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Went for a lobster dinner with my buddy J,got seated promptly with a courteous hostess. We ordered a 3lb lobster,one whole roasted squab,and a large bowl of bamboo shoot soup that serves four people. All were prepared and cooked to the right taste. The horror started when we asked for the bill. The total came to $109,instead of the $104, that J and I calculated before ordering. We asked manager #1 why the discrepancy and he calculate the bill in front of us, Still ,it was off,so we waved down manager #2 and to our utter surprise and disgust he said "Oh,there's an extra $5 charge, if your lobster is cooked with Chinese cooking wine". I asked him how come it doesn't mention in the menu,and why didn't you tell us when we ordered. Manger #1 never stated there was an extra charge either. We also asked a waiter,he also never mention that fact. So,manager #2 looked very embarrassed and tried to apologize by offering us "free mango pudding" to make up the "mistake". Ya,right, imagine they make"calculated mistakes" in each table in the premise. So,the three of us had a calm verbal conversation of their restaurant's dishonesty. He was starting to get red faced and asked many times over if we would like to have the mango pudding and to forget about the whole thing. UNBELIEVABLE!!!! We told manager #2 that WE WILL NEVER EAT THERE AGAIN!!!! At the end,we gave less than 10% tip. Shame on them!!
Visited March 2012
I was in the mood for a little Dim Sum treat, and while I usually go to the Continental at No.5 and Cambie, I had been told that Sun Sui Wah was very good, and as I was in the area I thought I should give it a try. What a Mistake!!
First off, I was basically ignored when I entered, with the hostess seating two parties of four before me even though I was there prior to their entrance. When asked she responded "they regular customer". Funny, but I always thought that the idea was to grow your business not alienate potential new ones, but what do I know.
Finally got a table, and the waiter basically ignored me, coming by after 12 minutes to ask "you ready?" He took my little order sheet without so much as a thank you never mind offering to see if I understood the process or had any questions.
The food did arrive fast I have to say, but the quality of the selections was somewhat lacking, and certainly not up to the standards at Continental or Jade Garden.
Then to top it all off, this idiot comes to my table, and says "no forget tip..minimum ten bucks".
So let me get this straight, I get treated like crap from the moment I enter the place, have to get up and find a server to get little things like a glass of water and condiments, I am ignored by the server and then he demands a tip? Methinks Not!!
Even the little girl at the till wanted to know "where is tip?". I explained that the service did not warrant any. Rather than ask what was wrong, how they could improve etc., she just muttered under her breath in Cantonese "cheap white dog" (Oh yes, if you are going to mutter something, you should make sure the person who hears you doesn't speak the language!)
So bottom line, I would not return to this place for any reason. The service was crap, the food not so great, and I was amazed at how unwelcome I felt throughout the entire visit. Now I was dressed in a suit and tie, having just met with a lawyer upstairs, so it certainly was not my appearence that made them so rude, I can only assume that the fact that I am caucasian not asian was the reason for the shabby treatment. So if you are asian, have at it, but if not....well at least there are other choices with great service and much better food.
What a waste of time!
I brought my mom here for Mother's Day and I'd say it was a solid dining excursion.
We ordered off their menu which was largely influenced off their banquet/group menus. Sauteed Prawns, Scallops and Vegetables, Deep Fried Crispy Chicken, Shark Fin Soup, Steamed Fish, and Abalone with Chinese Mushrooms and Vegetables set the course. Everything was nicely done, especially the steamed fish. I had wanted to order the Deep Fried Prawns with Rock Salt (mom's permission, of course) but apparently it was a hot item during the dinner service and there was a 40 minute wait for them. No thanks.
Service was pretty good even with the full house but it was difficult to flag down a server a couple of times to have our teapot refilled. Upon our leaving they gave my mom (and all moms that night) a rose pedal for the special ocassion, a very nice touch to end the night.
No qualms bringing family here.
We happened to go there for a wedding banquet. Nothing to complain about the ambience and environment actually. For a Chinese restaurant, it is quite decent. Organized, okay layout and even the w.c. was reasonably clean.
Now that was the highlight, it's all downhill from here. The service? Well, they did clear our plates quickly (maybe too quickly). The timing of the dishes was horrible (for a pre-set wedding dinner? Everything is known in advance!). Dishes would come out in bursts and we'd be left waiting a LONG time for others. Strangely, they were ALWAYS very keen, way too keen, to get rid of the prior dishes. Come on, let us eat in peace! The table will hold more than 1 dish! They made us feel very rushed and almost seemed like they want us to get out of there. (If so, then why so slow on some other dishes?). Come on, the whole place was booked for the whole night anyways, they coulldn't get any other tables in.
