Having a mother in law to get the table reserved was a blessing as when we arrived, the place had 20 or so folks waiting to get in.
Once seated, the food carts came quickly and often. Choices were abundant, with plenty of seafood type dumplings and hargaw served up deliciously.
Close to the end of our stay on a busy mid-Sunday, with the obvious 'rush hour' dealt with, the folks coming in didn't seem to have nearly the same selection available as we did just an hour earlier, so best to come early.
Also, if dessert dishes are something you crave, like the mango pudding, be sure to order it sooner than later, as we were limited to the remaining two bowls.
Overall, good value, and would return for another round.

I went there for dim sum with my family in Jan on a Sunday. We were seated at a table not next to the aisle but surrounded by other tables, so we couldn't see what dim sum is coming because basically no dim sum cart could pass our table.

I had dinner there again last week for my friend's birthday. We order a combo for six which has shark fin soup, crab and chicken. The shark fin soup was very disappointed. It was simply a thick cornstarch soup with a few pieces of hair thin shark fin. They seemed happier to serve tables that order wine and beer. The table next to us ordered beer bottles after bottles and their food was even served on individual plates while we had to help ourselves pouring soup into our bowls.

It is a place for cheap eat if you only want to stuff yourself but not for good eat or good service.

We came here for dim sum around noon today and was seated almost immediately. We enjoyed the deep fried shrimp/chive dumpling, steamed shrimp dumblings, the steamed baby beef ribs weren't bad but the filling in the crispy egg roll was pretty bland, there was just a bunch of chopped celery. The deepfried taro with pork filling was kind of cold. The shrimp rice roll with soy sauce wasn't as tasty compared to other dim sum restaurants, the sauce wasn't dark and sweet enough. The steamed pork sieu miu was really bad, dry and shrivelled up, like it had been sitting around for awhile, not plump looking, juicy or hot enough.
The men's washroom was really cold, you could see your breath in the air. It was our first time at this restaurant so not sure if we would come back...

This place is good for quick dim sum. But the wait will still be around 20 minutes on weekends. They have a large variety of dishes going around. The temperature of the food seems to be hotter then other dim sum places which are around the same price. Service is pretty much the same you would get at a Chinese restaurant, except for the actual waiters. We made a custom order which never came. We asked another waiter, and finally they tell us they are sold out. If the prices were not so low, I don't think I would go.

I had the unpleasant pleasure of dining here with my bf's parents and reletives which brought back some even more unpleasent memories.... but onto that later. I'll have to try to give an objective review first about the most recent experience.

Of all restaurants to order lobster, crab and those "fancier" chinese dishes, I do not understand why they chose to eat at East No.1 rather than a higher end restaurant for the same price. The food was mediocre and standard -- nothing to wow about but nothing to complain about either. Service was ok and the servers seemed to frequent our table more after we ordered drinks and other "add ons" to our bill. The washroom is gross. Do not go in there or you'll be sorry.

...and now for the reason why I hesitated to go back:
Last year my bf and I decided to host a larger party for both of our parents and reletives as kind of a meet and greet / family reunion thing. We had about 60 guests and booked this restaurant (at the request of the bf's dad because as he put it, "they let you smoke in here") The restaurant quoted us $850 per table for the banquet including delicacies, etc. and required a $500 deposit so they can bring in the seafood.

We gave them the deposit but called them back a day later to postpone the event date as some reletives could not book flights for the originally planned date. The owner (man) we spoke to was nice enough and we reached a compromise of getting $250 back in cash (refunded) and $250 gift certificate to be spent at the restaurant later.

The problem was when we went to pick up the money / certificate. The owner (woman -- probably the guy's wife) greeted us with a sneer and glared at us after I told her what we were there for. She jerked open the cash drawer and yanked some bills out to count out the $250. I sarcastically mentioned to my bf "I don't think they're very happy about it" and she says (in Cantonese) "of course I'm not happy. Here, here's your money. If you already booked it, you shouldn't cancel...."

