Chinese Restaurant Awards 2010: Vancouver

[fmed]

http://chineserestaurantawards.com/in...

The Diners' Choice preliminary results are up.

[fmed]

The the 2010 Diners' Choice winners are now published:

http://chineserestaurantawards.com/in...

[pinstripeprincess]

just kind of curious, but what do you locals think of the list?

i managed to scrape together a meager chinese dining itinerary when i visited and obviously barely scratched the surface. i was very happy with my options but don't recall seeing a good number of those in that list mentioned frequently if at all on these boards.

my meals were at kirin (richmond location, both dim sum and casual dinner), fishermans terrace seafood (dim sum), and lin's. for all the raves that lai wah heen gets in toronto i would MUCH rather eat at any one of these places (with the understanding of course that lin's is northern ;)). would love to know how the voted ones are in comparison.

[fmed]

They released this list prematurely - they even stated in the press release that they haven't validated all the votes to check for ballot stuffing. A poor strategy in my opinion.

I do think that most of the categories came out as expected. Some of my own personal picks didn't make the cut (Sea Harbour in particular). Some of the categories as so vast that it comes down to preferences and statistics (eg there are countless noodle houses - I go to whichever is most convenient and thus I have formed my favourites around that criterion).

The "Critics' Choice" awards is more interesting and should be announced at the same time as the final Diners' Choice results. The Critic's Choice will be a list of the "best" "Signature Dishes" in the city. If you are an aficionado of Chinese cuisine, you already know that the culture revolves around specific dishes or ingredients and the restaurant that prepare them best.

[Indy 67]

My husband and I will be visiting Vancouver this summer. We haven't made hotel reservations yet, but I assume we'll be staying downtown. Since we love Chinese food, this list is a great resource except for one detail. I notice that many of the recommendations are located in Richmond. Where is that compared to downtown Vancouver? Is Richmond accessible by public transportation? If so, what would be involved in the trip to Richmond? If not, what would be the likely price of a taxi ride?

I particularly noticed that all the dim sum recs are located in Richmond. If getting to Richmond becomes too much of a problem, what is the best dim sum restaurant in Vancouver itself?

Thanks.

[grayelf]

Indy, there are tons of posts on favourite dimsum so you might want to have a look (try Googling Chowhound, sometimes you get better results). Richmond is now reached relatively easily by a BART-like beast called Skytrain, either $2.50 or $3.75 each way depending on time of day. Cab ride from downtown would be at least $30 each way methinks depending on start and end point. The common wisdom seems to be that the "best" Chinese is in Richmond, though there are good quality options in other parts of town. For example, there are fans of the dimsum at Kirin downtown and on Cambie, as well as the Sun Sui Wah on Main (though some prefer the SSW in Richmond). I've heard Red Star on Granville is good though I haven't yet been and it's a bit of a schlep by $2.50 bus from downtown. There is a new Shanghai place on Cambie that early reports on show promise which is just over the bridge from downtown. The favoured Hunan option is in Burnaby which might actually be closer to downtown on a different Skytrain line. What kind of Chinese are you looking for besides dimsum? Perhaps you should start your own thread so as not to further hijack this awards one :-),

[fmed]

It might actually be easier and more convenient to go to Richmond on the Canada Line skytrain than to go to some of the recommended places in Vancouver (I'm thinking of Red Star and Sun Sui Wah - which are about $15 cab ride away).

It is about 20-25 minutes from downtown on the train to Aberdeen Centre (which is a destination in itself for Aberdeen Mall) - some of the spots are almost across the street (eg Sea Harbour) or a short distance (Viva City, Jade are about 10-15 minute walk). From the next station (Lansdowne) - Shanghai Wonderful, Shanghai River and Kirin are about a 5-10 minute walk away. At the next station (Ricmond Centre) is Chen's Shanghai Kitchen, S&W Pepperhouse.

I'm just mentioning the forum favourites - there are literally dozens of other worthy places to go.

-----
Aberdeen Centre
4151 Hazelbridge Way, Richmond, BC V6X4J7, CA

Chen's Shanghai Kitchen
8095 Park Rd, Richmond, BC V6Y, CA

Shanghai River Restaurant
7831 Westminster Hwy, Richmond, BC V6X1A4, CA

[Indy 67]

You asked "What kind of Chinese [am I] looking for besides dim sum"? The problem is that I look at this list and I feel like a complete newbie. Yes, my husband and I have traveled in China -- happily eating in places where no one spoke any English. We just pointed to dishes that looked good to us on our neighbors' tables. Yes, we routinely eat Chinese in restaurants in our hometown, Northern Virginia. However, N. VA is phenomenal Vietnamese food locale rather than a Chinese food destination. We don't have the variety and specificity of this Vancouver list. For example, X.O. Taste serves excellent Hong Kong dishes, but I don't know how my experience relates to category seven (cafe) or category three (casual restaurant) in spite of having eaten in Hong Kong on our trip. In another example, the DC metro area has a number of good Sichuan restaurants, but I don't see this category on the list.

Bottom line: I'd welcome a bit of explanation of the categories on the list so I can answer your question.

[fmed]

In terms of regionality: Vancouver does Cantonese and Shanghainese cuisine best. We have other more obscure regional cuisines - Sichuan, Hunan, Hakka, Fujian, Indian-Chinese, etc....so if you don't see many of these where you are from and are interested in sampling - we can give you specific recs. In particular, here is one excellent Hunan place here which might be the top truly authentic Hunan place in this continent (Alvin Garden) - most of the Hunan I have seen in the US is quite Americanized - this one is the real deal.

The other categories are types of restuarants (actually more like "types of eating") that are common to the city. Our version of Chinese "fast food" is served in Noodle Houses - which serve the closest to "Americanized" Chinese - though you may not recognize or find certain dishes common in the East (I'm talking about old-school Americanized Chinese dishes such as Egg Rolls or Crab Rangoon - which are nowhere to be found here).

Another "fast food" category are our BBQ Houses (which are often attached to Noodle Houses - but not always - the ones listed specialize in BBQ'd meats to go).

And yet another are Congee Houses (which once again are often actually Noodle Houses - except that these guys do a particularly good Congee and often have specialty toppings such as ostrich, emu, offal, etc).

HK Cafes are "Cha Chan Teng" - you may have some over on your neck of the woods. They serve re-inventions of Western food like spaghetti, etc - but with an HK twist. They also serve classics such as Milk Tea, etc. They were a bit of a fad in the US and I think many have disappeared down there, but here they are a mainstay Chinese restaurant category.

[foodkarma]

Thanks for posting this. Very interesting, definitely see some of my personal favs up there. Also inspires me to eat Chinese everyday that I'm back home in Van for Christmas.