Imperial Court Beijing Cuisine

Though the restaurant name claims to be Beijing cuisine, the dishes are actually Cantonese dim sum. Really good dim sum but has nothing to do with Beijing style food at all.
The dim sum is pretty good though with great texture and balanced flavor. A few items are even quite original.
First, the traditional ones like steamed shrimp dumpling, chicken feet, steamed beef delicacy, beef meatball, shaomai, radish cake. All in superb quality and delicious. The meat is soft and juicy, the seafood is fresh and tender, and all with the just amount of seasoning that brought out the original flavors of the ingredients.
Now, a few very impressive dishes that I would suggest to order when if you’re here.
Steamed rice roll with beef. It’s a common dims sum dish in many restaurant, but the one here surely is the best I’ve ever had. Plenty of tender, fresh and well flavored beef and vegetable fillings. The skin is soft but not soggy. Definitely a delight.
Steamed pork meatball and liver. Usually the liver is had to handle because it’s easily overdone and became too tough. But this one is really soft and tender, totally worth a try.
Steamed rice roll with fish purée. This is a brand new dish that I’ve never tasted in other restaurants. It’s tofu skin stuffed with fish purée fillings, then wrapped in rice roll. The fish purée is quite fresh bringing out the sweetness of fish meat. Kind of like nice fresh fish cake.
Duck meat tart. Another new dish in this place. It’s diced duck meat and sea weed wrapped with pie skin and baked. Like a mini version of chicken pot pie or beef Wellington, but with duck meat filling instead. I like the crunchy pie skin and salty but balanced flavor. Very well executed.
Price. We were quite lucky to get a 20% off discount. Don’t know what had happened or in promotion or anything, they just gave us the discount at checkout. So for 5 adult, 1 kid we ordered 14 dim sum dishes, with most of them $ 3-​$ 5 per dish. The final price is $ 59, which is about $ 10 per person. Considering banquet we just had, it was a great price.
In summary, regardless of its misleading name, it’s a nice dim sum place totally worth visiting. Call for reservation first of course, which seems already a mandatory for all popular Richmond restaurants.

It is absolutely my worst dining experience. The food are expensive with relatively small portion, and all five dished we ordered taste bad. The fish is cold and hard, and the Peking duck tastes deep fried and has a weird smell. I threw up as soon as I walked out of the restaurant, and I feel the place is not even safe to eat.

I really enjoy coming before 11am because you get 20÷ off. Let’s not kid ourselves, dim sum has become an expensive treat. The food quality here is pretty good. But I find the menu options are decent. I’m not sure if it’s because we are there before 11 a.m. or that is all they have. My biggest complaint about this place is that they charge a tea fee even for children who don’t drink it. Really, let’s just call it a service fee. I questioned the cashier and she said they only leave it for children in high chairs & boosters. Next time I come here, I’m going to put all my kids in booster seats to prove a point. Because I ended up paying over $ 6 for tea that we barely drank.

The food here are quite reasonable priced. They do have specials but you are require to order 2 regular price dish to go with the special. This is not bad. We ordered the winter 3 treasure. Which is snake soup, lamb pot and sticky rice. With the special, we ordered 2 regular priced dish to go along with it. We got the fish with corn and duck. The bill came up to $ 67 and I have to say its not bad with the amount of food.
Another time my family came here we ordered a dinner for 6 for $ 200. It had lobster, peking duck 2 course, beef spareribs (very tender), and a bunch of other dishes. The price is very reasonable and food was delicious.
I highly recommend this place.

Today I had dim sum here. Despite drinking almost an entire durian mango tapioca shaved ice beverage, I still enjoyed the dim sum here with my mom. We got: baked bbq buns, durian mochi (can you tell we both love durian?), steamed pork+pumpkin, fried donut wrapped in rice cake, and veggie and shrimp dumplings. The buns have an odd very sweet topping and they could have been baked a little more. But there wasn’t an overwhelming ratio of bread to filling which was good. There was a thinner layer which I liked. The filling was a little sweet too so don’t expect the bbq taste to be more salty than sweet.
The fried donut dish was actually crispy and you could pour the sauce on yourself. Sometimes it gets soggy or the donut is too doughy but this one wasn’t. The others were fairly typical and to be expected.
We had to run to 3 other dim sum places before this one! It was way too busy everywhere else. But this is a pretty decent place too and it was not as expensive and some other places I know of. Although dim sum is overpriced in general. Food came at a reasonable pace.