The food was a new low. The first cold platter was, shockingly, bad. I mean the roast pork tasted like it had been chopped up then reheated again. It was dry and tough. Some of the other stuff on the dish tasted like they were downright _spoiled_. That's unacceptable. The rest of the dishes ranged from okay, to just passable.
And if someone thinks this is what one should expect from Chinese restaurant, then you should get out some more. We've eaten our way around the world and just about every place in Vancouver. This is NOT standard operating practice for a decent Chinese restaurant. Sun Sui Wah might be trying to pretend to be a top-tier place, but that only goes skin deep. It is far from it. I've been to grungy little hole-in-the walls that might look messy and dirty, but dish out far better food and service.
(FYI, we recently had another wedding at the Main St. location and we did not have the same experience...)
I wouldn't waste my hard earned cash here and neither should you. You feelin' lucky that the time you go it'll be okay? There's no excuse to ever serve bad food or bad service.
Haven't been to this place for dim sum since they had the dim sum carts. Now they have joined the other restaurants and I like the order system much better as you don't have to wait for your favs to come. The basic dim sums (shrimp, pork, buns) were good as well as their rice noodles. Nothing out of the ordinary except for the mango crepes. A bit on the pricey side for ordinary dim sum but service was good.
Food: fairly decent selection. had the chicken feet, beef balls, bbq pork, beef, & mushrm rice noodle, shrimp dumpling, sui mai, etc. all of which were pretty standard quality. nothing that stood out either -/+.
Service: nothing special. they come when beckoned and offer nothing less or more than what is asked of them.
Ambiance: busy busy! which often translates to noisy, but i dont mind...i usually end up going w/ a lrg group anyways, so our table is prob contributing! fairly clean and accommodates lrg grps.
Overall: this place is pretty consistent. dont expect to be blown away by the food or service and u wont be disappointed. make reservations on the wkend and try to come earlier to look for parking.
Food: ha gow, wrapped chinese donut, mango pudding, stir fried noodle, chicken spring rolls, bbq pork pastry, bbq pork buns and some other items I can't remember were very good. The only disappointing item was the deep-fried meat puff - WAY TOO MUCH dough and not enough filling that ended up being quite bland - avoid this if possible. There is a large selection of dim sum to choose from and menus available in english and chinese. There is also pictures to help one choose as well. We over-ordered but brought it home, heated it up and ate it for dinner and it was still quite tasty. The price is ok - not cheap but it is a higher quality dim sum.
Service: We were seated facing one of the serving areas in a corner where waiters were bustling in and out. A table should not have been placed there to begin with. We received service but it was abrupt and almost borderline rude. Waters and tea were re-filled and dishes were brought out in good time.
Ambiance: It is a nice restaurant but as I mentioned above, we were seated in a very awkward table. Had we been seated elsewhere, this place may have received a higher ambiance rating.
I would return for the dim sum alone but hope we weren't seated in that corner where it was difficult to flag ppl down and waiters were bustling in and out. Would recommend others to eat here as well if they were looking for a pretty good dim sum place.
I've been here every now and then, literally through out my life, for weddings, dim sum, or just squab, and have ran into a handful of Asian celebrities. I stopped going for a while when I saw their inspection reports, but decided to give it another try the other day.
I had been craving Peking Duck for quite some time, and so my boyfriend took me here to satisfy them. But no, no duck today they told us. :( We settled for some Chinese New Years dishes which included duck lettuce wrap and smoked salmon with jelly fish. We also ordered a squab for my boyfriend's virgin-squab stomach.
It was a decent unintended no carb meal. Duck was good. The jelly fish and smoked salmon looked a little old, and came with generous amounts of greens to eat with it. The squab was a bit cold but still good to me and unimpressive to the boyfriend. Surprisingly, the dish that shined was our complimentary desert, red bean was not too sweet (a common mistake its counterparts make).
Overall, I suspect we ordered the wrong items, and the squab-cooks were having an off day. I give them the benefit of the doubt, only because I have had excellent food here in the past. I only hope it didn't go downhill.
As for their self-claimed exceptional service? The hostess and servers did not smile or talk much, but were polite. Service was really, really efficient: at one point we had our teapot checked on thrice in a minute. Not my definition of exceptional service, but I can certainly say its one of the better ones of its sort.
