Imperial Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Melbourne

Imoerial Chinese Restaurant at Glen Waverley Updated on 29/9/2023

It's been a while I have Yum Cha here. Today is Mid-Autumn Festival, Vic footfall grand finals eve and last day of school holiday. There is no surprise that today is one of the busiest trading day.

The quality Yum Cha items are consistent better than most restaurants. The flaky egg tarts are good and filled with generously Chinese style custard, but the dough of the Luisa Bao is not soft/ fluffy enough.

It seems the modern day Beef Ball is done differentlyly with finer texture. The Phoenix Claws alias Chicken Feet are a bit small, and more bony. The lack of gelatin makes the claws less soft.

Despite all these, it is still a good dining experience. Updated on 20/3/2021

Although there are many Chinese restaurants in Glen Waverley, only a couple serve Yum Cha.

My wife and I were invited to join our friends to have Yum Cha lunch. The quality of food was ordinary, but I need to single out that the fried Glutinous Rice was nor the best choice.

Reviewed on 29/12/2019

The ownership and management have changed since my last review.

It was a gathering with 14 other friends. A room was reserved for us. A friend who could read Chinese was nominated to order.

Unfortunately, that was the mistake, because I found out that he was a vegetarian, and many of the dishes consisted of Tofu, and a number of plain vegetables. The waiter recommended several expensive non-listed dishes including crocodile meat and eel (possibly considered ok for vegetarian).

With so many grown up meat-eater men, the dishes were not really the best combination. Furthermore, the dishes were just standard portion, and therefore, not everyone could have a taste of every dish.

Plain vegetable dishes are the least value for money, and from the photos, one can see that the standard portion size dishes were rather small.

In terms of taste, I rate 4 out of 5, but price 3 out of 5.

Reviewed on 16/11/2019

I have not been to this restaurant for Dian Xin (Dim Sum/Yum Cha) for awhile. I did not make a prior booking for 3, but we allocated to use one for one hour.

. Xia Jiao (Prawn Dumpling) with good size prawns . Xiao Long Bau was a disappointment, because it should be juicy with gingery "soup. . Fried Octopus tentacles were cold

The price was higher than other similar restaurants. I give an overall score of 3.5 out of 5. The Yum Cha and dinner are good. Being able to speak Cantonese is a big plus because many service staff speak it. Mandarin is ok to get by. The quality has improved substantially since it changed hand to the current operator.

There was a hiccup during my visit tonight. The dishes were ready before the soup was served.

The Manager has good PR skill. When I complimented the food, he responded happily and assured me that if anything was not right,...

Extremely disappointing service and subpar food.

Decided to book a 40 person banquet here as service has always been ok for most times that ive been here and food has always been consistent.

Our first dish was lobster with ginger and scallion noodles which was ok but the rest of the food was just terrible. When the fish came out, someone tooked the bones out and it made the dish look like food scraps...why would you even do that...

Worse part of the dish was that it smelled off. Unsure whether it was old fish or just not cleaned properly.

The other dishes part of the banquet were either bland or burnt (chicken wings looked like it was cooked in very old oil) or the seasoning was just too strong.

The rice was supposed to be unlimited but you had to order per bowl. A bit ridiculous considering that it's a banquet and you would expect them to give you a rice bucket and the customer to scoop it themselves and order more rice buckets when needed. It felt like the rice was such an expensive "dish" that they made it extremely hard to get a rice bowl.

We also asked what time they closed and was advised 10 but at 8pm they were already trying to clear the tables and the constant waiting around and watching you eat made everyone uncomfortable.

Tea should be free as part of the banquet but I was also stung with a $2 charge per head. Now times that by 40 people and it adds up.

For the amount of money spent, $3800 it was beyond subpar and borderline pathetic. If you are planning to have a banquet here, I would highly recommend you look else where. Save yourself the trouble, disappointment and...

We have returned another 2 times in April for Yum Cha at the Imperial Chinese restaurant and have enjoyed both visits.

The main draw cards for us are that our wider group of friends also enjoys the food, location, ambience, and value on offer.

The staff are attentive to requests for specific food items (love the fried calamari as well as egg tarts!!) and/or similar such as more hot water, etc.

Whilst our #1 yum Ch venue is the Shark Fin in Little Bourke Street, City we now also enjoy the Imperial Chinese when we feel a bit lazy and prefer to eat locally.

Quite obviously both restaurants are not totally equal as the Shark Fin is at the 'top of the (yum cha) tree but we do really enjoy the local alternative too..

If you read through the much earlier Customer Reviews the general feedback was that the place was not well run; the food was ordinary (& overpriced); and the feedback was more generally "..don't eat here, the joint is a dump and the staff are not good either!"

Well, l am very pleased to confirm that the place now is a totally different establishment that has been thoroughly renovated and updated, and the food quality and cost are now most fair and with all new staff it is now an enjoyable place to dine.

Give it a 'go' next time you're in the mood for a good Yum Cha, you'll not be sorry!

Plus, if you have a bigger party they do have larger tables (8-10 persons) in a more private...