King’s Chinese Cuisine: Not Your Fancy Dim Sum Place

Despite never eating at King’s Chinese Cuisine before, our visit was a bit of a throwback for me… mainly because this place really kicks things old school.

From the outside, this restaurant located on Main Street in Vancouver seems a bit nondescript and like it has seen better days. The interior is no different. They still use white plastic table covers here. I suppose it goes back to a time when things were more efficient at Chinese restaurants. No need to bother changing a fabric tablecloth if it gets dirty, just peel off the top plastic sheet and the next clean sheet is all ready to go.

While they don’t have push carts here, before we even had a chance to look at the menu, a man came by carrying a tray of freshly fried Ham Sui Gok. These football-shaped dumplings turned out quite well with a crisp outer shell which encased a meaty and savory filling. The thing that I’ve always liked about this dim sum dish is the chewy texture of the glutinous rice flour that they use.

After we placed our order, it was probably another 20 minutes before the rest of our dishes arrived (mostly at the same time).

Given the hole-in-the-wall vibe I was getting here, I was a bit concerned but the food turned out pretty well like the Steamed Spareribs.

The Siu Mai here were huge. This classic Cantonese dim sum dish has always been one of my favourites.

Like the most of the other dishes, I was pleased with how the Eggplant with Shrimp Paste turned out as the eggplant was quite tender.

The Steamed Beef Rice Rolls and the Chinese Donut Rice Rolls were the only weak points here. Served on the same 70’s ceramic plates that most Chinese families had in their kitchen cupboard (seriously… I totally recognize that pattern), the Chinese donut rice roll didn’t come with the familiar hoisin/peanut sauce that you get in most Chinese restaurants.

Last up for our meal was the Singapore-Style Vermicelli Noodles which is prepared with the characteristic yellow curry giving the noodles a pleasant golden hue.

Overall, most dishes were pretty good. If you’re not looking for anything fancy or showy, King’s Chinese Cuisine is an adequate dim sum restaurant in the Riley Park area. They didn’t take away any of our empty dishes during our meal… they just waited until we were done and then wrapped up all of the dirty dishes in the top plastic sheet and they were good to go with a new plastic sheet underneath.

4488 Main Street
Vancouver, BC