I don't like having chinese style lobster normally in any of the chinese seafood restaurants, but ho yuen kee's lobster is really good! The only complaint I have is that it'll be a tad pricey for someone with a big appetite and coming in a small group. My fiancee eats quite a bit so a 2lb lobster was definitely not enough for the both of us. The price is based on market price of lobster so... more

We only tried 3 dishes here:

Pros:

1. Lobster on sticky rice - It was good, and not cheap. We had a 2lb lobster and cost us $60
2. Shredded chicken and jelly fish - nice chicken flavor, love the crunchy cashew nuts.

We also have the won ton noodle for my son. It's nothing like Mak's wonton noodle in Richmond, BC

This place is real Chinese food. Usually quite busy, but doesn't take too long to get a table. Awesome service too.

Overall the food is about average and the famous sticky rice + lobster/crab is way overpriced

It would get 5 stars but it's not the cleanest restaurant, but it is Chinese food after all. My sister and I took my Dad on a quick vacation to Vancouver; we are from San Francisco. My Dad loves to try different Asian food so I found this place serving lobster sticky rice.
Thank goodness I called ahead to make a reservation because the place was PACKED!! on a Thursday night. We of course,... more

Day 4: Chinese Dinner...One Word Amazing

So i'm from NYC - the cantonese food scene there has been lacking in the last few years - nothing new or creative has been out there in a long time - and the same restaurants sell the same things all over. Granted it's good! But according to my friends, i need to try the cantonese food in Vacouver, San Francisco and Hong Kong. With that said:

The... more

One word summary: Lackluster.

I live in San Francisco and grew up in Asia and have always heard Vancouver has some of the best Cantonese food outside of Hong Kong; my family was very excited to try Ho Yuen Kee for their famous lobster sticky rice dish.

For three people, we ordered three of their most well known dishes - requisite lobster with sticky rice, jelly fish with chicken and beef stew... more

One of the "institution" of VAN Cantonese cuisine. Haven't been here for better part of two decades. Food, both variety and quality, has gone upmarket; but still relatively affordable.

Everybody orders the sticky rice dish, and so did we. Fresh enough, tasty enough; but maybe add some peas to the rice, and minimal MSG. Great taste, except those sticky rice weren't very sticky, if at all.... more

I will be making a special trip back to Vancouver just to eat here again. Next time I'm going to try the king crab on sticky rice.

Who wants to join me?!

This review is based on experience during Chinese New Year holiday period which does not necessarily reflect on future...
Everything ordered extremely salty (so salty I finished the whole pot of tea) From the hand shredded chicken with jelly fish (cold appy) to ling cod fish in clay pot.
Service is still decent at such a busy time though.
They ran out of congee!

I would say avoid this... more

Two stars because despite the variety of dishes we ordered, everything was salty and tasted similar.

From deep fried squid to pan fry beef, first I thought it was me.... Then after two minutes everyone on my table started to wonder if everyone else felt that it was salty...

Some bites were so salty that they tasted a bit bitter

The lobster rice....it was alright, not as legendary as it... more

Just checked out this restaurant after checking out different yelp reviews.
This restaurant is clean, the service is quick and the place is packed. Their signature dish is the steamed lobster over a bed of sticky rice and I'll def need to try this next time. The food was not very salty and everything we ordered tasted quite good. Plus you know it's good when all their customers are Chinese... more

It's one of those places where I know I'm going to get good food, whether it be a full on meal, or just a simple bowl of wonton noodles I know that this place has me covered! I've been here a number of times, whether for take out, a simple bowl of wonton noodles, a full on baked lobster sticky rice dinner, and late night with some lightly boiled geoduck and greens and again... and again... this... more

I really like finding a gem in the rough and love it when its right in my own backyard.
Of course we had the lobster sticky rice and I'm already planning on how to get back for another order. Also had a dry fried crab with garlic, and by garlic I mean piles of it.
Had a couple meat and veg dishes, some fu young, soup & guy lan to round out the meal.