Overall it is the worst restaurant We have ever been to in Richmond. We came to this place because the other one we wanted to go had a huge lineup. We were very disappointed at most of the dishes we ordered and the service was slow and rude too. In the end, they forced us to tip them up to 10% and the excuse for that was it is a GOVERNMENT charge! How ridiculous is that? I would never come back again and would not recommend it anyone.

We come here quite often as my in-​laws like their Dim sum, but their dinner can be disappointing sometimes, we had some good ones but the lobster and shrimp chips we had last night looks and taste like has been fried multiple times.
Two star is to the lady (manager?) at front, she always looks angry and impatient, EVERY single time, but I do see her chatting nicely with some customers, maybe because we speak mandarin?

Second time here. Foods are perfect, I can tell they are fresh cooked. But when I saw my bill, I found out we were charged $ 2.50 as the SEAT FEE ($ 1.25 per person). The waitress told me it was tea fee and I had to pay although we got hot water only. That was so ridiculous!

I really enjoyed my time here for dinner with very good food and good service too. The restaurant isn’t very large, but has enough big tables to handle a few large groups. The dining room is nicely appointed with white table clothes and a good mixture of dark wood furnishings.
We ordered five dishes that night starting with the winter melon soup. It was a good size serving especially when they give you half a whole melon when you order the soup. It was flavorful with lots of ingredients cooked within the melon. I haven’t had it served that way in a long time and glad to have it again.
Next we tried the Chinese broccoli and it was very fresh like it was picked right from the field before we ate it. The tenderness was terrific and tasted great. Some of the freshest veggies I have had from a restaurant as long as I can remember.
The chicken with garlic sauce and honey pork chops were both very tasty especially the chicken which we all agreed was very fresh with a good chicken flavor too.
The last item we tried was the fish. It was a perch we ordered and when you order any seafood they actually bring out the item to your table to show that it was still alive and moving once removed from the tank plus they weigh it for you to see if it is the right size and amount. The fish was excellently cooked and tasted as any fresh fish should.
At Imperial Court they finish off your meal with red bean soup which is one of my all time favorite desserts and here it had a perfect consistency with it being not too sweet and not too starchy. I wish I had another serving instead of the one that night.
Service was great here even though we didn’t have a reservation and they could accommodate our small party with it being a busy Father’s Day weekend.
Overall a great way to end our evening in Richmond before heading back to Seattle and looking forward to enjoying another meal here at Imperial Court the next time we head back up.

This place is fine for dim sum. I wouldn’t rate it above or below the average dim sum place.
Parking — good. Lots of spaces to be had.
Food — no issues. Nice and hot like I like it, though the lotus leaf rice wraps were smaller than Shi-​art in Richmond Center.
Service — no issues. 1 server that was an absolute darling and very friendly and inviting. However, the Hostess up front needs to take a look in the mirror and see how she glares at people (not sure if it’s intentional to be honest) because she scared away another couple when we were walking in.
Cleanliness — its oooook i guess. My husband noticed the stains on the tablecloth right away and there was some sauce crust on the teapot. I’m sure the food is fine though, it’s pretty darn hot it could melt all the boogers away (just kidding)
This place is very busy. They offer a 20% discount before 11am and 10% discount from 11am-​3pm. Tea charges apply ($ 1/​person).
I might come back.

