Review Big Chef Restaurant - Richmond

This is a spacious restaurant with modern-ish stylings. There are two menus, one for hot pot (cook your own ingredients in broth-based fondue) and a "regular menu". (There's also a bonus menu that's entirely in Chinese.) It was barely a quarter full on a Friday evening with no line up, which should have set off alarm bells. In the end, we waited an entire hour for noodles and pan fried pea sprouts that never showed. It made no sense for dishes like these to take so long to prepare when most of the other diners were cooking their own food. When we finally got one of the staff's attention and asked about it, it became clear the order never got placed. The dishes that did arrive were fairly good (short ribs in a clay pot, and shrimps and scallops with broccoli), but certainly not worth $20 each. The wait staff were harried and disorganized, even though the restaurant was barely half full by that time (about a quarter to eight). I often look forward to taking the trip down to Richmond for Chinese food, but this completely spoiled the experience.

A restaurant with good quality food, but the services is poor, the timing of the dishes are presented in wrong order, I have experience once, the soup came last when we finished all the dishes, typical a family run business, no system at all.

I like this place quality of the food is really good parking is a problem in that area.

food is fine but quiet at dinner time

Service is good, food are okay

Food is good service is crap

Very neat place...hidden gem.

Very good seafood hotpot

I visited Big Chef Restaurant three years ago with my family and I was here again for another family dinner. My aunt likes this place so she suggested we come here and she picked all the food. Big Chef also does hot pot but we were here just for their regular menu items. They are located in Venezia Plaza on Alexandra Road (downstairs of where Deer Garden is).

Very poor service. With all the good review we thought we give it a try. It took 10 min. Before someone took our order we waited patiently for anather 45 min and still no food! We inquire and of cause they said its coming right out . After anather 10 min my wife suggest we bolt which i dont usually like to do but by now we lost all patience . Sorry to say this is not a review for the food but rather for their service.<br/><br/><br/>-----15 Jul, 2014-----<br/><br/>Very poor service. With all the good review we thought we give it a try. It took 10 min. Before someone took our order we waited patiently for anather 45 min and still no food! We inquire and of cause they said its coming right out . After a few min my wife suggest we bolt which i dont usually like to do but by now we lost all patience . Sorr to say this is not a review for the food but rather for their service.

Fresh Seafood Good Hot Pot. My family had a seafood dinner here and are really happy not only with the food they served but also their courteous service. They were so impressed that the whole family went again and again. Once for their hot pot. Another for other dishes as well as seafood (crabs). <br/>The place is clean and not too noisy too. <br/>It opens til late so we didn't have to rush. <br/>The hot pot is really good. The food eg fish balls, shrimp balls, squid balls, fish paste etc are all freshly made. Plus they serve deep fried fish skin too! A must-eat delicacy whether you wanna dip it in hot pot or just eat it alone. Not many hot pot places serve this these days.

Worst Chinese restaurant ever. I phoned in at 5:00 pm to reserve a table for 6 people for 7:30 pm. When we arrived, ~7:15 am, there were empty tables available (not reserved), but we had to wait for ~20 minutes until someone actually saw us and led us to the table. By this time, I was EXTREMELY disappointed. After ~5 minutes, then we got the menu and it was just thrown on the table! HOW RUDE!!! After waving for someone for another ~5 minutes, finally, a waitress with rude manners came and quickly took our order. After 45 minutes, the first dish came out (chicken in wine)!!!! In chinese restaurants, chicken are usually pre-made and just need to put sauce or quickly heat it again. Why the heck did it took 45 minutes for our chicken to come out. And chicken in wine is a COLD dish!!!!!!! And then afterwards, the next dish came out after half an hour! By that time time, I am already pissed. We asked the waitress why are dishes taking so long, and she said because most people in the restaurant are ordering hot pot foods, and there aren't enough chef to cook entrees for those who are not eating hot pot. OMG!!! What an excuse. The dishes are SMALL for the price they charge. Taste is OK, nothing special. Parking is a NIGHTMARE! We had to park on the street, which cost $$...... I will NOT come here ever again! I do not recommend anyone to come here. Food is SO SO, and service is a nightmare. Expect to wait at least ~1 hour for 2 dishes to come out. We ordered 4 dishes and cost about $99.74 (include HST). I gave them $4 tips, which I thought, was generous.<br/><br/>If this restaurant wants to service in this area (this area is filled with good tasting restaurants), then they need to invest on hiring competent servers.

Yummy. Food is good, service is mediocre, price is a bit high, parking is difficult

Big Chef has one of the best Chinese Chefs in metro Vancouver area. He is not only the Executive Chef but also the owner of Big Chef Restaurant. Big Chef is also known for their hot pot service. I don’t normally come here for hot pot service because they don’t have all you can eat and it will end up a pricy bill if I’m trying to stuff myself with food. However, the ingredients they provide for hot pot service is very very fresh and in high quality. If only I’m not a student, I might enjoy the hot pot service more. WHAT IS “WOK HEY” Big Chef is one of my to go restaurant during late night cravings. Although they are not open 24 hours, they run till 2 AM in the morning on regular bases. I really enjoy coming here because their food never disappoint me. Chinese cuisine is very tricky, a lot of people don’t know how to tell what makes good Chinese food and they will just say there’s nothing special. Sometimes, actually most of the time, it bugs me. I grow up with my grandpa and he is a ver

... flavor was actually decent but dang, the oil in this dish! I couldn't bring myself to eat a whole piece and hence despite the well cooked eggplant...

The food was not bad but nothing in particular made me want to revisit either. I also felt a bit strange ordering regular dishes instead of doing hot pot. The server actually came over and told us to put in our order quickly before more people came in because they didn’t have a lot of chefs to cook regular dishes but I found it hard to believe they would be that busy anyway.

I really wished I had maned-up and visited Big Chef earlier and disregarded concerns about it being a hot pot focused restaurant. If I did, I would’ve discovered its amazingness and would’ve no doubt have already enjoyed more meals at the restaurant by now. After my visit yesterday, I have zero doubt that I will make Big Chef a destination restaurant. Crispy Lechon was right. Big Chef offers the same high quality of food as Hoi Tong at almost exactly half the price.

One of the last dish to arrive of the night was a nice surprise when we discovered the scallops were perfectly deep fried – not over cooked but thoroughly juicy and tender. The prawns were big and elastic in every bite sautéed over a creamy salad dressing sauce. The only catch was, what happene

After having a number of meals here now, I think I can now safely recommend Big Chef. The cooking here is tight, unfussy, and consistent.

It's been a while since I went for late night at a Chinese restaurant. Big Chef seemed like a good choice as it offers the typical late night fare of congee and small plates. The restaurant has a promotion and you get a complimentary pot of congee (西洋菜蠔仔肉碎粥) if you order over $30 of food. The congee is made with watercress, small oysters and ground meat. It was very fluffy and creamy with tasty meat and vegetable morsels to chew on. The best part was that it was served piping hot. My favourite dish was the stir fried clams with black bean sauce (豉椒炒蜆). What I liked most was not the clams, but the thick and tasty sauce with a hint of spiciness. There were even bits of red and green pepper that added extra flavour to the dish. The egg tofu with mushroom (百靈菇扒玉子豆腐) was not bad, but the tofu skin was a bit coarse. The mushroom slices were really thin though. We got another vegetarian dish, stir fried Chinese cabbage with garlic (蒜茸白菜苗). It

Big Chef Restaurant won the judges over with "Oven Roasted Oysters with Port Wine" at the Chinese Restaurant Awards. It had...