Lin Chinese Cuisine and Tea House — Restaurant in Vancouver

I can make Chinese food quite well. But it's a lot of work for one person. I live in Yale town and have not found the restaurants here with Asian Cuisine to be all that. Usually expensive, poorly prepared and often cold. Today I found myself in front of this restaurant at lunch time and everything on the menu board looked great. And at $12.99 including soup and rice I thought I couldn't get any better. Even if it was poor quality. I ordered the Kung Pao chicken and it came with hot and sour soup and rice. Totally awesome. I need I wanted to order more food so I could take some home so I ordered the pork chow mein. I never seen anything like it. The Chow Mein noodles had been fried hard. The vegetables were long and lean in cut. And the pork was long tender strings amongst the vegetables. I did take two soups but only one rice. And these two entrees and the bill was $30! I was in heaven with the door closed. I grew up around Vancouver and I've been eating Asian food since I was 10. I can cook many kinds of Chinese food and Thai and Japanese food. So I know from good. And this was all good food. I haven't been very hungry for the last 3 or 4 months and have lost weight. But I had a limited amount of kung pao chicken at the restaurant and took the rest home and I finished the rest of it for dinner. And now I have a little bit of the pork chow mein as well. I think that says a lot when you're not normally thinking that you're hungry and yet you keep returning to the pot. I quite frankly thought the food was wonderful. I told many people about it and I will definitely be ordering it for delivery. It's always great to find a Super Chinese restaurant close to your neighborhood. The menu is extensive which is strange because usually when menus are extensive none of the food is good. They've won many many awards and I so look forward to discovering how they cook so many of my favorites and finding many new ones. Ones that I've never heard of before. Thank you so much Lin Chinese cuisine. I should mention I also had a tooth pulled today and I should probably not have eaten this kind of food. But I couldn't help myself and I have no regrets. And none of it hurt my mouth either . I'm looking forward to some of the foods that they've been given awards for. You know the ones I've never had before? Like Shanghai style juice dumplings. I know how to make Northern Chinese dumplings. I learned from one of my students Gao Yung Bin 35 yrs ago. Can't imagine what Chinese Fengpi Salad is. I mean when one thinks of salad doesn't immediately think of Chinese food. But I'm really looking forward to trying eight treasure sweet rice. Check it out :www.linchinese.ca And let me point out that although what I had and saw other Asian diners eating is authentic chinese, newbies to the cuisine should not be afraid. There's something there for everyone. And as a friend's grandchildren would say it's all major yummo. I should also point out that the lunch portion of both orders was easily enough for two people. And the waiter confirmed that that was lunch portion sized. So it's not one of those restaurants that charges a discount at lunch and give you the same amount for double the dollars at dinner. They gave you even more at dinner. So choose accordingly no matter what the size of your party is. And as the Italian trained chef in me would say,...

Save your money and go somewhere else!

I use to like this place for their xiao long dumplings and appetizer dishes a lot instead of venturing to Richmond for Chinese food. I have to say, however, their food and service quality has declined greatly in the past year.

For starters, their food quality has declined. They seem to use MSG like no tomorrow. I've always expected MSG to some degree in Chinese food, but lately you can taste MSG and nothing else.

The main decline would be their service. Their take out service is horrible. I once waited 2.5 hours for them to deliver an order, and I only live 8min drive away. Their delivery drivers are always rude. As for restaurant service, it really turned me away. I once ordered a Szechuan chicken with spicy chili sauce, the cold appetizer. I walked in around 2:40pm and wanted to get it for dinner. As soon as I got in, the waitress had a sour face and said something in Chinese to me, which I don't understand. I quickly learned it was almost their lunch break. I thought I would order a cold dish, so they can just pack it from the fridge. I told the cashier I wanted the COLD Szechuan chicken with spicy chili sauce. She quickly typed it into the register and didn't bother saying a word to me.

I then waited and waited for 10 mins for my take out order, and to my surprise they gave me the stir fry Szechuan chicken lunch special! I told her that was not what I wanted, and she snatched the take out order from my hand and then proceeded to SCOLD at me in CHINESE! I don't speak Chinese! I'm Asian, but I'm not of Chinese ethnicity. Then she muttered under her breath in English saying I said szechuan chicken special. I was really angry at this point and told her I said i wanted the COLD Szechuan chicken, and never said anything about Lunch Specials.

She then kept talking to me in Chinese, even though I told her I don't speak Chinese already, saying I need to make up the difference. I've just about had it with them. They not only mixed up my order, but also don't respect their customers. Just because I'm Asian doesn't mean I'm Chinese. She didn't even apologize for her mistake.

I will definitely never go back to this place again. I ended up throwing out the Cold szechuan chicken because all I can taste was the MSG and no chicken flavour. If they keep this up, they won't last for long. There are other better Chinese restaurants out there. Next time I will go to Richmond and not waste my money at this racist place. This place is...

Absolutely love this place, it's one of my go-to's for soup dumplings. At times I feel like it's better than Dynasty. But this again is my own personal preference. Price has gone up a slight, but still worth it and still affordable even in this economy. One of my favorite things to have their aside from soup dumplings, Beijing style pork pastry. Absolutely amazing, but just like the soup dumpling you got to bite a little hole into the top first, then either drink the soup from the pastry or dump it into a bowl. then let it cool down before you bite into it, since it can be scalding hot. Because it is very juicy as well as very tasty. There's also the option of adding soy sauce or black vinegar into the pocket should you choose to, which I generally do personally. But even on its own, is absolutely amazing.

It's a fairly well located area, being right across the street from Chapters on Grandville Street and Broadway. Parking consists of paid street parking a few steps away from the restaurant. Right in front is a bus stop.

This place doesn't look like much from the outside, but when you bite down into the food they serve you, you'll be glad you sat down to enjoy a bite. Since it's been under new ownership, I feel like the food is not salty as I'd like unlike before. The previous owner still makes the amazing soup dumplings there from time to time, so if you catch one of hers then you'll be super happy. But even without her there making the soup dumplings, it's still fairly good. I just find that I might need to add a little bit of soy sauce to my black vinegar when I dip my soup dumplings in. But then again that's my personal preference and my personal taste. Don't let that hinder what you think or what you should do when you go there to enjoy the food.

Just go try it, and ask for soy sauce if u feel like it's...