but we have also had evening banquets. They do not disappoint. I particularly like their rendition of the Ground Pork in Tofu Skin and their Pea Tip with enoki mushroom dishes. Try to make reservations, if you can. They get very busy during dim sum hours. read more

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A quick shout out to this restaurant. It was a delightful surprise that the restaurant was so packed on a Monday morning at 10:30am. We found the restaurant by accident while walking near our hotel looking for a dim sum restaurant. The service was quick and attentive. There is special pricing if ordered before 11:00am. The dim sum was quite delicious. My favourites were: Steamed eggplant with stuffed dried shrimp, four huge pieces. Steam rice roll with beef. The rice roll was so thin, thinner than other restaurants. Ham Sui Gok. It came in different colours but there is no difference in flavour. We were in and out of there in very good time to pick up our luggage from the hotel hold and head to the airport. The restaurant is up a number of stairs. read more

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Empire's always a solid, reliable, and accommodating din sum spot. Came here a few times now solo and they always had a table ready for me regardless of how busy they are. Big, bright, spacious with better than average dim sum service. The fundamentals here are great. Har Gow, Siu Mai, Shrimp Rice Rolls, Shrimp & Eggplant. That's my starting four lineup. They're all done well here without the frills. Siu Mai's always plump, Har Gow's fresh, Rice rolls are a tad thick, but you get real shrimp. None of that filler paste. 4/5 all around. It's my back up option when Kirin across the street is too busy for me, but is by no means a consolation prize. read more

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Came here for dinner service with my party of 6. We decided to order their lobster set meal for 4 as we have 2 kids in our party which includes soup, 4 entrees and 1 fried rice. The entree included lobster, which was flavorful and decent size and meaty. The fish fillet with broccoli was one of my favorite dish as the fish was moist and had a nice bouncy texture to it. They used quality meat for the honey garlic pork chop and I liked that it wasn't just all fat. However, I felt it was a little too sweet for my liking. The chicken was well marinated, meat was cooked to the perfect temperature and the scallion and ginger sauce was very tasty. We also separately ordered the abalone with goose feet. I didn't eat the goose feet but the mushroom and abalone were braised until they knew tender. However I thought the sauce was on the salty side. The service was quick and attentive. The food came out in no time and our server was quick to ensure everything we requested is provided in a timely manner. The restaurant is located on the 2nd level of the plaza and free parking is available on the 2nd and 3rd level of the parking structure. Just remember not to park on the 1st level and to register your license plate at the tablet by the front door. Overall, the food was delicious and service is as good as you can get at a Chinese restaurant. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and would return for sure. read more

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We drove all the way across the border from Seattle, and ChatGPT recommended this place. The food was incredibly fresh and tasted absolutely amazing, and the service was exceptionally patient and attentive. The quality far surpasses that of Chinese restaurants in Seattle; in fact, we even returned for dinner after visiting Stanley Park--and after having completely polished off every dish, we realized we had forgotten to take a photo of the steamed freshly caught grouper. read more

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Out of all the dim sum places Richmond has to offer, this was probably to most bland and average one, that makes even Seattle dim sum shine. Stopped here on a whim due to their availability to seat my party for a weekday lunch. Sadly my preferred har gow, siu mai and most of the rice rolls were bland and weren't memorable enough. I'll give them some credit for the baked bbq pork bun and donut wrapped rice rolls with pork floss, which were the most enjoyable. Service was good when needed, but the majority of food didn't have the taste to make it special. read more

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So when you come to Empire, make sure you don't pay for parking! Go to the restaurant, and there is an iPad there to enter your car info for 2 hours of complimentary parking! I'm glad we made reservations, because this place is packed. Overall, service was 4/5! Food was 4/5! I really recommend the fried taro pork; it's so good! My only complaint would be that the seating arrangement was pretty tight, that's for sure. I was literally sitting beside the next table, so close that I could basically reach and grab their food. read more

I went here on Christmas Eve after the places my family and I planned to eat at for dinner were too busy. They were able to accommodate our table of 8 in about an hour from when we called, it was very busy Christmas Eve night. Lawrence, our server, gave great recommendations and was very personable and friendly. Overall, the restaurant looked pretty upscale. I would recommend the fried squid appetizer, sautéed beef with bell peppers, and scallop, eggplant, and tofu clay pot. The fried rice did not impress me, it was comparable to frozen fried rice. The seafood in the chow mein was good, but the noodles were hard and thin. I was unsure about this restaurant and almost left to eat at a sushi spot across the way instead. I'm actually glad we stayed, the food came quickly for how busy it was and I enjoyed many of the dishes. read more

