Red Star Seafood Restaurant

We went to Red Star on a Saturday afternoon for some dimsum. Much like all the other dimsum places, Red Star has the basics. We ordered the prawn wrapped in rice flour, Chinese donut wrapped in rice flour, sticky rice and eggplant. Overall the food was okay, nothing outstanding.
The service was good since the restaurant was pretty dead, and the price is standard.

Food was ok, very tasty but the service is terrible. They forgot about our requests and only were quick when we were about to leave.

Nice setting. Food was okay, some tasted bland. overall a good experience. I like their Jasmine tea.

USED to be one of my favourite places to go but service has really ruined it for me.
The food is good. But the managers and staff are pretty terrible. After waiting 20 minutes for a takeout order (after we had paid for 200 $+ dim sum order eating in), we inquired about the status of our food.
Servers and managers snootily ignored us and talked crap about us to the other staff.
They asked us to free up the table– which is fine, but my 90 year old grandmother has mobility issues and there were no chairs for her to sit down on in the hallway where we THEN waited another 15 minutes– we kept asking but they kept saying «almost ready».
Finally, our 14 person party had left and it was just me and grandmother waiting for her fried rice takeout and finally just decided to tell them to cancel the order and get the money back. THEY HAD NOT EVEN STARTED THE ORDER– and then they became SOOO condescending and difficult refusing the give us a refund until my boyfriend had really gave them some confrontation. Got my $ 23 back and left.
Funny enough– another Unilocaler was there and witnessed my experience and wrote about this:
I don’t know Kevin C., but I’m glad someone else was also sympathetic to the service problems and noted it down.
Lesson: Don’t pay until you have all your food.
This is a zero-​tip establishment.
Will not be returning.

Dimsum: 7.5÷10
Chinese B.B.Q.: ⁷⁄₁₀
Rice & noodle: ⁶⁄₁₀
Other dishes: ⁶⁄₁₀
Overall is a fine Chinese restaurant, one of rare Chinese restaurant that serve Chinese style BBQ, and recommend BBQ duck. Their steam rice look awful, suppose it looks white but their are yellow. Dimsum are about average, nothing go wrong and not much surprised me. Some servers are inexperience and some are rude which is a minus. Decro is just okay but for me I dont really like those all white design. Anyways, I give this restaurant just a 2.5 stars overall which just passed.

Red Star looks like your average higher end Cantonese place, featuring dim sum during the day and lots of fancy seafood dishes.
We had a couple dishes for our Sunday evening dinner– the black pepper beef and scallops, a fish and mushroom hot pot, and uhhh. Sauteed geoduck or some other sea creature. I forget what the English name is. Gelatinous and meaty at the same time though.
The fish and mushroom hot pot was pretty good. Very rich and fresh fish, battered and fried very nicely and then cooked in the hot pot.
The geoduck-​thing was flavorful and well cooked, although there was more pork than actual seafood in the dish.
The real star of the show here was the black pepper beef and scallops though. This was some of the best cooked beef I have had in a long time. Super duper tender while still managing to be cooked all the way through. «Melt in your mouth» as they say, without joints, tendons, gristle, or any other stuff. Just some really great beef. The scallops were pretty good too, but unfortunately nothing to write home about.
The dishes came out within 5 minutes of us ordering, which was impressive given how full the restaurant was. The staff, while brusque and quick in that Cantonese restaurant way, was still attentive and helpful, with water and tea refills coming readily.
A little on the expensive side in relation to the quantity of food we got, but the quality made up for it. Solid experience overall.

