The environment is average, with a musty smell that isn't pleasant.
Overall, the food was disappointing. We ordered four dishes. The first was the yellow eel rice, which was quite good. In fact, I think it's the best eel clay pot rice I've had among the eight places I've tried in Vancouver because the eel was crispy（爽脆）. However, the other dishes were subpar. We ordered salt and pepper tiger prawns, but the shrimp were just ordinary prawns, not tiger prawns, and they were overly salty. The dry-fried beef rice noodles was the worst I've had in Vancouver—the beef was tough and very salty. The entire dish was greasy, with a strong oil flavor, as if it had been cooked in oil used for frying. Finally, the beef short ribs were also so salty that I could barely eat them; I had to rinse them in water several times just to manage.
Another point I didn’t like was that we wanted to order pineapple buns, but the server said we had to reserve them by phone. The same went for the braised short ribs. However, these requirements were not clearly indicated on the menu.
Also, we had a 5:30 reservation, but the chef arrived at the restaurant only at that time. Shouldn’t the chef arrive at least an hour before opening to prepare?
I feel this restaurant is careless about its food and business. It's not worth trying, and you shouldn't easily trust the promotions on Instagram. Everyone should be cautious about checking it out.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 3
Joseph Leung
A friend really wanted to try their sweet and sour pork after hearing her friend raving about it. I’m typically not a big fan of SS pork. Although it is as authentic as it can be for Cantonese cuisine, it conjures a certain stereotypical perception of the typical North American Chinese restaurant.
I was very wrong of my presumption until I checked out their dishes online and after my visit. The restaurant serves authentic Hong Kong bistro dishes. Some of them carry innovative twists.
For the 2 of us, we had (1) sweet and sour pork (named differently on the menu but it’s easy to find) (2) deep fried beef brisket (3) pan fried oyster pancake.
I’ll start with the SS pork. I did love it at Kin’s. Unlike similar dishes in other restaurants, the pieces at Kin’s are not coated with a thick layer of batter hiding a tiny bit of pork. The pork pieces at Kin’s are juicy and coated with a thin layer of batter. We could actually taste the pork. The sauce was not overpowering but the slight tartness made you want to eat another piece, and another piece, and another piece …
The deep fried beef brisket was very rich. It would have paired if we had ordered a very light dish to go with it but it tasted good. I took the left over home and served it to my dad the next day. He quite enjoyed it. We usually have beef briskets in soups or stews so the deep fried version was a welcoming twist for us.
The pinnacle of our dinner was the oyster pancake. It was pan fried golden brown. The first bite was crispy but the chewiness (good chewiness) of the sweet potato starch used in pancake soon followed. We had oysters in every bite. I grew up eating oyster pancakes very often in Hong Kong as my mother’s family is from Chiu Chow. We recently had oyster pancake at a fairly new Chiu Chow restaurant near City Hall and it was NOTHING compared to Kin’s. The oyster pancake was a special at Kin’s the evening we visited and I hope enough patrons order the dish so it goes into the menu. My mother would have loved it.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Radu
Not for me
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 3
iris x
One bite, felt like I’m back home
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
James Ma
My girlfriend recommends me to try this restaurant for their sweet and sour pork, I did, and I love it. It’s a simple dish that you can find anywhere, to me what I like was the good quality of pork they used, the meat had some fat in it, made it not dry; the sauce was to my liking and the way it was cooked. It was the best S/S pork I have had in Vancouver. The second dish we ordered was beef brisket tempura. I have never tried this cooking style, again I love it, it came with curry sauce on the side. Again the meat quality of the beef brisket was excellent, not dry at all unlike many places I went. Highly recommended. Please note this place is small, only one chef, it’s a bistro style restaurant, don’t expect fast food service, be patient with your order, your taste buds will be rewarded accordingly. Also ordered an almond dessert, fresh ingredients and I love it.
Tommy Cheng
What an interesting experience.
