King Crab Season has started at Vancouver Restaurants ($13.80/lb)

[fmed]

Reports at another forum indicate that the going price for live King Crab at many Chinese seafood restaurants for $13.80/lb (usually prepared 3 ways). (Thanks Lee!).

To you Olympic tourists still out there....you will not find Live King Crab cheaper anywhere else in the world than here right now. Indulge while you can.

The season lasts a few weeks.

[modernist]

bumping an old thread hoping i can get some old "king crab veterans" in on the discussion.

here is a post i put up last friday. basically i'm looking for a good and value place to get king crab now, knowing full well its very late season and more expensive now.

hey folks,

i'm here in vancouver from los angeles for 3 more weeks and i want to get king crab.
i know its waaay late in season and waaay overpriced, but i'm looking for value/quality ratio. dont care about ambience or service. in general, how do the crabs taste at this time of year? less fatty?
people always say that the big king crabs taste better, but personally i've always found smaller crustaceans to taste better, smaller shrimp vs. big, smaller lobster vs. big... any thoughts?

i had dimsum at come along restaurant and noticed that king crab was about 20/pound and they had 8 pound crabs.

i also had dimsum at sunsuiwah and king crabs were 40/pound (not sure how big they were)

but the way, the dim sum at come along dominated the surprisingly completely mediocre dimsum at sun sui wah

thanks for your help!

[fmed]

We finally made it out for King Crab - it maybe our one and only time this season. $9.99 per lb at Empire Chinese Cuisine on 8251 Alexandra Rd Richmond (not to be confused with Empire Seafood on Westminster Hwy). Not in the CH database.

We had it four ways: Steamed with Garlic sauce, Spicy Deep Fried knuckles, Portuguese Rice in the carapace, and Yi Mein for the crab juices. Wonderfully sweet delicious meat.

Go now - one more week left at these rock bottom prices.

[rosetown]

I hope everyone had a blast!
Empire Chinese Cuisine - added to database - can't beat the price & I was happy to pay 4 dollars/lb more just for the experience at Sun Sui Wah on Main!

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Empire Chinese Cuisine
8251 Alexandra Rd, Richmond, BC V6X, CA

[yimster]

Well it now 2013 has it started yet? I am in Victoria now and hope to have some before I return to the states.

[fmed]

I don't think so? But I am not certain. Find a Chinese newspaper in Victoria and have a look at the ads.

[yimster]

I will do just that on Monday when I return to the mainland

[knight]

Adding SSW Main street as another non pretentious choice

[grayelf]

I know it's not king crab but just for fun thought I'd post a link to the recent SF Bay Area discussion on dungeness which appears to be in season also: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/667682

[annadev]

I am new (relatively) to Vancouver, would like names of some restaurants where we could find King Crab?

[fmed]

Sun Sui Wah, Kirin, Golden Swan, Red Star, and a number of others...any decent Cantonese "Seafood" Restaurant will be serving Crab over the next few weeks. Sun Sui Wah is well known for King Crab preparation. The Crabs are between 6-11 lbs, I believe.

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Sun Sui Wah Seafood Restaurant
3888 Main St, Vancouver, BC V5V3N9, CA

Golden Swan Restaurant
5380 Victoria Dr, Vancouver, BC V5P3V7, CA

Red Star Seafood Restaurant
8298 Granville St, Vancouver, BC V6P4Z4, CA

Kirin Seafood Restaurant
201 555 W 12th, Vancouver, BC V5Z3X7, CA

[rosetown]

fmed
"The Crabs are between 6-11 lbs, I believe"

I've never had King Crab. Forgive my ignorance, but is this a serving for more than one person? Prepared 3 ways? - please elaborate. I'll be in Vancouver in about 10 days from now. Sounds great.

[fmed]

Yes. A medium sized crab should be able be to feed four people. You choose one from a tank, they bring it out for your approval, then they prepare it. The three "ways" depends on the restaurant...an example: the steamed legs/claws with in some sort of broth (eg rice wine/garlic broth), the knuckles flash fried, then the head (carapace) stuffed with meat and rice.
http://www.vanmag.com/Shopping/King_C...

