Lum's Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Esquimalt

Lum's use to be my favorite restaurant growing up in Victoria, but coming back to my home town after being away for 20 years, I see things have changed quite a bit, and not for the better. Lum's use to be the best Chinese food in the city hands down, so I eagerly wanted try it again. I took my father there and noticed right away that the restaurant was now half the size it use to be. Also gone were the older people who use to operate the place which is understandable because of age.

A young woman took our order, which was chow mien, sweet&sour pork, lemon chicken and plain rice. The cook was a young guy who spent more attention with his phone then his cooking, but I figured he must be good if he's working here. I noticed a colorful stack of take out menus on the front counter and grabbed one to look at. It was a totally different menu than the one we ordered from with Thai dishes. I didn't realize they did Thai so I asked the girl if I could also add a couple crispy rolls with our order. She said that they don't serve anything on that menu, and when I asked why she didn't seem to understand my meaning. She just said "sorry", and walked away. My father and I looked at each other in complete bewilderment. Why would you display a stack of menus when you don't offer anything on them? It was strange but I was too hungry and excited to care much.

Finally the food arrived and it was immediately unappealing just from the look of it. The chow mien was prepared like chop suey and was very soggy and soupy. The Sweet&sour pork was ok but the whole dish was literally overflowing in a gallon sauce. The lemon chicken which is a personal favorite was the worse dish by far. The chicken batter was uncharacteristically thin and totally soaked in oil. The whole dish was oil soaked with virtually no lemon sauce. I sent the lemon chicken back and did not take more than a bite of the chow mien which was gross. Another odd thing was that the table soy sauce had no flavor at all and I had to ask for the packets. The only good dish was the plain rice.

I was very disappointed to see this once great place now run by people who don't seem to care about what they are doing. But as I go around, I see many restaurants ending up...

Arrived in town hungry . Looked up chinese food delivered and settled on Lums due to it high rating on trip advisor. Now to be fair we weren't looking to invest our time in finding authentic Richmond style Asian food. We were more than willing to settle for some old school asian buffet style food to eat in the hotel . Rather than order the dinner for 3 we chose 4 dishes in the hope it would be better . Here's how it went.

Dry garlic pork. Deep fried in cornstarch . So hard they bounced off the table. Literally. When my wife bit into the first one the crack was so loud I asked her what that was ? They were like milk bones and were inedible. Check the reviews on this .

House special fried rice. A mix of everything . OK but not worth a return to the buffet table . And not fried dry rice . Or at least not properly. Shrimp were tiny . Not velveted like good Asian food but tasted like cat food.

House special chow mein. Pre overcooked noodles with no glace and a ton of soy sauce. The worst I've ever had . Again tiny shrimp , tiny bits of bbq pork and chicken , a large , like huge piece of over boiled, bitter bok choy and tasteless noodles . Gross.

Last dish was beef and broccoli. Maybe the best dish of the four but still gross. Mushy broccoli. How the hell could someone put that broccoli in this dish !? It was so soft ! The beef was OK which made me think they stir fried the beef then threw over cooked broccoli on it at the last minute .

So to add insult to injury this meal including tax, tip , delivery ect was $80.00

Two packs of soy sauce for 4 dishes. No cutlery, chop sticks , napkins ect. Order from here and your going to get the least they can give you.

Lums, You sold your pride over the cash till. You earned...

Maybe i had poor experience because i ordered delivery. Came late. No plum or soy didnt think i had to ask for soy. Before ordering deep fried wontons i reseached it on internet... looked good. Mine from lums were big pieces of deep fried paper about 5 by 5 inches. A dime sized portion in center contained some kinda white marterial. Nothing won ton about it. Fried dumplings... overall flavour okay... frozen ones from store ive had are better and were probably cooked more thoroughly. The ones at lums were partially undercooked and goeey while other parts were over cooked threatening to break teeth and stab gums. Greasier than ricky to.9 The sauce that came wirh them tasted really off i think if i just had some regular soy it may have improved them. Other thing i had was vegetable fried rice which was actually cooked quite nice. Maybe they put more effort into main dishes and if you eat in. I could sworn in past i had a very enjoyable experience here. Honestly i think just the shock of seeing the deepfried alledged wantons through me off. I was lookim forward to trying something new and got something that i couldnt understand how someone else would perceive it...