Royal Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Richmond

Went to dinner with my mom, girl friend, sister and brother in-law. Me, my girl friend and mom arrive first. We are seated in a nearly empty restaurant with only 2 other tables. I figured service would be alright. We get seated and my girl friend asks the waiter for 2 glasses of water which is quickly forgotten about after they bring the tea.

We had to ask again for 2 glasses of water. My sister and brother in-law have not arrived yet and so we figured we'll order first and have them start cooking it when they arrived. So my mom orders 4 dishes and the waiter comes back and says the dishes will be ready in 10 minutes as the chef prepares them. We told the the waiter, the other guests have not arrived yet and are not sure when they will be here. Could you please hold cooking until the rest of the people arrive? We have had many restaurants that have had no issues with this request. He came back with a snarky remark saying that we should have told him that in the first place and that the chef has already started. Luckily, the remaining two members just arrived.

We got our dishes and the plates were big but the amount of food was small. The garnish was larger than the food at times. The food was mostly bland and wasn't anything special. The only really tasty dish was a fifth chicken dish we ordered. We were pretty much all finished with a few pieces of food left on a dish here and there. We couldn't finish it all and as I asked the waiter to doggy baggy it, the guy pushing for us to finish it off the plate, it's only a few pieces. That's rude if you ask me. I'm full and have not reason to eat more than my fill.

After they've cleared the table we receive the standard desert and we had to again wait for a long period of time before we had to usher a waiter to get the bill. Given the rudeness of the waiter and water not being brought I decided to give them 5% as tip. I also love it when the waiter is watching me like a hawk as I'm entering in my pin, like really is that what you call customer service?

I entered only 5% tip onto the bill and the waitress gave me my receipt. As our group was leaving the table one of the waiters comes by with the bill in hand and talks with my girl friend asking for more tip or if I made a mistake in the tip amount...can you believe that!? You have the balls to come and ask for more tip thinking that I made a mistake? If the waiter had come to me, I would have demanded the 5% back. I don't see why any customer should be bullied or guilted into paying more tip than what the customer thinks is right.

The only saving grace for the waiter was the fact that my sister and mother added more to the tip - which I disagreed with but it was their money. I would recommend staying away from places like these who think that they deserve something...

There are lots of different dim sum restaurants across town but we like to try different places – which explains how we wound up at Royal Seafood Restaurant in Richmond. It’s located on the 2nd floor of the Garden City Shopping Centre mini mall located at the corner of Blundell and Garden City Road.

When we arrived on an early Sunday morning, there were plenty of tables available but they did fill later on (still not a huge line-up tho’). Most items that we tried on this visit were $7.45 (except for the dessert dish that turned out to be $4.35).

The first dish to arrive was the Spicy Beef Tripe. The honeycomb tripe was fairly tender but we didn’t notice the spiciness until afterwards when the chili sauce hits the back of your throat.

Next was the steamed Shrimp and Pea Tips dumplings which is a nice departure from the regular har gow.

I found that the Beef Rice Rolls were a bit basic but satisfying.

For dessert, we ordered the Mango Pudding – which was a fairly firm incarnation. The presentation could use a bit of an upgrade from the 4 blocks of pudding that we received (a very utilitarian display).

The last dish to arrive at our table was the Baked BBQ Pork Buns with a pineapple crust topping. These came out freshly baked and had a soft and warm bbq pork filling. The cute turtle shape didn’t detract me from eating it.

Overall, most of the dim sum dishes here were pretty good so we decided to return for a visit in late September to try more of their dim sum dishes. The Deep Fried Shrimp Spring Rolls (L) came out hot and had a nice crispy bite to them.

As if we didn’t need more fried foods, we ordered the Deep-Fried Silver Thread Buns. I felt like these came out a bit dense and not as light and airy as it should be on the inside.

Next were the Chicken Feet in Spicy Sauce (M). Followed by the Coconut Osmanthus Pudding (S). I really like how this came out (a bit more decorative appeal compared to their mango pudding). Actually, I really liked this – especially mixing the flavours together in one bite.

But we weren’t done yet… We also ordered the Special Rice Roll with Fish Paste and Bean Curd. It’s funny because I’ve only just started noticing this rice roll dish being served at more dim sum places recently. While the fish paste filling in the middle was quite nice, I thought the bean curd wrap that encased it wasn’t crispy enough.

Lastly, we finished things off with an order of Steamed Beef Balls. These were a bit basic and...

NEVER EAT HERE!!!!! ESPECIALLY VEGETARIANS!!!!!

We walked up the stairs to the restaurant. There were no people, but it was still early so we weren't that concerned with the lack of patronage. We were seated and brought some tea, which was okay. I then ordered some green beans. I stated clearly that I was a vegan and asked if it had any meat or fish sauce and I was told, "no only soya sauce." The dish arrived with some strange looking brown, "stuff" on it. It looked meat like to me so I didn't eat it right away. I called a waitress over to ask her if it had meat on it and she stated, "meat yes." I said I clearly ordered no meat dish and I told her I am a strict vegan. She called the manager over and he stated, "no meat, only bean curd."

I was feeling uncomfortable, and I should have gone with my gut, but I proceeded to put the food into my mouth. I had about 5 bites, and it was so gross and nasty fish like, I couldn't believe it wasn't some kind of creature I was eating. I require reading glasses to see close up so I could not see well, but I picked up a piece of the nasty brown "stuff," and upon very close inspection I could see a prawn/shrimp type thing. I peeled something off of it and it was clearly a shrimp of some kind.

I was SOOOO grossed out! I immediately went to the waitress to show her. I was clearly VERY upset. The manager took off so he wouldn't have to deal with me. The poor waitress was very nice. It was the manager who made a mistake and then LIED about the dish having meat or fish. It was terrible food. The manager is a liar who does not care about people.

STAY AWAY!!!!!VERY...