First of all, what kind of customer service is that (especially if it was agreed upon on the phone, why complain now?) Second, it's not as if I called her a day before the event, I called her a day after I BOOKED it (with at least 1 month before the event date). I never even said I was cancelling; I was post poning. And third, shouldn't she realize that while she's refunded me $250, she just made another $250 by selling me a gift certificate? By exerting no effort whatsoever?

When we did finalize the event date, we decided against booking here because of that woman. We booked at King Fortune downtown (MY favorite restaurant -- too bad they've changed now); spent just $49 more per table ($899) and had food that was 10x better. Irony is that my bf's dad took the $250 certificate and spent over $400 with his friends at East 1. If that woman owner had the foresight to understand something called return business maybe she wouldn't have been so rude.

Will I be back? Only if you drag me kicking and screaming.

NOT recommended (you can say its because I have a personal vendetta against them or because I just don't think the food is good enough to over shadow their bad service)

This is somewhere my husband and I go to whenever we need a quick dim sum meal. We usually go on Sunday morning like most people for dim sum. It is always packed.

The items are reasonably priced. Special dishes can be requested even if you want to order from the dim sum carts circulating.

Parking is horrible as it is tight and underground and is always full since it is shared with other businesses in the complex like T&T supermarket and other Asian oriented stores. Street parking is available but scarce.

If you like to people watch then this is the place because it is packed. You may feel pushed to leave if you stay too long after you pay your bill though. If you're not eating and there is a line up then they may ask you if there was something specific you wanted to eat.

The variety is great and always expanding. If you don't see something then ask someone when you can. They are very busy and many wait staff do not have English as a second language let alone a first.

I have never seen anyone sit down and have a bad time.

I must have hit an odd time, i got in pretty quickly and didn't have to wait, but i went with a "regular" patron...and I hate to say it, but we got preferential treatment, so this review may be slightly biased.
The waitresses were quite attentive, they knew what we wanted to order, so food arrived quickly for us. Otherwise, i found the cart ladies a little too forthcoming in trying to give away their dim sum, always suggesting food to us, and placing it under our noses at times whether or not we expressed interest. but the dim sum was so fresh, and yummy. Lots of shrimp in the shrimp dumplings, and the black veins were mostly cleaned out of them. The tofu dish w/mushroom was silky smooth. Carts were frequent, and the fried shrimp dumplings were tasty. It's not the best dim sum, but prices and quality were great, and you didn't have to wait too long to get a table. (well at least not during the time i went..)

Took my family for dinner at this restaurant and received so-so reception at the beginning. The menu has a good variety of choices and we ordered a "set dinner special for four" since we have three adults and two small children. We also ordered "Stir Fried Crab" in addition to the dinner special.

Quantity and quality of the meal was OK and the service was as expected in low-middle class Chinese restaurant - the server is there to bring food from the kitchen to your table and don't expect anything else.

The bill came and we noticed an extra charge for the complementary soup and rice. We asked the server and she waved the manager over. The manager was very unpleasant to talk to and he didn't seem to have time for anyone at that point. The explaination given to us was that the "set dinner" was for 4 people and they have to charge extra for our fifth person ( 3 year old kid who hardly ate anything during the dinner). We asked why this extra cost was never mentioned to us when we placed the order and the manager appeared to be very angry and intimidating. He concluded our "conversation" by leaving us without any explanation and just left it up to us to decide whether to pay for the extra charge or not . We told him that we will not pay for the extra charge since we didn't agree with such practise. Needless to say we left the restaurant with a very bad taste in our mouth.

My advise to other patrons - Check and double check your bill for any hidden cost. We found out afterwords that a few people had similar experience with this restaurant when we started to forewarn our friends.

BTY, I'm told that the owner of this restaurant also owns 1st Floor Cafe and Grill on Main street.

My in-laws like this place, but I think it is just so-so. It's too crowded if you go on a Chinese Holiday (well, I guess most other Chinese restuarants are crowded on holidays, too), it ends up with everyone packed in like sardines.

We recently had the dinner for 8 and I thought it was a really strange assortment of food. And my husband and I are sure the lobster was not all there, like the kitchen staff had taken a lot of the meat out of the tail and kept it, then tried to cover it up with that creamy sauce they use.