I was debating between a 3 and a 4 star. I opted to go with 4 since it would be unfair to compare dim sum here with Southern California at this point. When I was a teen, Richmond had the best Chinese food outside of Asia. Now… I’d have to say Southern California (in particular San Gabriel Valley) has them beaten to a pulp.
While I enjoyed the food here and Fisherman’s Terrace, it did not meet my expectations… since I expected the best.
Food:
Ordered the usuals: Shrimp dumplings, rice rolls, sui mais, etc etc. Nothing stood out. Nothing was bad. Everything was a little above average to me. I expected everything to taste better because they did not have carts. Everything appear to be made fresh and brought to the table.
Service:
No complaints with the service, though I think the staff was much friendlier at Fisherman’s Terrace. Needless to say the service in BC is friendlier as a whole, so even their service exceeded my expectations.
Environment:
I was expecting a much bigger restaurant since this one looks like one of the more popular dim sum joints in the area. It looked nice and clean in there. A small notch above a casual setting.
Price:
I don’t know…(didn’t pay)
Food: 4
Service: 4
Environment: 4

Came here for dimsum on a sunday morning. The seating is comfortable and nicely spread out compared to some places in East Vancouver and there’s plenty of parking. No complaints whatsoever about all of the things I ordered. I especially like the pineapple bbq pork bun and they happened to have some very fresh egg tarts when I was there which were phenomenal. Food wasn’t excessively greasy either, can’t ask much more of dim sum.

I have never come to this location, I always knew about it, but also from the community also know that the one on Granville is the better one, but if you do not try, you definitely do not know. As we were planning to go to dim sum on Good Friday, it was impossible to find a place that would take a table of 4 with minimal wait at around 11 AM… well not impossible if you come here, plenty seats available, weird. yes. especially since our two stops prior to this place were packed to the brim with hungry people! A warning to the wise, do not park in front of the T&T, there’s only an hour of time here, and you will get ticketed, as one of our party learned this the hard way! Park in the back, where you go up a ramp, and read where you park, some spots have time limits, and it’s not worth it to get one of these that will ruin your aftertaste of the meal!
This is one of the higher ended dim sum joints in Richmond, as you can tell from the nice décor and the higher prices. I came in here, as my dear and her brother were already seated, and I didn’t know there was a seperate section on another floor where you can sit. It’s kinda hidden, as you walk into the restaurant, and along the wall, just keep going straight, you will hit some stairs that take you to a downward path. A nice hidden area with more dining tables that sits right beside the kitchen is where we sat on this beautiful Friday. It’s an order off a sheet restaurant, no old-​time push karts here (don’t want to ruin the carpet now!) so if you’re wishing for a place to see before you order, this isn’t. and is. somewhat. they do provide a menu with pictures!
We ordered quite a variety, with the standard har gow and siu mai (stuff I don’t usually order, but some others wanted it!), shrimp rice roll, deep fried chicken knee, chicken feet, spare ribs, hot and sour soup, duck tongues, and a big bowl of century egg and pork congee. A good variety, and everything came out in a timely manner, the food was pretty good from the preparation to the end taste, except for the hot and sour soup, as it was on the too sour side, with no need to add anymore vinegar to the equation.
The bill came out to be higher than what I thought, also adding to the total was the $ 1 tea charge per person. I’m giving this a 3.5 on the rating, with a thought on the price, as compared to others, it’s a tad high. Maybe I have been spoiled just recently at the Peninsula as they kept on coming with changing my plates consistently, and they were busy, unlike here, which, as I said earlier, you could get a seat, with many tables empty on a Good Friday! They did however come across and keep refilling the tea pots, and the food came quite quick, and they never did rush us (like there was a line-​up…) but for the price there are options for you… the usual suspects like Kirin, Fisherman’s Terrace, Sun Sui Wah. all about the same in the $$$. You won’t go wrong here if you do come to eat.

2014 King Crab dinner combo.
This restaurant knows how to steam the crab with the perfect time. A lot of restaurants didn’t know how long they should steam the crab for and ended up over cooked the expensive king crab. What a waste of money.
The King Crab combo is good for 6 people, but the food are not too filling, so u might need to order one extra dish just in case you feel hungry in the middle of the night. Lol.
The King Crab combo includes 2 dishes garlic steam king crab legs, 1 plate of BBQ duck, 1 individual dish of sea cucumber dish, 1 plate of veggies, 1 dish of pan fried king crab and some dessert at the end.
The BBQ duck is really good!!! Meat texture is unbelievably tender and juicy.
Combo costs around $ 298 for 6 people.