Empire Seafood Restaurant - Entrance - Seafood Near Me - Richmond, British Columbia

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Service was slow. No many food selections compared to all the other dim sum places I had visited. Seriously, they don't even have Daikon cake? Worst of all, my tea cup felt like someone just spit all over it. Thought ir might be the tea, but it was okay after changing to a new cup. They didn't wash their dishes? Gross! About foods, the portion is great. Huge servings and solid fillings. However,when it comes to the taste. the pork has a strong, gamey smell -- both the congee and the siu mai. The beef tripe from JuHou tastes like disinfectant. The taro dumplings are okay. This was a terrible dining experience during my stay at Canada this time read more

Super busy even mid day weekday! Happy that they take reservations! They validate parking- need license number. They don't push around carts but food comes promptly. Our fave dishes were the radish cake wrapped fried donut, chicken feet and fried durian dessert! Lots of tables and clean! :) read more

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This is my family's go to spot for dim sum. We like the bright ambiance and that it's on a higher level so the view from the big windows is nice. The price is relatively cheaper if you get here before 9.30 am for 20% off and the service is decent for a Chinese restaurant. Their menu doesn't change very much, but every so often they added a few items like glutinous rice buns that my mom loves. There's ample, free 2-hour parking as well and is close to the Skytrain station so it's commuter friendly too. I can't say too much about their dinner service as I've only had them a few times, but the quality is decent though the portions are a bit small. read more

Another solid place for dim sum in Richmond. The service here is very attentive, and servers are quick to make sure that we are attended to. Like others, there's a menu for items to order from versus having a cart pushed around. If you go early enough, they have some early bird specials. We ordered a variety of items and it did its job. read more

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Empire Seafood Restaurant # 200-5951 No. 3 Road, Richmond (Next to London Drugs) https://empirerestaurant.ca/ We were there for dinner last night. Food was fresh & great. We had the 2 course Peking Duck for $108 with lots of duck to go around for 4 people. They recommended this special soup that they made, it is what the Asian called "slow boiled soup", the soup is slowly boiled for at least 4 hours if not more. No Instapot for this kind of soup, the taste of the soup was superb! The ingredients that was in the soup was another meal by itself! We also ordered a plate f stir fried pea tips, gotta have your greens. Reservation recommended. Don't buy the ticket for parking if you are parking on site, when you walk into the restaurant. You have to register your car with them electronically for a free 2 hour parking. The interior of the restaurant was nicely decorated with chandeliers on the ceiling. The bathrooms were clean! You need to check out their TOGO menu, they have a Peking Duck set with several dishes at a very reasonable price. Quality is good, so is their dim sum... they are packed everyday! You gotta check it out. read more

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One of my favorite places to for dim sum!! My personal favorites: taro pastry, beef rice roll, mushroom truffle dumplings, bean curd roll (not pictured). The service is pretty good but like any place now, they charge us tea. Free parking in the underground parkade. My friends liked the clean and fine dining decor!! read more

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Go-to dim sum spot. Opens earlier than other restaurants. Easy parking. Well lighted and clean restaurant. Attentive staff. The dim sum is consistently good. read more

Typical Chinese dim sum restaurant. Got the stir fried turnip cake, chicken feet, siu mai, steamed beef roll and durian glutinous ball. I enjoyed the flavors of the siu mai. Lovely texture from tendons nice and snappy and juicy. The durian balls packed a punch, nice and crispy and super creamy durian filling. Found everything else a little bland, mainly lacking the umami tasted in the beef roll and chicken feet, and the stir fried turnip cakes were relatively one tone taste and on the softer side of turnip cakes. But they didn't taste bad, just wouldn't get them again. Super fast service to get seated. Seems like a lot of people call in to reserve first. Very open air setting, tables are not too close together. read more

