James On Hastings Chinese Restaurant

Sitting area feel comfortable, food okay. Just the mushroom have a little smell and about more than 3 day old. Prices is reasonable.can come back again.

Worst eating experience in Vancouver!
He only takes takeout orders like crazy and makes dine-in customers sit there in silence!
It’s not easy to wear such a big top hat if you’re not that big!
Zhongyou, the brine platter is salty to the point⋯
Can I give a ZERO star? This restaurant deserves nothing!
It is a complete failure!
I wait for 80 minutes for the 1st dish, then one more hour waiting! Rubbish! ! Never never come back!

It's delicious, the dishes are very affordable, and the rice noodles for breakfast are also delicious. First time here, the boss and staff are very welcoming! Will come back later

Delicious food and great service. Keep in mind that the food is "share-style" so each plate has a huge portion of food.

I went here late in the evening with some friends and we all loved the food! The atmosphere is a little cramped and over stimulating, but that's usually an indicator that an Asian restaurant is good, especially if it's full of customers despite the appearance.

2 stars because the free soup was spot on and tasted like what a good home made soup would taste like. The food won't make you sick. The food has taste, but by no means would I call this place a hidden gem. Random asian food found in the gvrd food courts are better. The menu is priced close to fancy Asian restaurants but what you get is a mom and pops vibe and home cooked food. Being that this was the first time at the resturant we ordered a few dishes that would test the chef. Beef with pan fried rice noodles was a flop, egg plant hot pot was a brown soggy mess and the fried rice was more like steamed rice with stuff on top. While I would not go there again, I hope all the best.

The side dishes are okay, but I am most dissatisfied. When I ordered takeaway twice in the past, Yiqiang handed over another takeaway instead of the one I ordered. Maybe no one wanted it, and I always charged more for each charge. It should be a forced tip. I hope to improve and not drive away customers.

Food is fantastic, especially deep fried seafood. I like their garlic king crab legs, deep fried king crab meat and elephant trunk clam congee. It's so delicious. I prefer their cooked seafood than sashimi. Portions are really big. We packed a lot of food home.

Came here with some friends a couple nights ago,
Had an excellent time, staff and owner were friendly and attentive (constant refills on tea and gave us good recommendations from the menu)
Food came out at a good pace, fresh and tasty, seasoning was a bit on the lighter side which I actually prefer
We ordered 4 items
Curry crab (highly recommended)
Singapore style vermicelli (one of my favourites)
Stir fried pea shoots with garlic (nice and crunchy)
Soy Chicken (juicy and flavourful)
Everyone had a great time and we'll definitely be back
Thank you:)
I also left my bag behind and they chased after me to return it

The beef noodle soup is very tasty, but the Rice Noodles with Fish Soup is not fresh, i told the lady work there, and she said yes not fresh. And then move away, didn't do anything. Funny service.

This place reminds me of 大排檔 in Hong Kong! The food is good and portions are good. Prices are reasonable. Due to being an older building, the dining area gets a cold wind blows inside every time the front door is open with patrons going in and out. Also the floor outside the washroom is very slippery! The service from James is good but totally understaffed. The busboy who has limited duties can't assist while two other people served a full house. Also being a food house, food was very slow.

Stepping foot into this restaurant brings me back to the street eats in Asia. With photo menu items posted all over the wall and ripped up seats, you can't get more asian than this. If you have high standards, please don't come here because the flies are everywhere from the tables to even the washroom stalls. We probably ordered the wrong items because the hainanese chicken and duck are terrible in taste and visually there are feathers still attached to the skin where we need to manually pluck them out. The portions are big but the price isn't cheap (well with inflation, nothing is cheap in Vancouver anymore) their most popular dish is curry crab and probably their curry dishes. They got dimsum at a flat price of $8.99 which is higher than actual dimsum restaurants. I think this restaurant really caters to the locals because it's not good enough for me to drive 30 mins to come here. I have better options along the way before I would come back again.

Service is friendly. Price is reasonable for late night restaurant. Foods are fairly good. They also give free plain congee for with late night dishes.

Fair price, lots of seating areas, kind and fast service! We didn’t feel rushed with the menu. They ensured our tea was always filled. I really liked how they have all their dishes printed and posted along the walls because it’s helpful to see all their dishes! While your looking at the menu itself you also find yourself looking around the room for the photo! It also has the prices listed on the photos.

I had the wonton noodle for $13. There was enough wonton and just enough noodles. The broth was just right - not too salty. There’s condiments on the side if you want to enhance the flavour. I also ordered some lo mein with beef. Good enough for one person and it came with a side soup which had a similar taste to my wonton soup. Will return to try other dishes!