[rosetown]

Tnx, and a great link for further explanation. I have to do it.

[fmed]

It definitely is a "must." Give me King Crab over Lobster any day.

[rosetown]

So, if you were to choose where would you go. I made a few phone calls and it's on. I assume reservations are not necessary.

[fmed]

Within Vancouver - Kirin (Seafood - Cambie St/12th) and Sun Sui Wah for KC are safe bets. I did hear from another forum that Kirin has not dropped their prices to these levels...phone ahead to confirm. Sun Sui Wah is our go-to for KC.

There are literally dozens of other worthy places - so other forum members may post their own favourites (I hear Ken's on Kingsway is a favourite - I've never had the KC there)

[rosetown]

Richmond,as opposed to Vancouver, is in the cards if that is a better choice.

[fmed]

The ones in Vancouver are equally good for King Crab, but for the sake of completeness: in Richmond -- Kirin, Excelsior, Sun Sui Wah. Sun Sui Wah's Richmond location was the first time I ever had KC, actually. It's one of the venerable old-guard, and there has been a general decline in quality in recent years, but it usually comes back to form during KC season. (That would be my choice for KC in Richmond.)

I bet Fisherman's Terrace, Jade Seafood are good too.

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Sun Sui Wah Seafood Restaurant
4940 No 3 Rd, Richmond, BC V6X3A5, CA

Fisherman's Terrace Seafood Restaurant
4151 Hazelbridge Way, Richmond, BC V6X4J7, CA

The Jade Seafood Restaurant
8511 Alexandra Rd, Richmond, BC V6X1C3, CA

Kirin Seafood Restaurant
1991 Savage Rd, Richmond, BC V6V0A4, CA

[grayelf]

Hey fmed, do you know if Sea Harbour does king crab? I bet it would be awesome there (forgive the irony of the crab-allergic 'Hound posting about it but others had a great crab dish at Sea Harbour!). The reason I mention it is that you could have other really good stuff along with Mr Crab here...

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Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant Ltd
3711 No 3 Rd, Richmond, BC V6X2B8, CA

[fmed]

I am pretty sure Sea Harbour does it. (No decent Cantonese seafood joint would be caught not doing King Crab during the season)

[fmed]

adding Sea Harbour

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Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant Ltd
3711 No 3 Rd, Richmond, BC V6X2B8, CA

[knight]

Golden Star is the only place to go , Richmond is way over rated

[fmed]

Hah! I think not. Really Burnaby is where it's at.... ( Nice to see you here Knightafter.)

[knight]

I thought I'd put in my 2 cents , Richmond and BBY are fine but I'm lazy and prefer to stay within 5 mns of the house :)

[fmed]

Five mins from mine too, of course. I may go to Bing Sheng just to be different. I wonder what the price is at Golden Phoenix.

[rosetown]

Tonight, 4 of used had an 8 lb king crab at Sun Sui Wah on main. prepared three ways. Oh so sweet!! Thanks to all. The show of the crabs being brought to the tables was fabulous. The place was packed.

[rosetown]

photo attached from an adjacent table.

[fmed]

Nice one rosetown. It is quite a show for sure. What was the price? Did you have any other dishes or did you stick to the three ways?

[rosetown]

3 way crab:
* legs split and steamed in garlic - lots of garlic
* knuckles deep fried
* carapace stuffed with crab,shrimp,rice - curried Portuguese style

sides:
* Yee Mein noodles
* sweet pea tips with garlic
* crispy skin chicken
The head waiter, Winston, was very helpful, in selecting the sides. I had a list with me and he either accepted or nixed items based on suitability.

It was 13.80/lb. Winston said that the February price was 42.00/lb. Expensive, because the product was imported from the Asian side of the North Pacific.

Anyhow, we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

[twinkienic]

Crabs can definitely go up to 14 lbs, at least. My family usually recommends buying a crab at least 9 lb as they feel that has more meat and tastes sweeter. I would rustle up at least 4 people for a meal (4 would be doable, but there wouldn't be room to order much else).