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Fortune House serves Cantonese cuisine in a warm and friendly atmosphere. Try the two-course Peking duck or the deep-fried stuffed crab claws, all prepared by award winning chefs. They can seat up to 300 and specialize in wedding banquets.
Lunch Hours: 10:00am to 4:00pm
Dinner Hours: 5:30pm - 10:00pm
Ample free parking in mall parkade
I love dim sum and I enjoyed the food there but it wasn't worth the horrible service we received. The waitresses and waiters were not polite not courteous they were outright rude and sharp-tongued.
And while paying, the waitress shouted "WHAT ABOUT A TIP?!" when we were having a private discussion about how to divide the bill.
We were not given any service at all so there really wasn't anything to tip.
The food was good but definitely not worth going back. I would suggest no one to go there the stress of the bad service makes digesting your food difficult.
Returned again because remembered that the food was good.
We were not disappointed by the food, it was to a good standard, hot and fresh. The congee was somewhat tasteless though. The test-piece was the har-gow, which was good.
Ambience is high-class and clean, and not too noisy like most Cantonese retaurants tend to be.
Dim sum came fast but service is slapshod, the waiters seem to be in a disarray, like free-range chicken without heads.
Pricey and had to wait in line.
Go back here? Nahhh, not if we can help it.
Okay, so I had one good dinner. Maybe because the hosts paid the restaurant really, really well.
But right now I'm just wondering how these guys stay in business. We went for dim sum and the food is ... well, crap. I suppose it is no "dirtier" than other dim sum places, but man, the food is the worst dim sum I've had since ... since I moved back to Vancouver. It was really, really poorly done. I would highlight in particular the deep fried squid, or was it cuttlefish? It was hard to tell, there was neither taste nor texture. It sucked.
I may not even be happy if it were half the price. I'm not sure I have much to say. I wouldn't be going back, certainly not on my own dime, and probably not even if someone invited me.
Highly recommended to stay away.
We've walked by the newly renovated Fortune House many times while shopping in Metrotown, but only stopped by last night because the line wasn't as long and we were seated in about 30 min.
Food deserves 3.5 stars. Both the scallops and asparagus were done nicely, cooked to perfection. I liked the inclusion of the pine nuts with the asparagus. We tried the taro and hallibut hot pot as well. Flavours worked very well together. Their menu also includes some innovative selections that I will go back and try.
Service was ok; there was a hiccup with the hotpot because apparently the English translation included taro but the Chinese wording didn't so we had to wait for them to replace the hotpot. Service also lagged a bit at the end as we waited for the bill, but the server was taking care of several large parties so I guess it's understandable.
It's been at least a yr since my last visit. I've only been returning every couple of yrs or yr at most to see if they're just as mediocre to boring as I recall. They used to be better back in the day when there were few restaurants to choose from but now that there are more, either their food has gone downhill or I've become more picky.
Haven't been here for dinner for a while now, so I can only comment on the dimsum--which is definitely mediocre to MSG-filled but somehow still boring. The siu mai is just weird. Oversized in a way, but tasting "different" in a not very authentic sense. There were just a couple of better than "ok"'s like the baked fluff pastry w/ bbq pork, etc, filling, topped w/sesame. That was perfectly crispy & tasty all around. It isn't exactly cheap here either, so I can only guess the crowds happen because of the convenience of the location--I don't know why else. For 7 ppl, costing $100.xx before tip, I suppose is pretty standard, but we had ordered pretty standard stuff, too. Oh, right, avoid the Shanghai items as those were obviously bought frozen or simply pre-frozen to the point of after steaming the xiao long bao, it was still thick, doughy, w/o juice but the spicy wonton was no good either.
For a similar cost, I'd rather go back to the usual Richmond haunts.
I was at Fortune House this past weekend for a wedding reception. It was a smaller party of about 16 tables, so they closed half the restaurant for the reception. It was a standard 10-course meal which consisted of the regular wedding fare food: cold cuts, lobster, soup, fish, abalone, chicken, etc. The food was good, not excellent. I was pleasantly surprised by the service my vegetarian cousin received. She got all her courses served to her in impressive presentation.
