Originally wanting to go for Sunday brunch, I settled for dim sum because my friend slept in. Dynasty Seafood is located in Vancouver along West Broadway, and is a "higher end" Chinese restaurant. When we walked up the podium, we stood in front of the manager for twenty minutes unacknowledged, as he continued to seat waiting customers.
This was kind of annoying considering that I just wanted to know how long the wait would be. However, apparently you have to be rude to get his attention. Three people behind us walked up to the manager, yelled, and got their name written down LOL. My friend mentioned not everyone counts every second, but twenty minutes? I would like to make use of my time. I mean, I could have walked around the bock to take a photo of the restaurant rather than standing there for twenty minutes waiting to be acknowledged. Which I did. As for the interior, the restaurant has a nice atmosphere and window wrapped walls.GEODUCK CONGEE ($13.98).
Green onions and salted peanuts are provided on the side.
The congee tastes smooth, a bit flavourful and has a good amount of ginger as well as a few shreds of dried scallop. Usually I never feel the need to add green onions or peanuts if the congee is flavourful, but I felt like I needed to this time. Also, the peanuts provide some crunch in the congee. As for the geoduck, the slices are not overcooked and have a nice soft crunch, along with a snap. However, the slices are all clumped together.
STEAMED CRAB MEAT AND MINCED PORK DUMPLING ($5.28).
I forgot to take a photo of the inside! The skin is extremely sticky and kept getting caught on the plate, therefore the dumpling always ripped. Furthermore, there is no crab meat or minced pork flavour, but the water chestnuts do stand out and provide a bit of crunch. The Jade Seafood Restaurant's version of this tastes a lot better.
STEAMED BLACK TRUFFLE DUMPLING ($5.28).
The skin is equally as sticky as the previous dumpling and the title "black truffle" sounds very luring. Although as it turns out, black truffle means Chinese mushroom. I love Chinese mushrooms but the dumplings are pricey for nothing but a Chinese mushroom filling. However, the mushrooms taste moist as well as tasty.
STEAMED CHICKEN FEET ($4.88).
Most restaurants deep fry the chicken feet before steaming, but Dynasty boils them first instead. The chicken feet has a sticky texture (oddly similar to the dumplings) and do not taste flavourful. In addition, the black bean sauce tastes very light which I prefer but due to the watery consistency, the chicken feet stuck together.
DEEP FRIED TARO WITH BBQ DUCK MEAT ($4.88).
The deep fried taro has a nice flaky and crispy exterior, without tasting oily. Also, the filling of taro tastes soft and includes some preserved vegetables as well. However, there is not much of a barbecue duck flavour.
MANGO PUDDING ($4.48).
I know I am a picky eater, but I am just anal about mango pudding. Just one look at this and I knew I was going to be disappointed.
The mango pudding tastes watered down and not flavourful at all. The pudding has a faint sweet flavour but that is it, not a single hint of mango. Furthermore, the pudding is equivalent if not worse. to some of the all you can eat Japanese restaurants. Luckily, we ordered two but changed the second pudding to something else, based on a hunch in case it would not be so good.
The second order of mango pudding was changed to the "baked sago pudding with black sesame", which I forgot to take a photo of. The pudding tasted very dry not sweet and bland as well as powdery. However, the sago pudding did come with a maraschino cherry like the mango pudding.
STEAMED SPARERIBS IN BLACK BEAN SAUCE ($4.88).
The black bean sauces tastes very light but tasty at the same time, and not oily (although some may think the sauce tastes bland). As for the spareribs, the meat tastes quite chewy as well as tough, which is kind of a shame because I enjoyed the lighter than usual tasting sauce.
CONPOY CRAB DUMPLING IN SOUP ($5.98).
The soup base has a light clear chicken broth, but does not taste very flavourful. Honestly, the soup resembles a complimentary wonton soup from a food court. As for the dumpling, it consists of a crab stick, shrimp and minced beef.
At a restaurant like Dynasty or to be fair, at a restaurant that gives the impression they are a bit "higher end" and with prices to reflect that, I expected a better dumpling. Honestly, this calibre of restaurant should never serve crab stick and even shredded imitation crab meat would look less cheap (despite that crab sticks cost more than shredded). The dumpling tastes very simple and is nothing better than a wonton.
PAN FRIED YAM PIE STUFFED WITH EGG YOLK ($4.68).
When ordering, this is not what we originally had in mind, but we love it. This is basically a mochi with sweet egg yolk along with custard. The egg yolk is perfectly gooey and not overly sweet, and the mochi melts in the mouth. Definitely the highlight and only dish we enjoyed throughout dim sum!
POSITIVES
- Validated parking
- Window wrapped walls…?
- Pan fried yam pie stuffed with egg yolk is recommended!
NEGATIVES
- Embarrassment of a mango pudding (0/5).
- Prices do not match the quality of food
- No service (some plate changes would have been nice and the removal of empty steamers)
LITTLE THINGS
- Geoduck congee and pan fried yam pie (2.5/5)
- Egg tarts and baked BBQ pork pie were sold out, apparently those are must orders
- Am I missing something? Why are there such high reviews? Dinner would probably be better
Food: 2/5
Service: 2/5
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