Fisherman's Terrace Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Richmond

Oof....this was a real miss for me.

Atmosphere: They are super busy but they do take rezzies. We called a few days ahead and were able to get a table for 12. I was grateful because the last time I tried to come here for dinner, they were booked up for 2 hours and wouldn't put anymore people on the waitlist. So I was really excited to eat here when we finally got on the list for dim sum.

Food: What can I say....it just wasn't good. Most of the things were Average and some things were just bad. Average things were like Pheonix (Chicken)Feet and Har gow. But the things that stood out to me that were just BAD were the Shu Mai - they're smaller than average size and they did not taste good. The Cha Sui Buns - small filling and flavors were not there and the filling was mushy. The Century Egg & Pork Porridge was bland and just tasted like water. Had no tiny pieces of pork and century egg.

Service: It was so chaotic in here. Everyone was busy and it was hard to get anyone's attention. The guy who seated us asked us what tea we wanted and I asked what kind he had and then he just walked away and brought us a random tea.

You order from a slip (had English & Chinese) and turn it in. Then they print out a receipt all in Chinese. Apparently they got one of our orders wrong but we weren't able to catch it until the dish was delivered (and it was 2 large dishes) and we told them we didn't order it but they pointed to it on the receipt which was in Chinese and we said we couldn't read it and didn't check it off on our slip. They ignored us and continued to go on with everything. We asked for our original order and they finally brought us the buns (which weren't even good) and did not admit fault. They charged us for everything even though we didn't order it and told them twice.

Honestly the whole experience was super disappointing. Oh and the price was pretty high for what we got. I have always had excellent dim sum in Richmond because that is what is expected here. I don't know how this place has such ratings. It honestly was one of the worst dim sum...

I visited Fisherman's Terrace with my mom for lunch on a weekday, thinking it wouldn't be as busy as the weekend and since our schedule was uncertain, we didn't make a reservation. When we arrived, a few groups were already waiting. I asked the hostess how long the wait would be, and she told us it would be at least an hour without a reservation and suggested we return later to check for availability.

I noticed a note with names listed under "W" and "R" columns. When I asked to be added to the waitlist, she wrote "2p" somewhere on the note but not the same place she wrote other's names. Shortly after, some people who spoke Cantonese arrived, and she added their names under the "W" column. When I questioned why our name wasn't added, she ignored us. My mother, frustrated, raised her voice a bit, which finally got a response: those people had reservations and were moved from the reservation list in another piece of paper to "W." This confused us seems like it suggested "W" didn’t stand for "wait," nor did "R" stand for "reservation." Therefore, we remained wait.

A couple of minutes later, a gentleman without a reservation mentioned in Cantonese that he had a group of eight, and another lady said she had a group of four. The hostess quickly prepared a table for the gentleman's group. When I questioned why they were seated before us, she impatiently explained that they had a table for eight but none for two. A gentleman, possibly the manager, noticed the situation, spoke to the hostess, and five minutes after the 8-people group was seated, we were finally told that our table would be ready soon.

The food was not bad, just like average. However, the attitude of the hostess was disappointing, especially if you don't speak Cantonese. The entire experience left us questioning whether non-Cantonese speakers were treated differently. If you plan to dine here without a reservation, be prepared for a potentially...

UPDATE FEB 2025: Wow...I really wanted to give this place another chance. The food was good like always, and I've been here a few times with other parties since my last review, but the service was absolutely terrible from almost every staff member that we encountered this time! Not only were we ignored, but there were rude condescending comments and disrespect towards the seniors in my party. Their training needs to be revised, because this was unacceptable behaviour. This place went from being one of my favourite dim sum restaurants to one with the worst memories. Please look out for your party if you decide to dine here.

Changed from 3 stars to 1 star.

ORIGINAL: This restaurant is where I have been bringing everyone for dim sum for years. I've always had such a great time with great food, until today.

My brothers, cousins and I took my grandma out for yum cha, and our server was cold and rude. He waved us off when we asked him to take a photo of our table for my grandma, and when we asked another kind server she quickly came to take our picture.

At the end of our meal, my grandma paid cash and the server came back to tell us we didn't tip him enough? That's fine if my grandma got her numbers wrong, but he paced back and forth waiting for us to give him more money, which felt so predatory on my grandma. She was so caught up in the moment and didn't know how much she should've given, and was asking the server how much to give. Rather than letting HIM choose how much to give, we stepped in and gave him a few more dollars.

The whole situation felt so wrong, and we were so upset over how our server was and tried to not let it ruin our day. Please watch out for yourselves, this male server with greying hair and a vest seems to only be out to get your money. I give 2 stars in terms of service because every other time I've been here has been amazing and that kind lady server was so quick to take pictures...