Bobby Chao’s Chinese Cuisine & Dim Sum

Dim Sum is pretty nice, however the quality on dinner dishes have dropped significantly. My family used to be big fan of this place but not anymore…

Had the famous crispy chicken here for dinner. One piece of the chicken I was having was pink around the bone and bloody. We told the waitress and she told us, «it’s normal for Cantonese chicken dishes to be a little bit raw.» I am not Cantonese so I might not know the custom. They didn’t even say sorry but offered us a 10% off. They offered the 10% off meaning they do know it is raw and wrong! Food. I would say it’s mediocre. Ingredients definitely weren’t fresh. Service. I felt humiliated!

One Of The Best Chines Food Restaurants I’ve Ever Had. Food Is Always Hot And Fresh. Tasty. Nice Friendly Staff. They Have Many Kinds Of Dishes As Well As Bubble Teas.

I’ve been to Bobby Chao’s about 3 times now. It would not be my first choice for Chinese food but if you are looking for fairly authentic Chinese food in Edgemont it’s a good place. I have to say that I was disappointed with my last meal. I had a craving for Salt & Pepper squid and the squid was a tad overcooked and tended to the rubbery side. The Snow Pea leaves with Garlic sauce was just OK. Service was friendly and efficient. I’ve had dim sum there before and it is fairly decent. When I go for Chinese food I’m looking for a place that doesn’t offer up Ginger Beef and Sweet and Sour as their main fare, although it is a perception that these are staples of Chinese cuisine, for someone who was born and lived in Asia, these dishes are not representative of Chinese food, Bobby Chao’s offers an interesting selection of dishes and flavours are OK, I don’t think they have a Wow factor in the dishes but a good place for being out of the way.

The Phở and Chinese restaurant is the same place, both equally bad. Also, Bobby does not cook anymore, he is a lazy man that walks around the restaurant. The main complaint was the speed of service, food came out dish by dish for over 2 hours. I am Chinese and this is the worst Chinese restaurant in the city.
The food and service is terrible!!! see below for the highlights of my experience, btw I went when it was half empty so i couldn’t imagine it running full.
Food:
The food was either overcooked or cold
The food took way too long to come out of the kitchen (started dinner at 6:30 and finished at 9:30)
The proportion of food has decreased since the opening
Also, just took a look at their health inspection and they continuously violate health code (
)
Service:
Waiters have zero respect for their customers
They forgot to bring water 3 times until we spoke the the manager
Did not refill the tea or rice pot until physically bringing it to the kitchen
Waiters took the wrong order
I hope everyone well and can’t wait till this place closes so the NW can be served with a better Chinese restaurant

Ordered their combination dinner for 1, had won ton soup, chicken fried rice, ginger beef and sweet and sour pork (a substitution). Their won ton soup is excellent, that is my favourite dish to get at any Chinese food restaurant and they nailed it.
The rest of the meal was quite good, I would definitely order from them again.
Their delivery is fast also!

This is my favourite place for Chinese delivery. Everything is delicious and the staff is great. The ginger beef is comparable to none, and everything is always hot and fresh. If you don’t order from Bobby Chao you’re doing it wrong.

Very delicious dim sum. Thumb up.

The only thing good about this was the location, the food had hairs in it, the service was bad and they didnt have the drinks onThe menu, and the food was generic. Not impressed

What a pleasant surprise! They upgraded the tables and chairs! The servers are happy (they smile now)! The best thing is that you can now actually read the bill (the items listed are both in English and Chinese). We still haven’t tried their Vietnamese fare or roast items (they now sell roast duck, roast pork, BBQ pork, soy chicken) yet.
P. S. Their French style baked oysters are still the best in town. A lot of succulent oyster, less mayo.

Wow. Upgraded furnishings, and the servers now smile at you! Best of all, the dim sum is as good as I remember it, if not better, and the portions are generous. Shanghai soup dumplings, shrimp dumplings, radish cake, scallop and choice soft rice crepes, beef and flat rice noodles, beef congee, sticky rice, breaded salt and pepper pork chops, shiu mai, even mango pudding was good! This is my 5^th year eating here (haven’t been to the Vietnamese side yet) and I’ve seen it progress from so-​so to delightful.

I MISS CONGEE QUEEN! Moving to Calgary from Toronto, I’ve been on the search for my Chinese staple. Congee queen in Toronto is the best! (see my review for it for a better understanding)
So I decided to try Bobby’s in search of my Chinese staple and unfortunately it was just OK for me. We came on a Sunday afternoon so the main location was closed and all customers were redirected to their Phở Side. We were still able to order dim sum and they also had a tea time menu.
It wasn’t really busy at the time and service was ok — typical Asian service where if you need something … just ask! I’m ok with this as you don’t have a server standing at your table and it’s just what’s to be expected.
We ordered: steamed bbq pork buns, hargaw, cantonese chow mein and 3 types of bbq w/​steamed rice. Everything tasted ok just subpar and nothing memorable for me. The bbq was quite tasty and fresh. They brought the steamed rice in a metal container to keep warm — nice touch! I just kept comparing it to my fav place in Toronto so everything was ok.
I don’t think I will return as it is out of the way and was sub par.