Most Vancouver folks don’t know that there’s a Red Star in Richmond. And for good reason: it’s simply not as good as the venerable restaurant on Granville Street on the other side of the bridge. And perhaps for this reason, it’s not as crowded either. Which is not to say that it’s empty. Most tables were still filled for a weekday lunch.
The high ceilings, contemporary light fixtures, and large windows give this dim sum and seafood restaurant a spacious and high-​end feel. Large flat screen TVs loop slideshows of menu items; the same items can be found on a useful photo menu, in case you can’t read the Chinese on the actual order form that looks like a Scantron form.
Craving rice, we ordered some plain congee, pan fried rice rolls, and steamed rice with assorted preserved meats. The congee was good and hit the spot; the rice rolls, however, were rather anemic and lacking the ‘wok’ flavor of a good stir-​fry that the Vancouver location generally produces.
A big disappointment was the boiled chicken feet clay pot. They were not tender enough, and our server recognized it immediately upon seeing them, and voluntarily returned the pot to the kitchen (that’s rare in a Chinese restaurant!). He claimed the chef knew the problem as soon as he brought the pot back; they brought it out again after a few minutes, but it still was not enough time. I’m pleased with the service, but I feel it would have been perfectly fine for the server and chef to voluntarily redirect our chicken feet craving to another preparation in the first place, if they knew they didn’t have any ready in the back.
We also ordered the chiu chow style steamed dumplings, the skin of which was too mushy and therefore sticky — the opposite problem of the chicken feet (overcooked).
Despite the attentive service we received, overall, given the higher price of the Red Star menu, I think you can get better for less in Richmond, or else go to the Vancouver side. On the plus side, parking is free and easy in the President Plaza lot (park on the second floor), and the overall experience is fairly comfortable.

a business trip in Canada. a lot of Chinese reviews stated this is one of the best!
But all I can say they are different but I’ve experienced a lot of better dim sum places than this one!!!

Service really good. Very prompt and super friendly. Amazing food. Fresh.
Today’s menu for 3
Peking Duck
Lettuce Wrap
Suckling Pig
Pea Tips
Fish Maw Soup

First time at the Richmond location. Located next to Yaohan Center. This location is smaller then their location on Granville. Didn’t have a reservation tonight but was able to get a table with a 5 minute wait.
Ordered the following dishes
Ma Pao Tofu. A liitle too much pepper
Crispy Skin Chicken. Good but small chicken
Gourmet Pork Chop. Very tasty.
Beef and Chinese Green. Greens were a bit old
BBQ Duck. One of the better duck places
All the dishes arrived at the table within 15 minutes of ordering. Thus came as a great surprise as the Granville Street location usually takes a while to get all items. Service was very good here. Change plates once during dinner and fill tea pot often. Plenty of parking at this location.

Yuummmm came here once for dinner and another time for dim sum the next day since I stayed at the Radisson Hotel (right next to here).
Both meals were delicious and the service was great. Prices here are steeper than those in LA, but I guess you pay for what you get. Overall, my only complaint would be the wait. The food takes a while to come out.

I booked our reservation for Father’s Day a month ago, knowing how busy Dim Sum can be on Father’s Day. Much to my chagrin, we were still waiting for our table at 11:25. We watched (hungrily) as many others walked up and were seated.
The food was pretty good — stand outs include the gai lan with smoked fish sprinkles and the spicy deep fried tofu the gai lan, in particular, was probably the best any of us had ever had at the table (that is saying a lot!). har gow and siu mai were both solid and clearly fresh. We were very excited about the mushroom & truffle dumpling, but were disappointed.
The service, once we were seated, was hit and miss. Our waitress was lovely and attentive, but the bus boy put tea on the table without us asking (which we were charged for an subsequently had removed from the bill) and proceeded to leave without asking whether or not we wanted anything other than tea (we did.)
Finally, compared with other Dim Sum, I found this establishment to be quite pricey, all things considered.
Overall, a solid dim sum experience marred by service issues.

