imperial city bistro

i rarely stray from no. 3 road in richmond, unless i’m feeling like having a spaghetti factory and bowling night at the zone (which is closed now btw, sad face). thankfully for chopsticks fest, i get to explore, broaden my horizons and discover new mountains of food. the next stop i visited with the chopsticks fest crew was imperial city bistro near by no. 1 road, within the terra nova village.

rudest server ever.. had lunch there today and asked for the wifi password. the guy server just pointed at the napkin and said it's there. when we asked if the phone number is the password, he actually raised his voice to us and confirmed it is the phone number, with an accusing attitude like we were dumb or something. as we were leaving we told the owner about the incident and all we got was a typical smile and 'sorry about that'. brilliant.

the food are really oily! very unhealthy ! doesn't taste good. the duck is not fresh....won't come here anymore

such a ripoff.. it is so expensive compared to shanghai river. the pan-fried buns were so bad. for 3 people, we paid 38 dollars! we were not full. i am not going to come back here.

it was my first time dining here and i must say i was quite impressed. considering there are so many chinese restaurants to eat at, this one definitely had some good dishes that left me wanting seconds. we had the peking duck that they carve right at he table for you, which i thought was pretty cool. you have to try the rock cod with the sweet and sour sauce... it's sooooo goood .service was very friendly and the restaurant was very clean. i'd definitely come back here with my friends again.

came here twice, both with reservations. both times i've waited both 20 minutes to be seated.

came here for dinner last night i had never had such a great experience before. we had the 2 course peking duck and lettuce wrap and it was mind blowing!!!! they actually carve the duck right at the table. juicy and delicious.


-----01 nov, 2012-----

was shopping at save-on-food and was hungry so we decided to stop by this new restaurant for chinese food. pretty good overall, just a little over-priced.

we had the drunken chicken, steamed dumplings, bbq duck and pan fried noodles.

the duck was amazing, very juicy and high quality. steamed dumplings were just as amazing but the drunken chicken was a tad dry.

if you plan to go with friends., they have a promotion on four square, check in with 3 friends and get an ordered of dumplings for free!!!

this is one of my favourite dishes- pan fried long bean with minced meat ($14.80)- the literal chinese translation would be “four season beans.” it is a bit on the salty side, but it tastes delicious with steamed rice. it could have been more spicier too, but still a decent dish.

i rarely venture into the terra nova area, so i didn't know about imperial city bistro until sab suggested dim sum there. this restaurant is located in the strip mall right on the corner of no. 1 and westminster. very easy to find! the first item to come was a dessert called "donkey doing rolls" (驢打滾) ($5.95). it's essentially a sticky rice roll with red bean paste inside. the authentic version is supposed to be covered in yellow bean powder, hence resembling a donkey covered in sand and dust from rolling around. i thought the sticky rice portion would be chewy and well... sticky, but it turned out to be rather soft and mushy. i didn't like the texture at all, but the taste was alright. the pork dumplings with chili sauce (紅油抄手) ($5.95) looked really spicy, but the sauce was actually more savoury than spicy which was perfect for me. i liked the thin dumpling skin as well as the flavour of the marinated meat filling. the green onion pancake (蔥油餅) ($3.95) was a bit di

highly recommended!!. the best chinese food in town! i strongly recommend this place, excellent services and the most important clean!! there is not word to describe how good the food is. i just love it.

i know most of the time, we like to review our bad experiences but to be honest there is nothing to complain about it. highly recommended!

their mu-shu pork with crepes is very unique compared to the usual pork wraps that most shanghai restaurants have.

expensive and underwhelming.... i went there for lunch with my mom. ordered 2 simple dishes and a noodle. first, it was $5.00 for literally two small pieces of cold bread and warm meat stuffed in it - felt kind of ripped off for what i got.

second - when i asked where my noodles were 30 minutes later, this is the conversation i overheard (as the manager was standing beside my table facing away from us) all in cantonese:

waitress (to us): oh i'm so sorry, but apparently the noodles never arrived today. do you want me to cancel it?
manager (to waitress): why are you cancelling an order??
w: because they've been waiting here for a long time and no one told me that we had no noodles right now!
m: oh. i didn't take their order. it's not my issue.

(waitress goes and tries to get permission to cancel a dish).

w: i'll be right back as i can't cancel a dish off the receipt.

manager overhears this as he is still around and walks away. i then spent 5 minutes watching her try to get the manager's attention. i saw the bill, it was about $12.00 after tax for my 2 items without the noodles. i slapped down $12.00 in coins on the table and walked away.

never going back there again.

overall, i’d recommend this place for a nice family gathering if one wants to go for some fancy chinese food! next time, i want to try the fish; a table beside us had a dish that looked amazing!