Dragon's View Chinese Cuisine

Steamed Meat Dumpling or "Chiu Chow Fun Guo"
Steamed Meat Dumpling or "Chiu Chow Fun Guo"

Restaurant: Dragon's View Chinese Cuisine
Cuisine: Dim Sum/Chinese/Asian
Last visited: Multiple - October 16, 09
Area: Richmond, BC
#1298 - 3779 Sexsmith Road
Price Range: $10-20

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very Good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 3.5
Service: 3
Ambiance: 4
Overall: 3.5
Additional comments:

• Located on the second floor
• Considered a higher end dim sum restaurant
• Traditional dim sum dishes
• Dim Sum should be more gourmet than it is
• Discount if you arrive before 11am
• Ordering form service
• Busy/line-ups at peak hours
  
• Fancy set up
• Serves dim sum and dinner
• Previous owners of Wah Wing Seafood (the restaurant that used to be there)
  

**Recommendation: Steamed Meat Dumplings or "Chiu Chow Fun Guo", Sticky Rice Meatball

This place is over a year old and was previously Wah Wing Seafood Restaurant. Wah Wing closed down due to health issues or something scary like that. The same owners renovated the place and created Dragon's View Chinese Cuisine. Don't be scared, even though it is the same owners they've completely changed it and it's clean and safe now.

It's considered an upscale dim sum place, but prices do not match or exceed Kirin. If you go before 11am they offer a discount like most dim sum places. Most of the items were ok, but I prefer Rainflower or Kirin to this one. The items aren't as executed as finely as it's competitors, although they still taste better than the average dim sum. The decor is quite nice and the second floor location gives it that royal feeling it aims for. I just feel like it banks on it's location/decor/ambiance rather than the food they serve. The dim sum doesn't match quite as well, but I would still come again.

On the table:

• Steamed Shrimp dumplings aka "har gow" 3/6
• Har gow is a staple item when you go for dim sum - it's every dim sum restaurants specialty. Most of the time you can gauge how good everything else will be depending on the har gow.
• The skin was a little dry and it was a bit sticky. I'm assuming they used no oil to give it that shiny finish. However sometimes the oil helps to give it that smooth texture you expect when eating a shrimp dumpling.
• The shrimp was nice and crunchy, but the one at Rainflower is bigger, juicier and more plump.
• They put a little more bamboo shoot than most other places to give it that extra crunchiness.
• **Chiu Chow Fun Guo 6/6
• A dumpling stuffed with minced pork, dried shrimp, water chestnuts, celery, green onion and bamboo shoots.
• This was delicious. The filling is well marinated in this pork based gravy sauce. It's nice and salty from the soy. It's not a creamy gravy either.
  
• The skin on these dumplings are thicker than the skin on the shrimp dumplings. It's a little more gummy and very chewy, probably made with more rice flour/gluten.
• I love the texture of these. With all these ingredients in the filling you get a bite of everything. It's almost like an Asian 'turkey' stuffing without the breadcrumbs wrapped in a dumpling.
• Steamed rice rolls with dried shrimp and chives 3/6
  
• I always order these whenever I see them on the menu. They pour a sweetened soy sauce on it and you eat them with peanut sauce and hoisin sauce.
• Traditionally these are known as "peasant food," but nowadays they try to make them more gourmet. In order to do this they make them fresh and they roll the rice roll out nice and thin. The ones here are not as thin or delicate as they should be for this type of restaurant.
• The shrimp was also dispersed inconsistently and some rolls were thicker than other ones.
• Steamed BBQ Pork Buns 2.5/6
• Hmmm I'm really not sure if they make these in house. It kind of reminded me of store bought ones, but it's just my own assumption and I could be wrong.
• They were freshly steamed and really hot when they came out, but the filling was a bit dry. That's why I think they could have been frozen. It wasn't saucy enough and the pork meat wasn't all lean. They had some fatty pieces in there that was distracting for me. Sure fat adds more flavour, but the ones made in house nowadays use pretty lean BBQ pork.
  
• The good thing was that the filling wasn't a bright red colour, so I know they didn't use much red dye which is great...which also makes me think they could have made them in house.
• Steamed Fish Maw with Shrimp Paste 3/6
  
• For me the dish when done well is a 6/6, but the way they make it here is a 3/6.
  
• Fish maw is the gas bladder of the fish. I know that sounds pretty weird. Fish maw is a Chinese delicacy so this dish is considered a "high-class" treat.
• Fish maw is the texture of a sponge and it's also a little bit slimy, mostly because it absorbs so many juices. This is a savoury dish.
• They steam it in a very flavourful fish or chicken broth so it's sponge-like characteristic just absorbs all the flavours and it gets really juicy. The fish maw held so much juice that the shrimp paste tasted dry.
• The shrimp paste is basically a shrimp cake. It's also where I mainly deducted points. It's not very good. I think they mixed it with fish paste or something. It was a rough texture instead of crunchy. It was course and a bit bitty as you chewed it.
  
• There was a good ratio of fish maw to shrimp paste though.
• The dish is served with the broth the fish maw is poached in. Drink this - it's really good. However I've had more flavourful ones before. I like it when they add steamed Gogi berries to the broth...they didn't do that here.
• 
• **Sticky Rice Meatball 3/6
  
• This is basically a chicken meatball (the frozen ones you can buy at the Asian supermarket) rolled in white and black sticky rice and some pork gravy.
  
• It's not like it's exceptionally good or anything, but the reason I recommended it is because it's one of their own creations. I've only seen it done here...so why not try it.
  
• It's simple but it tastes good. It's almost the same as the steamed sticky rice - the gravy is definitely the same.
• I like the combination of black and white sticky rice. Black sticky rice just has more texture to it, it's a bit firmer almost like wild rice.
• There's nothing gourmet about this dish, but for an upscale dim sum restaurant I kind of expect original dishes to be somewhat more gourmet.
  

• 
• Stir-fried Mixed vermiceilli with veggies 3.5/6
  
• I'm actually not exactly sure what name this dish is under on their menu, but I can describe it.
  
• It's a mix of cellophane (mung bean) vermicelli and rice flour vermicelli noodles. They stir fry it with Shiitake mushrooms, noodle thin carrots, Enoki mushrooms, green onions and dried scallops.
• I love the texture of this dish. Everything is chopped into noodle thin strands so you get a bite of everything and you can actually taste all the ingredients. It's well-balanced and consistent in flavours. A little crunchy from the veggies, juicy and sweet from the mushrooms, and soft and slippery from the 2 kinds of noodles. It wasn't too oily either. It's a pretty creative dish that has a lot of flavour without a lot of sauce.