Neptune Palace Seafood Restaurant (Vancouver) — Restaurant in Vancouver

We only recently noticed that the extravagantly large restaurant located on the 2nd floor of the Marine Gateway complex had changed from Ban Dao Peal to Neptune Palace Seafood Restaurant so we decided to pop in for a visit. The interior is expansive and impressive, right down to the blingy columns and the plush carpeting. The nice thing is that you don’t feel squished in like some smaller restaurants.

Our first dim sum dish to arrive was the Deep Fried Mashed Taro Pastry with BBQ Duck ($6.98) and I’ve got to give them extra points for presentation of this dish. While these dumplings looked more like swans than ducks, it was still fun to bite through the fluffy exterior nonetheless. As expected, the mashed taro makes this a filling item.

The Beef Tripe and Tendon in Zhu Hou Sauce ($6.98) was quite tender and had plenty of tendon and honeycomb tripe but I felt that they needed to cut the pieces a bit smaller to make them easier to eat.

One of the items that I thought they could have been better was the Chinese Donut Rice Roll ($7.98). The Chinese donut that was encased in the velvety rice roll had an inconsistent texture and seemed like it might have been sitting too long.

Thankfully, the diminutive but tasty Beef Balls with Tangerine Peel ($6.50) dish was much better. These plump little darlings were tender and bouncy to the bite.

Our penultimate dish was the Truffle Siu Mai ($6.98). While not on par with those found at Chef Tony in terms of truffle essence, there was a slight hint of woody aroma that wafts up before biting into the pleasantly springy pork and shrimp filling.

While our first dim sum dish was visually attractive, I feel like they need to work a bit on their dessert items. The Osmanthus with Lychee Gelatine ($4.98) was a fairly basic upside down circular mold that felt more utilitarian than anything else. Fortunately, they were still pretty tasty.

The prices here are a bit on the expensive side, which is to be expected given the pleasant interior. That being said, most of the dishes here were quite good. They do have free underground parking but you have to head on down to P2 to find the right spots. The elevators are also a bit confusing because the ground level is considered “2” so you have to pick “3” to get to the restaurant that’s located on the 2nd floor.

On a subsequent revisit, we tried their Stuffed Eggplant ($7.50).

The Chicken Feet in Special Sauce ($6.98) were surprisingly huge. I almost thought they could have been turkey feet.

We saw a bunch of other tables order the Pan Fried Pork Bun in Casserole ($6.98) but I’ve got to say that I wasn’t overwhelmingly impressed by them. The buns were adequately fluffy but I found the filling to be too dry for my preferences.

Their eponymously named Neptune Shrimp Dumplings ($7.50) had a definitely plump filling. Side note that the decorative centrepiece in the dish, while technically edible, isn’t very tasty.

Our last dish on this visit was the simply stated Beef Rice Rolls ($7.50) flanked by some veggies.

On our third visit here, we retried the Chicken Feet ($6.98) and I found that my first piece wasn’t quite as tender as on our initial visit. However, the other pieces in the dish were better.

This time, we tried their Rice Roll with Crispy Bean Curd and Fish Paste ($7.98). Visually, it’s very similar to the Chinese donut rice roll and I found that I really enjoyed the fish paste filling on the inside.

Normally, we don’t order Chiu Chow Dumplings ($6.98) because we’re not a big fan of peanuts added to dumpling filling but I’ve got to say that these dumplings turned out pretty good.

The Two Kinds of Sticky Rice Wrapped with Minced Pork ($7.50) is always a crowd pleaser.

Last up is a dish that I don’t usually associate with dim sum… Pan-Fried Beef Short Ribs in Black Bean Sauce ($9.98). While the meat was a bit chewy, I did really like the black bean sauce that it was served with.

So, if you’re looking for a dim sum place in South Vancouver and don’t mind paying a bit extra, Neptune Palace has some good...

