Royal Palace Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in Vancouver

Newly opened - was formerly Van Dragon Seafood Restaurant but now under new ownership, redecorated and they have a new menu. We went for dim sum. They now have better lighting, a large led screen, and the place is packed with tables like most Chinese restaurants before COVID. Staff are still wearing masks and they have nice new uniforms.

FOOD: It's nicely presented but taste is average. Some dishes looked better than it tasted and some dishes needed more depth of flavour. Honestly preferred the dim sum chef before (when it was Van Dragon) but this new chef, the food is passable. They don't seem to skimp on ingredients but taste isn't quite there. The presentation and dishes are all beautiful, but I prefer taste to presentation. If you want food that looks good for social media posts, this place does a better job than your average dim sum place, but if you want delicious dim sum, I would rather go somewhere with more authentic HK-style/Cantonese dim sum. Vancouver has so many dim sum places that taste more authentic. Their Har Gow (Shrimp Dumplings) comes in 5's (per basket/order), rather than the traditional 4 per basket. The Har Gow wrapper was nice and thin but the taste of the Har (Shrimp) was a bit bland and lacked the Shrimp flavour/sweetness that is in good fresh seafood. The chicken feet was tasty, though I felt it was more Szechuan spiced than black beans (which is what the menu said). The Pea Tip Leaves with Goji Berry in broth was delicious - the broth was light but tasty. We ordered their steamed milk dessert but I think the chef forgot to add sugar to it. Seems like the kitchen isn't organized yet and so what you get isn't always consistent. The staff was nice and understanding when we point out the missing sugar in the dessert and quickly reimbursed us for it.

SERVICE: The staff was very friendly and helpful. They removed an item from our bill when we informed them that there dessert was bland - we think the chef forgot to add sugar! Service was prompt and staff was attentive. I would say that they have above average service for a Chinese Restaurant.

PRICE: The price for dim sum was quite reasonable. Being newly opened, they offered 10% off the bill and prices of dishes were quite competitive/comparable to other dim sum restaurants around Vancouver. They do charge $1.00 per person as tea charge (that's about standard, like a table/seat charge).

OVERALL: Good dim sum restaurant and despite my constructive criticism, I would likely go back. This place is worth trying but don't expect too much. I think they are still getting settled in. Don't expect the food to be authentic and the taste is nothing to rave about, but overall acceptable and pleasant experience. With new dishware, the food are all presented well and staff are friendly! Give it a try if you are...

Maybe the 5 stars is an over exaggeration but also maybe not - for the price, quality and quantity of food, this place is a winner for sure. Our group of 4 came here after seeing it was always busy and the parking lot was full even on weekdays. This place is a typical Chinese banquet hall that looks like they do dim sum on weekends and feels like it could even host a small wedding - and a smaller 6 table room in a different area of the restaurant. The menu was expansive, as expected, but the dinner combos really caught our eye. We ordered the lobster combo, which came with five other dishes for a price that honestly felt like a steal of a deal. The seafood vermicelli was the real crowd-pleaser. If I had to rate the dishes, it would be the following: 1. Seafood vermicelli (very flavourful and not dry) 2. Sweet and sour pork (crispy and meaty) 3. Ground pork and eggplant (saucy and big portions) 4. Beef and Gailan (a staple and really good - I've been to places where the gailan is bitter and chewy because they kept the ends on - this place cut it off at the right spots and the dish was good) 5. Lobster with sticky rice (This one is a personal preference but I like fluffy rice and more of a crab person) 6. Soy glazed chicken (This one is the bottom on my list but in no way a bad choice, I just liked the others above this) Service was smooth. One of our group spoke Cantonese, but the staff's English was spot-on, so no translation needed. They kept things moving and didn't miss a beat. The meal kicked off with a soup and wrapped up with a dessert--both not in the pictures but both very appreciated. With places like this - with such an expansive menu, I feel like its hard to go wrong, but there are some key winners that would change some people's opinions from a 3- or 4- star review to a 5, so definitely check out the ones I...

We came here as a big family party of 20+ people to celebrate grandma's birthday. It was insanely busy, as there were at least 2 other birthday gatherings happening. However, the service was spectacular! The staff were so patient, prompt, polite and professional while serving us, including explaining the process of each dish to us ABC first generation immigrant kids.

Every single dish brought out was delicious, hot, and beautifully presented, including cute little garnishes. The servers were so thoughtful, talking to us and even joking with us! The Server Angela (I think that was her name) was so awesome and we all loved her.

The King Crab was expensive, but the way they used every part was amazing, especially since I really dislike crab. They cooked the legs in garlic scallion butter, then took the leftover sauce to make noodles. They took the crab joints and deep fried it with garlic and hot peppers. Then they took the rest of the crab and made a soup and fried rice with it. I loved every single part of it.

There were other dishes such as peking duck, pea shoots, lettuce wraps, green onion ginger oil chicken, a beef rib roast dish, and delicious desserts.

Finally, they served the birthday cake (we brought it earlier) and the staff joined in singing "Happy Birthday".

As we were leaving, we were all even invited back to try their dim sum, as they mentioned we would probably really enjoy it too.

Overall, we would all come back and it was a wonderful experience for everyone, including the grandparents as it was the first time since Covid started that we all went out as a family to...