Sun Sui Wah Seafood Restaurant, Vancouver

Real Chinese upscale food. Forget about the Panda express menu (sweet & sour pork, fried rice...), you are here for some excellent seafood, live from the fishtank.

Dim Sum is excellent too.

Favorite Dish: Try the Alaska King Crab.

Most people had Alaska King Crab (Frozen), but have you tried it fresh from the water? stream with ginger, garlic, and green onion. Since it is fresh, is it SO SWEET.

We wanted to have brunch before leaving Vancouver on Sunday, and thought, "how can we leave Vancouver without eating Chinese food?" Just not in the mood to hunt for parking, we picked Sun Sui Wah in Chinatown which has an underground parkade. The restaurant is very large, but nicely decorated for a Chinese restaurant, with traditional chairs and furniture. Having been accustomed to growing up eating in traditional Chinese restaurants, the service here was brisk and impersonal as expected.

Favorite Dish: All the usual dim sum dishes are served here, especially my favorite sticky rice with steamed lop chang (chinese sausage; almost like a pepperoni) and soy sauce chicken. My nieces and nephew enjoyed their custard egg tarts, though my nephew got most of his on his shirt. The Sui Mai(steamed chopped pork and shrimp open faced dumplings) were especially delicious; they were huge, and the shrimp fresh, having that almost crunchy texture. The congee (thick rice porridge) with brisket was outstanding, containing a generous serving of brisket in the bowl.

It is traditional dim sum service here, where the staff circulate with carts and sing out their wares. They mark your selections on a form, which is added up at the end of your meal.

My husband also enjoyed his favorite, steamed Foong Jeng (otherwise known as chicken feet) and we all dug into the Aup Jeng (duck feet). Both were tasty and well prepared. For the adventurous, there was beef tripe, fried japanese radish cake, bean curd sheet and vegetable dumplings, and nest-like deep fried taro. For the non-adventurous, there were more westernized dim sum, such as spring rolls, shrimp-stuffed peppers, and steamed spare ribs.

All in all, I recommend Sun Sui Wah, if you are looking for traditional Cantonese dim sum in very pleasant surroundings. If coming on a weekend, make sure you get here early, like 10 a.m., to avoid line-ups. Dim Sim here is an extremely noisy, cacaphonous affair, as it should be, so don't go if you have a hang-over.

There are 2 branches of Sun Sui Wah - we went to the Vancouver branch. On the night that we went, the restaurant was packed, which I'm told happens quite often. The portions were big and tasted great, except for the chicken dish which was too dry. The staff weren't very attentive, they seemed far too busy, the restaurant could do with some extra staff.

Sun Sui Wah Seafood Restaurant
Just like the original restaurant in Hong Kong, this Vancouver Chinese restaurant offers the freshest seafood money can buy. One can find Alaska King Crab,Australian live lobster, and many other delicacies in the restaurant's giant water tanks.
Services is attentive and waiters/waitress all speak English. This is a great place for Dim Sum too. Be sure to call ahead if you plan to go on weekends.

Favorite Dish: roasted squab, Australian lobster, dim sum dishes

Sun Sui Wah (Seafood) Restaurant
This is very Hong Kong and the food is pretty much what you would get there. It is a large restaurant and there will be women circling it with their carts full of whatever food they are featuring, yelling it out in Chinese. When you see something you like, take it (they will mark the item off on a card on your table) and enjoy!!! Portions generally come in fours. This place is evidently a seafood place at night but I have only gone for dim sum.

Favorite Dish: In the mornings and early afternoons, this is a fabulous dim sum place filled with Chinese people, food and language. If you know anything about dim sum, tsa leung (fried bread wrapped in noodle and topped with oyster sauce) is my favorite. Jue cheng fan is also a very good dish for vegetarians (a wheat flour that is stretched and served with sauce and bitter melon.. I don't recommend the bitter melon though) Do try the choi, breakfast noodles with sweet sauce....

While it may not be the best Chinese restaurant, it provides best value for the buck you spent. The dim sum is good, and the dinner dishes are decent. It has maintain a consistent standard over the years.

There is another restaurant with the same name in Vancouver, I don't know if the two are related, but this one is cheaper.