Lee Garden: Lobster set dinner in Coquitlam

My family went to Lee Garden for our Christmas Eve dinner. Lee Garden is a Chinese restaurant offering dim-sum and dinner dishes, located inside Henderson Mall in Coquitlam. My mom had pre-ordered the lobster set dinner for 4 people, priced at a total of $268.

Here you can see everything that is included in this set dinner for 4 people – in total there are 8 courses.

Interior

My family has been eating at this location for many years. In the past, it didn’t use to be a Lee Garden but I find the interior really hasn’t changed much (or at all). It is a typical Chinese restaurant with big chandeliers throughout the room, carpet, wooden chairs and circular tables with white tablecloths.

We came on Christmas Eve and the place was packed – no surprise. Chinese restaurants are always packed on stat holidays because they still work on stats lol.

Food

Fish maw soup with crab meat

So I know this isn’t the first dish listed on the menu, but it was the first dish to actually arrive at our table so I’m just going to write it as my experience was.

The fish maw soup is a classic and it’s this light broth with fish maw and crab meat. What is fish may, you ask? Fish maw is dried swim bladders of large fishes like sturgeon (thanks Google). Despite how it sounds, it is quite tasty and honesty just tastes like shredded fish meat. It is hard to distinguish between what is crab meat and what is fish maw while you drink the soup, but it tastes exactly like how I expected it to so it is pretty average to me.

You can add some red vinegar to this soup as well, but I prefer not to.

Deep fried crab claws

Next are the crab claws, another very common dish you will find in Chinese wedding banquets or set dinners. It looks like a giant popcorn shrimp, but inside is actually mixed with crab meat and shrimp paste. You are supposed to dip it with a sweet & sour sauce that looks dangerously similar to the red vinegar from the fish maw soup.

Since this is a lobster set dinner for 4 people, it came with 4 claws. We actually had 5 people at our table, but it was fine since 2 of us could share one – they are pretty big! Fried well and lots of shrimp and crab filling.

Braised lobster in supreme broth with noodle

So this dish is the star of the show. The lobster is cooked in a garlic and ginger sauce on a bed of noodles. It’s not a big lobster but good enough for 4-5 people, for sure. Presentation is quite nice and I liked how sauce the noodles were underneath. There are certain pieces that are easier to eat than others, but they provide wet napkins and little forks to help you get that lobster meat out of the shell.

Baby bok choy with tomato in fish broth

I have to say that this dish is just really weird. I have never had a dish like this before at a Chinese restaurant lol. Bok choy?? And tomatoes? And that’s it?

Really strange, boring and bland. Just hella weird. Feels like they just threw this dish together with whatever ingredients were left over.

Sauteed scallops and diced beef tenderloin

This dish was not bad. The sauteed scallops were quite large so that was nice, not undercooked or overcooked. The diced beef tenderloin had some good seasoning and the meat was tender too. Broccoli wasn’t anything to rave about, but at least tasted better than the previous bok choy dish.

Fried rice with assorted seafood

Next we have a giant plate of seafood fried rice. The rice is actually quite tasty and has this nice dry “wok” flavour to it, which I like. The seafood is mostly diced into very small pieces but they are in there!

House special chicken

Lastly, we have our house chicken dish which is a soy sauce chicken. We actually had to ask/remind our server about this dish because it didn’t come for awhile. When it did arrive, we noticed that the chicken was really cold. Like we know this is supposed to be a cold dish and not hot straight out of the oven or anything like that, but it was colder than normal and we’ve had this kind of chicken dish many times before in Chinese meals.

Anyways, aside from the coldness, the chicken was fine. Meat wasn’t dry and there was flavour, but weird how cold it was and also how long it took to arrive at our table (was it just sitting in a fridge? lol).

Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐

I didn’t include dessert because it’s mostly just some sort of red bean soup and cookies for the last course. Overall, the food was just ok. I liked the initial courses the most (fish maw soup, crab claw, lobster), but some of the later ones were disappointing (i.e. the bok choy and tomato, very cold soy chicken). For a total of $268, that is around $67 for 4 people which I think is actually not the best deal considering most Chinese restaurants are quite cheap and the food was just average. Since we had 5 people, I guess that makes it a bit cheaper per head but still (note: we did have some leftovers to take home even with 5 people).

Service was also just ok, but this is pretty normal for Chinese restaurants. If you’re expecting your server to check in on you after every course or to refill your water glass before it is empty, don’t go to a Chinese restaurant lol. Also it was Christmas Eve and very busy so I give them a pass on service. Service is normal for a Chinese restaurant standard.

Compared to their dim-sum quality, I think I would rather come to Lee Garden for dim-sum rather than this lobster set dinner.

Sincerely, Loewe