Came here to satisfy a craving for crab but instead ordered a set menu for two. Food was very good and we were full by the third dish. We had to pack the rest home. It's a set menu featuring 5 dishes - Bird's Neat Soup, Braised Abalone, Steamed Lobster with tons of Garlic, Truffle Free Range Chicken and Seafood Fried Rice. Service is good too. Our dishes were changed several times and waiter came to check on us. This is one of the top restaurants in Richmond. Place looks clean and bright, a good banquet location for big occasions like weddings and birthdays. read more

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Taro fried pastry with meat inside was delicious. Stomach lining was flavorful and a little spicy. Otherwise other items weren't memorable. The lobster in Lobster with Vermicelli was good. However the vermicelli was undercooked and bit hard. The restaurant is clean and has good but the normal dim sum efficient type of service. Parking is difficult is my biggest qualm read more

Food is okay for the most part but some of the meat was just cooked enough or too salty. The service was going steady for the first few courses but then slowed down and food stopped coming out for 30 mins then again for another 20 mins! We ended up being at the restaurant for a little over 2.5 hours for our meal. Granted it was a busy night but it makes us weary to return read more

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Good food, fast service, typical Asian vibe and opens earlier that other dim sum venues in the area.

A truly 5 star experience! We dined for mid morning dim sum and had about a 15 minute-ish wait to be seated on a Tuesday. Agree with all the reviews that recommend a reservation. Almost every one else that came in had reservations. Lovely waiting area. The dining room is beautiful-a big banquet sized room-no clutter, just white cloth tables and very nice chairs-and a beautiful view of the Richmond skyline. Very fast and prompt service. Our dim sum dishes came out at a good pace. Two of us shared 3 dishes. All delicious! Loved their XLB. Would definitely recommend visitng Richmond and dining here if you visit or live in the Vancouver area. read more

Empire Seafood Restaurant - November 2023 dim sum for breakfast-lunch - Seafood Near Me - Richmond, British Columbia

Great dim sum. Service is efficient, big, light restaurant. Parking is tight, needs to be very careful.

I used to come here a lot living in Richmond but honestly it's gone downhill since covid. There dim sum is not bad but I don't recommend coming for dinner. As there are so many options in Richmond, the quality and service is not nearly what it once was. Booking in advance is always wise and there's free parking below in the plaza. The place is decently sized and has separate rooms just like most chinese restaurants so if you want to host a birthday or celebration, it can accommodate. Now with inflation and so much competition, they need to change their quality to match their pricing if they want to compete with the rest. If you've never been, try them out but I think you'll find plenty others better. read more

After living in Seattle for almost 2 years with barely any success with finding good dim sum, this place blew my mind. As with most Chinese restaurants, food is top top priority and service is secondary. We called to make reservations for 12pm but had to push to 12:30pm which was okay because the border crossing from US to Canada took a lot longer than expected. They still put us down on the list but reservations are somewhat useless because like other parties, we still had to wait about 30 minutes past the reservation time, so maybe saving 10 minutes or so. We ordered the usual variety of dim sum, such as har gow, siu mai, chicken feet, rice noodle rolls, steamed yolk bun, etc. All of these have additional flavor and the ingredients are of higher quality - for example, the har gow shrimp is not the mushy kind. It was slightly sweet and has the nice fresh shrimp texture to it. The siu mai also has distinct texture and flavor, with a fair amount of fish roe too. Prices are about US prices ($30 per person) because we were tourists and not sure if we needed to tip or not, so we just tipped the usual amount. But it is still of good value solely because the dim sum is very good here. Honestly, there may be better in Richmond/Vancouver area, but this is just one data point and good dim sum is just a border away! read more

Empire Seafood Restaurant - Seafood Near Me - Richmond, British Columbia

Really nice place and very impressive! We came here two days in a row for dim sum, be sure to get a reservation before you head over there! All the dim sum were really delicious, my favorite was the preserved egg and salty pork congee! If you're there before 11 am, there's a discount for this congee! The service is excellent and the food came really fast! You order your food on a paper menu that they give you and you just mark off what you want! Mr. Lawrence was really helpful and very pleasant! I definitely would go back again if I had more time! read more

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The dim sum is so-so. I would say it differs from the Bay Area too much. The stand out dish we had was the taro puff with roast goose. Otherwise, the rest had my missing my favorite dim sum spots in the Bay Area. read more

