The good news is that living in North Burnaby, we’ve always had a pretty good selection of food. And that selection continues to get better and more diverse. I was thrilled when Cazba open at the Amazing Brentwood, we’ve been fans of Chez Christophe since the beginning, and Viet Noodle Guy is arguably one of the best in the city. But, what about dim sum? What was once Wah Lun and later Ryan’s has now re-opened as Jade Palace Chinese Restaurant. Is it any good?
A Bit of a Storied History
For a bit of context, we tried Wah Lun not long after we moved to the neighborhood in 2011. We were not impressed. It wasn’t very good and we never went back. When Wah Lun quietly transformed into Ryan’s Chinese Restaurant, we hardly noticed and — for better or worse — never gave them a fair shake. Some of you might even remember when the location was a Dragon Inn.
With the grand opening of Jade Palace and the lack of dim sum options in Burnaby Heights and Brentwood, we figured it was as good an opportunity as any to give them a try.
True, there are a handful of dim sum dishes available at Paul’s Restaurant across the street. And you can get some northern style dim sum items at Grand Chinese on Lougheed Highway, which I named as the best Chinese restaurant in Brentwood and Burnaby Heights. Though, that’s almost by default, and it’s a different kind of Chinese food. Anyway, onto the dim sum at Jade Palace.
Jade Palace Dim Sum Menu
Like just about every other dim sum restaurant in Metro Vancouver these days, Jade Palace is not doing the old school push cart style. Instead, you get a fairly standard order sheet for all your dim sum items. One side has the usual steamed, fried and baked items, plus rice rolls and desserts.
The other side has larger, more substantial dishes, including clay pot rice, congee, fried rice and noodles, and a number of chef’s special items like deep fried chicken knees, deep fried chicken wings, sauteed green beans, and deep fried spicy pork trotters. I rarely order these kinds of things at dim sum myself, but to each their own.
On Our Table…
So, what did we order for dim sum at Jade Palace? Here’s a dish-by-dish breakdown.
Plenty of fish paste in these rice rolls, though the “crispy” bean sheets didn’t quite have as much texture as I would have liked. We thought about getting the rice rolls with Chinese donuts (ja leung) instead, which we might order next time. I’m a big fan of the textural contrast.
You get two fairly long spring rolls here, each cut in half to produce a total of four pieces. It is more of a slender spring roll, understandably, and I liked the inclusion of nori seaweed. Given the length, it may have been better if they were cut into thirds or even fourths. That’s largely a matter of personal preference. The shrimp seemed a bit lower quality and not the freshest.
When it comes to BBQ pork buns at dim sum, this style is my favorite. I’d rank it above the regular baked pork bun with the glazed top (cha siu chaan bao), which in turn ranks above the steamed pork bun (the fluffy white one). I even prefer it over the one with pineapple bun topping (cha siu bolo bao). This crispy, sugary topping is more like what you get on a Mexico bun at a Hong Kong bakery.
That’s the good news. The bad news — at least for me on a personal note — is that the crispy top on the Jade Palace version has a distinct gingery flavor to it. And, even if it makes me a bad Asian, I don’t actually like ginger. The bun is otherwise fine.
To the best of my recollection, this is the first time I’ve seen the lotus leaves wrapped in what appears to be parchment paper. My guess is that they are trying to avoid having the rice wraps stick together and/or to the bamboo steamer basket. The inclusion of wild rice is great from both a textural and flavor perspective. Each lo mai gai wrap includes a small piece of Chinese sausage (lap cheong) and some minced pork.
For anyone relatively new to the world of dim sum, dishes like this are perhaps the most intimidating. For dim sum veterans, foong jow (or “phoenix claw”) is a perennial favorite and a classic. The Jade Palace version offers a good amount of “meat” (really it’s mostly skin and connective tissue, but who’s counting?) on each of the feet. Unfortunately, they’re rather bland and aren’t really the right color. The “special sauce” could use some work, and I personally prefer my phoenix claws with more heat.
Just like the shrimp in the spring rolls, the prawns in the Jade Palace prawn dumplings were decent in quantity, if not especially great in quality. There was a distinct taste of white pepper in these har gow, perhaps to help mask the just okay quality of the prawns. We also found the skin/wrapper to be on the thicker side.
Welcome to Burnaby Heights, Jade Palace
So, what’s the verdict? While I think that the Jade Palace approach to traditional Cantonese style dim sum is an improvement over our Wah Lun experience years ago, it’s not that great either. I’d put it barely above the “good enough” threshold for when we want dim sum in North Burnaby and don’t want to drive somewhere further away. For that reason alone, it’s a welcome “addition” to the neighborhood.
Our total bill, including tea charge for two, tax and gratuity, came to just over $60.
Jade Palace Chinese Restaurant is located at 4524 East Hastings Street in Burnaby. They’re open daily from 9:30am to 10:00pm. If you pay for your bill before 11am, Monday through Friday, you get 15% off your dim sum bill. Visit jadepalaceburnaby.com for more information. They do offer online ordering, but oddly not for dim sum.
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