Although the service was really good (all the servers were very nice including the reception coordinator), I couldn't help feel we were rushed through our meal. The food would arrive at our table and around the lazy susan it went, but by the very moment it reached the last person, a server would come by and quickly scoop left overs onto anyone's plate and took it away! So the last person taking their first helping never got a second. They did this all through out the night. Almost immediately after the sweet soup and biscuits arrived, they started wrapping up the restaurant by taking down divider walls. They would have received a 4-rating for service if it wasn't for their rushing.
Also have to mention that the bar area doubled as their office. The wall at the back was filled with colorful binders and cheap plastic office accessories. I didn't find this very professional looking, especially for a wedding.
Food: I've been to this restaurant every year for our company Christmas dinner and every year, it has gotten consistently worse and worse. Food becomes more bland and the servings become smaller. At the end of the night this year, there were just boxes and boxes of leftover food that no one wanted to take home! Noodles were bland, shark fin soup was disappointing, vegetables were undercooked, deep fried chicken was bland and didn't come with prawn chips at all! I really hope we switch venues this year...
Service: We had our own waiters for each table so it had better be good.
Ambiance: Not bad. A lot cleaner than most chinese restaurants (has to be since it's attached to the mall) but bathrooms are still appalling! Hire someone to clean them if you can't do it properly yourself and stop being so cheap about it!!
Overall: From the numerous experiences I've had with this restaurant every year at our company dinners, I've been wary of returning on my own and trying other dishes. I might go one day if my friends decide they want to go there to eat but other than that, I would never come here on my own.
hadnt been here in a while but remember this place having pretty good food. since then i've heard mixed reviews and when i found out a wedding reception i was going to was to be held here i was looking forward to seeing for myself.
food: seafood was not so impressive for a seafood restaurant. jelly fish tasted sort of funky, crab claw ball not very good, lobster and abalone was average. doesnt taste like fresh seafood. there was no dish that really stood out.
service: servers were very attentive and friendly at all times. english and chinese friendly.
ambiance: well, we were here for a wedding so the ambiance was definately very festive. the restaurant was clean and decorations were lovely (but i think the decorations were done by the wedding party not the restaurant).
overall: it wasnt what i remembered the food to be. there are just so many other restaurants i could go to w/ much better quality. i would probably only return if i were invited to some sort of function there.
My Co-workers and I decided to have Dim Sum at this restaurant on Friday afternoon for lunch. We knew it would be busy, so we made reservations for 1:00pm for a party of 7 people. We arrived at 1:00 pm and was greeted by people lined up outside the restaurant. As we had reservations we proceeded to the reception desk - the hostess gave us a numbered card, even after we told her we had reservations. She told us it would be really fast because the next table should be ours. We waited for 15 minutes and watched in amazement that she permitted all her friends and supposedly regular clients to enter without waiting. As 30minutes passed we spoke to a Captain who told us it would not be much longer. At this point we looked around and noticed that everyone else that had been lining up for a table was already inside eating their food.
By now we were famished and decided to order take out Dim Sum to eat in our offices because we had to get back to work. To our amazement after we ordered our food a table was ready and in fact there were 4 empty tables available. It was too late to sit down to order and eat our food in 15 minutes to get back to work.
The cashier who took my order and charged me an astronomical price was extremely rude and yelled at me to wait outside. I waited for another 35 minutes to get our food - which was horrible - cold, no soy sauce for our rice rolls, no condiments, no apologies.
This restaurant clearly wants to advertise that they are a 5 Star Restaurant - but they most definitely have a NEGATIVE 5 Star rating for service. The food was not great either - we have had much, much better. After all if we waited this long, the food should have been hot and not cold.
They should never have taken a reservation if they could not accomodate their clientele and they should not lie about how long we need to wait for a table - We could have gone somewhere else.
Very pricey place for Horrendous, Rude Service with CRAPPY Food - the rice skin on the HAR GOW was hard !!!
If you want good Dim Sum and service - try Red Star on South Granville (MISFORTUNE House) could learn a lesson or 2 from them.
This place is usually busy thanks to it's location. Too bad the food doesn't complement the setting. Place has a nice setting however the food standard is not up to par for the prices it charges.
