Empire Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Richmond

One of the best places in Richmond, BC for dim sum. It's a little expensive but in return you get quality food. Wife and parents now demand to come here for Chinese food from now on. 😋

[Update: Oct 10, 2023] The sad truth about Chinese restaurants near the Aberdeen Center area is that there aren't too many restaurants that offer set dinner for a set number of people. i.e. Set Dinner for 6 or Set Dinner for 10. Most require you to choose from a plethora of dish selections, which can be quite daunting and bothersome. That leaves us little choice but to go out of our way to come to Empire instead. A few months ago, the eight of us tried its sister restaurant, Parkhill, which was right next door to Empire. Apart from one questionable issue with a supposedly 8lb Alaskan King Crab, overall, the set dinner was very good. In addition, Empire is my family's favorite dim sum restaurant. That makes it more compelling to try dinner there.

Last time at Parkhill, the eight of us ordered a $988 Set Dinner for 8-10 people and had a lot of leftovers. This time, we ordered a $688 Dinner for 4-6 people instead, and it was just right with no leftovers. Obviously, we were all small eaters.

The set dinner consists of a Peking Duck 2-Eat and a 7lb Alaskan King Crab 3-Eat. The AKC 3-Eat consist of Dish #1) the legs were steamed with garlic salt, Dish #2) the shell's tomalley was used in a fried rice and Dish #3) the body was chopped to little chunks and deep fried with pepper salt. All dishes were very well made, but most especially the legs and the body being the most delicious.

The Peking Duck 2-Eat consist of Dish #1) Meat slices with wrapper and Dish #2) chopped meat with lettuce wrapper. Both were standard and nothing to write home about.

There was also an additional "Braised Pork Belly" dish, which was tender and delicious but extremely unhealthy as it mostly consisted of fats. All of us weren't too keen on this dish as we all worried about our health more. Good thing, this dish doesn't have much anyway.

Overall, it was okay as we all reminisced the Set Dinner for 8-10 People at Parkhill more, and it was also more bang for the bucks in our opinions! In other words, we find Empire's Set Dinner for 4-6 people somewhat overpriced in comparison to Parkhill's Set Dinner for 8-10 people.

PS. At Parkhill, the Alaskan King Crab's legs were steamed whole and with its original sea-salty taste. They provided scissors for us to cut. At Empire, the Alaskan King Crab's legs were already split in half when it presented to us on the plate and were marinated with garlic salt before it was steamed. Potato patato. Original natural taste or added garlic-salt taste. It all depends on your preference. If neither method is what you want, I believe you can suggest other methods beforehand.

PSS. We sat for 40 minutes before the first dish arrived. We had to rush them a couple of times to hurry up as my American friends needed to drive 3 hours back across the border and have to work/school early next morning. Lesson learned: try not to come on a Sunday and 7pm night....

It was a very BAD experience at the receptionist. Our family planned to try the restaurant for the first time on Sunday morning. We tried to call to make reservation, but after trying few times, no one pick up the call, so we tried our luck to walk in.

We reached there around 11am and there were only 2 or 3 guests waiting to be seated. We were told that it might take them about 30 minutes or more to find us a seat since we did not make reservation. We saw the waiting list for the walk in and we were no. 4 on the list, so we gave a try to wait as we were looking forward to try the food and also with a hope that the waiting time will be shorter.

People started coming in and by around 11.30am there were lots of people waiting (which most of them have made reservations). We asked the receptionist again when we can get our seat and they answered, they could not guarantee how long we should wait as they prioritizing those who made reservation. We saw the list again, and we were still on the 4th so apparently they did not even bother serving those on waiting list. Again, we waited patiently, and we saw the crowds getting lesser as those made reservations have gotten their seats. After 1 1/2 hour waiting, we asked the concierge again when we can get our seat. Their answer was still the same, they cannot guarantee!! And, we were still on the 4th of the waiting list! So that means, those who were walked in, have never been called after more than 1 hour! WHAT A "GREAT" SERVICE!

We came there with 2 young children and they did not even have courtesy to try to find a seat for us. We were only 4 of us! If they do not even bother to serve those who walk in, please tell in advance, put a big sign in front of your restaurant, so people do not wait for nothing! And please pick up the call so that people can make reservation!!

I would never ever come to this...

I’m not the type to complain and write reviews but service recovery was disappointing.

Took my family here for my dad’s birthday dinner and ordered Lobster & Peking Duck Set for 6 along with two other dishes. I had asked to substitute the Seafood Fried Rice to just regular/any meat fried rice since my little brother was allergic to shrimp. The general manager, Lawrence had said “ok” and even suggested BBQ Pork Fried rice. When we received the food, it happened to be Seafood fried rice and before the other lady manager served us, I stopped her and clarified our order. The General manager came back and said “kitchen was busy, I’ll give you this one for free and order another bbq rice since it will be awhile. It was my mistake.” After seeing my bill, they had charged us extra dish for the rice and when I went back to get it fixed, the general manager tried to reason with me that I didn’t hear him properly and that his “English was wrong”. What sense does it make ordering two big plates of rice? After trying to explain the multiple times, I finally gave up because although he kept apologizing, I felt as if he was trying to brush off the fact that he messed up our order. He tried to offer a free dish for another time(not the same day) but at that point i was already annoyed and declined. However, I lost my patience when he tried to reason that the almond COOKIES (yes only some cheap cookies) which was supposed to be part of the dessert set menu anyways was on the house…. LOL WHAT A JOKE 👎🏼 regret booking here 🤣 nonetheless, other servers were kind, but food overall salty. Don’t think I’ll be...