Empire Seafood Restaurant - Seafood Near Me - Richmond, British Columbia

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Cantonese dimsum and seafood restaurant near the London Drugs on the corner of No. 3 and Westminster. Has been around for a while. Mid-size interior. Went in there for dimsum on a weekday, and there was a pretty decent amount of customers. Tried various dimsum items. Their style more traditional. Tried their special soup dumpling that had some abalone, and it was alright. As for the rest of the dimsum, they tasted good. Not the best in area, but not the worst. Prices are on par with other dimsum restaurants in Richmond. read more

Empire Seafood Restaurant - dimsum and a fried rice - Seafood Near Me - Richmond, British Columbia

This place is good and really popular! They are open earlier at 9 AM than other places so we took the SkyTrain to the end of the line and walked a few blocks. Got there at 9:20 AM and it was already full! They said 45 minute wait but was only about 20 minutes. This place is definitely nice, with some exotic items. We settled for some har gau, siu mai with truffle, chicken feet, char siu bao, eggplant with shrimp, and more. The food came out fast and the stand out was the har gau. They had a great flavor and texture. Definitely some of the best. By the time we left, more people were waiting. read more

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My favorite dimsum spot in the Richmond / Vancouver area I've been to so far! My friend made a reservation for Sunday dimsum at 12:15 the day before, and it was absolutely packed inside. It was still completely full at 2 pm, which says a lot about how popular this place is. I thought every single item we ordered was pretty solid, which is very unusual for a dimsum spot. We ordered a couple of standard dimsum dishes... The siu mai are huge, some of the biggest I've seen. The steamed spare ribs were super tender. The chicken feet was puffy and fall off the bone tender. The dan tat (egg tart) was soft and flaky. Most dimsum dishes we ordered were in the $8-9 range. We also tried a couple of regular lunch items, and those were fantastic as well. The fried squid ($14.75) was one of my favorite dishes of the meal, and the fried pork knuckle ($14.25) was also done really well. Our final bill came out to around $30/pp, which wasn't terrible since we ordered 10 dishes, including two lunch items. They charge $1.75 pp for the tea. There's free parking available in the adjoining parking garage. I will be back! read more

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It's not the same as far as service, class and food quality. The place is still very popular with full house. Coming here without a reservation is very unwise. The pork doesn't taste fresh and the deep fried items are not golden brown. Last but not least, the service quality is not comparable to the surrounding dim sum restaurants. Too bad... Service was very bad. read more

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Empire Seafood Restaurant is known as one of Richmond's best places for dim sum. They are also one of the rare dim sum places that allow you to reserve a table online. They are located in the London Plaza, they have 2 hours of free parking in the London Plaza parking garage. You'll have to register your car at the lobby of the restaurant upon arrive. Do note that they have separate entrances and exits for the garage, so make sure to not accidentally enter through an exit and vice versa. Also, the parking stalls and space driving up the garage can be tight. So, drive slow and carefully. Another thing to note is, if you download the Indigo App, you can apparently reserve parking spots in advance. When my friends and I went, we notice so many reserved Indigo spots available. So know before you go. To save time and stress of driving around looking for a parking spot, you can reserve a stall if you've downloaded the app and requested a stall ahead of time. Entering the restaurant, I met up with my friends who were already seated. It was a busy Saturday at about noon so there were lots of employees moving around constantly. Those who are used to restaurant employees moving away for patrons to pass won't always get that there. I am one to not mind at times, especially knowing the culture. They work in a fast paced, hustle and bustle environment. To keep the flow of service moving smoothly, they can't always stop to let you go first. If you want the dim sum style of ordering from rolling carts, you won't get that here. Their method is by having patrons mark the items on a order sheet and they will bring out your order once it's available. Another thing to know is that the employees wear their masks, so that's great to see and appreciate them for. In terms of ambiance and appearance, they do have two rooms for private dining experience if you are in need of that. Out in the main dining area, the tables and chairs were in great condition and cleaned and cleared quickly after each diners. They gave beautiful hanging chandeliers and large windows with a view of the Canada Line Skytrain. Kind of nice get a glimpse of Richmond since my party and I are visitors of the area. What I enjoy about this restaurant and that I don't see done anywhere else, is the fact that they have two chopsticks for each diner. One chopstick is your personal use chopsticks and the other is supposed to be used as your communal one to grab food. They are different colors, so you shouldn't be mixing them up. I also like the fact that they provide you two tea pots: one filled with tea leaves and another filled with just hot water. You use the hot water to refill your teapot or if you like just plain hot water, you got it! Now on to the food. We ordered pretty much the commonly ordered dishes such as: siu mai, hao gao, bean curd rolls, chicken feet, shrimp rice rolls, taro balls, tofu stuffed eggplants, steamed spare ribs with black bean sauce, stir fried rice rolls, vegetarian rice rolls, and durian puffs. In my opinion, I could've done without the spare ribs and vegetarian rice rolls. I usually like the spare ribs, but this one seemed to be a bit bland for me and the vegetarian rice roll is served cold. Other than that, everything was rather tasty. Overall, my experience was great! The restaurant was clean not just in the main dining area, but also in the restrooms/washrooms. They had hands free faucets, soap dispenser, and paper towel dispensers. I appreciated the fact that they had trash bins near each door from the restroom to the second door separating the restaurant from the restrooms. They are very mindful of cleanliness. Food was delicious and service was good as well. I would definitely go back again and also recommend others to go. read more

