Updated: 12th June 2011; This restaurant had closed according to Urbanspoon.com
Suanne and I had to run out for an errand that Saturday weekend. So we plan to go for a slow and leisurely dim sum since we had time to kill. We know exactly the place to go to. I had been there for lunch alone before and I was quite impressed with the variety of dim sum they had on the menu.
Some of you know me already, about how I look forward to non-traditional dim sum items. Siu mai, har gow, rice rolls and stuff like that bores me. But this restaurant has more than that. Their dim sum slash lunch menu has over 100 items. And what more, 40% of them are just $2.75.
The restaurant name is Delicious Chinese Cuisine, not to be confused with the Taiwanese restaurant called Delicious Cuisine in Richmond which won 2 CRA awards in 2010.
Delicious Chinese Cuisine is located along Kingsway somewhere almost in the middle between Victoria and Knight. When I first came across this restaurant, I thought that this is a Mainland Chinese restaurant because of the bright yellow and red sign. Instead it is not “jiang gouyu” (Mandarin speaking) but it is very very Cantonese.
We associate yellow and red signs with Mainland China restaurant. Do you have the same way of thinking too?
We got there early. Traffic was light. It was just slightly before 9AM but they were already opened. Already there was a big table of seniors enjoying their “yum cha” (translated as drinking tea). Dim sum is the most common name for dim sum but the term yum cha is equally as commonly used in Hong Kong. So next time you want to impress your Cantonese speaking friends, use the word “yum cha” instead of dim sum and you will probably see them raise their eyebrows in delight.
The interior is not like what it looked like outside. It is a pleasant and bright restaurant with a large “L” shape dining hall. I think it seats easily 120 to 150 people. The decor is above average from the usual dim sum restaurant. It even has 50″ flat screen TVs and chandeliers. I just like chandeliers in restaurants. 🙂
At 9AM, they had just turned on the heater. So it was freezing cold, for the part of the meal that we had to keep our jackets on.
With so many choices and there are only two of us, we decided we just tick all of the items on the Chef’s Specialty section. You may click on the image above to show it larger, BTW.
We also added a couple of more interesting sounding items.
Service was slow, that I should mention. Unlike other dim sum places, speed is important. Here, the dishes came out one at a time. Which is fine by us. We have time to kill and we like to properly and slowly savor every dish. “Yum Cha” cannot be rushed … dim sum can be rushed, if you know what I mean.
The BBQ Duck with Rice Spaghetti in Soup was one of the items under the Chef’s Specialty. It is unbelievably cheap for a full noodle dish at just $3.
And the bowl is not small at all. It is big and this one bowl is definitely filing for breakfast for one.
The noodle is … tasty by itself while the broth is light tasting. There are four pieces of duck which was quite bony. Yeah, I could eat this for breakfast in the morning and consider this a heavy breakfast.
The Sweet Yam Flour Balls was from the regular dim sum section where everything is $2.75.
There are four flour balls coated with shredded coconut.
The Sweet Yam Flour Ball is filled with red bean paste and wrap with soft orangey yam. The natural sweetness of the yam balanced itself well with the red bean paste while the shredded coconut gives this a texture in contrast with the soft yam. This is really nice. If you had never tried this before, it is worth ordering.
The above is also a Chef’s Specialty. The name is fancy and called Lotus Root in Abalone Sauce ($4).
We did not quite like this. The lotus root is not crunchy but has a powdery texture. The thing we noticed is that holes in the roots is filled with green beans. It sure looked unique but the lotus roots is old.
Suanne told me that the lotus root reminds her of an ancient Chinese proverb which says that the lotus root is associated with marriage. Even if it’s broken in two, it is still link by the stringy stuff in the lotus root hence the poetic Cantonese saying, “Ngau Tuen Si Lin”.
The third Chef’s Specialty is the Ox Tongue with Black Pepper ($4.75). The ox tongue is stir fried with ginger, onions, green onions, bell peppers and celery.
Frankly, the ginger and the celery is the unsung heroes in this dish, not the ox tongue which is just so-so. We totally enjoy the flavourful, crunchy and peppery vegetables, particularly the ginger slices.
Here is another $2.75 regular dim sum item. This is called Two Kinds of Green Tea Gelatin.
It is well made. It is served cold, slippery and is quite firm. The white portion is coconut flavour while the top is just mildly green tea flavour.
After having five dishes, we were quite full already. However, while eating we see a lot of people ordering the dish above. We can’t help but notice it because it smell so good each time they bring this past our table. So we ordered this, even though we were stuffed already.
The Pan Fried Eggplant Stuffed with Fish Paste is $3.50. We can “see” the crispiness in the fish paste even before biting into it.
Yeah, we find this is executed perfectly. The outside is crispy, the purpleness of the skin retains its color and yet the inside … oh, the inside … it was super tender and silky smooth. Only a true sifu (definition here) can make it this way.