We were in the neighborhood and decided we felt like Vietnamese. Upon arriving at Bobby Phở’s, it was clearly a Chinese restaurant but they did have a Vietnamese menu as well. It was very busy and everyone there was eating Chinese food. I didn’t see any Vietnamese dishes. We ordered two vermicelli bowls; Charbroiled Chicken and Spring Rolls and the Lemon Grass Pork chop with Spring rolls. When the food came, we couldn’t tell the difference between the two dishes. They both could have been pork possibly. We tried to ask but as many other Unilocalers have already noted, the service was abysmal. The meat was very heavily spiced with what tasted like 5 spice. I didn’t taste much else. The spring rolls were dreadful, tasting of minced onion. Again, the meat, if any, was unidentifiable. The flavorings were not reminiscent of any Vietnamese dishes I’ve ever had in this city. But on the plus side, the veggies were fresh and crisp.
I definitely would not recommend ordering either of these dishes.

Well, it’s been three years since I’ve been so we decided to try it again last night. Very nice surprise from last time — change of ownership and direction of food and service.
They have expanded and added to their menu — it now has Phở and fresh roasted meats (BBQ Pork, Chicken, Duck, Pork Belly). The Sifu who was at Happy Valley in Chinatown is the guy who runs the roasted meats here and it is very good. I have found my new Sui Yook place.
Onto the dinner — we ordered two authentic Chinese dishes along with white rice — Fish fillets with Vegetables and Pea Shoots with Crab Meat. HUGE portions on both, so well worth the price tag. The taste was also very good. Super picky eater liked the fish fillets, they were well seasoned with onions, ginger, garlic, etc. The pea shoots were well done, just soft enough but with some snap left. And the crab meat topping was not too salty as other places do it.
Wait staff was very attentive and friendly, different from last time. The owner /​manager was onsite and very hands on, which is very good to see. So, I will give them an upgrade as there has been a real improvement in both service and food. The parking still sucks, but not much anyone can do about that.

I will say that the dim sum here is actually pretty good.
I will also say that the staff here are among the most sour, joyless and unpleasant I’ve ever been subjected to. What makes it worse is that you practically have to light a napkin on fire to get their attention, it’s actually ridiculous.
It’s too bad, because there aren’t a lot of options for good dim sum outside of downtown, so I find myself supporting them more than they actually deserve.

Never again!!! Horrible service as the waitresses brought us the wrong food, and would never hear us trying to get their attention. On top of that they took 20 minutes to get us a can of sprite and the fried rice took way longer than it should have. The blender was being used right in the middle of the restaurant and was EXTREMELY loud. We won’t be returning any time soon… or ever! Don’t recommend Bobby Choas for anyone…

Our go to restaurant for Authentic Chinese Dinner. Consistently good quality and portions are large. Their Peking duck is great along with the baked crab on rice.
Service could be improved, but you don’t really go to a Chinese restaurant for the service… :)
I have never been next door for the Viet food but I hear it isn’t the best.

If you want quantity, value and taste, this is a sure thing. By vancouver standards, their dishes are monstrous – as pics indicate w/​the bok choy, it’s enough to feed a family of 4, maybe even 6!
The pork belly w/​mui choy was good, though i’ve had it better back home in Richmond by szechuan chefs but still tasty.
nice clean resto, good customer service and free parking. Not one your typical hole in the wall as it seems to be in a well to do burb, up in Edgemont. that even sounds high-​end lol

We have been to Bobby Chao’s since his small restaurant days on 36 Street SE in Forest Lawn. Even back then, I recognize immediately that this Bobby Chao guy knows how to cook well. Fast forward to today, the restaurant is much bigger and in the NW where there is a big Chinese population. We do not come here too often, but when restaurants closer to our home is packed full. Bobby Chao always come through, since it has a large expanded space that it started leasing a few years back to do Vietnamese noodle but really it is an overflow to its bread and butter Chinese food business. The restaurant is obviously doing quite well with the big crowd, but more importantly the quality of food is still top notch. My all time favorites are French Style Bake Crab or Oyster, Braised Whole Pork Hock, Lotus Leaf Lobster with Rice.
The bad thing about the restaurant is parking. The parking lot is always tight and the City removed some on-​street parking in front of and across from the strip mall for some strange reason, so now you need to park in front of other people’s houses, which I am sure was not the intent. The mall owner and local residents should write a petition to the City to have the on-​street parking reinstated, as there is no safety reason why the parking was removed.
As for customer service, it is in line with other authentic Chinese restaurants. It is not the best and not the worst either. It is definitely better than having good customer service and then getting nasty food, which a lot of restaurants do. Although I now only come to Bobby Chao’s 4 – 5 times a year, this is a restaurant that I don’t mind going back to from time to time, even though it is not the closest to our house.

Was recently treated to a wonderful Hong Kong-​style dinner which included duck egg yolk coated fried softshell crab, an especially good value for the sizeable and meaty specimens priced at $ 6 apiece, spicy wok-​fried dungeness crab, Hong Kong Style steak nuggets in a piquant sauce, sauteed pea pod shoots in broth and an oyster and tofu clay pot.
Dishes are prepared well and generous in portion.
Service is fair for a Chinese restaurant.
Atmosphere is likewise fair and seating is comfortable with a good amount of space between tables.
I would readily recommend this restaurant to family or friends, and I look forward to dining there again.