Grand River: Improved dim sum!

Honestly, for a while I refused to come here for dim sum since the quality was so poor. All the food was too oily and overfried that it was almost disgusting to ingest. However, my mom convinced me otherwise, so here I am!

Restaurant: Grand River Seafood Restaurant (visit their website here)

Location: #112- 100 Schoolhouse Street, Coquitlam
Cuisine: Chinese, Dim Sum, Seafood
Price range: $10-15 per person



Date of visit: October 28, 2016
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 5/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 4/5

One of the staples that I like to order is Steamed Pork Dumpling ($4.50). These were actually decent, not too much lard, nice size, and had some shrimp and mushroom in it. Good texture.

Steamed Bean Curd Wrap in Oyster Sauce ($4.50) is Sunflower's favorites, they pack lots of pork inside the beancurd, which is steamed to be soft and moist.

My granny's must-have: Steamed Chicken Feet with Black Bean Sauce ($4.95). They used to only have 4 per dish (sometimes they still only have 4 if they're big), but there were five today, which feels like a better deal. All the flavors of the sauce are soaked into the feet and the skin falls right off the bone.

Deep Fried Squid ($6.95) is not the same as Deep Fried Squid with Spicy Salt, so be careful! We enjoy the squid tentacles over the body of the squid, and these are so tasty! Crispy and fresh all the time, not overly salty either!

Steamed Spareribs on Rice ($2.99 if you order 3 dim sum) is something my uncle ALWAYS orders. Though I prefer plain steamed spareribs, how can you argue with a dish that's under $3? It's basically steamed rice with pork spareribs on top, with a side of sweet soy sauce. Hits the spot and the carb go-to.

Steamed Meat Dumpling ($4.50) is sometimes ordered at our table, I felt the skin was nicely made-- a bit thick but chewy, soft, and moist. There were SO MANY PEANUTS inside, I didn't like it that much, but Sunflower did! The meat rissoles inside were tasty and just the way I remember them as a child though!

Can't ever have a day without fish for OldBean, so a Halibut with Supreme Soy Sauce and Scallions ($7.95) was in order. The halibut was overcooked and a bit dry, flavors were good though.

Another fishy favorite is their (boneless) Yellow Croaker with Supreme Soy Sauce and Scallions ($8.95). There's only about 9 pieces of fish, but oh so melt-in-your-mouth good. Crispy on the outside the fish is moist and flakey inside.

Deep Fried Milk (special item, forgot the price) was a special monthly item, and quite disappointing. The outside was crispy but hard and the "milk" inside was solid and overcooked.

Fried Prawn Dumpling ($5.50) is packed with shrimp and garlic wrapped together in a golden layer of crispy wonton skin. Juicy inside and crunchy outside-- yum!

Steamed Tripe with Ginger and Green Onions ($4.95) is becoming rare in the dim sum scene nowadays because of the inflating price and complexity of preparation. However they do a good job here, no extra cornstarch coating on them, just plain steamed and delicious.

Mayo Pork Chops (special item, forgot the price) was definitely the wrong choice we made that day. The mayo was overwhelmingly sickening paired with the deep fried pork chop-- it was all too much. My piece had a lot of fat in it as well, which was disappointing.

Deep Fried Sweetened Glutinous Rice Ball ($4.50) took a good 35 minutes before it showed up at our table, since they make it fresh-- so remember to order it early! I'm glad they do this though, since it was super crispy, with the glutinous rice being soft and chewy. I didn't like the seasme paste filling though, it was not smooth and had lots of grit to it.

Finishing off with more dessert, Tapioca Cake with Red Bean Paste and Custard Paste ($4.50) was a beautiful presentation. Usually its harder to use small tapioca balls, but they did it!

It doesn't stick onto our hands and the tapioca balls are all cooked perfectly so that they are nice and chewy.

Service has much improved and their food has definitely turned for the better. I hope they keep it up and continue offering various different dishes each month!