Solid 3.5 stars.
The good:
Anything with shrimp — dumplings, spring rolls, stuffed eggplant. The pan fried halibut on the backside of the order sheet for about $ 7.95 was excellent. Most of the items were good and of acceptable Richmond dim sum quality for the price. Note that you get a 20% discount if you order before 11am; after 11am it becomes a 10% discount. While this may be the case I was a bit skeptical as the bill came and a 10% off stamp was on it — waiter immediately advised upon query that the computer recognizes what time the items were input and translates the prices accordingly. We had a few duplicate dishes added on top after 11, but from a quick glance of the menu, it seemed like everything was grouped together. I didn’t go through it with a fine tooth comb as the value is already there and I wasn’t about to flip my mind over a few dollars, but others may want to double check.
The cheap:
Spareribs and Chinese sausage (or 2 other meat choices) Clay pot rice for…$ 3.80!
The bad:
Custard egg yolk buns — was pretty tragic. Dense and heavy. I was hoping for the bread to be fluffy and the custard to ooze out.
Thing I didn’t care for:
Shu Mai — –all the pork in this seemed like it was just ground meat. Personally I like it when they use chunks of pork binded with ground pork instead.
Overall I do recommend this place — worth a try in Richmond!

Went there because it’s right in front of the place I get my eyebrows done from. Ordered the king crab ($ 26.80) per pound and our bill came to $ 220 for 2. They even told us that we will have to order 2 more dishes as the per pound price was special!!! Seemed odd but as a couple we try not to make an issue when we have sat to eat something already. I am not sure but I think the price may differ if you are Asian also it was only served in 2 ways for us but the website seems to suggest 3 ways. The smallest crab was 6.5 pounds = which is huge. it was good but had better for half of this price. I would stay away from this place if you are not Asian or not going in with Asian friends. One of the lady servers would talk to us in English and then right away start talking in Chinese. A very common rude alert in most Asian places in Vancouver. I guess they have enough Asian people regularly eating out to not care about the rest of the world. Great feeling to be ripped off of 250 (tax and generous husband tipping syndrome) of unprofessional and sketchy service. I should have learnt my lesson from the treatment in Jade but surely did not for the love of Chinese cuisine. Ahh well never walking into one again in richmond for sure.

My grandparents are actually close friends with the owners so we come here quite often since they treat us well. Dim sum is very affordable and delicious while their set dinners are exquisite and grand!
Their Peking duck is fairly good but it is the second course, chopped duck meat lettuce wrap that’s the star of the dinner! Their lobster and e-​noodles are really good as well. I would also recommend the deep fried crab claw shrimp balls!
They have a wide variety of desserts and my favorite would be the fried red bean pancake! The only thing that I didn’t really like is that the restaurant itself is a bit old and needs an upgrade.

Imperial Court is a Beijing & Szechuan Cuisine located in the same plaza as Sakura Sushi (my all time favourite sushi place!) near Richmond Centre. This is one of the most affordable places to go for dim sum in Central Richmond. Honestly, with so many dim sum options in Richmond, Imperial Court falls short. Decent dim sum for the price. But I’ve had much better.
BBQ Pork Pastry: These were the best thing we had that day! The skin was flakey and had notes of citrus. The char siu filling was definitely much sweeter than other BBQ Pork pastries.
Fried Shrimp in Eggplant: These were alright. The shrimp filling lacked flavour and was rather flat toned. On the plus side, the eggplant wasn’t soggy.
Fried Chicken Feet: These were standard. The skin was soft and flavourful, and had a subtle spiciness. There were also noodle bunches on the bottom.
Chive and shrimp dumpling: The skin was ver delicate and skin, and there was an abundent amount of filling. However, these were rather lacking in flavour.

My dad really likes King crab so when he heard that it was available, we came here for dinner…
Service was quite attentive. We went late-​ish on a Wednesday night, so it wasn’t particularly busy (the staff was beginning to eat their dinner). Our water glasses were full and teapot was steaming.
I thought all the food was pretty good. The king crab is traditionally served in 3 dishes: legs — steamed & served with garlic/​ginger sauce; legs — fried; & body/​shell — crab fried rice. The steamed crab came with the BEST garlic/​ginger sauce! It is guaranteed to grant vampire protection for the next 24 hours, and it is sooo good! The fried crab was alright. It’s definitely something that is best eaten quickly because the breading gets soft rather fast. The fried rice was topped with cheese, which seemed unusual for a Chinese restaurants, but it worked out well and it was quite substantial.
Besides the crab we also ordered a oxtail/​vegetable soup and eggplant hotpot dish. The soup was a bit too salty but the eggplant was actually my favorite dish of the night. The eggplant is cooked in a sweet-​savory sauce until it’s meltingly soft. There’s also scallop and other foods in the pot, but I just kept picking out the eggplant.

