Our "Ladies Lunch Bunch" decided to try dim sum yesterday and headed over to the Shanghai Chinese Bistro. The location is nice & close to our office, so we figured we'd give it a try. In comparison to other dim sum places close by, the online reviews for this place seemed a bit better.

We were seated promptly, as I had made a reservation the day before. As we were seated, a server came by with a pot of tea, which was piping hot. Between 7 of us, we chose a few of the dim sum dishes (shrimp dumplings, stuffed eggplant, spicy wonton, stuffed green peppers, deep-fried tofu and sticky rice) and two noodle dishes (shanghai fish cake w/ seafood & veggies, fried noodles with shrimp, scallops, octopus & cuttle fish) The octopus was VERY rubbery and not enjoyable at all. My favourite dishes were the fish cake and the stuffed eggplant. I'd never had fish cake before and wasn't sure what to expect, but it was quite tasty.

We all thought the food was good, but the prices are higher than most other dim sum restaurants we'd been to. Average was about $5.00 per dim sum plate, with only 3 or 4 pieces. The bigger dishes were $13.00 each. I would go back, but with fewer people (ideal is 4) so that each plate you all get to try something. With the 7 of us, we ended up ordering 2 of some dishes, but for others we just cut the pieces to share. Not the best, as some of the pieces are small and you don't get more than a taste.

Our server was friendly and although we waited about 5-10 minutes for him to come by to take our order, he did come back regularly to clear plates and refill our teapot. He also brought us complimentary dessert, which was the mango pudding - surprisingly quite good. I believe it was about $5.00 on the menu, which seems a bit much for pudding, but it was quite nice.

I think if I was going for dim sum again, I'd walk a little further to Hon's where the value is a bit better and the food there is really good. I don't think I've ever left Hon's still feeling hungry, as was the case yesterday.

This is a great hideout in Alberni St. Awesome Chinese food, very tastefully prepared and excellent service. The restaurant has been rundown a bit but on Alberni st this is very reasonable, great portion sizes. Order a few dishes and you can share them well. The food is always consistent and so is the service. Great dim sums. Recently moved here. So I am going to be a regular.

Came here for a business luncheon. Lots of variety on the menu. Fairly priced and generous portions. The service was excellent; attentive and friendly. The food was fresh and flavourful and came out piping hot. From what I hear there is an amazing Noodle Maker that hand makes the noodles; unfortunalty he was out of town, the noodles we had were great, I could only imagine what the Noodle Maker's taste like.
We had a variety of dishes; the one thing I didn't like was the Mongolian Beef; but others thought it was delicious; I found it overly fried but that's the dish I guess.
Overall a great time, would definalty be back.

Good quality food and good cooking techniques at this restaurant, make it one of our favorite downtown Vancouver restaurants. For example, the beef and cilantro soup contains a exceptional tasting broth. All vegetables in main dishes are excellently cooked-a bit crunchy and not soggy. Likewise, meats and seafood are cooked "just right". Although much of the menu caters to tourists, non-menu items are available- particularly for vegetables such as gai lan and baby bok choy.
We enjoy the service- it is highly attentive. The ambience is good- in particular the lighting where the table is highlighted and you can actually see all your food.

Two of us just had lunch there.

It took us awhile to decide what to eat .. the waiting staff were very patient with us.

We finally ordered two items from the dim sum selection .. green onions pancake and green pepper stuffed with shrimp. We also ordered the Singing Chicken(which the staff explained to us that it meant the sizzling noise made the serving dish is opened), rice and green tea.

We thoroughly enjoyed the food and service was great (as mentioned above they let us take our time to decide what to order even though the restaurant was full).

For weekday lunches I would recommend making a reservation .. which we had done even though it was for two of us.

One weak point was they don't have a Takeout menu and no web-site where you can peruse the menu so that it's easier to make a decision on what to eat.

Also the restaurant felt cold inside .. maybe because of the big windows which face the new Shangri-la Vancouver complex.

We go there at least once a week. The kids are all at UBC and we get to see them once a week with a Shanghai bribe. Week-end dim sum a la carte is fresh and fabulous. The hand made noodles ( shredded pork with spinach is great) accompanied by deep fried silver thread roll is awesome. The curried beef brisket is succulent and not to be overlooked. Tonight I had the spicy noodles with eggplant which caused disappointment. ( A little heavy on the hoisin sauce.)
An unexpected dessert which is TRANSPORTING are the poppy seed dumplings in ginger soup[. The "soup" is a sweet ginger infusion and the dumplings explode in your mouth. Not to be missed ! If you are a regular expect the fur lined red carpet treatment.