My friends went there and showed them a coupon and the waiter there made comments on why they couldn't use it but it was not disclosed in the coupon.
Unfortunately, there are not any dimsum places in Metrotown area so they cornered the market in this case.
But if I had a choice, I would rather go somewhere else.
I've been here many times over the years (dim sum exclusively) and was never a place I ended up going to consistently for whatever reason.
I recently went again because my girlfriend was craving some Deep Fried Taro Pork Dumplings and we've been disappointed the few times we've been able to stumble upon them.
It was a packed house at 11am and we waited for about 20-25 minutes. I'd imagine a lot of regulars since many others after us walked in. 1 or 2 people diners will likely be seated in smallish, portable tables if it's busy.
We ordered the usual menu items: Shrimp Dumplings, Beef Rice Roll, Deep Fried Taro Pork Dumplings, Spring Rolls and Beef Balls off the order sheet. This is the best way to get hot off the stove items versus the traditional carts.
All our dishes came quickly and piping hot. The shrimps were large and the fried taro dumplings were a nice combination of taro and pork with a fairly light exterior and most importantly, scalding hot. These lose all their appeal once they start becoming warm. I didn't really like the spring rolls as they used bean sprouts as they tend to soak up oil
No complaints about the service considering the volume of people and the amount of servers out we were waited on quickly and it didn't take long for someone to refill our teapot.
Tasty dishes that're hot and typically priced for this quality. I would recommend either coming very early or make reservations so you don't have to wait as long.
Since I was visiting Metrotown, I decided to pop in for some dim sum. I would say the dishes here are quite average, nothing special. The biggest disappointment was a shrimp dumpling with pea shoots, the skin couldn't hold the filling. The wrapping skins on the dumplings are not top notch, as the skins either ripped or were too thick and doughy. None of the dishes stood out either, just the same old fare. I did have to admit i thoroughly enjoyed the 3 bean pudding for dessert. It was very nicely done and was not overly sweet. Service is typical of a busy dim sum restaurant, except everytime our tea pot was empty, it took a while for the pot to be refilled. A so so place for dim sum.
Went there with the family for dim sum... This is basically food you get at Hon's, but at double the price and in a nicer venue. Service is decent, and the staff seem attentive, but really that is not enough to justify the warmed-over food they pass off as being Cantonese cuisine. Frankly, if eating at Fortune House is my first encounter with Cantonese cuisine, I would certainly not be impressed. I suspect that this restaurant will do great, if it was situated in Saskatoon, but in Vancouver, the Mecca of Chinese cuisine in North America, it is surprising that this place is still in business.
I would venture to say that even in the mall in which it is located, better Chinese food can be had at the food court.
I recently spent quite a sum of money taking my mother out for her birthday dinner here -- we ordered abalone (which cost $40 each), some kind of cod fish steamed, some kind of "chef's special" shark fin type soup, and stir fried vegetables ("dow mew in Cantonese") with a crab meat glaze over it.
Overall, the best dish was the steamed fish because you really can't screw it up unless the fish is not fresh.
The expensive abalone was way too salty, and so was the stir fried vegetables -- we complained to the manager, and he pointed it back to it being our fault, saying maybe next time, he'll ask the kitchen to put in less salt. The point was it was too salty that it was barely edible -- what poor service, and also he didn't take the customer feedback seriously.
As for the shark-fin soup type creation -- it had the cartilage part of the shark fin in it (not the actual long strands of fin), and they mixed some crab paste (from the shell head) and some tobiko like eggs... but it did not taste like shark fin soup. This one is probably more of a matter of preference -- it was not too salty.
All in all, I would have to say that the quality of the cooking has gone downhill.
As for dim sum, they have really large shrimp "har gow", but it is way too big and also the outside layer falls apart really easily. This is not good "har gow". It's kind of nasty, in fact. If you want good "har gow", go to Top Gun in Crystall Mall -- that is good "har gow".
The steamed pork buns are good, everything else I would say is really below par for Vancouver dim sum. However, I'm sure that in Toronto, Fortune House Seafood Restaurant would do well, as in general I have found Toronto dim sum to not be as of consistent quality as in Vancouver.