Definitely one of the best hole in the wall resturants in greater Vancouver! Fair prices and you get large plates of food, we ordered a pork dish and the salt and peppery squid. Best value and taste nowadays for sure.

Went here for dim sum on a Sunday. There were several flies buzzing in the middle of the restaurant. Food is over-rated. Rice rolls were overly sticky. Washroom was fairly clean but also used for storage. We left feeling a little nauseous from all the flies. Don't know why people rate this place so highly.

Yesterday 3 of us went there at around 5pm and the lady was so rude to my wife that we left without ordering anything. Terrible service. So unexpected. She must have been having a bad day but in customer service that’s never an excuse. Not a very good one anyway.

OMG I’ve been ordering from skip the dishes for delivery but I didn’t know the restaurant does FREE delivery. I just called in and the food arrives much quicker and its also much cheaper than skip the dishes (which charges more, and has delivery fee). Food is amazing! If you order delivery and ask for 2 free pop, they will give it to you!

I like this place since my friend Wayne introduced me to James. I love their food and the decor is not what I a here for but the delicious food. I always order the shredded meat chow Meiji and it is very big portion but delicious.

The taste was ok, the price wasn’t worth the quality at all. We got black pepper beef and it was full of onions instead of the beef (LOTS OF ONION), the General Tao chicken was very dry with very little sauce in it. The fried noodles were good. I’ve heard a lot about the Chinese restaurants in Vancouver and I was expecting something much better.

Hot food good time on delivery. But the meat was fatty and the curry was burnt tasting. The rice had also a slight burnt taste. I sadly couldn't finish.

Wontons in Spicy Chili and Garlic Sauce: Excellent
Ginger Crispy Beef: Good
Szechuan Style Spicy Fried Rice: Okay (Not very spicy, sweet instead (? !)
Huge portions. Large offering
Good packaging (ordered online)

Just moved into the neighborhood. Really like this place. Great value with very large portions. Lots of meat in their dishes. Everything tastes very fresh and is never overcooked. They've quickly become our go to for Chinese food.

I celebrated my nomination today in this delicious restaurant. Well we enjoyed a marvelous evening and the place was unquestionably the reason for this successful celebration. The waiters helped in a splendid style, the cooking was appetizing and my buddies were so cheerful. We shall absolutely visit again for more celebrations.thanks very much.

Good food but kinda pricey.this is a hard core Chinese resto. Although, there are pics and translations all over their wall, better come with somebody who speaks the language.

We found this place during COVID lockdown. Love their Malaysian Curry Crab and beef curry! ~ My kid who hates crab loved it and it is now on his birthday wish list. It's worth a drive across town for this one. Can't wait to dine in after COVID.

Worst chinese I ever had eaten in my life. Costed 15dollars for three dollars food. Not recommend at all. Rotten lettuce with rat meat, cold noodles.

The dishes with beef have really improved. James has pulled up his game quite a bit.
I generally like the food at James On Hastings, but as I had explained before his stirred beef dishes weren’t the best because of the beef marinade.

Well today I ordered the bitter melon and beef on rice.

Winner! Winner!
Chinese dinner!

It was great. And to top it off he has the best house soup anywhere. I challenge you to find a Chinese restaurant with better house soup.

The prices are good and the service is good.

It is my 1st time ordering from this place and I think it well be my last. I spend 150.00 of food for my house to eat an the bbq was very old dark an dry, the rice was kinda soggy and the beef an broccoli tasted like a pile of ginger an I hate ginger. The deep fried prawns were on top of the bag open with the handle touching the food. I told the driver an he was its ok. I took the handle of the bag an it was greasy so clearly his hands were touching everything an to the food so we didn't even touch that as well. To make it worse the guy who came to my door had no mask on an was looking over debit machine pushing buttons to make sure I gave him a good tip. I asked him to kindly move back an give me space. An he stood their saying yes sorry an was still 1 foot away.
I would never order here again. Plus I had to give extra for delivery.

I admire this restaurant very much.theres a romantic mood. The cuisine is great.the service is efficient and the team is very professional. The pay is fair.extremely recommend.

I just cannot get tired of going here.
My family and I are almost addicted, loving the crab and lobsters the most.
Tastes and presentations are great, and personnel are courteous, though Communication in English requires some patience, once in a while.

I will recommend this spot to groups, individuals and dates.

Update.
Visited here again on 14th January 2021, and another great service yet again. Good customer service, attentive and responsive to clients demands; timely service, as food was served within 8 mins; average pricing; just ok.

Try

Decoration
- very interesting decor, it's my first time seeing walls of menu LOL. They for sure made their point clear

service
- great service, the waitress really welcome us with an aunty style, very warm, big hearted and happy!

