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Shun Jing Lou Seafood Restaurant

Wanting dim sum, but not knowing where to go, we drove aimlessly around, until hitting Victoria Drive. My guest suggested I pick a restaurant, considering it was the cuisine of my lineage that we were in search for. Though truth be told, when it comes to Chinese restaurants serving dim sum, my opinion is that they are a dime a dozen. I could close my eyes, point and finger, and find a decent place. I don’t find that recipes and interpretations vary from one restaurant to another. It is like they took the same blueprint and added salt, soy, and MSG as they saw fit. A unique blend to make their own variation on these Chinese classics. This was the case today, as we passed by Shun Jing Lou, and decided on dim sum therein. Our choice ultimately hinged on the fact that it had easy pull-over parking.

The decor is pretty standard of such places. Framed Chinese characters hung on the walls, a golden phoenix and dragon centrepiece was set against a red backdrop. There were a couple of crystal encrusted light fixtures, an ancestor shrine, congratulatory potted plants, and a bar tucked away in the corner that served no one. All set in a room with a loud murmur of conversation and the steady clanging of acrylic chopsticks against porcelain.

My guest mentioned that it felt like a traditional Chinese restaurant. One from the movies, where you are just waiting for a kung fu fight scene to break out, and for everyone to be a hidden master. I found his analogy funny (coming from someone who is not Chinese), so thought to include it in the review.

Ordering was done using a golf pencil, checking off boxes from a menu sheet. We would grab our usual “staples”, to be best able to critique and compare the restaurant as a future dim sum option, and if worth recommending here (on this blog).

The Steamed shrimp dumplings were larger than most, but fairly bland. Luckily we were able to request some chilli sauce to give it the lump of shrimp loaf some life.

The Steamed masago shiu mai dumplings faired much better. Not only do you get 5 instead of the typical 4 in an order, each was flavourful as is. Although the chilli sauce above bears repeating.

The Steamed beef tendons and tripe was over cooked. It melted like gelatin, where I was excited for and wanted the rubbery chew of joints and cartilage. At least the flavour was tasty.

The Panfried egg plant with shrimp paste was inconsistent. Parts of it was over cooked, and others lacked enough salt or flavour. Though, this did come to our table last, and at that point we already moved on where we would go for dessert after.

My guest discovered Pan fried daikon cake in spicy XO sauce recently, and has since declared it as his favourite dim sun item. Today and here, they were crispy and chewy. Each soft block almost melts with its tofu-potato-like texture (as stated by my guest).

Seeing all the other tables around us order it, we too went into lunch territory with this stir-fried beef with flat rice noodles. The morsels of beef were cooked well. It had a nice, fatty chewiness about it. Although as a whole the dish could have used more salt and seasoning.

As a nice to know, the restaurant is not cash only. They do take cards, but you have to go to the make shift wooden frame box at the back, to be able to pay with it.

In short, the restaurant was just okay. Decent, but not great; and as there are so many other Chinese seafood and dim sum restaurants out there, we probably won’t be back to this one anytime soon.

Shun Jing Lou Seafood Restaurant
5822 Victoria Dr, Vancouver, BC V5P 3W5
(604) 325-0783

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