I would stay away from Fortune House Seafood Restaurant for dim sum and for dinner.... unless you enjoy overly salted foods.
We just had dinner at Fortune House and chose a 2.5lb crab. Like most Chinese restaurants, they presented it to us before it was cooked. When they brought out the cooked crab, it was obvious that this was not the one we chose as it was obviously not anything close to 2.5lbs. It looked like it was 1.5lbs. The legs were so scrawny and we were missing at least 2 legs. What a rip off at $41 for mediocre crab.
What a shame because one of the waiters provided really good service but the other waiter/manager (guy in black jacket) was lazy and unattentive.
Because we were celebrating a baby's "One Month", we chose this restaurant as it was located close to home. They didn't even tell us there was a wedding going on when we booked the table the day before. We were crammed up against the wall with 10 other tables in a cornered off section of the restaurant.
With so many better Chinese restaurants in Vancouver/Burnaby, DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY at Fortune House Seafood Restaurant.
Spouse and I spent $170 plus tips there last week. Had we read the postings here, we'd definitely have shunned it. We ordered one lobster (2 1/2 lbs?), steamed cod, a glass of BC wine (spouse doesn't drink) plus one veggie dish. The price was a bit higher than I thought when the bill arrived but that's not the reason for my posting here.
Like the other poster wrote, the food was very crappy with too much salt. We go to Sun Sui Wah often and I can assure you that for the same price you get far superior food. Another thing that turned me off was the odour upon walking in. You don't have to let people smell it you specialize in seafood!
Long wait over an hour and found out that they give priorities to their regulars. After we got table, overheard workers insists on few customers (one is an old lady) to tip them at least 10%. Feel sorry for the old lady, she looke like she is on limited budget. Service is almost to none, you order, they bring the food to the table, refilling hot water for tea is slow. Won't go back again. IMO, all restaurant owner should pay their workers better, so the actual cost should reflect on the bill. You don't tip when you purchase stuffs in store and you get better service in any store than restaurant.
I like birthdays, especially mine. My parents can't decide on my birthday gift so they decided on buying dinner. This is where this restaurant steps in. We had quite a few dishes so I will rate as many dishes as I remembered.
1) Crab meat with fish maw soup - 8/10
2) Two course-Peking Duck - 9/10
3) Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs - 7/10
4) Salted Free Ranch Chicken - 6/10
5) Assorted Sea Food Bird Nest - 6/10
6) Assorted Clams Stir Fried - 5/10
7) Sweet Wheat and Barley Congee (Dessert) - 5/10
I think there are more but I couldn't remember it.
Atmosphere was fine though it was a bit noisy. If you are hoping for a quiet dinner then this is not your place.
The service is okay, but you have to watch out for the waiter/manager (MIB) who takes your order, he is quite pushy in our case and trying to sell us something we don't really want, like $5 scallop (per scallop).
Food is definitely tastier than before. There are more exotic choices too (hey, Chinese love to eat strange food).
At the end it worked out to be $22 per person (with the discount card). I guess it's a okay price for a middle high class seafood restaurant. Concluding this I wouldn't say this is a gem but if someone's buying, why not. I wouldn't go if I have a choice.
take out, my wife and I were starving, no food in the house.
We decided to order chinese, we serched the internet for a place near by, after so many esitation ( at this point we were really hangry) we stumbled on this place. well I do not whant to get into dettails, this was the worst chinese food I ever had, the only thing we were able to eat was the broccoli.
I have been to this place twice. The first time a couple of years ago, was a MAEYUENJO party to celebrate a baby's 1st month. They had booked the separate room and had a preset menu. The food then was good. No-one complained and no-one was was saying it was their best meal either.
Then a year ago, I booked my party of about 30 people. It was three tables and each had a pre-set menu for 10. Well...the best part was the service. The food was bland and I felt overpriced. We ended up actually with 26 people so I asked them if it would be OK to have two tables of 10 and a table of six who could order from the menu. Offer refused! We had to split the people among the three tables and pay a higher per person cost than we had planned. The thing is there was no left over food and that was not because it was great but because the portions were small.
The best way to approach Chinese restaurants is to have everyone order their favourite dish or ask a friend who'se familiar with the place to order for you.
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