Empire Seafood Restaurant

Bad service, bad food, and I don't even want to waste my time reviewing them. I'm not coming back again.

The chicken in the bun were undercooked. I told that waiter about this. But he looked at it and said it’s cooked.

One of the best places in Richmond, BC for dim sum. It's a little expensive but in return you get quality food. Wife and parents now demand to come here for Chinese food from now on.

[Update: Oct 10,2023]
The sad truth about Chinese restaurants near the Aberdeen Center area is that there aren't too many restaurants that offer set dinner for a set number of people.i. E. Set Dinner for 6 or Set Dinner for 10. Most require you to choose from a plethora of dish selections, which can be quite daunting and bothersome. That leaves us little choice but to go out of our way to come to Empire instead. A few months ago, the eight of us tried its sister restaurant, Parkhill, which was right next door to Empire. Apart from one questionable issue with a supposedly 8lb Alaskan King Crab, overall, the set dinner was very good. In addition, Empire is my family's favorite dim sum restaurant. That makes it more compelling to try dinner there.

Last time at Parkhill, the eight of us ordered a $988 Set Dinner for 8-10 people and had a lot of leftovers. This time, we ordered a $688 Dinner for 4-6 people instead, and it was just right with no leftovers. Obviously, we were all small eaters.

The set dinner consists of a Peking Duck 2-Eat and a 7lb Alaskan King Crab 3-Eat. The AKC 3-Eat consist of Dish #1) the legs were steamed with garlic salt, Dish #2) the shell's tomalley was used in a fried rice and Dish #3) the body was chopped to little chunks and deep fried with pepper salt. All dishes were very well made, but most especially the legs and the body being the most delicious.

The Peking Duck 2-Eat consist of Dish #1) Meat slices with wrapper and Dish #2) chopped meat with lettuce wrapper. Both were standard and nothing to write home about.

There was also an additional "Braised Pork Belly" dish, which was tender and delicious but extremely unhealthy as it mostly consisted of fats. All of us weren't too keen on this dish as we all worried about our health more. Good thing, this dish doesn't have much anyway.

Overall, it was okay as we all reminisced the Set Dinner for 8-10 People at Parkhill more, and it was also more bang for the bucks in our opinions! In other words, we find Empire's Set Dinner for 4-6 people somewhat overpriced in comparison to Parkhill's Set Dinner for 8-10 people.

PS. At Parkhill, the Alaskan King Crab's legs were steamed whole and with its original sea-salty taste. They provided scissors for us to cut. At Empire, the Alaskan King Crab's legs were already split in half when it presented to us on the plate and were marinated with garlic salt before it was steamed. Potato patato. Original natural taste or added garlic-salt taste. It all depends on your preference. If neither method is what you want, I believe you can suggest other methods beforehand.

PSS. We sat for 40 minutes before the first dish arrived. We had to rush them a couple of times to hurry up as my American friends needed to drive 3 hours back across the border and have to work/school early next morning. Lesson learned: try not to come on a Sunday and 7pm night. Extremely busy.

One of my favourite places to have dimsum in Richmond. The dishes are always well made and delicious and the price is pretty average despite how beautiful the restaurant is. Service is pretty good as well. Parking is available in the multi level parkade shared by the other businesses in that plaza but now you have to register your license plate via the QR code to get 2 hours free parking.

Came here for weddings, family dinners, dimsum outings and empire has been a solid choice. The food is reasonably priced for the quality you get. The service is really hit or miss depending on the server or waiter assigned to your table. At these Chinese restaurants you really get what you pay for on the menus.

Mid-high tier dim sum (and prices). Clean and upscale-ish atmosphere. Some servers are condescending and borderline rude.

The worst customer service ever! I want to reprint a receipt but Tracy, the server who is responsible, does not want to reprint a customer copy for me. She told me that the machine cannot reprint. I don’t believe one pos machine cannot reprint a customer copy. She only wants people to pay and after that she does not want to help anymore.

The place was busy, and thus noisy, which is very common. The quality of food is very good, with reasonable prices (seafood restaurants are not cheap to begin with). The staff appears experienced so service is good. Not the best, but should not disappoint you.