The food was delicious and price was fair. HOWEVER, the service was HORRENDOUS. If you want the full story, keep reading. STUCK waiting to be seated (when there's already one of us there at a table for 20 minutes): At 11am the line up was out the door not because it was busy, but because of mismanagement of the crowds. In the line up was a mix of people who have reservations but no tables, people who already have a table (because part of the party was already there), and people who are waiting to sign up for a table. People who had a reservation was getting frustrated and aggressive to people who just want to check in with the reception. It was absolute chaos! None of the staff even attempted to put any sort of order. Finally, I got frustrated at the chaos and asked if I could help them organize the crowd. So, I ended up HELPING them organize the crowd (someone even said, "I wouldn't want your job!" to which I replied, "I don't work here, I just couldn't stand the chaos."). So, after 20 minutes and because of my intervention, they FINALLY got the line moving (by letting people who already have a table in first). HARRASSED by the waiter: When we finally got seated, my friend, who is a senior, told us that the waiter was harassing her about being the only one who's at the table and that she should order first because she (we) only have 1.5 hours. He threatened her and gave her 15 minutes for the rest of us to show up, otherwise, he would kick her out. Now, if you read the above, you'll noticed that WE were on time but we were STUCK outside because of their incompetence in moving the crowd. "Dissuading" our dessert order: Aside from the above, we did enjoy our get-together and the food. However, after we've enjoyed the dim sum, we wanted to add some dessert items, the waitress basically said that if we order egg tarts now, it's going to take 45 minutes at the least. We questioned why dessert would take that long and she said "we make them as you order". I doubt it but ok, maybe they have unbaked egg tarts that needs 30 minutes in the oven. My friend asked if there's any dessert that won't take that long because we would like to end our meal on a sweet note. Waitress just said, "no, they will ALL take that long". When we insisted, she finally relented and said, "mango pudding". NEVER have I EVER seen waiting staff try to dissuade people from ordering more food. Conclusion (TLDR): If you don't care for good, efficient, and quality service but you care about having good dim sum, this is the place. Just remember that if you want dessert, you should order at the beginning. However, if service matters to you, you might want...

Large dining area with comfortable table arrangement and chairs with wide enough walkways. Conveniently located with enough parking options either in the parkade or outside along Marine Drive.

A good selection of dim sum items, however, the quality and flavours range from average to poor while the prices aren’t cheap even with the 15% discount for dim sum items Mon-Fri before 11:30 am. Visited for one dinner, one busy Sunday brunch, and one half empty Monday morning discounted brunch.

The “VIP Card” sold at $500 cash/debit, no credit, offers a $550 value so it’s almost like a 10% discount. Couldn’t buy at a lower denomination as that’s the initial purchase base amount required. It’s essentially a typical gift card w/ no privileges. They do allow you to charge the tip onto your VIP card balance. Each reload is a minimum of $200 increments. They have a “spend $100 in cash get $10 credit/discount thing or something along those lines. I got it to pay for the first dinner and figured I’d be trying their dim sum offerings anyway so it’s a savings just didn’t expect that I wouldn’t care to return for the “ok-to-poor” food but now I must return to use up the $550 card after 3 visits, still have $20 left... for a takeout item pre-movie perhaps.

Dumpling wrappings are quite thick and some fairly dough-y, reminiscent of old Chinatown style. The truffle shaomai/shumai is such a big ball of pork though it has mushroom flavour within but it’s just too old school porky, hence, unappetizing. The crispy vermicelli beef with bitter melon has very little vermicelli inside while the beef and melon portions are good. Prices somehow seem to come out on the higher end while the food tastes mostly on the lower. The lobster seems more upcharged than typical as we all know you’re getting less than the weight they claim for live seafood.

I agree w/ the reviewer who mentioned the uselessness of their dinner menu only viewable via their tablet... other than saving them printing & binding expense every time they change menu offerings & prices & to provide pictures for everything, it’s quite annoying to navigate through making the entire order process long & impractical especially when you want input from other guests on...