Updated: 17th Dec 2014; This restaurant has moved to River Rock.

It had been a long while since we had Dim Sum. Six months to be exact. Not sure why … I guess we are not much of a morning meal blogger ourselves.

Sea Harbour had been around for a very long time. Believe it or not, I still remember the last (and only one) time we were there … 9 years ago!

The facade of Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant had not changed all these years. They looked the same and if I may add, a less than impressive looking one from the outside. We do notice though that there are always a lot of cars parked in front of the restaurant during meal times.

The looks from the outside is misleading. Sea Harbour is one of the more upscale dim sum places in Richmond. The decor shouts opulence with chairs upholstered in gold fabric, newish looking carpets and tables with double table cloth.

Service is impeccable. They all looked well trained and well groomed with clean pressed uniform. Needless to say, the service were polite, quick and attentive. The wait staff actually always keep their heads up to look for eye contact in case you need them!

Since we don’t read Chinese, we asked for an English one. We were pleasantly surprised to see they have the version in English with pictures.

Looking around the neighboring tables, we see a number of tables of non-Asian customers. Mind you, Sea Harbour is as authentic a dim sum place as it gets but I think the reason that even non-Asians eat here is probably because of the user-friendly menu. All Asian restaurant should have these kind of menu.

However, the ordering sheet was only in Chinese. We had to cross check the numbers on the ordering sheet against the Chinese characters on the menu.

We try to not order the normal stuff. You know, like Siew Mai and such.

First one above is the Deep Fried Seafood Salad Roll. It is filled with mayonnaise and crusted with panko. It was rich as expected of anything with mayo. $5.

The Shrimp and Fish Maw Bean Curd Roll. We like the smoothness and lightness of the bean curd roll with freshness of the seafood. The bean curd roll is somewhat more “egg-y” than normal. They make good quality dim sums. This is a “large” dim sum item … $5.

The Steamed Assorted Mushroom Bean Curd Roll is considered a “medium” dim sum. Medium dim sums are $4.50 each. The difference in the bean curd here is that it is fried and then steamed.

The Steamed Pea and Meat Dumpling, we know, will not be touched by the boys because of the word pea in it. We wanted this because it looked so good in the picture menu with translucent dumpling skin and all.

The dumplings are larger than normal dumplings and unexpectedly a little spicy too. It is packed with lots of ingredients … mushrooms, dried prawns, preserved crunchy vegetables and green beans. This is a “medium” dim sum item ($4.50).

The Steamed Bean and Preserved Meat Cake (“large” – $5) sounded good. To my dismay it came with black eye pea on it. The boys don’t eat peas and I totally abhor black eye peas. So this ended up as Suanne’s exclusive dish as she likes it and does not mind the peas at all. It came served in a shallow dish which is kind of unusual.

The boys chose the Dried Fish and Diced Chicken on Rice. They ordered this simply because this is the closest to salted fish and chicken fried rice (sigh …).

This is considered a “special” dim sum and costs $6.50. They actually tastes very good but I think putting in brocolli kind of make it not so authentic Chinese.

The Special Durian Pastry is something you will likely not find in any other Chinese Dim Sum places. It is actually very good, if you like durian.. Covered with a very flaky pastry, it emits a very distinctive durian aroma to the entire table. Nanzaro refuses to try this at all … he does not know what he is missing!

This one is a “medium” dim sum ($4.50).

Not many dim sum places will give you a warm moist towel at the end of the meal. This one does.

Here is one thing I can never be completely sure of. Do you use this to only wipe your hands or do you even use this for the face? I see people wiping their face with it but am not sure of the proper etiquette with this.

The bill came up to just over $40 before tips. Sea Harbour is the kind of place you want to bring visitors and friends. This is exactly the kind of place that non-Asians will not balk at coming too. We like Sea Harbour … just hoping that the next visit is not 9 years later.