Fortune City Seafood Restaurant

Fortune City Seafood Restaurant is a relatively new (7-8 months) restaurant located on the third floor of the complex located at 1st and Renfrew.  The restaurant is pretty large and, on the night that we went, it was packed with tons of large families… as a matter of fact, I’m not sure if I even saw any small tables in the restaurant.

We managed to squeeze into 4 large tables and sat back and prepared to tackle a two and a half hour dining feast to celebrate a family birthday.  It looked like everyone else in the restaurant had the same idea because we saw a bunch of tables all order the same set-course meals that we did.  I don’t have pictures of the dishes as they were delivered because by the time the lazy susan rolled up to us, most of the dishes were picked through so this will have to do with just the portions that I picked up.

We started out with a cold plate of appetizers (thought I took a picture but it must have gotten messed up).  It had deep fried shrimp, jellyfish, various meat slices, and bbq duck.  The duck was really good as was the jellyfish and the meat slices.

Our second course was the Deep Fried Crab Claw wrapped in Shrimp Paste – I’m not sure if there’s any real symbolism to this dish other than the fact that it’s a fun dish to eat (especially for kids).

Our third course was Stir Fried Veggies with Seafood (celery, carrots, snap peas, scallops, shrimp, and clam meat?).  After the deep fried crab claw, this was a nice change.

Okay, I know there’s a lot of controversy over the use of shark fins lately… but don’t blame me for our fourth course – Shark Fin Soup with Crab Meat.  First of all, I’ve never seen the whole attraction to sharks fin in the first place since they really don’t have much taste.  Second, there is some discussion about the purported numbers reported in the media being misleading regarding shark finning – I’m not trying to justify it… just that any stats can be used to prove someone’s point.  Third, and most importantly, there really wasn’t that much shark fin in this soup.

Our fifth course was the Lobster.  I find that I prefer the Chinese style of preparing lobster over the Western style of plain, steamed with drawn butter.  The lobster is a “dragon” dish for Chinese and holds special meaning as part of the dragon-phoenix symbolism of auspiciousness.

Our sixth course was Yellow Skin Cold Chicken which represented the “phoenix” part of the yin and yang.  Personally, I prefer the crispy skin chicken over the cold yellow skin chicken.

Fish is often seen as a symbol of abundance and plentiful in Chinese cuisine which explains our seventh course – Steamed Whole Fish.  The fish was steamed perfectly and very moist and tender.  By the seventh course, we were starting to get a bit full so this light dish was very welcome.

Our eigth course was Stir Fried Snow Pea Tips with Mushrooms and Goose Feet.  I’ve never had goose feet with this before… usually it’s either just vegetables or perhaps served with abalone or sea cucumber.  The feet themselves were kind of like chicken feet that you get at dim sum but I don’t think they were very good.

Yee Mein Noodles are a symbol for longevity and was our ninth course.  While being pretty stuffed at this point, I really like noodles so I couldn’t pass up this dish.  It’s a very simple dish with just some sliced mushrooms but satisfying.

We knew that our tenth course would be a rice dish but we’ve never had Sticky Rice before in our set menu.

A dinner wouldn’t really be a meal without dessert and the traditional dessert at a Chinese restaurant is Red Bean Soup.

Since this was a birthday celebration, we also had the Longevity Peach Bun (Shou Tao) which is a steamed bun in the shape of a peach and filled with lotus paste.

The food was okay – some dishes better than others.  By the looks of the crowded tables, this is a popular choice for families celebrating special occasions.

There was one server at this restaurant that looked like he could have been a hitman for the mob… he just had that look on his face that you don’t want to mess with him.

Food:  3 / 5
Service:  2.5 / 5

320 – 2800 East 1st Avenue
Vancouver, BC