I've been to this location and the Main St one several times and it's always pretty good. Last week 15 or so of us had two tables and had a feast. Service was quick and efficient, ambience is clean, bathrooms are clean, all-around good. Only one complaint: the steamed rock cod, at $57 per plate, (we ordered two) is a little on the expensive side. It was delicious and we ate everything but the bones but $57! I've had this dish at other places such as East No.1 in Vancouver and it was just as delicious and wasn't nearly that pricey. This will be a deciding factor next time the 15 of us get together.
I have been there twice. The first time, we went close to the closing time and everyone was very busy. the server told us that we needed to pay ahead of time, eventhough we weren't even done eating and ordering. We were pretty disappointed with that type of service, but we understood. So we decided to go again. The next time we went early, right when they open. We got seated in the reserve room and had servers waited on us surperbly. The reserve room was smaller with roughly 8 tables or so and 3 waiters so it was easy to get good service as compared to being seated in the big room. The food was amazing, everything was very fresh. So this definately was a mixed review from the first time we went. We will be returning again, and hoping that service and food will still be as good as the second time we went.
I went here with my partner's out of town relatives. I guess since Sun Sui Wah carries with it a good name from being in business so many years, they were eager too try. I can't vouch for them, but I find this place very average compared to many of the higher end Chinese Restaurant (Sea Harbour, Jade, Kirin, etc.)
Food - the only good thing was the honey garlic sparerids which were crispy and tender. We had crab which was overcooked, duck wrap with lettuce, where the lettuce piece were not a good shape, the cod with soya sauce which was overcooked. Overall not what I expect from a place like Sun Sui Wah.
Service - it was Monday night, and super quiet. But our plates were not cleared, request took a while, the people serving food seemed disinterested. I will give them credit that while we were here dimsum, the service was quite good. I should also mention that although the dimsum was not superb, it was definitely above average.
Value - I didn't pay, but I think it was around $150 all-in for 6 people, so about average for dinner.
Ambiance - restaurant is bright and clean, though the same can't be said about the washroom. Otherwise, no complaints.
Overall, I can't recommend this restaurant. There are just too many better restaurants out there in the same price range.
I've visited both Sun Sui Wah locations, and I do prefer the Main street location more because of the food.
A bunch of us went recently for dinner and we found the food a bit disappointing because the food wasn't as good as we're used to from the other location. We had a set dinner, and the dishes tasted somewhat bland. Not very much flavour at all in the appy platter, soup, noodles, fried rice. Crab claws were good though.
Service was good considering this being a Chinese restaurant. Plates were changed promptly. Requests for things were fulfilled in a timely manner. Servers had decent manners.
As for ambiance, well, this is an asian restaurant. It was noisy, but brightly lit, tables weren't too close together, and washrooms were surprisingly clean.
Because of the food quality, I only gave a 2 for value.
On a separate note, to the previous reviewer below, I've also had many King Crab dinners in the last few months, and I must say that my last few KC dinners have not been as good as the first few. But I don't think this is because restaurants have been substituting the fresh crab for frozen. It is almost the end of the KC season, so the crabs have less meat and don't taste as good. Also, if the restaurant oversteams the crab, the meat tends to stick to the shell. Just my 2 cents.
My parents and I went to Sun Sui Wah for dinner to try their seafood. We ordered live lobster in cream butter sauce and several other dishes. I must say that you really do get what you pay for because:
1. The food was amazing! Some of the most delicious Chinese food I've had. The lobster was complimented perfectly by the cream sauce and wasn't overcooked. Their portuguese style rice with seafood is SO GOOD! I love the curry-like sauce and there was a lot of seafood in there. Even the standard beef in XO sauce was done better than your average Chinese restaurant. My parents were impressed and that's not easy.
2. Ouch! Pricey! We asked for one of the smallest lobster they could find because it was just the 3 of us, and the lobster came to around $50. All of the other dishes were about $14-17 where as your average Chinese restaurant they're about $9-11.
The servers were professional and polite, although we did have to ask twice to get our bill. The restaurant was loud, but if a Chinese restaurant is quiet, you probably don't want to go there...
We would like to return, but probably only for special occasions. It's too expensive to eat there regularly.
How things have changed. I had memorable meals here before. I remember that even the the fried rice, noodles and veggies tasted better than any other chinese restaurant. But on my most recent visit, EVERYTHING was not good. I still see some of the same service staff. And almost the same attention to service, albeit a few new workers who are trying to find their place. Service was not a problem.
