Cindys Palace — Restaurant in Vancouver

It's been a number of years since we last visited Cindy's Palace. They've pivoted to have their tables socially distanced (with a large covered outdoor patio as well).

Most of the items we tried were great, including the glistening beef with onions and flat rice noodles (chow fun), the meaty bean curd wrappers with pork filling, and the warm and saucy bbq pork filling inside Cindy's special baked bbq pork buns.

The beef beef rice rolls had a flavorful filling with parsley and water chestnuts but the rice wrapper was a bit thick for my liking. The baked tapioca pudding with red bean was good too but I wish the topping was a bit more cookie-like.

Update July 2024: They still have social distancing barriers inside to separate the tables. Ordered the following: crispy wontons ($12.98) - large wontons packed with shrimp filling and served with a sweet and sour dipping sauce, beef and parsley and water chestnut rice roll ($9.58) - not bad but couldn't taste the water chestnuts, bean curd rolls ($8.98) - pork, carrot, celery, bamboo shoots, and fungus in the filling and served in a very savory sauce, fried taro dumplings ($8.98) - with a filling of Portuguese sauce, chicken, and mushroom, Cindy's special bbq pork bun ($9.50), and siu mai ($8.98) - big and meaty pork and shrimp filling. We also got 10% off (probably early bird special).

UPDATE - APR 2025: Pretty much the same since our last visit. Fairly good pricing. Fried Taro dumplings in Portuguese sauce with chicken and mushroom ($8.98) creamy inside. Spring rolls ($6.75) crispy and hot filling. Crispy chicken chow mein with bean sprouts ($24.98). Beef tripe with ginger and green onion ($9.50) Chiu chow dumplings ($8.98) wrapper is too thick and not enough filling inside. Bean curd rolls ($8.98) good sauce and flavour. 10% off during our visit.

UPDATE - May 2025: Came back for a dinner visit because we saw some specials they had displayed on their TV screens. Buddha Feast ($26.98) actually has lots of vermicelli underneath but not as much variety of veggies. The Taro Duck ($39.98) was pretty good. Nice crispy extortion with soft taro inside and meaty duck. It does fall apart a bit because the taro is so soft. The Mui Choy Kau Yuk ($29.98) is a thicker cut version but it's tender and...

Came here previously and had a great experience; great quality and variety of authentic chinese food in a neighborhood feel, but that was on a weekday night and there weren't many tables full at the time. This time we came with the family at 630pm on a Saturday night and the place was bustling! all the inside tables were full and some of the outside patio tables as well. The servers would have been overwhelmed easily as there were only the 2 of them, but the reality is that with all the doordash/ubereats/foodora orders, pickup orders and the seated tables, the kitchen was not producing any food at any velocity. We waited for 30minutes to get our first dish, another 20 for the second, another 20 for the 3rd, and by that time, we still had not had our tea refreshed (had gone cold), no cold water, little service of any kind. we actually had it easier than some, as we were seated inside, but the outside tables on the patio didn't see any food for over an hour. Most tables outside left out of frustration. We picked up and left after the 3rd dish as there was none forthcoming, and the restaurant insisted on continually seating more and more tables in the meantime. The finishing touches were that the owner/manager was berating us for leaving as the food "was already cooked and ready to go"; a phrase that we had been hearing for the past 45 minutes. No discount from the resto, we still paid a tip, but overall a terrible experience. The restaurant was obviously overwhelmed with food orders from within and without, and they had no sense to stop taking orders until the kitchen could catch up; then, to blame the patrons and offer no apology is just bad customer service. Despite this however, we'd be willing to try again on a weekday very early in the dinner service or perhaps for lunch or dimsum. It is apparent that they are not organized enough to handle a high volume encountered...

4 stars absolute minimum, but I would give 3.5 stars. We dine here occasionally as a family gathering of 10 to 12 people on Saturday evenings. We made reservations but sometimes still have to wait for our table to be ready. There was tea, cutlery and napkins, but some of the cutlery had a bit of food stain on it. After ordering, the food came out in a timely manner, one after the other. We would get soup first before anything else. We usually get the fried rice, kai lan with mushroom, sweet and sour pork chop, among other dishes. The food quality and quantity in general was decent. The servers occasionally come to check on us for anything like switching to clean plates and refilling hot water and tea. However, there was one moment a server was taking our order and walked away to answer the phone by the front counter. Sometimes one of our group members would signal attention for a server but the server either didn't realize or ignored us. The general cleanliness is decent but on the third day we were dining in, there were small flies flying around. We had to wave the flies away many times, so I could imagine the chiefs doing the same. The bathrooms itself feels dingy and dull. There is this one older male employee who has anger issues and bicker with staff, even in front of customers. We were seated by the entrance one day and can't help but observe the uncomfortable confrontation. The employee is probably a delivery driver, and can be seen hanging out near the reception desk. Weddings were hosted here, but the loud ambiance from the wedding ceremony disrupted our enjoyment. There is a small parking lot owned by the restaurant at the back but most park on the street. The alley road and parking lot has loose rocks and potholes and is right by the dumper bins. If you are a local and looking to enjoy decent, casual Chinese cuisine as a group occasionally, I...