The server was a nice lady that has difficulties with English. She took my order but came back three times pointing at the wrong things.
That’s okay. At least the order was right in the end. However the chef came back out and said half the things I ordered is out. This is okay, maybe it was busy.
I ordered new dishes and began the prolonged culinary journey. Not sure how the process is for cooking deep fried eggplants, but maybe they had to track and hunt down fresh eggplants from their natural habitats. Then perhaps they painstakingly pressed the oil by hand, fresh and made to order. The price and wait time would certainly suggest that this might be what happened.
The eggplant came out in 45 minutes. Complete with Costco Thai dipping sauce. It was not bad.
We also ordered the Hawaiian seafood fried rice as well. It took about an hour to come out. It’s supposed to come in a pineapple boat, but sadly there was none, and there was barely any pineapples either. Perhaps the pineapple boat sailed away along with the pineapple bits due to scheduling and timing issues.
The slow cooked beef short rib that we ordered came out in about an hour and fifteen minutes. It sure was slow cooked though, possibly cooked with a lighter or a magnifying glass, since it was lukewarm at best when it came out.
We also ordered lamb popsicles, but that was never mentioned or seen, or heard from. I didn’t want to ask them about it, since I fear that it would pressure them into trying for another hour to capture a lamb.
The chef definitely puts a lot of time and effort into his dishes, mainly time. And the price reflects that too.
The server was polite, and very helpful in keeping my water refilled though.
Definitely the best Chinese restaurant in downtown if you know the owner, or the only Chinese restaurant you ever went to, and/or think that time is an abstract concept.
The establishment is also very kid friendly, as the shrieking kids seem to be enjoying themselves.
Kid-friendliness: Definitely kid friendly, as all the screaming children seem to be having fun.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 2
Paul Hsu
The food, prepared by the restaurant owner, is delicious. You can also request authentic Chinese dishes that are not on the menu due to his extensive experience in Chinese cuisine. However, it's important to be a little patient since all the food is made to order. This is perfect for someone who enjoys trying different dishes tailored to their taste without having to do the cooking. Pre-order a couple of days in advance, he will get the ingredients you like to cook up a feast for you and your friends. ???
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Cynthia
The food is very good and large portions. We noticed everyone including ourselves were unable to eat the whole meal, leaving the restaurant with some very tasty leftovers. Worth the wait..
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Diesel
Traveled to Vancouver July 27/24 and was looking forward to trying this place. Used GPS to locate it on Sat eve. and we found it closed with all the lights off. The hours posted on the door said it was open? What a Joke!
Spirits
Great food and good staff.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Deep Fried Spicy Squid Tentacles, House XO Sauce Seafood Bean Vermicelli, Fresh Mango Pudding
Edit: I appreciate the reply and hope you do well. It's not easy running a restaurant in this city. We will hopefully get to try your amazing looking food one night.
Original: Tried to come here twice during business hours - posted on door and Google - lights on, door locked, noone inside. Seems like you are still having staffing issues? But if you can't staff properly for 6 months, maybe adjust your hours to minimize disappointed patrons. We live close by so it's no big deal to walk past and check, but imagine people driving in across the city only to be locked out.
Alejandra Cerecedo
Try their specials! Did not disappoint, everything was delicious. Owners and chefs are truly passionate about their food!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
lucas lynum
The food was descent at best, and it took an excruciatingly long time for everyone to get their food. The excuse was made that the restaurant was understaffed, but it was empty when we got there. They could also have told us to look elsewhere if they knew it would take such a long time to finish the food. No compensation was made and we left the restaurant very unsatisfied.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 1
Leah Lynum
Most disappointing restaurant I’ve ever been to?♀️ none of the family got to eat together because the food came like 30 minutes apart from each other. The food was not worth all the waiting time, and was definitely over priced.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
André Lynum
Half the family got the food after 30 minutes. One waited almost an hour and the last more than an hour. Was alone in the restaurant when we came. Average food and bad service.
