Empire Seafood Restaurant

I used to come here a lot living in Richmond but honestly it's gone downhill since covid. There dim sum is not bad but I don't recommend coming for dinner. As there are so many options in Richmond, the quality and service is not nearly what it once was.

Booking in advance is always wise and there's free parking below in the plaza. The place is decently sized and has separate rooms just like most chinese restaurants so if you want to host a birthday or celebration, it can accommodate.

Now with inflation and so much competition, they need to change their quality to match their pricing if they want to compete with the rest. If you've never been, try them out but I think you'll find plenty others better.

It's not the same as far as service, class and food quality. The place is still very popular with full house. Coming here without a reservation is very unwise. The pork doesn't taste fresh and the deep fried items are not golden brown.
Last but not least, the service quality is not comparable to the surrounding dim sum restaurants. Too bad...

Service was very bad.

Food is okay for the most part but some of the meat was just cooked enough or too salty. The service was going steady for the first few courses but then slowed down and food stopped coming out for 30 mins then again for another 20 mins! We ended up being at the restaurant for a little over 2.5 hours for our meal. Granted it was a busy night but it makes us weary to return

Came here to satisfy a craving for crab but instead ordered a set menu for two. Food was very good and we were full by the third dish. We had to pack the rest home. It's a set menu featuring 5 dishes - Bird's Neat Soup, Braised Abalone, Steamed Lobster with tons of Garlic, Truffle Free Range Chicken and Seafood Fried Rice.

Service is good too. Our dishes were changed several times and waiter came to check on us.

This is one of the top restaurants in Richmond. Place looks clean and bright, a good banquet location for big occasions like weddings and birthdays.

A truly 5 star experience! We dined for mid morning dim sum and had about a 15 minute-ish wait to be seated on a Tuesday. Agree with all the reviews that recommend a reservation. Almost every one else that came in had reservations. Lovely waiting area. The dining room is beautiful-a big banquet sized room-no clutter, just white cloth tables and very nice chairs-and a beautiful view of the Richmond skyline. Very fast and prompt service. Our dim sum dishes came out at a good pace. Two of us shared 3 dishes. All delicious! Loved their XLB. Would definitely recommend visitng Richmond and dining here if you visit or live in the Vancouver area.

This place is good and really popular! They are open earlier at 9 AM than other places so we took the SkyTrain to the end of the line and walked a few blocks. Got there at 9:20 AM and it was already full! They said 45 minute wait but was only about 20 minutes. This place is definitely nice, with some exotic items. We settled for some har gau, siu mai with truffle, chicken feet, char siu bao, eggplant with shrimp, and more. The food came out fast and the stand out was the har gau. They had a great flavor and texture. Definitely some of the best. By the time we left, more people were waiting.

Really nice place and very impressive! We came here two days in a row for dim sum, be sure to get a reservation before you head over there! All the dim sum were really delicious, my favorite was the preserved egg and salty pork congee! If you're there before 11 am, there's a discount for this congee! The service is excellent and the food came really fast! You order your food on a paper menu that they give you and you just mark off what you want! Mr. Lawrence was really helpful and very pleasant! I definitely would go back again if I had more time!

Empire Seafood Restaurant is known as one of Richmond's best places for dim sum. They are also one of the rare dim sum places that allow you to reserve a table online. They are located in the London Plaza, they have 2 hours of free parking in the London Plaza parking garage. You'll have to register your car at the lobby of the restaurant upon arrive. Do note that they have separate entrances and exits for the garage, so make sure to not accidentally enter through an exit and vice versa. Also, the parking stalls and space driving up the garage can be tight. So, drive slow and carefully. Another thing to note is, if you download the Indigo App, you can apparently reserve parking spots in advance. When my friends and I went, we notice so many reserved Indigo spots available. So know before you go. To save time and stress of driving around looking for a parking spot, you can reserve a stall if you've downloaded the app and requested a stall ahead of time.

Entering the restaurant, I met up with my friends who were already seated. It was a busy Saturday at about noon so there were lots of employees moving around constantly. Those who are used to restaurant employees moving away for patrons to pass won't always get that there. I am one to not mind at times, especially knowing the culture. They work in a fast paced, hustle and bustle environment. To keep the flow of service moving smoothly, they can't always stop to let you go first. If you want the dim sum style of ordering from rolling carts, you won't get that here. Their method is by having patrons mark the items on a order sheet and they will bring out your order once it's available. Another thing to know is that the employees wear their masks, so that's great to see and appreciate them for.

In terms of ambiance and appearance, they do have two rooms for private dining experience if you are in need of that. Out in the main dining area, the tables and chairs were in great condition and cleaned and cleared quickly after each diners. They gave beautiful hanging chandeliers and large windows with a view of the Canada Line Skytrain. Kind of nice get a glimpse of Richmond since my party and I are visitors of the area. What I enjoy about this restaurant and that I don't see done anywhere else, is the fact that they have two chopsticks for each diner. One chopstick is your personal use chopsticks and the other is supposed to be used as your communal one to grab food. They are different colors, so you shouldn't be mixing them up. I also like the fact that they provide you two tea pots: one filled with tea leaves and another filled with just hot water. You use the hot water to refill your teapot or if you like just plain hot water, you got it!

Now on to the food. We ordered pretty much the commonly ordered dishes such as: siu mai, hao gao, bean curd rolls, chicken feet, shrimp rice rolls, taro balls, tofu stuffed eggplants, steamed spare ribs with black bean sauce, stir fried rice rolls, vegetarian rice rolls, and durian puffs. In my opinion, I could've done without the spare ribs and vegetarian rice rolls. I usually like the spare ribs, but this one seemed to be a bit bland for me and the vegetarian rice roll is served cold. Other than that, everything was rather tasty.

Overall, my experience was great! The restaurant was clean not just in the main dining area, but also in the restrooms/washrooms. They had hands free faucets, soap dispenser, and paper towel dispensers. I appreciated the fact that they had trash bins near each door from the restroom to the second door separating the restaurant from the restrooms. They are very mindful of cleanliness. Food was delicious and service was good as well. I would definitely go back again and also recommend others to go.

Seriously, make reservations at least 1 day before. They fill up quickly.

Food: 4
-- Marinated Chicken with Black Truffle: 5, served cold with black truffle paste, shredded carrots, crispy onions, and cilantro
-- Stir-fried String Bean, Pumpkin, & Eggplant: 5, delicious, al-dente vegetables with that ethereal garlic "wok-hei" flavor
-- Xiao Long Bao: 4, tasty but a little too salty for me
-- Steamed Wild Mushroom Dumplings with Black Truffle: 3, chock full of minced mushrooms, but flavorless
-- Pan-seared Eggplant & Shrimp Paste: 4, large and lots of shrimp filling, but a bit heavy and oily

Ambiance: 3.5
This restaurant is your typical average large noisy banquet room with tables no smaller than 4-tops that I could see and placed close together. However, I think they have a few smaller private party rooms.

Service: 3
The first time we showed up on Labor Day Monday at 1:30 PM without a reservation. There was a 20-minute wait, and last orders would be taken at 2:45, so we left. We made a reservation for the next day 11:00 AM, and they were pretty packed. We were seated without menus, which took at least 15 min for anyone to notice. After we checked off our selections, took maybe another 10 minutes to get our order picked up. Very happy with the food, but don't be in a hurry.

Came here for a baby banquet. The restaurant is pretty nice but the food is really quite average. It wasn't very good for the price. The staff are friendly and the service is good though. Prices are not that cheap for the quality of food thayou get.