Food quality
- clean oil for calamari
- well seasoned soup and noodle
- a good proportion of ingredients are used

Pricing
- medium / affordable

Will definitely come back again!

Delicious, big portion, take out or delivery services are available. James is a really good chief. IAM sure you will enjoy when you din in there.

Giving this place a 3-star only because the food tasted great. Got the deep fried curry crab and their seafood truffle fried rice which were both excellent! Unfortunately the service was terrible. Had to constantly remind the servers to get us water and the drinks we ordered instead of them giving it to us in the beginning. Also witnessed the same thing happen to another table where they had to ask for their drinks again and the cracker for the crabs which should have been common sense for the server to bring to him in the first place. They also got one of our orders wrong (brought us curry cod instead of the crab). And then asked if we wanted to take it anyway which I said no to because they most likely would’ve charged us for it even though we didn’t order it.

Lastly a guy and his mom came in because they ordered take out an hour and a half ago but the restaurant had no record of their order even though the customer spoke on the phone with the owner. I understand it was Christmas Day and they were busy with take out orders, however if you can’t fulfill those orders in a timely manner you shouldn’t keep taking more. They ended up re ordering again and just waited in the restaurant for their food. However no apology was given to them by the manager, instead he gave the excuse that they’re so busy. They were just offered 10% off which isn’t much since they ordered lots to food.

Food was okay.not worthy of 18.00 a dish.asked no peppers and in 2 dishes out of 3 peppers.couldn't eat it.wor won soup.meat, seafood and vegetables.well lots of chicken.only vegetable was 2 pieces of broccoli.really?
over priced and would not reccomend to my worst enemy

The perfect casual Cantonese diner.

There are people who go to restaurants for high end experience, or for the grand looking dinning room, or for the professionally trained friendly waitresses.

I go to James for the food. The restaurant is here to feed you, and I have never been left disappointed.

Good place to stay with friends and family. Excellent Chinese traditional dishes with reasonable price, big portion.

Nice to have drinks so that you can relax more there.

2nd time there. The menu can be a bit overwhelming with so many options, it helps that they have pictures all around. Food was delicious. Service was good. I'll definitely go back.

I really like this place and it won me over, first of all, with delicious food and great staff! I recommend everyone to be convinced of my words personally.

I go to this special place from time to time because I like the special air that is part of this place. The crew is awfuly loyal and experienced. The service is impressively fast. Also, the food they prepare is perfect. I ate there often and I was always joyful. The price is honest. I highly suggest this place to all my friends.

Ordered delivery.
Price was alright, food was good, it came with drinks.
But please make sure to have your delivery people wear masks. Thank you.

I arrive at this special place often because I enjoy the special air that is unique to this place. The personel is exceptionally attentive and well trained. The service is certainly fast. Not to mention, the food you get is good. I ate there more than once and I was never disappointed. The payment is decent. I highly recommend this restaurant to my friends and family.

Very awful customer service.ordered twice through skip the dishes. Once on September 30th at 4pm, one more time, today, at 2: 30pm. Both times I had ordered EGG FRIED RICE, and was given tiny SPRING ROLLS instead. When I called into to ask about the issue, I was dismissed and told they did not understand what I was saying.they put absolutely no effort looking into the problem. VERY AWKWARD, to have workers in an English speaking city, who don’t understand fluent English or understand the need to address the problem where they genuinely screwed up.

Foods okay not that special but easy to order because they have all the pictures around but I had to wait almost 20minutes even I called order ahead 30 minutes before I came

Service was pretty quick. Hot tea got re-fill constantly. Food is decent, the wonton was not as spicy as i would like it. The other sever almost charge me for the wrong order which was almost double my bill by accident:)

We enjoy to go out. Last night we found this excellent place which friends told us about. We passed a delightful time there with delicious meal and a courteous crew and a distinguished chief cook. We put this place in our phone list and we shall definitely come back soon. We warmly recommend.

The food is constantly well prepared and flavorful, staff members hands out good customer service. I love how clean it is and atmosphere. Would recommend to others.

Food is pretty good. Got my order slightly wrong twice in 4 times. Food is worth going back to, service could be better. Put it on a scale and decide for yourself.

I celebrated my nomination today in this great restaurant. I am glad to say that we had a tremendous evening and the restaurant was absolutely the reason for this fruitful gathering. The waiters cooperated in a graceful way, the cuisine was extremely good and my friends were so overjoyed. We shall definitely return for more celebrations. Thank you very much.

Been coming here for years. Food is always good. Unpretentious. And the wonder, James, is always a good host. If you want to treat yourself, the curry crab is out of this world!