What happen to the food? I guess they have changed the chef. Of all the items we ordered only the Alaskan King Crab stood out as acceptable. I sincerely felt that I could have cooked just as good if not better chinese food. The garlic on the Alaskan King Crab was pureed on the food processor. I can taste the difference. The sweet and sour pork with lychee was bland and the pork was tastless and cold. The noodles were tastless and I have cooked much better noodles than this. What a major disapointment! $280 for two. For the money, it was a major rip-off.
I went for dim sum at 2PM on a weekend.
The food was okay, but realized it was simply reheated dim sum.
If they were going to reheat the dishes, then there is no point in eating at the restaurant.
If they freshly cooked or made the dim sum dishes, it would have been much better.
I prefer not to pay full price for reheated dishes. I think that most people would agreed with me on this.
The service was fast and to the point, as always in Sun Sui Wah. No extras and no mistakes.
The value is okay, but the food was reheated!
Sun Sui Wah's location is still okay looking. It is not too old and not too new. In the next several years, they may require a renovation, but for now, it is a solid 3.
ConclusioN:
If you are going to eat at the restaurant for dim sum, make sure you go before 2PM or even earlier, to ensure they actually give you freshly prepared food, not reheated dim sum.
Preamble: 10+ b-day party on a busy Friday night
Food: it's been a few years since I've frequented this restaurant and now I know why. Pigeon didn't have a sharp taste and came out slightly cold. Yin Yeung rice that was almost unedible on both sides. Red bean dessert (free) that was a thin liquid and separated into two separate layers. Those were the lowlights of the meal but certainly fairly representative of the 8 or 9 courses we had.
Service: not bad, they cut the cake and generally were efficient and friendly on a busy night
Value: $21/person is not bad but considering the quality of the food...
Ambiance: one of the nicer places, expect tons of noise if you frequent during the busier weekend periods.
everytime i come to this place, i have always left satisfied and content... this is definitely one of the better chinese restaurants in richmond with a great variety of dishes, it doesnt come cheap though so the prices can add up quickly.
the service is pretty solid, they have a relatively large number of staff during busy hours so you can expect to get good attention..
the ambiance is that of a typical chinese restaurant but much cleaner and more up to date..
also dined here for a wedding dinner once and i will never forget how awesome the food was!!!.. sharks fin, fish, abalone, the best of the best.. and it was yummy!
would strongly recommend to anyone whos looking for a relatively classy place to bring friends or family for a great oriental meal!
Food (had dinner): compared to other Chinese restaurants, food was not too greasy. Their freshly squeezed orange juice was really refreshing, can actually tell it's really squeezed from oranges, not mixed from concentrate. I also enjoyed their egg white dried scallop fried rice, not too salty or oily.
Service: definitely a lot better than most Chinese restaurants around. Our cups were consistently refilled (w/ juice, wine etc). Servers cleared plates promptly and were polite.
Value: didn't pay the bill, so don't know, assumed price was decent for the reasonable portion sizes and quality of food.
Ambiance: was clean, didn't look run-down. A typical Chinese seafood restaurant atmosphere.
been waiting to try this one for a while, but it didn't live up to my expectations the food was ok but ok is not worth my money!
i also found the food a bit too pricey, unless your with a large party its not worth it.
I've been to this restaurant for as long as I can remember. They renovated it several years back.
Food: Always great food, we go there sometimes to celebrate birthdays, especially for the elderly. A very typical Southern Chinese cooking.
Service: If you go in big groups, make sure you place a reservation. Usually without reservations we wait for 15~20 minutes during lunch and dinner periods. Staff are usually quick and everything I expect from a good restaurant.
Ambiance: A bit loud at times when the restaurant is crowded. A great place for family. The decor was updated, and lean towards modern Chinese designs.
| 1. | Main Street (8.4 km) |  |
| 1. | Thai House Restaurant (21 m) |  |
| 2. | Jun Sushi (21 m) |  |
| 3. | West Lake Vietnamese Kitchen (33 m) | |
| 4. | Aji Taro (55 m) | |
| 5. | Cimona Cafe (74 m) |  |
| 6. | Lucky Tao Restaurant (91 m) | |
| 7. | Kelong Singapore Cuisine (91 m) | |
| 8. | Izumi-Ya Japanese Food (114 m) | |
| 9. | Wendy's Restaurant (169 m) | |
| 10. | La Chocolaterie (171 m) |  |
