New Mandarin Seafood Restaurant (時代文華海鮮酒家): The Main Dining Room Is Full, So You Eat in the Small One
New Mandarin Seafood Restaurant (時代文華海鮮酒家) is in the same building as the Kingsway T&T. That sounds convenient until you try to sit down.
I parked underground and took the elevator up. I came out on Kingsway. From there, I walked in the rain, passed an unmarked entrance and around the corner to the Gladstone Street entrance before I could see whether there was a table in the main dining room. If there is no room, I have to walk back in the rain to the Kingsway unmarked entrance to get seated. It would have made more sense if I could find out where I was sitting without such a hassle.
Two rooms, not one restaurant
The Gladstone side is the room they want you to photograph. Lavish. Glittering gold decor. If that side is full, they send you to the smaller Kingsway side.
The Kingsway side is a different meal. The decor is ordinary. It is a bit cramped, and it is broken into several small rooms. The room they put me in held about three tables of guests. You can hear the other tables. You cannot pretend you are in the main dining room.
I assume the food comes from the same kitchen, but the experience is completely different depending on which section of the restaurant you were assigned to. If you only look at the Gladstone photos, you will not recognize which restaurant I was in.
Getting a server
In that small room it is hard to get a server. You wait until one walks in, or you walk out and find one. Phone reception in the room is bad. They do have free Wi-Fi. There is no button, and there is no one planted by the door of a three-table room. The snag is not a speech about “service these days.” It is the layout. A server who is covering the main dining room does not see you until they happen to step in.
I would rather sit on the Gladstone street side than walk in the rain again. But with dim sum, you gotta grab the first seat available. The good thing is, the service is prompt on the Kingsway side once you get hold of a server.
Free Parking belongs to T&T Supermarket, not the restaurant
The free parking is not a restaurant perk by itself. After the meal, if you shop at T&T, T&T covers the parking for the guest. If you were already buying groceries, that is useful. If you drove here only to eat, do not count on the restaurant handing you a validated ticket as a thank-you. The building is shared. The waiver, when it happens, comes from the market.
I have had worse parking stories in this city. The odd part here is the sequence: underground, elevator, Kingsway, then a walk to Gladstone just to learn the table is back on the side you already left. If you want a Vancouver seafood room where the headache is the lot itself, I wrote that up at Neptune Palace. For a straighter Cantonese comparison in the city, Dynasty Seafood is the other room I keep next to this one. For dim sum, Gingeri Chinese Cuisine is the Richmond one.
What I actually ate
I am not going to invent a banquet. These are the plates I can stand behind.
The “truffle” on the truffle siu mai is basically truffle oil plus some chopped mushroom. Taste was okay, not more than that. If a menu uses the word truffle, I want truffle. Oil and a scatter of mushroom is a scent, not an ingredient. I would not order it again to show someone the kitchen.
The shrimp dumplings were the plate I would reorder. The filling is bouncy, and the filling is generous. That is the whole note, and it is enough. Dim sum lives or dies on whether the shrimp tastes like shrimp and whether they were cheap with the spoon. These were not cheap with the spoon.
The shrimp spring rolls were very crispy, with strong garlic, and they were fragrant. Garlic you can smell before you bite is a choice. I liked it. Someone who wants a plain fried roll will not.
The coconut jelly is shaped like little pigs. Kids really like them. If you are here with children, that plate does more work than the truffle line. It is a dessert you can point at. It is not a technique story.
604 Food Critics Assessment
Come for the shrimp dumplings and the shrimp spring rolls, and try to stay on the Gladstone side. Skip the truffle wording. If they walk you to the small Kingsway room, know that you will be the one finding the server.
I am not putting a star on a visit that never left that cramped room. The gold decor is real. I saw it. I did not eat in it. The food I did eat was uneven: two shrimp plates I would order again, a truffle plate I would not, and a pig-shaped jelly that earns its place if a kid is at the table.
Hours, from the restaurant’s own site: daily 10:00am–3:00pm and 5:00pm–10:00pm. Confirm the day you go. I am not locking a price.
How to get in touch
New Mandarin Seafood Restaurant (時代文華海鮮酒家)
4650 Gladstone St, Vancouver, BC V5N 0G7
(604) 336-9388
Same building as the Kingsway T&T. Use the Gladstone entrance if you want to see whether the main dining room has a table.
Menu
The menu photos sit at the bottom of the post. They are the restaurant’s printed sheets from this visit, not a price I paid. The lunch-special card and the pepper-and-salt chicken card are included with them.