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Seriously, make reservations at least 1 day before. They fill up quickly. Food: 4 -- Marinated Chicken with Black Truffle: 5, served cold with black truffle paste, shredded carrots, crispy onions, and cilantro -- Stir-fried String Bean, Pumpkin, & Eggplant: 5, delicious, al-dente vegetables with that ethereal garlic "wok-hei" flavor -- Xiao Long Bao: 4, tasty but a little too salty for me -- Steamed Wild Mushroom Dumplings with Black Truffle: 3, chock full of minced mushrooms, but flavorless -- Pan-seared Eggplant & Shrimp Paste: 4, large and lots of shrimp filling, but a bit heavy and oily Ambiance: 3.5 This restaurant is your typical average large noisy banquet room with tables no smaller than 4-tops that I could see and placed close together. However, I think they have a few smaller private party rooms. Service: 3 The first time we showed up on Labor Day Monday at 1:30 PM without a reservation. There was a 20-minute wait, and last orders would be taken at 2:45, so we left. We made a reservation for the next day 11:00 AM, and they were pretty packed. We were seated without menus, which took at least 15 min for anyone to notice. After we checked off our selections, took maybe another 10 minutes to get our order picked up. Very happy with the food, but don't be in a hurry. read more

Great foods and great prices. Service is great. Good food selections. Authentic Chinese cuisine

I've frequented Chinese dining options often and I've never had worst service that this location. Our server asked us what tea we wanted. My mom said the kids only drink water and then we were trying to decide what tea we wanted. Before we could answer, he walked away ... he asked again 10 mins later, and again left after 5 seconds as if he couldn't be bothered with us. He then tried to explain to us the reason was because we didn't answer him. We put our order in (it's a paper menu where you check off items you want) and later they told us they lost our paper and we had to redo our order. We ordered many dishes and they never took away our empty dishes. We asked for them to clear it out and they waved their hands as if it wasn't their job. They never did take away the finished dishes. We ended up moving the empty dishes to another table ourselves when another party left. We also didn't receive 2 of our dishes so we told the staff. The first person pointed at one of our almost finished dishes that had only sauce left and said that we did receive it. We let him know that was chicken feet, not the dish we were missing. He finally got the manager and they didn't charge us for that. If we didn't catch it ourselves, for sure, they would've charged us. Food was decent. Ambiance was ok. Service was horrible. Would not recommend this place at all. read more

Came here for a baby banquet. The restaurant is pretty nice but the food is really quite average. It wasn't very good for the price. The staff are friendly and the service is good though. Prices are not that cheap for the quality of food thayou get. read more

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We are compiling our list of Dim Sum in Richmond for our little treks across the border. This was a good one. Lots of nice options. We called at 11:30a and snuck in at noon with 2 on a Friday while other larger parties waited in the lobby. We were the only Caucasians in a very bright, busy restaurant. Lots of dumplings (shrimp, scallop, mushroom,, sticky rice in a leaf, egg tarts, all the things you would expect. Some probably too adventurous for us. It looks like the place to jump into lobster and king crab items but we didn't. My spouse liked our first on trip to Chef Tony's a few weeks ago a little bit better but this is definitely on my list to return to. You do have to ask for any condiments you want (soy sauce, mustard, chili sauce and chili oil). read more