The lobster value dinner is definitely a steal here – one 2-pound lobster, 3 authentic Cantonese dishes from their dinner menu with enormous portions, plus Chinese soup and dessert, for only $58 before tax! It sounds too good to be true but the deal is 100% legit!
I took my mom and 2 of her old lady friends from her little senior music club there on Christmas Eve. The place was pretty quiet before a huge family of 20 people crowded the centre of the dining room. I noticed the prices on their regular menu weren’t cheap at all, but their specials written in Chinese on the walls or the windows were definitely attractive. This proves that knowing how to read Chinese is definitely an advantage when you eat at a Chinese joint like this.
The 2-pound lobster was prepared well. With 8 dollars more, they offer to add yi mein noodles at the bottom of the dish, soaking up the luscious lobster flavored sauce. This might not be as luxurious as the 4-pound one that we had at HML Seafood in Richmond, but it still provided a lot of satisfying chunks of lobster meat for any seafood lover. And mind you that lobster value dinner at HMS had a whopping $98 price tag, for which we did get a bigger lobster but the rest of the deal was pretty much the same.
The Stir Fried Green Bean dish perfectly executed, leaving the green beans warm, juicy, tender but still with a little bit of crunch. My mom and the ladies loved it.
Halibut Hotpot was cooked nicely but it was not as good as the black cod hot pot that I had 2 weeks ago at Kwong Chow Congee & Noodle House. But halibut collar vs black cod belly? Bones vs no bones? I’m sure everyone can clearly see who is the winner here. Plus black cod is just so much oilier and more flavorful.
Steamed Free Range Chicken on Lotus Leaf was definitely a Cantonese classic. Adding ingredients of Chinese sausage, wood-ear and shiitake to the dish was a good attempt to enhance the dish but didn’t prevent the chicken from tasting bland and the lotus leaf flavor from being too subtle. For the same dish, I would prefer the one I had at McKim Wonton Mein Saga.
Okay the bottom line is, there are definitely better Chinese restaurants in the city, but you can’t beat the value of the meal. For the price, this meal was darn amazing!
Map and other reviews:
We were there two nights before you and had the $78 (?) dinner combo which consisted of 4 dishes (off the combos menu list), the lobster, bucket of rice, soup and dessert. For some strange (but good) reason, they offered us a complimentary dish of deepfried tofu with spicy pepper salt. Nice ! It was a large dish too. Our lobster was decided to be prepared with a simple ginger & green onion (“shuong tong”) sauce so the lobster flavour comes through better. It wasn’t bad but I felt the lobster pieces (meat) were a bit tough and dry compared to larger lobsters at other restaurants. Nevertheless all our other dishes were decent, the star being the Imperial Pork Chops which was not only a HUGE platter, but the chops were nicely fried crispy with a light but complete coating of the vinegary tomato-y sauce along with big slivers of white onions. The weakest dish we felt was our cod & tofu pot which lacked the pungent aromatics of garlic and ginger and the pieces of cod were overly-battered and which was mushy.
But considering all the factors, we like Always as our local neighbourhood Chinese resto. The decor is acceptably clean, the room feels spacious and the ambiance is loud. Yes there are better quality Cantonese restaurants around (Golden Harvest, Sun Sui Wah, Fraser Court, etc) but Always does offer good value with their combinations set menus in a cozier, more family-friendly environment.
BTW, our group of 7 (6 adults, 1 child) were very well fed, and we had quite a bit of leftovers to bring home. At $90 incl. tax and tip, the meal was a tremendous value.
“….. the ambiance is *rarely* loud.”
Thanks for sharing, LotusRapper!!! Yes, ur experience was very similar to mine!!! Smaller lobster = less impressive. Fried fish in hot pot was not done properly… Well maybe the fish they used was not as fresh. The black cod hot pot at Kwong Chow on Main and 16th is sooooo much better and it’s only 10.80 on their special board! I think this is pretty common for the middle tier of Cantonese seafood restaurants in East Vancouver, to offer this kind of deals – lobster or crab combos. Definely awesome deals for a group of 4-8 people!