Grand Crystal Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Burnaby

One of the things that we’ve missed a lot during the pandemic is going out to enjoy dim sum.. I don’t mean the crowded restaurants or the loud din from the hustle and bustle of the kitchen mixed with the incessant tableside conversations that sounds more like screaming matches instead of civilized discussions. No, it’s mainly about the food.

Generally speaking, I wouldn’t have visited Crystal Mall for dim sum in the past… partly because of the annoying circular parkade-from-hell. But, thanks to Covid, things are a little less busy and restaurants don’t squish you in as much anymore. Grand Crystal Seafood Restaurant is located on the 2nd floor (just west of the food court) and we were happy to see that all of the tables were adequately spaced out. There were still loud diners but it wasn’t too bad since there were less people.

We started out our meal with an order of Steamed Beef Rice Rolls ($6.50). The dim sum dishes are rather large here and I found the rice rolls themselves were a bit too thick. That being said, the filling was also generous so it wasn’t bad.

They had a special going on for lobster so we also ordered the Lobster in Sticky Rice ($29.80) served wrapped in lotus leaves. This was pretty good with saucy sticky rice mixed with corn niblets. As expected, the lobster was quite small but to be expected given the price.

Mui Choy Kau Yuk ($10.50) is a dish that we usually order whenever we see it because I love the way the meat and fat just melts in your mouth. The one they serve here is cut thick and the meat isn’t very tender. You have to dig under the four pieces of meat to find the preserved mustard greens. Not one of the best dishes here.

The Siu Mai ($6.80) pieces here are quite large (maybe not as large as you’d find at Western Lake but still a pretty decent size of pork and shrimp dumpling).

Last up was the Lychee and Coconut Jello ($5.90). This actually could have turned out to be a good dessert but I found it to be too sweet owing to the syrup that they coat it with.

Overall, the prices are a bit on the high side given the food quality but I did like that the tables were adequately spaced out.

UPDATE - March 2025: It's been about 4 years since we last visited here. Quite busy... probably because of the generous serving sizes here. Had the Siu Mai with Tobiko ($9.5) which was meaty with shrimp and pork filling. Bean curd wraps in abalone sauce ($8.75) with a filling which was a bit too meaty. Scraped Rice Roll with Minced Beef ($10.5), Deep Fried Egg Tofu with Shrimp and Fish Paste and Thai Sauce ($9.5) had really good soft tofu which paired nicely with the sweet dipping sauce. Beef tripe with fish balls ($10.5) and Sticky Rice with Minced Pork and Dried Scallop ($10.5) had a filling with generous portion of meat.

Prices were actually not too bad: Med=$8.75;...

customer service so so, food taste so so…😞I live close to metro town area, and I love dim sum very much , but there is not much chioce of the delicious cantonese dim sum resraurants. Hope they can service more patience and friendly. And the dim sum there just very normal and Nothing outstanding.

when I check out, I have been told my total is $40.47 something(before tax), total less than $50. so the cashier told me if I wanna pay credit card, they need charge $2 more, and I choose to pay cash. beacuse I was paying cash, and also I still have lots of coins, so I gave all my coins and some cash total are $46.35(including tips ), and I count 3 times before I gave to cashier, then I went to washroom, after I came back, I found out there were$2.35 on my table, and I have been told there were not enough tips I gave. I gave total$46.35, which means I gave $5.88 Tips already, and I count 3 times before I gave to the cashier lady, I should not went to the washroom and watch she count the money first, and I asked the cashier lady, and told her I gave her total $46.35, it should be enough tips already , and she said I gave her lots coins , and maybe I count wrong, But I count 3 times before I gave to her, unfortunately I didn't take any photo to prove it, so at last I have to gave her $3 more , which means today the bill was $40.47, and total I gave her$49.35 which means I gave $8.88 tips by this kind of customer service😔😔which makes me felt really upset.

I am not lying, and it was super busy there, I count 3 times of the money, Why must I have miscounted? Is it possible that maybe the cashier was counting wrong, after all, I counted 3 times before I gave the money to her.☹️☹️☹️

This time of the dim sum experience is really terrible,...

TLDR; catty "take it or leave it" attitude from staff, why pay to be disrespected, lots of alternative dimsum spots in the area ~ Extremely poor and unacceptable service. Hostess was extremely rude. She kept bumping us for walk-in groups that came in after us despite us being there first. These groups after us did not even make a reservation to justify skipping the queue. After seating all of these other guests (whom I assume she gave preferential treatment to because she knew them) the hostess then offered us a make-shift table near the entrance of the door. We declined due to a draft and told them we preferred to sit in the main dining room and would wait. To our response the hostess and another server (both middle to older aged asian see-lais with bob cuts) started bad-talking us to each other in Cantonese saying "由佢等囉。佢唔坐就唔坐" which roughly translates to "Let them wait. Whatever, if they don't want to sit then it their problem" while throwing us dirty stares and waving a dismissive hand at us. After receiving such nasty attitude and extremely unkind service from the hostess we decided to leave and not dine here. Why would we subject ourselves to such catty and hateful attitude, let alone PAY to be treated so poorly. I strongly suggest future diners to reevaluate their decision to dine here if you don't want to be patronized and if you value having a good time at dimsum. It is clear that all they care about is the money, so much so that they don't even care to treat others with basic pleasantries or kindness. It's this "take it or leave it" attitude from the staff that will be the downfall of...