Super delicious food and excellent service! You have to order their famous lobster with sticky rice! Best g big love of this restaurant.

Had an excellent meal here! We called 2 hr in advance to pre-order the Peking duck and lettuce wrap combo and they gladly reserved one for ya. It's one of the best I've had in Vancouver! Crispy and meaty duck slices, crispy chips, and loads of pipping hot wraps come with which makes this dish a HIT! Lettuce wrap was so-so. Bit over cooked and can use more veges.

We had:
- Peking duck 10/10
-... more

Good food and efficient service. 10% off if you pay cash.

We liked the lobster with sticky rice, the chicken jellyfish salad, watercress pork soup, tofu wraps and red bean dessert.

My family frequently comes here but noticed the food was a bit soggier today hence 4 stars instead of 5.

Wonton noodles are totally decent. Dinner is ok. Favorite dish is the baked lobster on sticky rice dish but it's not a cheap dish. Recommend reservations for dinner or they likely won't seat you! They take credit card which is nice.

I came here several times for dinner, and in my experience, dining at this restaurant was quite enjoyable. It is not a big venue in the first place, but it has a fair size. It also has a family ambience at the place. My in laws had their anniversary banquet here. My favorite dish is lobster with sticky rice, salty squid and Buddhist vegetable pot.

The lobster dish has an option for rice -... more

The service was extremely bad. Make sure you check your bill in the end. They added some deserts that we didn't order and told us they couldn't return it since the transaction was already completed. They even blame us that we did not check the bill before we pay. Definitely not going back to this place.

I came here to try the lobster and sticky rice dish after drooling over the pics taken by my follow Yelpers, and I was not disappointed! The pictures don't do the dish justice as one would assume its a personal serving size. Misleading! It's actually a gigantic portion meant to share! Unfortunately I didn't know this so I ordered it for 2 plus other dishes. Luckily the waitress gave us a heads... more

Amazing!! Lobster sticky rice is a must! Food was good and affordable. Not highly overpriced. It's mouth watering! Love it! It's a must go to eat!

Hands down the best Chinese restaurant I've been to in years. Yes I said it: years!!

The lobster with creamy rice and corn is to-die-for. You absolutely must order this- a meal at Ho Yuen Kee is not complete without this signature dish! You'll see it on every table and for good reason. The lobster is perfectly cooked and the sauce and rice are oh-so-tasty. The flavors are truly spot on.

In... more

I've eaten here quite often. About a month ago, I went with a friend and we ordered the crab with rice. The headwaiter brought over a crab and told us it was between 2 and 3 lbs. This meant very little to us so we said it was ok. We were quite astounded when we got the bill and it came to $140 just for the crab. He should have said something about the price of crab. How were we to have known... more

Dropped in to try their signature dish, Lobster on sticky rice in a steamer basket. Lobster was nicely prepared but I was expecting sticky rice, instead it's just long grain rice with kernels of corn. The lobster was 2.5 lbs but just the lobster dish was $67.00. The second dish, beef brisket, tendon and daikon, was only average. Mixed cold dish with jelly fish was good. Total meal $109.00 tax... more

One of my favorite places!!!!! The pre-ordered dishes are the best, for example the fried shrimp ball, winter melon soup, etc.

The service is good. The food is freshly made and very good taste.

However, this place is very noisy and crowded; and the tables are squished together, just like a typical Hong Kong style restaurant.

