Mei Le Bakery & Restaurant Inc. — Restaurant in Coquitlam

Stumbled across this little gem at lunch time on a Saturday. This is a no frills, reminds me of my childhood Chinese restaurant my Chinese Nana used to take us to. The portions are large, the food is delicious & the service is friendly.

We ordered the following:

PORK Turnover (aka footballs). This is a must order in our family & I daresay these are some of the best ones we have ever had. Where most places offer 3/serving, here they do 4. They were good sized, non greasy, crispy on the outside, soft & chewy on the inside & it was full of delicious pork & mushroom filling.

Eggplant w/Shrimp Paste (a customer favourite we're told) & I can see why. The serving came with 3 large pieces that were each cut in half easily making 6 servings. The sauce beautifully complemented the dish without overpowering the shrimp & eggplant.

Pan-Fried Rice Rolls with Sauces. This for me is comfort food. I love the simplicity & soft chewy texture of the rice rolls & how they pair perfectly with the slightly sweet & salty sauces.

Beef Balls. If I had not had beef balls before I would say these were quite good. However, it being a staple on our dim sum table, this one was a little bit of a miss for me. I can't quite put my finger on it as I said they were quite good. I guess they're just a bit different than what I'm used to.

They also have a bakery attached & between the restaurant, bakery & takeout this place was busy!

They do recommend reservations for large parties & did I mention they have ALL DAY DIM SUM!!! Yes you read that right! They also do set menus & they highly recommend checking them out during King Crab season....I think we might just take them up on that. Actually we can't wait to go back & try all their other dishes so I'm sure we'll be back much sooner. We even loaded up on some of their bakery items to have later!

If you're in the Coquitlam area (even if you're not) & are looking for great authentic Chinese food, please check them out! You can thank me...

My family of 4 got there today for dimsum at 12 which is peak busy time so I knew we'd have to wait. Hostess (shorter woman with glasses) took my name and said 5 parties ahead of us..approx 20 mins wait. Ok, no problem. As I waited, I noticed a few parties came after me, called out "hello" to a certain server (taller woman with glasses and ponytail) and were seated as soon as table was available instead of that table being given to next party on the written waitlist, as it should be. So they skipped the line. I asked the hostess twice politely how much longer for us, and the same hostess very nicely said next table is yours. She was clearing a table that she said would be for us, except I saw the taller server show another group to our table. I walked over to the table & ask the hostess 'isn't this our table? I have waited almost 40 minutes now'. She pointed to the taller server (who i guess has seniority?) who looks at me immediately said ' this group called in and has reservation' which is a blatant lie!! This other group walked in and the man asked the taller server in chinese "hello..how long for me to wait today?!" so now she lies to my face? What the hell!? Does my money stink? Is this how you do business? Play these stupid game? Only give service to customers that you know? I order takeout once a week ever since you opened here, buy your pastries and buns because i wanted to support a local small business, even though your food is not the best nor the cheapest but this type of service is ridiculas!! You have lost me as customer!! Don't come here unless you know one of the staff otherwise you'll wait forever to get a bloody table! I'm going to...

Very mediocre dimsum - I strongly recommend anyone in the area or etc to just make the drive to Vancouver for better food since the pricing is the same. I travelled to Coquitlam from Vancouver to try this place and I'm not coming back.

Also terrible service. I hate to say it but it's also very typical Chinese restaurant customer service. The following situation didn't happen to me but to the table beside me.

This table of four (Chinese, 40s and 60s+, and female) was looking to order and one of the older patrons was asking the server if they had a specific taro dish in (asking in Cantonese) and the server responded "we have everything". The server didn't even stop to look at the customer and was just responding as she continued walking away.

A few mins later the server came back to grab their order sheet but the customer asked again if they had the taro dish. The server rudely told her to mark on it the order sheet if she wants it. The customer said she can't read it/see it. The server then rudely tells her to ask her daughter (also seated at the table) to mark the order sheet and walks away.

I saw the entire thing and was just appalled. Would have easily taken the server a minute to help the customer fill out the order sheet or point out which item the taro dish was.

Also, my friend wanted a diet soda and asked the server if they had any. The server repeats "diet Coke or Pepsi? ". My friend says either is fine as long as it's diet. The server gives her a...