Chang 'An — Restaurant in Vancouver

The highlight of the meal was the Peking duck, but extremely disappointed with the amount of serving and the underwhelming flavor for the second course - duck soup.

I celebrated with my girlfriend by trying out their famous Peking duck. Good first course. Problem was the second course. The servers, managers, and kitchen staff claimed that they used the entire carcass to boil only two small bowls of soup and throw it away afterwards - at least for us

A few issues here. You do not expect to get served so little for the second course for a nearly $100 dish. If you can't picture it, imagine being served two bowls with ~3oz (or 2 shot glasses) worth of soup. TWO BOWLS. That's the yield they get from a whole carcass. Absolutely ridiculous. I expected much more than that. They tried defending themselves by saying that the second course was free. My argument is I paid for two courses. The price on the menu is for two courses. It's not a buy one get one offer. Smh

Taste: the soup came with noodles, no leftover duck meat, no vegetables to enhance the flavor of the soup. Essentially duck broth with pepper. What's worse was the noodles that came with it were overcooked - felt like eating mush. How it tasted, you ask? Instant duck broth with pepper.

Manager informed us that they could not have the duck bones served to us because they throw it away. Loads of meat were wasted that could have been utilized because they "throw the leftovers away." What they do is probably throw it in a large pot with all other ducks ordered so they get a higher yield, hence the underwhelming taste. Their solution? Give us one more bowl of the same tasting soup. No improvements, whatsoever. Just another scoop from that same large pot. Yuck.

While it would have been an enjoyable experience because the rest of the food we ordered were fine, their customer service was subpar for a restaurant at this price point/level. You really had to argue with a customer?

Message to the restaurant: I don't mind paying $100, or $1000 if your food and service is worth it. You're not worth the money you're...

Food 1 star Service 2 star Atmosphere 3 star Overall 2 star

This restaurant is approaching their 12th year anniversary and I believe it’s not know for a reason. We came here to celebrate my birthday and upon my entry to the restaurant I was greeted in Mandarin. I guess it speaks for its target clientele.

We ordered lobster, leeche prawns and smoked fish and asked for low sodium for all dishes. They are able to adjust the sodium level however all the dishes are below expectation. The smoked fish does not have any smoked flavor other than the show they put on at the table. The fish is coated with a sauce that’s primarily sweet without too much of other flavour profile. The leeche prawns arrived after we almost finished the smoked fish. And unfortunately the prawns are not as hot as I expected them to be. Not sure how long it’s sitting at the kitchen prior to serving. Upon our first bite of the prawn the lobster arrived which was very bad timing - seafood needs to be enjoyed while they are hot and given the prawns were not quite hot to begin with, now the lobster had arrived. Most other restaurants would offer an option to add noodles or sticky rice at the bottom of the dish to absorb the sauce and flavor from the lobster. They did not offer this option. The deep fried vermicelli under the lobster serves no purpose other than adding grease to the dish.

We offered our feedback about the bad timing of the prawn and lobster dish and the server was kind enough to offer us a free dessert.

The matcha and raspberry mousse cake. For mousse cake I expect the texture to be smooth and creamy. Not the case. They use too much gelatine that the mousse tastes more like hard jello.

I’m not sure how this restaurant is recommended by Michelin guide as the food is totally below standard and expectations - not to mention their steep pricing.

I do not recommend this restaurant and have intention to revisit unless their quality of food improves significantly...

It was mother's day and to book an appointment they said we must reserve the mother's day dinner which included, a mushroom soup, black cod, bbq duck, short ribs, mushroom dish, and dessert. It was $380 for two people. I ordered a bottle of Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz, priced at $138. The total bill after tip was $625. Was the dinner worth that much for two people? Absolutely not. The reason this gets a solid 4 is because of the bbq duck and the other main dishes. The bbq duck was cut table-side with flambe presentation. It was some of the best I've ever had and is reason enough to come here. The other dishes in general were really good except the appetizer and the dessert. For the appie they said it was on the house, it was some kind of bread with a spicy spread, but neither the spread nor bread were good, almost trying to mimic western hospitality. The dessert was a taro cake wrap but the wrap was baked and came out hard. It was too filling to be a dessert. Other issues were related to service. Upon being seated 4 dishes were served all at the same time. There was a sudden feeling of being rushed, and the cod was cold meaning it had been prepared before hand. I had to ask how much time we had to eat because we didn't feel relaxed. There was no one waiting after us. Knowing the price of tonight's dinner I asked for the cod to be redone which took the server a little time to think and then offered that they could redo it. Even upon entering the restaurant there was a lack of presence at the front of house and there seemed to be missing a feeling of being served in a distinguished way, something that you would feel at a very distinguished restaurant or Michelin star restaurants, it just felt standard. So I wouldn't come here expecting a high level of service with well timed dishes, well trained staff (I had to pour my own wine at times). Come here for the bbq duck. I would say this dinner with tip included was more worth about...