I've recommended many friends to go. And they all loved it. Make... more

Double Header – Lunch on Friday and Dinner on Sunday

This Chinese restaurant is located in South Vancouver. This restaurant has 6 booths and about 14 tables with seating for approximately 80 -100 people.
Lunch
We arrived around 1:15 PM on Friday and it wasn’t very busy as only 5-7 tables were occupied.
I chose this restaurant as we were in the area and my daughter had previously come here... more

The food was great, but the combination of bad service and overpricedness just killed the vibe. We didn't mind waiting half an hour without a reservation as it was clearly busy, but not checking up on us for about 20 minutes after we sat down was kind of rude. The lobster dish was about $55 and served three. I've had similar dishes before in places like Chinatown in NY and in China too, and it... more

Great Food, Service with a smile, everything is clean too. what a bonus. My Favorite is the Cold Shredded Chicken with Jelly Fish & Seasame. The wonton in noodle soup is always good, though i wish there was more wonton instead of just 4. Don't they know that 4 is not a lucky number?? It's always busy, so get there early. I had eaten almost everything there and the food is #1. What no 5 stars ??... more

Gigantic Won Tons!

We decided to come for lunch and this restaurant does not disappoint.

We ordered:

Fresh Shrimp Won Ton 鮮蝦雲呑 (8 pieces) without the noodles
Beef brisket noodle
And Fresh Blanched Veggies

The wontons are huge, about the size of golf balls, the shrimp inside is more like a prawn, good bite and well seasoned.

The beef brisket is typical, veggie was good also!

The star is... more

'Twas the week before Christmas,
And all through salon
Came a yen for group dinner,
For a feast to sup on.
Not a spirit was waning
Nor an appetite weak,
For us thirteen decided
Ho Yuen Kee's not for the meek.
In the chill winter air
And the night dark, foreboding
Did we make our sojourn here
To south Fraser, reloading
Our memories of another
For a year had quite passed
Since last rendezvous was... more

Live Lobster with sticky rice 3.5/5 - Good but not as good as it used to be. Not that much of the lobster sauce went into the rice.
Peking Duck 3/5 - The sliced peking duck was too thick. Too much meat to call a Peking Duck. They only added water chestnuts to the minced pork. That was a little bit boring.
Sauteed Peashoots 3.5/5 - Good portions but the veggies were a bit too old. They did to... more

After eating here, I can see why Vancouver has a reputation for having some of the best Cantonese food outside of China. Pretty much everything we ate here was super delicious.

Soup of the Day - That night, it was chicken and pork stock with ginseng. I really liked the strong ginseng flavor. The bitterness was balanced very well with the savory broth.

Lobster Sticky Rice (Ho Herng Jun Ju... more

this place is tiny but their food is so damn good..

their dungeness crab and noodles are awesome.. my wife's favorite seafood is crab and this place made her an incredibly happy glutton..

they also have incredible vinegar pig feet/knuckle.. i could eat that with a gigantic bowl of rice..

of note.. the dining room is tiny and you definitely need reservations

I don't know why I'm writing this review, because I don't want to this place to get super out of control busy.

This is the freaking best Chinese restaurant in the city. AMAZING lobster or crab on sticky rice, best tofu dessert, great cashew chicken salad, best winter melon soup, yummy squab... the list goes on and on.

I took my parents here when they were visiting Van and they literally... more

Stopped by with a large group for lunch. Parking was relatively easy (in the nearby 2 hour parking lots since the street parking is only 1 hour).

Waitress and staff was very friendly and efficient. We ordered the lobster over rice, wontons, dumplings, Chinese greens, several ginger milk desserts, mango pudding, fresh steamed fish.

Solid and good food, good sized portions, good service. I... more

Good food. Everything else was bad. Now whenever I go here I opt for takeout.

Whenever we go here it's for their lobster sticky rice, which I'm pretty sure is their most famous dish since almost every table will have one. It is really good - the sauce and the rice really meld together and the richness of the lobster meat compliment it nicely.

Also don't miss out on the dinner jellyfish dish,... more

I've been here for lunch and generally speaking it's decent value for Chinese comfort foods such as wonton noodles, rice congees, fried rice / noodles, etc.

I did, however, make the mistake of making a reservation for dinner here a whle ago for my mom's birthday. Not only was the service lackluster (and it wasn't even that busy,) they managed to run out of the Peking Duck Special which I had... more

From the moment we walked in until the moment we left, our group had excellent service. We had dinner at 6:00PM so that could have helped since it wasn't too busy.

