Wah Lun Chinese Restaurant

Wah Lun Chinese Restaurant has been one of my go-tos for dim sum for many years. They changed their name to Ryan’s Chinese Restaurant a few years ago, but also still go by Wah Lun as well. Specialty BBQ pork buns: If there’s one thing you must get here, it is their BBQ pork buns! They have the best BBQ pork buns ever. The bun is coated in a sugary egg yolk thing, and is always fresh and fluffy.

The BBQ pork inside is juicy, flavourful and delicious too. They often bring these out fresh and you they smell sooo good.

BBQ PORK BUN! One of the best bbq pork buns that I ever had. Juicy and very delicious. Dim sum is the best option to try many dishes. Very traditional Chineseso do not expect super fancy restaurant. Good food the most important in a restaurant!!!

My uncle lives in the area and had to meet him to help him move some lumber. I ended up in Burnaby much earlier than expected, and decided to grab some lunch.

The decor and ambiance is typical of most Chinese restaurants. They serve dim sum during the day and Cantonese/Hong Kong style dishes in the evening. I was quickly greeted and seated. During lunch, the expectation is you choose from the paper menu. Since it was just myself, I ordered a bowl of congee (rice porridge) and an order of fried chicken knees.

The porridge was mediocre, it's consistency was uneven and likely due to a reheat with water added to it but not given enough time to boil and recombine. The chicken knees however were very well done! The perfect proportion of cartilage and meat. It was coated in a pepper salt batter and fried nice and crispy.

I've been here several times before with my uncle's family. This visit is consistent with previous visits. Reasonably priced with some well made items and some not so well made.

We were seated promptly, and we quickly marked off our orders on the dim sum sheet. For all the regular menu items, smalls are $3.30, mediums are $4.25 and larges are $4.55, but I am surprised that a few of the popular dishes (like the crystal shrimp dumpling/har gau (蝦餃) and rice flour rolls/cheong fun (腸粉)) were not included in these price ranges.

Wah Lun special baked BBQ pork buns (貴妃包 $4.55): My favourite BBQ pork bun is the kind that’s baked with a crumble on top. The sweet crumble contrasts the savoury BBQ pork, it most certainly brings out the flavour. The pork inside was saucy and had a nice fat to lean meat ratio, the bun was warm, soft and not too doughy.

Deep fried squid in peppery salt (椒鹽鮮魷 $7.99): I feel like the description for this dish should be deep fried squid in red chili pepper and salt instead. It lacked that distinct peppery salt flavour that I’m fond of. The batter on the squid was a bit thick and hard and I didn’t appreciate the rubbery texture of the previously frozen squid. Now I don’t expect fresh squid, but it tasted like the squid’s been in the freezer for a bit too long.

Steamed five spice beef tripe (五香金錢牛肚 $4.95): The beef tripe were piping hot and tender, and had soaked up the braising sauce like sponges. It gushed out flavour when you bite into it and it had a little bit of a citrus peel (果皮) scent to it.

Pork dumpling with tobiko/shiu mai (飛魚子燒賣王 $4.55): These pork dumplings were plump and juicy. The shrimp and meat mixture had an al dente (彈牙) texture where there was still a bit of a pleasant chewiness. It also had bits of shitake mushroom that provided a lovely umami flavour. I find that shiu mai that don’t contain shitake mushroom generally lacking in the flavour department.

Deep fried dumplings with meat and dried shrimp (炸安蝦鹹水角 $4.25): These fried rice flour dough ovals had a crunchy exterior and was sticky and sweet, while the filling inside was moist and savoury. To be honest, I’m not a fan of the meat filling, I especially don’t like the dried shrimp. I usually hollow out the dumpling and just eat the shell. I found the dough here a little too gooey though.

Sticky rice wrap (珍珠糯米雞 $4.55 ) I love the chewy texture of glutinous rice. The lotus leaf wrapper is not eaten, but its delectable aroma is infused into the rice. saucy ground bits of chicken and diced shitake mushroom was mixed evenly into the rice. There was also a small slice of Chinese sausage (臘腸) that I picked out and gave to Mamallama. One steamer basket contains three of these lotus leaf glutinous rice wraps, and they were quite big and filling, so I shared one with Baby-Paca.

Steamed milky bun with egg yolk (流沙包 $4.25): The steamed bun wasn’t fluffy, but it wasn’t dry or dense either. It was kind of like a mantou (饅頭), but with a filling. The sweet egg yolk was too liquidy and thin, which made for a messy experience, but I also found a few odd chunks of egg yolk that made for a weird texture. It would’ve also been better if it had a higher filling to bun ratio.

Overall, Wah Lun serves decent dim sum for an OK price, but it’s definitely not anywhere near the top of my list for dim sum restaurants. Usually, I only come here with my family for convenience, just like today where we only had like 45 minutes to spare.

Reasonably priced dim sum. Come here regularly with family during the mornings. The food quality is average. Service is okay.

Typically Chinese. We came here for dinner since we were too lazy to cook, had some of their stir frys, not bad, it was a little on the salty side, but not bad at all.

I actually came here right after my surgery, first meal! =) Or the painkillers were still working, and I felt fine =P Here's the first to arrive, Wah Lun Special Baked Buns. Very fresh, they were so hot and delicious =) Made me happy. (there's three per order, but I couldn't get a pic fast enough =P)