The environment is average, with a musty smell that isn't pleasant.
Overall, the food was disappointing. We ordered four dishes. The first was the yellow eel rice, which was quite good. In fact, I think it's the best eel clay pot rice I've had among the eight places I've tried in Vancouver because the eel was crispy（爽脆）. However, the other dishes were subpar. We ordered salt and pepper tiger prawns, but the shrimp were just ordinary prawns, not tiger prawns, and they were overly salty. The dry-fried beef rice noodles was the worst I've had in Vancouver—the beef was tough and very salty. The entire dish was greasy, with a strong oil flavor, as if it had been cooked in oil used for frying. Finally, the beef short ribs were also so salty that I could barely eat them; I had to rinse them in water several times just to manage.
Another point I didn’t like was that we wanted to order pineapple buns, but the server said we had to reserve them by phone. The same went for the braised short ribs. However, these requirements were not clearly indicated on the menu.
Also, we had a 5:30 reservation, but the chef arrived at the restaurant only at that time. Shouldn’t the chef arrive at least an hour before opening to prepare?
I feel this restaurant is careless about its food and business. It's not worth trying, and you shouldn't easily trust the promotions on Instagram. Everyone should be cautious about checking it out.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 3
A friend really wanted to try their sweet and sour pork after hearing her friend raving about it. I’m typically not a big fan of SS pork. Although it is as authentic as it can be for Cantonese cuisine, it conjures a certain stereotypical perception of the typical North American Chinese restaurant.
I was very wrong of my presumption until I checked out their dishes online and after my visit. The restaurant serves authentic Hong Kong bistro dishes. Some of them carry innovative twists.
For the 2 of us, we had (1) sweet and sour pork (named differently on the menu but it’s easy to find) (2) deep fried beef brisket (3) pan fried oyster pancake.
I’ll start with the SS pork. I did love it at Kin’s. Unlike similar dishes in other restaurants, the pieces at Kin’s are not coated with a thick layer of batter hiding a tiny bit of pork. The pork pieces at Kin’s are juicy and coated with a thin layer of batter. We could actually taste the pork. The sauce was not overpowering but the slight tartness made you want to eat another piece, and another piece, and another piece …
The deep fried beef brisket was very rich. It would have paired if we had ordered a very light dish to go with it but it tasted good. I took the left over home and served it to my dad the next day. He quite enjoyed it. We usually have beef briskets in soups or stews so the deep fried version was a welcoming twist for us.
The pinnacle of our dinner was the oyster pancake. It was pan fried golden brown. The first bite was crispy but the chewiness (good chewiness) of the sweet potato starch used in pancake soon followed. We had oysters in every bite. I grew up eating oyster pancakes very often in Hong Kong as my mother’s family is from Chiu Chow. We recently had oyster pancake at a fairly new Chiu Chow restaurant near City Hall and it was NOTHING compared to Kin’s. The oyster pancake was a special at Kin’s the evening we visited and I hope enough patrons order the dish so it goes into the menu. My mother would have loved it.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Not for me
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 3
One bite, felt like I’m back home
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
My girlfriend recommends me to try this restaurant for their sweet and sour pork, I did, and I love it. It’s a simple dish that you can find anywhere, to me what I like was the good quality of pork they used, the meat had some fat in it, made it not dry; the sauce was to my liking and the way it was cooked. It was the best S/S pork I have had in Vancouver.
The second dish we ordered was beef brisket tempura. I have never tried this cooking style, again I love it, it came with curry sauce on the side. Again the meat quality of the beef brisket was excellent, not dry at all unlike many places I went. Highly recommended.
Please note this place is small, only one chef, it’s a bistro style restaurant, don’t expect fast food service, be patient with your order, your taste buds will be rewarded accordingly.
Also ordered an almond dessert, fresh ingredients and I love it.
