Cheap East Van Dim Sum

I met up with Christine (with baby Charlie in tow) and the leggy redhead for lunch. TLR and I made a list of possible lunch destinations –but she woke up with a dim sum craving and the decision was made. We had both heard that the Golden Phoenix in East Van was cheap and yummy.

My feelings on GP service are mixed. The staff was friendly and kid-friendly…our server was quick to offer a high chair for our pint sized companion but slow to accommodate my frequent requests for chilli sauce. This was a push-cart dim sum establishment.   Everything was “very delicious” according to the staff- and no matter how full our table got with baskets and plates, and how full we were….the servers kept coming by to try and tempt us to take more food.  At the end of the meal, it took them quite a while to process our bill.

We ordered:

• Shrimp Dumpling (har gau): A delicate steamed dumpling with whole or chopped-up shrimp filling and thin wheat starch skin. 

•  Shaomai (siu mai): Small steamed dumplings with pork and prawns inside a thin wheat flour wrapper- topped off with crab roe and mushroom.

*Both kinds of dumplings were quite large and bursting at the seams with filling. Unfortunately, they weren’t very flavourful- but the requested chilli sauce helped to kick things up.

• Crispy fried squid (yau yu sou): Lightly battered and deep fried prepared with a light dusting of chili powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. This was the best dish we ordered. We must’ve grabbed a very fresh batch- it was light, truly crispy, and not too greasy.
• Char siu baau t: fluffy, white bun with barbecued pork filling. Didn’t love this…..ratio of meat to bun was way off. Too much dry white bun and not enough juicy meat.
• Lotus leaf rice (lou mai gai): Glutinous rice is wrapped in a lotus leaf into a rectangular shape. It contained either chicken or pork(not sure) and  shrimp. Not bad, but not awesome either. Pretty bland, in fact.
• Savoury Stirfry green beans with minced pork and chilli. These beans were cooked perfectly and tasted super fresh and crispy. This wasn’t from the push cart but was a made-to-order item.

Overall, Golden Phoenix offers friendly, belly-filling dim sum on a budget. All that dim sum for less than 25 bucks! This restaurant is big on dim sum portions and fillings, and low on price—but nothing blew us away in the flavour department.

Golden Phoenix Chinese Seafood

(604) 253-6183
2425 Nanaimo St (Broadway and Nanaimo)
Vancouver, BC

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