Name：Western Lake Chinese Seafood Restaurant 西湖海鲜酒家

Add：4989 Victoria Drive, Vancouver, BC V5P 3T7

www.westernlake.ca

Reviews：

The food is delicious as always. Today we got the shrimp paste with egg plant on black bean sauce which we never had before. It was delicious and we'll probably get it everytime from now on because it's so good. The other dishes I've had before and are things I always order.

I find the service better than some other Chinese restaurants. The staff is friendly and always making rounds to grab teapots needing refills etc.

How have I not been here before?!?!?! I was treating my friend to lunch and he wanted to come here, so he made a reservation days in advance. He said that even if you do make a reservation, you can still be made to wait for up to 30 minutes - luckily it wasn't the case for us that day.

The service was sporadic because they were slammed. Everyone wore masks so we appreciated that.

- the world's largest shumai I've ever had. It was the equivalent of 2 orders elsewhere or even bigger. I was stunned;
- the scallop shrimp dumpling has an entire piece of scallop per dumpling. I've never seen that anywhere else/
- the pan fried shrimp dumpling with chives (or was it pea tips?) was the best I've had anywhere;
- the sausage sticky rice wasn't as good as I've had it elsewhere but my partner liked it when she had it as leftovers;
- the least greasy green beans I've had anywhere. Probably the best I've ever had in a restaurant;

I'd come back in a heart beat. If the above items were that good, I can't wait to try their other items on the menu!

I've found my new favorite Chinese / Cantonese spot near me, and I'm a bit obsessed!

I came for dinner on a Friday evening last month and had a fantastic meal. My only regret is coming with one other person so we could only order and share so much food. Based on even the three dishes we ordered, I was quite impressed and want to try more on the menu. I'll definitely be coming back again with a larger group, once it's safe to do so.

We came Friday around 6:30 pm and it was mostly full, but there was one small table that was empty. I think we got lucky, as most parties were bigger families.

I love dimsum and was ecstatic to see they had an all day dimsum menu. We ordered the following to share:

Prawn spring roll ($7.50) - fried perfectly with a crispy outer skin

Har gow / steamed shrimp dumpling ($6.75) - some of the biggest har gow I've ever had. Each bite was a pleasure

Spare ribs with steamed rice roll ($11.50) - two of my favorite things combined into one dish. The steamed rice roll had really good wok hei (i.e. wok flavor) on its own, and went really well with the spare ribs which were also quite flavorful. It was soo good!

I left with my wallet ~$18 lighter and my stomach much happier.

I've come here for dim sum and it was a fantastic experience so I thought I'd try their dinner. We had the King Crab special dinner for 6 and we decided to add more dishes... big mistake! Or great leftovers?!?

The first course was their fish maw soup with crab. Not a lot of crab but the soup was excellent. Good start! So we added the Peking duck and it exactly the way you want it. Crispy skin duck with all the trimmings (cucumbers, onions and hoisin sauce).

Then the piece de resistance... Steam King crab with garlic and green onions. Steaming hot and perfectly cooked. Can't go wrong! This could give lobster (my personal fave) a run for its money! We also had chilli salt squid as well as chilli salt tofu (for the vegetarian). The tofu might have been a bit better as I thought they would have used a different part of the squid (not the tentacles).

The avalanche of food kept coming with more King crab. This time it was fried up with chilli salt over a bed of vermicelli. Wow! Soooo good. But I think i liked it better served with in fried rice.

Ended off with their tapioca pudding baked with a the pineapple bun crust. Just a perfect ending to the meal... and the next day too :)

I came here because Vancouver is suppose to have great Chinese food and we wanted dim sum. The parking here is terrible, you have to street park. The workers here are super nice and came outside to check if our car was parked okay. The parking signs are not the same as the states. It's a bit different so we weren't sure.

The food here was really good. The portions were huge! Of course we over ordered. We took some stuff to go (for breakfast the next day).

I love their durian pastry. Can never find that in the sates.

I came here for dim sum with my elderly mother after hearing that they have good coronavirus protocols in place. They have indeed done a good job, this restaurant used to be very crowded, but now the tables were spaced out with partitions in between. We arrived at 12:10 p.m. and was told there was a 20-minute wait. We went to the nearby stores to do quick grocery shopping and returned after 10 minutes to a clean table waiting for us.  There is hand-sanitizer at the door for us to use. We noticed the waiters did not wear gloves, something we prefer. We had been to other restaurants where the waiters have gloves on all the time, so they are using the same gloves to touch everywhere without washing hands and potentially spreading any germs and viruses.