Very busy, but they have good dim sum at a fairly decent price. A little tight for strollers. Because of the crowd, we have little concern keeping the toddlers noise level down.

Best dim sum in Vancouver. Everything is great, especially the bbq pork pastries and salted egg yolk lava. Always SUPER busy I recommend making a reso.

Venue has good ambience. Food is good because of MSG? Watch out for heavy dose of MSG. My son and I had bad experience.

Best dim sum place in Richmond. Their service are top notch. Food is awesome. But you really need to reserve your table, its jammed pack all the time

Service and food is good with reasonable prices. You get a good variety as well. I’ve had better quality Dim Sum elsewhere but the portion sizes are good here. I would definitely recommend the stir fried Choy Sum with garlic and the Har Gow.

Very new and clean. Bathrooms smelled like lychee. 10/10 ambiance and service. Peking duck was excellent, crispy and flavourful!

The food was amazing. The service was quick. This place required proof of vaccination prior to entering and the employees/staff were all wearing masks. It probably would have been nice to go with more people and try more food.

Busy on a weekend. Service was good.food is OK.ordered 6 items and prawn dumplings was very good.taste and texture. Chicken feet was tasty but sauce too thick. Beef balls were good and somewhat fluffy. Beef rice roll was OK as beef hardened up and not quite tender enough (from overbeating the beef). Shiu mai was quite fair size but too much fat chunks in them so basically eating about 60% fat pieces. Also ordered pan-fried fish cakes.not crispy enough and a bit too much water chestnuts in them. The flavours of the 2 teas we had were actually quite good. Overall, not bad and good service.can improve on a few things.solid 3.5 stars. Will go back.

The rating reflects the non compliance with indoor COVID guidelines, I would not go there on the weekend, the place is completely packed! It was quite scary. But the food is amazing and for the food I would give 5 stars, all dim sum we ordered was very delicious. The smoked duck fried rice is a must try. The service could be better, they tend to ignore non-east-Asian parties in my experience.

Pretty good food, good quantity. It's a bit pricey but that's the kind of food it is. Definitely try to get the set menu as they are cheaper than ordering separate. Service was good. Only thing I didn't like is that we asked if we could have some extra wraps for Peking duck and the waiter never checked with us that there are extra costs. I would have appreciated if he just let us know, I didnt think it would be extra since we feel we needed more wraps for the Peking duck dish. ‍️

Didn’t even get inside! The people at the front desk kept on ignoring us even after waving and talking to them. They would just answer to the other rude customers that would shout for their attention. Apparently speaking Mandarin is a requisite to be acknowledged at this place. Never returning back.

Some dishes taste good but i found a strand of hair in congee and a small piece of plastic in har gow.

Delicious dimsum, we went there on Saturday morning and it was quite busy but the service was fast. I gave it a 4 star because of the decoration and ambiance, nothing special or appealing about it.

Food was so so. Service was good and the place is nice. Had takeout from here before and the food then was better than the 10 course.

This is a great place albeit not that cheap. Newbies be warned, it's chinese style service, so if you're ready to order, wave someone over, or hold your order card up. Any staff, they don't assign servers, they will not come to you until prompted. It's not poor service. It's unimposing.

Be aware they charge for take out containers if you need to pack away left overs. I ordered some of the dishes but could not figure how big is the dishes and ended up paying close to $1 for 4 containers. I feel insulted to be honest as I spent more than $100 on my meal and they cant spare containers for leftovers? Also in one of my previous trip i gave a tip that i could afford and they came back demanding more tip and i had to pay more.im not impressed with this kind of behaviour.i dont get the best of service here but they demand as if they are just too good. I dont think ill go back.

Respects reservations, rare for Dimsum restaurants. Standard dimsum fare, slightly above average and also slightly above average price. Overall, very good.

We ordered Peking Duck set for six people. We were told to pick up at 6pm and waited for 40 minutes. It was not professional at all. Peking Duck was not crispy and the servings were enough for four people.