Recently invited to dinner by my girlfriend’s mother, we had a heck of a feast at Red Star.
Some memorable dishes include Peking duck, king crab (cooked in two different styles), fried rice in a king crab shell, and bird’s nest soup for dessert.
Service, food, and ambiance were all top-​notch. If there is a Chinese restaurant I were asked to recommend to anyone, I wouldn’t hesitate to refer them to this Red Star location (there’s another one on Granville).
The only objection I had with my meal was the shark fin soup. I used enjoy drinking it when I was young, but up until the past few years, I’ve been boycotting it. Others at the table did, too. Imagine the look on the server’s face when he served us all bowls of the soup just to have six of them return.

After being away a month in Asia on vacation it is tough being home and adjusting to local time. There are no longer an abundance of good food when I walk out the door, turn left and walk 5 mins… All I see now are trees, a park and perhaps a bear! My jet-​lag has been terrible but we were finally able to make it for some dim sum at Red Star before 11:30am. Fortunately, there was no wait and we were seated asap.
There are two sections: an upstairs and a lower level dining room.
Service is always friendly here but it takes a while for the food to arrive.
BBQ duck rice noodles: Supposedly this is there special but I found the past few times the duck is tough and extremely fat. Nothing special.
Radish cake: A well proportion balance of flavour and ingredients of lap cheung and dried shrimps.
Beef Balls: Fatty juicy minced beef seasoned with water chestnut for a nice crunch.
Steamed Black Bean Spareribs: A nice mix of fatty and lean meaty pieces.
Shrimp dumplings: fresh shrimp that was bouncy and flavoured with a thin skin.
Steamed pork dumplings: A mix of minced pork, peanuts, and chives. Unfortunately the skin is rather thick.
Fried Bean Curd Fish Paste Rice Roll: Fresh fish paste is encased within the fried bean curd, wrapped with rice roll and steamed.
For the Richmond location, come early because the President’s Plaza fills up with customers shopping at T&T.

With all the choices available for dim sum in Richmond, how does one choose? Dim summing it up in Richmond is daunting with so many options in the neighbourhood. But I’ve been back here a few times now, which goes to show how reliable this place is. They’ve got 15% off dim sum if you get your order in before 11:30am, and the food here is always consistently good. There’ve also got a bowl of roast duck on soup noodles which is delish, since Red Star is known for their roast duck.
The shrimp spring rolls are fantastic — they come wrapped with a little bit of seaweed for some extra texture and flavour, and the dough fritter rice rolls (ja leurng) comes with pork floss on top and is beautifully plated! Other winners include the egg tarts (lovely flaky pastry!), and tri-​mushroom bean curd wrap.
Overall, I love coming to this place for some decent dim sum. Takes cards, takes reservations, and never had a problem with service. If you come a bit late into the rush, they’ve got a second room downstairs down a hallway in a hidden area that they open up (super strange, since you can’t exit anywhere from there, you have to go back to the main entrance. There are no washrooms by the second room either).
So if you’re considering dim sum options, I’d say you should put this on your list. :)

I have been here for dinner but never have a chance to try for their dim sim.
After they renovated and changed the dim sim chef, I would say they’re one of the best Chinese restaurant in Richmond.
Dim sim were pretty good and tasty.
Red star baked bun — sweet BBQ pork bun so soft and delicious
Chiu Chow steamed dumpling — the skin so thin and sticky. Perfect!
Steamed prawn dumpling — Excellent and hot!
Fish paste with bean curd in rice roll — just ok and a bit salty.
The lunch special — Soy sauce chicken with rice only $ 2.99. Wow, good deal and good enough for a person.
As usual, if you’re not the regular customer or know anybody there. The service would be better! But, I found the few waiters were very friendly.