The service is exceptionally good. The waiters were attentive and courteous. Throughout the meal, we asked several times for items like extra pair of chopsticks, more napkins, toothpicks etc and our requests were promptly answered.

We ordered four items (we came prepared with containers to take the leftovers). The pan fried eggplant & shrimp paste with black bean sauce came first. It was very hot, which means it was freshly prepared. The texture was the shrimp paste was perfect, it was bouncy and not chewy. I gave it 5/5 for taste, freshness of ingredients, temperature, and value. However, after tasting the leftover the following day, I lowered the rating to 4/5 as it had a slight rancid smell, it means the oil used to cook it was old.

The other three items took another 15 minutes to come. I did not mind that as they were freshly cooked. Next came the steamed beef tripes & beef tendons and steamed pork & shrimp dumplings. Both were piping hot, something I really like. The beef strips & tendons were soft and tender and tasted mouth-watering perfect. The dumplings (shao-mai) were huge and tasted fresh. They tasted just as good the following day.

The last to come was the steamed rice with spareribs & chicken feet. This dish was loaded with spareribs but only one chicken feet, I expected at least two, or half spareribs and half chicken feet. But it is still great value. The spareribs were soft and with a lot of meat, the bones were soft. The taste was good but I  felt there was some MSG used.

The final bill came to ~$33, we had enough takeover for another meal. It was very good value and the experience was pleasant.

Woke up craving dim sum. I've always liked the food at Western Lake, the line ups, not so much. We ordered through their website this time and it was super easy and hassle free! PLUS with a purchase of $30 you get a free siu mai added to your order :)
Anyways despite covid, there was still a decent sized crowd outside waiting to be seated. Thankfully we paid for our order online and got to pick up directly and exit.

This is the best dim sum restaurant I have ever had in Vancouver! I came here during America's thanksgiving on a weekday. I was surprised to see such a long wait on a weekday. We ended up waiting about 30 minutes for a table for 2, which wasn't too bad since they told us it would be around 45 minutes.

The food was very fresh since the dishes are made to order. The portions are also very large, especially the siu mai. I was very impressed and happy with every dish that was ordered. I wanted to come back again during my trip, but I knew I would have to wake up early and get there right when the restaurant opens to avoid a wait. But I will definitely come back to this dim sum restaurant the next time I visit Vancouver!

One of the busiest Chinese restaurant in the area. Line ups on the daily and very good value. Had lunch and dinner here on multiple occasions. Peking duck is really good here. King crab is good here. Many other dishes are good here. One of my favourite Chinese restaurants to dine at in the lower mainland. It's also very well priced and a good clean environment.

Highly recommend this restaurant! Also they have good service!

The food are big portions and the dishes are absolutely delicious. With good service from a Chinese restaurant what else could you ask for. I was so happy to be visiting on Thanksgiving. I wouldn't have it any other way.

We ordered a lot of food for 5, and finished most dishes. I was told the siu mai were on steroids but even I didn't believe my friends, ooomph just wow. There siumai as you can see in the photo is of a generous size and so flavorful!

Actually all the dishes were amazing especially my favourite chicken feet and the congee... mmm such soulful chinese food. I was definitely a happy chapper eating here.

No doubt I'll be back again!

Came here with my hawaii friends, and it was great! The portions are huge (take care not to accidentally over order) and the food was delicious! They have most of the type of dim sum I look in an authentic place plus some additional treats! My friends all liked it too. I would recommend this place! The staff was also nice :) it is street parking but on the day we went we didn't have any issues.

I've been coming here for dimsum since I was little! Western Lake has always been so consistent with quality and quantity! (no wonder why they are still so popular). Must trys are: their famous gigantic shao mais and har gows (or scallop and shrimp dumplings), the chicken feet, any of the rice rolls, and the steamed bbq buns.
I recommend coming here early (really early) to beat the rush later. Definitely make a reservation ahead of time (you most likely still have to wait a bit though). The inside is very cramped so be prepared to wait outside or be pushed around.

By Yelp