And just look at the size of the eggplant. We were glad we ordered this even though we were full and that this is not a small serving.
There are other dishes that are interesting that we saw neighbouring tables had. We really wished we could order more but we simply can’t eat anymore. That is already six dishes between the two of us.
The prices are really cheap too, don’t you think?
Other than the slow service, we have no problems with them. As a matter of fact we like how they are very traditional and polite to us.
Even when we asked for the bill the waitress asked us “sek bao lah?”. It is translated as “have you eaten full yet?” but not quite those words. In the Chinese culture which is very much centered on food, these are good words of saying I hope the food filled you nicely. Yes, a simple gesture but we had not heard this phrase a lot.
Here … take a look at their over 100 items on their dim sum/lunch menu. The one on the left is the same page I showed above.
This is a good and cheap dim sum restaurant and it is worth checking out.
Note that they are open daily except that no dinner is served on Tuesday.
Thanks for sharing this place! I’ve been looking for a dimsum place to go with friends and this one looks great!
Ooooh! Thanks for the post! We have drove by this place many times and I wanted to try it…but Buddha Boy was not so adventurous…hahahah! But now…I think he’s up for it!!! The BBQ duck noodles looks yummy!!!
Ahh Ben, you’re killing me and the environment! Haha. =)
This means I need to wake up early and drive all the way to east Van just to try this place out. Another nice find.
I can’t tell from the menu, but are there discount for showing up early as opposed to normal lunch time?
Hi Ryan: Delicious Chinese Cuisine does not have early bird discounts like the other Chinese dim sum places. Ben
This location has changed restaurants a gazillion times over the past 30 years. I remember eating there at least once each decade since the ’80s but have not been there these past 10 years (which I’m sure has seen at least one change in name or ownership).
Having said that, the dim sum look quite good and priced well.
I go past there every day on my commute. I sometimes stop and shop at Famous Foods on the other corner of the block.
BTW, for many Chinese, “sek joh fan may ah ?” (have you eaten yet ?) may well function as HELLO much of the time. I think when I hear my mother on the phone talking to other people, no more than 5 sentences would go by without at least one mentioning of the word “sek” by her !
Totally going on Saturday!
I’m thinking the same thing! LOL!
Dim sum trip lol. Maybe I’ll see you 🙂
Not hard to spot us…one chubby couple! LOL!!!
Awwww ……. how cute 😉
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OAWmxeXARJk/TLUIcgZNzbI/AAAAAAAAAs4/ifP9igkbdg8/S968-R/BANNER.jpg
Actually, their old banner has buddha dog and its pretty cute too.
Oh yeah, I remember that. What happened to Buddha Dog? Ben
Um, it’s bad luck asking any Chinese person what happened to a particular canine ……..
😀
LOL! No worries! Buddha Dog is still around…we just ran outta room when we created that banner…so took Buddha Dog out…LOL! Have been thinking about putting him back in but haven’t got a chance to yet…hahahahah!
hey ben i went to this place this mornign and i found out that if u come on monday-friday you get 10% off for dim sum
Hi Mike: Good to know. So what did you have this morning in Delicious Chinese Cuisine and how was it?
i had some of the usual stuff like hai gow and shui mai and phoneix claw(chicken feet) shrim and pea leaves wraped in bean curd and deep fried had their xiao long bao too btu it wasn’t that good no soup in it it at all. had a really nice dessert call lycee and wolf berry in jello its mine and my mom’s favorite thing to get around chinese new years at pine house bakery. you should try it
Hi Mike: I see you stayed with the safe stuff at the Delicious Chinese Cuisine. You need to get out of your comfort zone and go for something more out of the ordinary. 🙂 I can picture the lychee dessert in my mind. yummy.
lol i would but i was eatingwith friends and there not so adventurous as u lol my friends gf was very afriead of chicken feet
I’ve been wanting to try some new dimsum restaurant and this looks good. So, with no address I checked google map. With google streetview, I think the restaurant used to be called “King’s Garden Restaurant”. It has the same red and yellow tarp and the structure looks similar. Confirmation please Ben?
Hi Lissa: That is correct. The Delicious Chinese Cuisine is at the same location as the King’s Garden Restaurant. As a matter of fact, the sign is still there. Take a look at the first picture of this post and you can see the old sign above the current one. They had not taken down the old one down. Ben
I wonder if one were to peel back the King’s Garden sign there’d be layers of old signs from previous restaurants here, LOL
Hahah the 家乡茶果 No 13 is a joke!! It is just law mai gai, but dyed green!
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Just had the worst dim sum here. Service is very spotty. The captain was going to get us a highchair and never followed through. After over an hour of waiting only half of our dishes we ordered arrived. People who arrived after we did were finished. We had to ask for the bill and said it was unacceptable for us to pay for dishes we had not received. I would not recommend coming here.