James on Hastings Chinese Restaurant(Best Price on Website!) — Restaurant in Vancouver

James Bond 001: the Golden Goose

The last time I been here was more than a decade ago and decided on this place over a few higher end places because i preferred to support the little neighborhood places more.

Anyways heard they were have a King Crab special just like many restaurants do during King Crab season (to be honest, Neptune Palace at Brentwood offers a better deal and higher end atmosphere too).

Anyways, here were the food I ordered;

(King crab set menu for 4-6ppl $338 +$40 extra cause said crab weighted 1pound more)

Drinks (can pops, lemon iced tea, etc.. or pitchers of beer). Charged $3.50 extra cause asked for a 3rd drink even tho there were just 2 of us. But technically we can have up to 4-6 drinks? Daily soup (apple with pork bone soup). Pretty close to tasting just like warm water with msg, one of the worser daily soup I had in a very long time. Failed! Steamed king crab legs and claws with minced garlics and green onions. Tasted okay and might be better if the ingredients were more eventually delivered and spread. Also seemed a bit rushed in prep and presentation. Deep friend king crab knuckles and body. Once again, very basic and simple, lightly seasoned and deep fried fast food style. Baked king crab with seafood curry fried rice. Besides the taste of the curry sauce, the rest of the tastes were lost somewhere just not on my taste buds. And the servers brought out 4-5 of them at the same time and seemingly just passing each table one who ordered king crab. Egg noodles mixed with king crab sauce. I only took a taster bite cause once again the servers brought out 4-5 of them at the same time and I went “hmmm…..” when I heard them saying ,”you give one to that table yet?” In Cantonese. I didn’t mind about the rice cause no customers touched the head but the leftover sauces from each tables?!? Hmmmm…. Stir fried pea tips with garlic. Pretty basic, but could’ve used some “wok hay” Half Hainanese chicken. Okay, let’s just say had better ones. Green bean dessert soup. Came nice and hot which was good. Some work and effort were put into this, I liked it!

This place is a very causal, family oriented neighbourhood restaurant (A renovation is definitely needed inside). There is a small parking lot out front and free parking on some side streets.

The servers were friendly and tried their best to attend to everyone. Plus the owner was very engaging with the customers and working hard in helping with the service needs.

As for the food, they came in generous portions but tasted pretty basic to me. Nevertheless I am actually a bit concerned with the egg noodle mixed with leftover crab sauce dish, did I got a random dish or was I just overthinking?!? Plus why did I have to pay $3.50 extra for a 3rd drink when the set was meant for 4-6ppl?!? And I had to pay extra $40 for the crab when two other tables with 6-7 ppl seated after me and ordered the same set and they didn’t have to pay any extras?!? (Hehehe I heard all the conversations in Chinese even thought I only spoke English during my visit).

Overall, the food was pretty basic and average at best, plus it turned out to be not so good of a deal. With all the added extras especially when there were only 2 of us. There’s a Chinese saying, “I just became someone’s “Golden Goose”.

P.S. rest assure it’s not the money but the principle...

I left this place feeling confused. While I was offended by their service, their food was good enough that it almost compensated their horrible service. Almost. So it wasn't enough. Therefore I wouldn't recommend this place or be coming back.

We made reservations a week ago for 8 people at a specific time with specific dishes. Due to their popularity, we felt like reserving a king crab and a Peking duck is necessary. And a phone call was placed a day before to confirm all the details. However, when we arrived just 3 min before reservation time, they told us no table but almost almost. We understand that for busy Asian restaurants, sometimes it's hard to provide a table right on time. We told the waitress that we'll wait outside instead of having 8 people crowding their front door. She agreed and said almost almost, and I'll come get you.

60mintues later, we're still in the cold waiting outside. I'm unsure how and why this happened, with advanced noticed and confirmation. Either way, we were cold and hungry. During that last 30min of waiting, we repeatedly head inside at 10min interval to remind the waitress that were still waiting outside, in the cold.

Eventually we were seated in a very crowded space. That means whenever one of us needed to stand up, we would have to ask the table behind us to provide some space. If you have clusterphobia, avoid this place. The waitress informed us that because we were kept waiting outside, the drinks are on them today. How nice, but a drink doesn't justify an hour of wait with reservation. Still, I appreciate the mild gesture. Then the owner came to show us, a group of 8, the king crab he saved for us, oh let me correct that, the sad king crab that is left. It was small, missing a leg, and not looking very fresh. Usually restaurants like these will let you choose another crab if you don't like it. But the owner said this is the last one.

What happened to reserving a good king crab? With a week advanced notice....? Didn't we call twice to confirm?

I am fairly upset by this point. You can only be so careless, especially in the service industry. The one thing that brought this restaurant to a 2 star is their food. Their sauce is not overpowering yet flavourful. This compliments the main ingredients nicely, whether it was beef or shrimp. Peking Duck was a bit dry, lack flavor. King crab was steamed with light seasoning. While it was hilariously tiny, the taste was good.

Conclusion: I couldn't recommend this place for their lack of care and sincerity but if you don't mind waiting 1 hour or more to have good food in a very cramped space, this might be the place for you. Come here for regular dishes, not king crab. For a $100 meal/per person, I suppose I...

Two visits, second one caused us to decide to take a bit of a break from James.

First visit our server was a bit rough on the edges. May just be a personality thing but every interaction felt extremely severe. We ordered several plates for two of us, with plans to take leftovers home. Money was not an issue. She very pointedly stated that a vegetable dish we ordered was such or such amount of dollars, with an awkward pause afterwards as to make sure we were aware. We were aware, please just write it down. We are not there to debate whether or not we want it or can afford it.

Second visit we had placed an order on their online zumi page, at 7:10pm, and was given a pick-ready up ETA of 7:24pm. We arrived just before 7:30. I gave the name, in English, but they pointed me towards a bag whose order was placed in the six-o’clock hour, which was not ours. They then checked their tablet and said it would take 25 more minutes (so basically 50 minutes to steam 8 dumplings?!). I asked if this meant that it was just being started now or if it has been ongoing and requires 25 more minutes. It was the latter. We were expecting a 7:25, pickup, arrived later than that, and needed to depart immediately so we could eat in the car on the way to be just on time for a show we were going to watch. I asked for a refund and I was told it wasn’t possible and we could come back later or another time for the food. This would not have been possible and the resolution at that moment should be to provide a refund. I asked if she could cancel it on the tablet and then she said she cancelled it. We did not receive an email notification and were not going to leave without a confirmation. She left to do something else (no idea what) without any verbal indication that she would be coming back to close the loop on the conversation. After 5-7 minutes go watch her refill tea pots and doing rounds around the dining area I got fed up and asked “sorry so what exactly is going on here?”. It’s like she just decided to leave it unresolved without finding a solution. I finally made it clear that either i needed clarity it was refunded digitally or i required a refund. She said that “oh actually the refund on the tablet didn’t work”. Meaning she knew this before going to do other things, knowing full well we have been standing around aimlessly for about 15 minutes without an answer and going to be late for our show. Finally the owner came out and offered a cash refund, less $0.75 what we paid. We took it and left. Really like the food on the first visit here and want to come back again but we just need to take a break. The food is otherwise great but the level of courtesy and comportment in the English -language...