We found Imperial Court by accident after we went to Kirin and learned that we had to wait an hour and 50 minutes or a table for two. We also had to pay for parking at Kirin which we didn’t at Imperial.
As mentioned by other people, service was very quick! We got there a little after 12 noon and we only had to wait for about 5 minutes to be seated. After we marked off what we wanted on the sheet, some of the items started coming 2 minutes later. And usually food is sketchy when it comes so fast but the food was surprisingly fresh!
If I can recall from memory, the «small» items were 3.75, «medium» were 3.95 and «large» 4.25 (not 100% sure though). We ordered BBQ buns in a pineapple bun (delicious; must try!), preserved egg and pork congee (so-​so), rice with ribs and chinese sausage (good), siu mai (good), ha gow (meh). There were other items we wanted to try but it was only the two of us.
When it came time to pay, things got better. We got 10% off the bill! When i looked back at the food list, it said that you get 20% off before 11 AM and 10% off after 11AM.
This is going to be my new go-​to dim sum place in Vancouver, until I find a better one. But next time, I’m definitely bringing some more friends so I can order more!

Centered in the hustle and bustle of Richmond, Imperial Court Restaurant is located in the ideal Brighouse area, seconds away from Richmond Centre mall. The dreary cold weather brought us to this seafood restaurant as we wanted a hot Chinese dinner for a birthday celebration. We want to apologize in advance, as we only got to snap a few photos but we will try and recall as many dishes as possible.
Deep-​Fried Seafood Shrimp Ball with Crab Claw (⁶⁄₇)
This was delicious. It came with a sweet and sour sauce that perfectly complemented the deep fried goodness of the dish. To sum it up, it’s a crab claw enclosed with a seafood mix (probably flour, fish, shrimp, prawns, etc), rolled up in bread crumbs, and then deep fried to perfection! This is a classic Chinese dish served at many restaurants and this was definitely a lot better than most of the cheaper restaurants that we’ve tried in Richmond! (for example, HML…)
Lobster with Chinese «Yee-​Meen» Noodles (5.75÷7)
To be honest, most Chinese-​style lobsters taste the same to us. Again, this is a classic dish at Chinese seafood restaurants and we thought the lobster was cooked quite well. The noodles were our favorite part of the dish! We honestly can’t describe the flavour of this dish, but it had a creamy texture and while it was quite savoury, we managed to devour a huge bowl of the noodles!
Chinese Fried Fish with Meat/​Seafood Sauce (5.75÷7)
This dish is basically delicious egg stir fried rice with the same sauce as the lobster but instead of lobster, there was asparagus, pork, chicken, shrimp, and some vegetables! We really enjoyed this dish but we have had better elsewhere! However, we have to consider the fact that this is a more affordable Chinese restaurant.
Peking Duck (⁶⁄₇)
The Peking duck was very professionally sliced as we could not taste much duck fat or meat when chowing down. The pancakes were made quite well but we would have appreciated some cucumber to go with the dish!
Duck & Beef stirfry (5.5÷7)
This simple meat dish came with matchstick carrots and celery. It was quite decent.
Appetizer Platter — Chinese Deli Cuts, Cold Jellyfish, Assorted Meats (5.5÷7)
This was normal! You can’t really screw this up.
Desserts:
Red Bean Soup (5.5÷7)
This is almost always the «dessert» soup that is served at the end of a Chinese feast. It wasn’t too sweet and there were tons of beans!
Lychee Jelly (5.5÷7)
There was a fair amount of real lychee in the jelly and everybody enjoyed how light and refreshing it was.
Birthday Lotus Bean Paste Buns (5.5÷7)
These peach shaped steamed buns are traditional sweets served for dessert on birthdays. Personally, we didn’t think there was enough bean paste in each bun and the bun itself could have been softer.
Anyway, we think Imperial Court is a great place to go when you don’t want to drive out too far. The location is really perfect if you’re shopping at one of the close by malls and it’s easy to get to by public transportation. It is definitely cheaper than the finer Chinese restaurants (such as, Kirin, Neptune, Jade) but more expensive than restaurants such as Bamboo Grove and HML. This place has good cheap dim sum as well! By the way, there are many English speaking staff at this restaurant. We saw people of all ethnicities eating there tonight. :)
Ratings:
Food: 5.75÷7
Value: ⁶⁄₇
Service 6.5÷7

