Sun Sui Wah: Chinese dim sum in Vancouver
Sun Sui Wah is one of the first Cantonese restaurants to open in Vancouver back in 1988. They offer dim sum/lunch and dinner service offering traditional Cantonese dishes and have 2 locations – one in Vancouver and one in Richmond.
I saw they recently added new dishes to their dim sum menu, so I took my family with me to try it out. This review is based on an in-dining experience at the Vancouver location.
Interior
When you first enter, you have to go up a pretty fancy staircase. The interior of the restaurant is large and filled with big circular tables (good for sharing). It is a very classic dim sum/ Chinese looking restaurant with with table clothes, wooden chairs, live seafood tanks and chandeliers.
There is free parking in the back of the building.
Dim sum food
We order all these dishes to share between 5 adults. Reminder that we like to over-order, haha.
Deep fried taro dumpling with dried shrimp and minced pork ($9) + Deep fried dumpling with shrimp and pork ($7)
The dumplings on the blue plate is the one with deep fried taro (it looks like hay, I know lol). My sister enjoys eating these but I’m not a big fan of taro so I usually just skip it.
The dumplings in the background are deep fried dumplings with glutinous rice. These are the ones I like as they have a nice chewy texture. Inside the shrimp and pork stuffing makes it savory.
Steamed crystal prawn dumplings ($8) and siu mai ($8)
For those who don’t eat dim sum that often, these 2 are classic dim sum dishes that are a must order no matter where you go! It’s a great way to judge a restaurant too based on these 2 dishes.
The steamed prawn dumplings from Sun Sui Wah are plump and quite large. The translucent wrapping is not too thick and there’s a lot of prawn stuffing inside. Didn’t stick too much to the paper of the basket so that’s a plus.
The siu mai is stuffed with pork and shrimp. It is a pretty decent size and the inside is moist and juicy with the steamed pork and shrimp.
Both dishes pass the mark!
Baked BBQ pork buns ($7)
These little buns are stuffed with bbq pork and baked with sugar icing on top to create that pattern on top. This means that the exterior of the bread is sweet but the inside is actually salty/savoury. Most dim sum places offer a traditional bbq pork bun with steamed white bread, but my family always prefers it baked with the icing on top as it makes it a little more unique.
Giant sesame ball ($18)
You probably saw from the previous pictures, but there is a freaking giant ball in the picture lol. This is the main attraction of Sun Sui Wah’s new dim sum menu! It is a GIANT sesame ball!
The inside is hollow but the texture is thin and chewy. They have a chunk of mochi at the bottom of the ball that is supposed to be the highlight of the dish. Once you are done admiring the ball (aka taking photos), the staff will come and cut it up into pieces for you to eat.
My parents were really excited to see the giant sesame ball and I even feel like all the other servers and staff were also really proud of this dish. It takes the chef a minimum of 15 mins to create such a large ball and they usually only make around 5 a day depending on how many pre-orders they get. This means when you reserve your table for dim sum, you also have to pre-order this dish at that very moment. If you wait until the day of your reservation, you won’t be able to order this. Also, this dish is only available at the Vancouver location.
Deep fried shrimp wrapped in seaweed
This is also a new addition to Sun Sui Wah’s dim sum menu. It is made with shrimp paste wrapped in seaweed and then deep fried in a light batter coating. It’s a crispy dish and I like how much shrimp paste and actual pieces of shrimp meat are packed in this little roll.
Mushroom with black truffle sauce dumpling ($8)
I like truffle so I order these dumplings. There’s a lot of mushroom flavour in here so if you are a mushroom fan, you will probably like this dish! The truffle flavour is very mild but I liked how thin the dumpling wrapper is.
Deep fried chicken knuckles with spicy salt
This dish might not be for everyone, but my family likes it. It looks like popcorn chicken but it is actually chicken knee or knuckles, which means there’s more cartilage than there is actual meat (there’s still some meat on it!). I like the cartilage because it gives it a more interesting texture and the spicy salt and deep fried batter is super yummy too. This dish is hard to make at home.
Steamed rice roll with scallops ($9)
I don’t think I ate a piece of this as I was too full already, but we usually order the steamed rice roll with prawn, so I thought the scallop was interesting as an alternative. It is similar to any rice roll you order at a dim sum restaurant, you pour soy sauce on top and eat it. The rice roll is supposed to be smooth and silky.
BBQ duck and pork combo ($27)
I also was too full to eat this big plate of different BBQ meats, but it was nice that they had duck and pork as a combo for variety. I think we mostly packed this to go to eat at home later.
Mango pudding ($7)
Lastly, we order the mango pudding because of how cute it looks. Look! It’s a little corn but it’s a mango pudding.
You eat it with condensed milk on top and inside they have a few chunks of actual mango meat so that’s kinda nice. Usually they don’t have real mango meat inside.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: โญโญโญโญ
My family and I really enjoyed our dim sum at Sun Sui Wah in Vancouver. Everything was delicious and we were pretty happy with some of their new dim sum dishes, such as the giant sesame ball and the seaweed shrimp paste dish. I would say the giant sesame ball is a must order just to try it but since it’s so large, make sure you have at least 6-8 people otherwise you’ll have leftovers and it doesn’t taste very good if left out.
Classic dishes are also good so in general, the quality is above average. Prices are not cheap but not ridiculous for dim sum. For a Vancouver restaurant with such a long history, I am impressed with their food and how they are trying to revamp a very traditional cuisine and menu to incorporate new dishes.
We will definitely be back again for dim sum!
Sincerely, Loewe