Chinatown BBQ — Restaurant in Vancouver

My coworkers and I came here to have lunch on a Friday afternoon. It was extremely difficult to find a parking spot on the streets. We drove around and around and finally we gave up looking for street parking. We parked at a pay parking lot on Keefer Street and walked to the restaurant.

The restaurant was full of people and some customers were waiting at the entrance. We were lucky to have a table right away.

We ordered food right away because we spent time to look for parking already. We had to go back to work within an hour. We ordered a dish of gai lan with soy sauce and garlic, curry beef brisket with rice, bbq duck and bbq pork with rice and roasted pork and soy sauce chicken with rice. We all shared these dishes, so we could try different types of food together. Usually people ordered their own dishes.

The gai lan with garlic and soy sauce tasted great! The veggies were fresh. The chef cooked the veggies with oil, garlic and soy sauce. The dish of curry beef brisket with rice was extraordinary. The curry sauce was a little bit spicy to add extra flavour to the dish. It definitely went well with the rice. The other two dishes were also rice but we could try all four types of meat: BBQ duck, BBQ pork, roasted pork and soy sauce chicken. All of them tasted great especially the skin of the roasted pork was very crispy!!

Due to the crowd at the restaurant, the customer service was just average. The servers were so busy that we wanted to get extra spoons and chopsticks. We just stood up and grabbed these cutlery by ourselves. We understood that the servers tried their best to serve all customers.

If you are craving for Chinese food in Chinatown, I would recommend you to try...

This place is a joke - terrible service, mediocre food, filthy bathrooms, and just terrible service! DO NOT RECOMMEND!!!

Our group of 3 got there at around 4pm for early dinner and the restaurant looked only 70% full and yet there was a group of 4 in front of us waiting outside the restaurant. They were told that they need to wait for tables to be set but when we got there, there were 2 tables for 4 near the entrance already setup. I went in to check and the guy shoved a menu on me and kicked me out saying the same thing that they needed to set the tables and we needed to wait outside. When we were finally being let in, the same guy decided to reshuffle the tables, added a third chair and chopsticks setting to the 2-person booth, and made us cramp in there while there were at least 2 other empty 4-person tables. No idea why he needed to re-setup while we were standing there when the whole spiel to make us stand outside was so that they can do the setup - wasting customers’ time to create a false image that they are popular and busy..

The guy came back to take orders so quick that made you wonder why they couldn’t seat you with the same efficiency. When we weren’t ready, his attitude was just rude.

Food wasn’t even good - char siu was dry, rice was soggy, curry fish balls were just way too spicy, curry beef briskets not tender, only bbq duck was ok.

Both unisex bathrooms had big puddles of liquid on the floor in front of the toilet bowl and the floor was sticky...

I visited Chinatown BBQ in Vancouver for a late lunch around 3:00 PM on Friday April 25, . The restaurant wasn’t busy at that time, and I was greeted promptly by a male server who seated me right away and even wiped down the damp seat for me. A few minutes later, another server took my order. I chose the BBQ Duck and Roasted Pork on white rice. The food arrived within five minutes, which was impressive, but the portion size was quite small—just five pieces each of duck and pork.

The rice was warm but not hot, which made it feel like it had been sitting for a bit. The BBQ duck was dry, tough, and lacked flavor, which was disappointing. The roasted pork was a mix of dark and white meat. The dark meat was chewy, and although the white meat was more tender, it was still bland. The pork skin, which should be crispy, was soft—as if it had been exposed to moisture for too long. I also had to ask for chili oil since it wasn’t already available at the table.

On the positive side, the service was fantastic, and the atmosphere had an authentic, relaxed feel, especially in the quiet afternoon. However, the quality of the food didn’t meet expectations. Based on this visit, I’d rate the service 8.5 out of 10, the ambiance 7.5 out of 10, and the food only 4 out of 10, giving it an overall score of 6 out of 10. While the staff were friendly and the setting was pleasant, the food itself was below average and not something I would return for unless there are...