We ordered their famous Lobster on Sticky Rice, which was my favorite dish here. This amazing dish consisted of two lobsters at 2.5 pounds each cooked in a creamy (yet not overly creamy) sauce piled high on top of sticky rice, which... more

Came here during the week and was surprised as to how busy the place was. We had to wait a teensy bit for a table but were seated pretty quickly.

The service overall was great AND it didn't matter which server you dealt with. I was impressed that they were genuinely working as a team and still smiling. They were busy but the wait staff were on it.

Food came quickly and was tasty. Like home... more

Ho Yuen Kee Restaurant is another good Chinese restaurant located on Fraser / 46th. You don't usually hear people talking about it, street parking is a nightmare to find and service is slow. They are famous for their Lobster with Sticky Rice and for comfort Cantonese meals.

Our dinner started off with daily soup of the day: A watery bowl without a lot of dimension.

Squab: The bird was tender... more

My vision and reality often doesn't line up. This was a good meal, better than any Chinese food in Seattle that's for sure. Not that it's a difficult thing to achieve or find in Vancouver, it just didn't line up and lived up to what I thought it would be.

The focus was the lotus leaf sticky rice with lobster. I was under the assumption that it would all be wrapped in a lotus leaf and steamed... more

Had dinner here. The food was sub-par, disappointing, and overpriced.

We ordered the lobster and it was not only overcooked, but it was also not fresh. Also, they charged us for 5 pounds of lobster, but only about 1.5 pounds of usual restaurant-sized lobster ended up on the table - that was a difference of at least $100. The other items on the menu were seemingly seasoned with excessive MSG,... more

Brought out in a plastic tub, our lobster gazed at us without making a sound. He was taken away by our server, and when he came back he looked pretty different! Where he had been whole and gray, now he was chopped up and red, with a pile of sticky rice beneath him, and a bamboo steamer was functioning as a casket. Anyway, he was delicious.

I don't know the name of the dish, but occasionally drop in here just after 8 in the evening, and if lucky get a table right away. Last night was cold and we were warmed up with a hotpot that contained shrimp, scallop, squid, bbq pork, mushroom, chicken. With a side of rice it was just what the doctor ordered. I've had the 1/2 duck, and various other things. This place is reliable,... more

I read the reviews about how great this place was before deciding to get some take out here.

Wow. I'm sure glad I did because it was amazing. I decided to get extra food for left overs, so I ordered the chicken chow mein, sweet and sour pork, ginger chicken, red bean cake and the ginger milk dessert. Nothing disappointed! I heard great reviews about the milk dessert, so I had to try it. I... more

We came here for the first time back in spring upon recommendation from a friend. We've been here several times since. We like the the lobster sticky rice, fried noodle dishes and the double-boiled milk with ginger for dessert. Their congees lack flavour and the sticky consistency. They use egg noodle instead of the traditional / typical wonton noodle in their noodle soup - not my preference.... more

This restaurant puts out good food, but it's service can be spotty and the environment a bit grungy. I like that the menu offers a few dishes not found at some of my other haunts. The lobster sticky rice is very good and I'm even a huge fan of lobster. The steamed milk with ginger is a fave and pretty good here.

It has been a few months since I last ate here, but the food was still good. We arrived at 9 PM on a Friday night and was able to get a table right away (lots of free parking on Fraser at that time of night). This time, there was just two of us, so we had to limit our order: lobster sticky rice, jellyfish and chicken, and sauteed pea vines. Everything was delicious, including the lobster rice,... more

Great quality of food and service at a very reasonable price

Ho Yuen Kee on Fraser Street, East Vancouver is one of those Chinese restaurants worth visiting. The quality of the food is consistently great, the staff very helpful and attentive, and the price very reasonable in relation to the quality of the food and service. This restaurant has been rated in the top of its category by the Province Newspaper many years in a row and for good reason! We eat... more