Best Dim Sum in Richmond BC

Dim sum is the meal people ask me about more than any other, and it is the one where I am least willing to be vague. I ate it most Sundays as a kid, usually at whichever room my parents' customers were talking up that month. I still go two or three times a month, sometimes with people visiting, mostly not. So what follows is a ranking rather than a list, and I have put my reasoning first, so you can argue with the reasoning instead of the result.

What I am actually judging

Four things, roughly in this order.

• The har gow wrapper. It should be thin enough to see the shrimp through and strong enough to lift without tearing. Plenty of kitchens manage one of those.
• Rice rolls. Cheung fun should be slippery and barely holding itself together. Rubbery means it sat.
• Whether the kitchen steams to order. Richmond mostly gave up on carts years ago, which was the right call, but there is still a difference between a kitchen cooking on demand and one cooking in batches and holding trays.
• How it tastes at quarter past one on a Sunday rather than twenty to eleven on a Tuesday. Anywhere is good when it is empty.

Price counts for less than you would think, because the spread between the cheapest and the priciest dim sum in this city is narrower than the spread in quality. Decor counts for nothing at all. Two of the rooms near the top of this list are in buildings I would not bother photographing.

The ranking

1. Golden Paramount Seafood Restaurant

Anderson Road, a few minutes on foot from Richmond-Brighouse Station. The room is small and plain, and what has come to my table has arrived tasting like it was made for it rather than lifted off a holding tray. On a good day the wrappers are the best in the city. The catch is the size of the place. On weekends the wait outside is real, a large group is a lot to ask of a room this size, and if you turn up at noon without a plan you will be standing on the sidewalk. I send couples here and groups elsewhere.

2. Fisherman's Terrace Seafood Restaurant

Third floor of Aberdeen Centre, off Hazelbridge Way. This is the one I recommend when somebody wants to be sure. It is a big loud room doing serious volume without letting quality slide, which is harder than being good on a quiet weekday. Rice rolls hold their texture. The egg tarts are worth a last order. There is also a logistical argument: you are already at Aberdeen, so you park in the mall or ride the Canada Line to Aberdeen Station, eat, and do your shopping downstairs instead of driving twice.

3. Chef Tony Seafood Restaurant

Empire Centre, on No. 3 Road. The most technically precise dim sum in Richmond and by some distance the most composed. Things arrive looking designed. Occasionally I find that a bit much, and then I eat the har gow and stop complaining. It is the room I book when my parents are choosing and the occasion justifies it. Weekend lunch needs an actual reservation rather than optimism.

4. Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant

River Road, beside the hotel at River Rock and walkable from Bridgeport Station. Quieter and more formal than anything on the No. 3 Road strip, with careful cooking and a room where you can hear the person across the table from you. That makes it the pick for a lunch that is also a conversation. It sits slightly out of the middle of things, which is exactly why it is calmer at half past twelve.

5. Jade Seafood Restaurant

The north end of No. 3 Road, in a room with space to move in it. A consistent all-rounder, strong on the fried and baked items, and much better if you can be at the door before the rush builds. Call ahead on a weekend rather than taking your chances.

6. Empire Seafood Restaurant

Upstairs at London Plaza on No. 3 Road. Empire is a banquet hall that happens to serve very good dim sum, and that shapes the whole experience. Big round tables, noise, families of twelve, service that keeps moving. If your group is large or your kids are loud, this is the one. Sitting alone by the window it is less charming.

7. Parkhill Seafood Restaurant

Westminster Highway, an easy walk from the Canada Line. I would not put Parkhill first for standard dim sum, and I go anyway, because the Chiu Chow half of the menu has things that are genuinely hard to find in Richmond. Cold marinated goose. Oyster omelette. Order some steamed items, then order the dishes you cannot get on No. 3 Road, and the ranking will make sense to you.

Three more I send people to

Continental Seafood Restaurant sits in Cambie Plaza on the east side, well clear of the Golden Village crush, with parking you do not have to fight anyone for. When somebody tells me they refuse to drive into that mess on a Saturday, this is where I point them. Kirin Restaurant, on Westminster Highway, runs a lighter and more restrained lunch than most of its neighbours, which some people love and others find underseasoned. I am in the first camp and I understand the second. And Yue Restaurant, tucked into an Alexandra Road strip, is the quiet option on a block full of loud ones: steamed dumplings and taro puffs made to order, in a room where nobody is celebrating anything.

Getting a table without losing your morning

Weekends run on one rule. Either be at the door before service builds or accept sitting down at half past one. The middle of that window is where the hour-long waits live. The big banquet rooms take bookings and you should use them. The small family kitchens mostly do not, which is why those are the ones you go to early.

Transit makes this easier than people assume. Aberdeen Station for Aberdeen Centre, Brighouse for the Anderson Road end, Bridgeport for River Road. If you drive, the mall parkades tighten up through the late morning on weekends, and street parking on Alexandra Road is a competitive sport. Groups of eight or more should call ahead and ask for a round table instead of turning up hopeful.

Most rooms put a small tea charge on the bill, per person. That is normal. Do not spend your lunch on it.

What I order

Two rounds, never one. Ordering everything at once is how you end up with cold fried food. First round: har gow, siu mai, a plate of cheung fun and a green vegetable so the table is not entirely dumplings. Second round: turnip cake, sticky rice in lotus leaf, and whichever fried thing you want, because those should arrive last. Then egg tarts, and only if they are still warm. If they have been sitting, skip them and pick some up at a bakery on the way home.

Chicken feet are the item people ask me about with a nervous face. They are good, they are not for everyone, and nobody at the table will care either way.

One thing dim sum is not

Xiao long bao is Shanghainese. Ordering it at a Cantonese lunch and then judging the kitchen on the result is a mistake I see constantly. If soup dumplings are what you actually want, go to Shanghai River Restaurant on Westminster Highway, where you can stand and watch them being pleated behind glass, and arrive hungry, because the noodles are also worth it. Different meal, different day.

Tarts to take home

Dim sum leaves you with a very specific craving around four in the afternoon. Kam Do Bakery, near Brighouse Station, handles it. Take a tray and a pair of tongs, load up on egg tarts and pineapple buns, pay at the till, leave. It is the least ceremonious food transaction in Richmond and one of the more satisfying.

If you take one line from this

Two of you, willing to go early: Golden Paramount. Four of you, one shot, no patience for standing around: Fisherman's Terrace. Trying to impress somebody: Chef Tony. Then ask me again in six months, because kitchens change hands and chefs move, and a list like this is only ever as good as the last time I sat down.