Came here for dinner a couple times for special occasion during the holidays and honestly I’ll rather come here for dim sum during the day. I’m only going to review the dinner part since other Unilocalers covered what’s got to be said about their dim sum.
The times I’ve been their for dinner we have ordered:
Lobster
Peking duck
Fish maw with crab meat soup
Beijing porkchop
Spicy eggplant with minced meat
Stir fried string beans with scallop, shrimp and carrots
Sesame shredded chicken with jelly fish
Dried scallop with egg white fried rice
The only item on this list that is worthwhile to get is the sesame shredded chicken with jelly fish. All the rest of the items I had better elsewhere. Peking duck is not worth getting here, although it did taste delicious. It’s $ 18 for first course of the peking duck and the second course is $ 14. At other Chinese restaurants I can get both courses for about $ 27 and for the same quality.
Services goes downhill when it’s busy and the staff aren’t attentive and doesn’t always bring you items that you ask for. I had to repeat myself 3 times to 3 different staff to get this one particular sauce. That is 3 times too many.
Note: Only come here for dim sum and look elsewhere when it comes to dinner!

When my mom says dim sum is good at a place, I have to believe her. My mom grew up in Hong Kong and, honestly, when it’s comes to my favourite kind of brunch, my mom knows best.
On Father’s Day my parents, Peter S and I got together for what can only be described as one epic feast — not just in the sheer volume we consumed but also in how delicious it was. Imperial Court has the newer style «order by number» rather than the traditional push carts which means that all of the dumplings and buns come out piping hot and fresh.
Service is kinda slow, and not very attentive, but the food made up for it in spades.
As I mentioned we seriously pigged out! Some highlights:
Shrimp dumplings, chive and shrimp dumplings, deep fried taro dumplings, Chinese Donut and rice noodle, mango pudding shaped like hello kitty (yes, that’s what I said), egg tarts, sticky rice, eggplant with shrimp ball and szechuan beans (seriously, get these!).
We ordered way too much, ate too much, brought a bunch home, and still the bill was very reasonable (with or without the confusing 10% off stamp that was added or subtracted from the bill).
The best part? When it’s order from the menu like this, you know for sure that they’ll have what you are craving, so no more unrealized dreams of deep fried taro or shrimp dumplings. Thanks for the recommendation mom!

Came here for dim sum after reading a few reviews here, and overall was happy. The place is has 20% off their dim sum menu if you put in an order before 11am. As usual, I ordered way too much food for two people, and ended up bringing home a lot of it.
Some of the better items were the scallop & pumpkin dumplings, the egg tart, and the shrimp and bean sprout dumplings. The less than stellar dishes included the tri-​mushroom rice roll and the bbq pork pastry.
Good thing to note: check your table for a little sign showing the specials. They had some great prices on their for specialty dim sum!
Otherwise the service was good, the staff was friendly and helpful when we asked about the menu items, and they got us seated fairly quickly. Seems to be a bit of competition in that plaza though, so I’m not sure how they fair to the restaurants around them.
I did see that their king crab was 9.99/lb though. Up a dollar from when Thu and I went last year… but still one of the cheaper prices around!