What an interesting experience.
The server was a nice lady that has difficulties with English. She took my order but came back three times pointing at the wrong things.
That’s okay. At least the order was right in the end. However the chef came back out and said half the things I ordered is out. This is okay, maybe it was busy.
I ordered new dishes and began the prolonged culinary journey. Not sure how the process is for cooking deep fried eggplants, but maybe they had to track and hunt down fresh eggplants from their natural habitats. Then perhaps they painstakingly pressed the oil by hand, fresh and made to order. The price and wait time would certainly suggest that this might be what happened.
The eggplant came out in 45 minutes. Complete with Costco Thai dipping sauce. It was not bad.
We also ordered the Hawaiian seafood fried rice as well. It took about an hour to come out. It’s supposed to come in a pineapple boat, but sadly there was none, and there was barely any pineapples either. Perhaps the pineapple boat sailed away along with the pineapple bits due to scheduling and timing issues.
The slow cooked beef short rib that we ordered came out in about an hour and fifteen minutes. It sure was slow cooked though, possibly cooked with a lighter or a magnifying glass, since it was lukewarm at best when it came out.
We also ordered lamb popsicles, but that was never mentioned or seen, or heard from. I didn’t want to ask them about it, since I fear that it would pressure them into trying for another hour to capture a lamb.
The chef definitely puts a lot of time and effort into his dishes, mainly time. And the price reflects that too.
The server was polite, and very helpful in keeping my water refilled though.
Definitely the best Chinese restaurant in downtown if you know the owner, or the only Chinese restaurant you ever went to, and/or think that time is an abstract concept.
The establishment is also very kid friendly, as the shrieking kids seem to be enjoying themselves.
Kid-friendliness: Definitely kid friendly, as all the screaming children seem to be having fun.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 2
The food, prepared by the restaurant owner, is delicious. You can also request authentic Chinese dishes that are not on the menu due to his extensive experience in Chinese cuisine. However, it's important to be a little patient since all the food is made to order. This is perfect for someone who enjoys trying different dishes tailored to their taste without having to do the cooking. Pre-order a couple of days in advance, he will get the ingredients you like to cook up a feast for you and your friends. ???
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
The food is very good and large portions. We noticed everyone including ourselves were unable to eat the whole meal, leaving the restaurant with some
very tasty leftovers. Worth the wait..
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Traveled to Vancouver July 27/24 and was looking forward to trying this place. Used GPS to locate it on Sat eve. and we found it closed with all the lights off. The hours posted on the door said it was open? What a Joke!
Great food and good staff.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Deep Fried Spicy Squid Tentacles, House XO Sauce Seafood Bean Vermicelli, Fresh Mango Pudding
Restaurantji Recommends
Edit: I appreciate the reply and hope you do well. It's not easy running a restaurant in this city. We will hopefully get to try your amazing looking food one night.
Original: Tried to come here twice during business hours - posted on door and Google - lights on, door locked, noone inside. Seems like you are still having staffing issues? But if you can't staff properly for 6 months, maybe adjust your hours to minimize disappointed patrons. We live close by so it's no big deal to walk past and check, but imagine people driving in across the city only to be locked out.
Try their specials! Did not disappoint, everything was delicious. Owners and chefs are truly passionate about their food!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
The food was descent at best, and it took an excruciatingly long time for everyone to get their food. The excuse was made that the restaurant was understaffed, but it was empty when we got there. They could also have told us to look elsewhere if they knew it would take such a long time to finish the food. No compensation was made and we left the restaurant very unsatisfied.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 3
Service: 1
Most disappointing restaurant I’ve ever been to?♀️ none of the family got to eat together because the food came like 30 minutes apart from each other. The food was not worth all the waiting time, and was definitely over priced.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
Half the family got the food after 30 minutes. One waited almost an hour and the last more than an hour. Was alone in the restaurant when we came. Average food and bad service.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
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