Good food and reasonable price. Just had a special soup 'buddha jump over the wall'. Very delicious and they are on sale.

Good food but they should be more conscious about how to prevent spread of covid. They should sanitize tables and chairs better and more.

Delightful and authentic experience. Exceptional food quality and great service. We went here as a small group and had a phenomenal experience while eating delicious dishes that arrived with impeccable timing and coordination. Thank-you.

Worst experience ever.
The food in general is okie, but the service is awful. You gonna be treated like you are begging for food.
I came there at 9 am as one of the most early customers.
After waited for 20 mins and nothing was served, I asked the waiter for help. The waiter simply answered it is totally normal then walked away.
After 40 minutes, every tables came after me had already been served, and I still got nothing.
I asked the same waiter. He checked the system then told me they made a mistake and that’s why I hadn’t got my food.
Yep, they made a mistake so I waited for 40 minutes like a fool.
What’s even worse is that they didn’t even apologize. Apparently they don’t care customer as they are such a ‘successful’ restaurant.
I won’t ever come back again. And if you don’t wanna ruin your day, don’t come either.

First time having dim sum in Vancouver/ Richmond, and it did not disappoint! We placed a reservation online the morning of a Saturday, and were able to get a table at 9: 30 am. There is an "early bird" 20% discount, but even with that the dishes are moderately priced.

Generally I attend many seafood banquet in my culture. This is by far the best seafood I've had! The service is phenomenal, the staff were so patient, asked for feedback, and ensure everyone is cared for. The food quality was great, properly cooked, and hot.

Average & typical Chinese restaurant customer service - no prompt service; nothing to rave about; pork dumplings are below par.

This restaurant is large but there is a wait for a table, I had to wait 20 minutes but it was worth it. Loved the dim sum and staff is very professional and attentive.

Came here based on friends’ recommendation and boy it was amazing. I had the premium set meal for 2, and it is one of the best meals I ever had. The seafood was super fresh, cooked perfectly and the portions were just right. Hot tea was provided and service was efficient. Highly recommended!

You need to have reservations before you come to the restaurant which they did not mentioned in the advertisement. When you order you have to wait between 5 to 10 minutes to receive each dish that you order. They forget to bring your orders to you, when you inform them they apologize and say it will be expressed, which takes 9 min to receive. They extremely lack any type of customer service, absolutely lousy. You recieve better customer service in a drive thru at McDonalds. Their food was mediocre. Went to Price Smart grocery and had better tasting Dim Sum than at Empire Seafood Restaurant.

Do not go to this place.

Unprofessional General Manger "Paul", unwelcoming service and rude attitude.

This is the first time I saw a General Manger staring and having a poker face toward to customers.

No apologies and no explanations and I do not believe this restaurant care about customer service neither.

Please do not have high expectation in this type of the restaurant.

Main stay for Dim Sum in Richmond. Reliable and in a good location, we usually have nothing to complain about whenever we visit. Green Beans are always my favourite thing to order:)

The dim sum was super fresh and delicious. Even though they have a lot of staff, it can be difficult to get their attention if you need anything. You definitely need reservations.

This is my go to dim sum restaurant when visiting.

This was our first visit to Empire Seafood and I know it won't be out last! As I was researching places for dim sum near Lipont Gallery I found the majority of reviews were in favour of dining here and we were not disappointed! While they had the wrong time for our reservation on a holiday Monday which was 1.5 hours later than planned, they did their best to accommodate us. The dining room was bright and pleasantly decorated, the noise level was high but as the dim sum we ordered arrived we were pleasantly treated to hot, fresh, delicious dumplings. The prices reflect their quality and every morsel was delightfully enjoyed!

Was here twice on our trip, once for Dinner which was quite good at lesst 4 stars. However the next day for Dim Sum, average at best. I'm not sure what the hype was about, as I've had better at 20 places easily. The main issues were some of the bins were slightly under done, Shumai (舒脉) dry which is a sin.

AC is not strong enough. Pretty hot here when overcrowded in summer time. Food is ok, but little bit high price

Easy parking, servers could be a bit more friendly and the food is good but smaller portioned and a bit pricey.