Grand Neptune

We all know that the most prevalent Chinese restaurant chain in Vancouver is Neptune.  They come in many flavours such as Neptune Wonton Noodle, Neptune Seafood Restaurant and their higher-end Neptune Palace.  Now, they have gone one step further with Grand Neptune, taking over the spot that used to house Grand Dynasty.  Naturally, the place is a step up with a gorgeous VIP room (that I dined in) and subsequently, higher prices.

Even though the first dish to arrive was the congee, I'm going to talk about the most important dishes first - Ha Gau (Shrimp Dumpling) and Siu Mai (Pork & Shrimp Dumpling) first.  Both were textbook in terms of execution with the dumpling skin on the ha gau to be fairly thin and translucent.  It had good elasticity and wasn't oversteamed.  The shrimp filling was buttery with a sweet snap.  I could taste the sesame oil and the natural flavour of the shrimp.  As for the siu mai, the pork was "wat", which means there was a buttery tenderness to it while still retaining a rebound texture.  Seasoning was mild, but the balance between sweet and savoury was on point.  Also, there was not overly porky flavour to be found, which was a good thing.

In addition to the classic aforementioned dumplings, we had some of their specialty version including the Scallop Dumpling and Tomato, Egg & Shrimp Dumpling.  With a squid ink outer wrapper, the scallop dumpling was good with the same shrimp filling as the ha gau while topped with a scallop.  The scallop was still buttery  while the dumpling skin was chewy, but in a good way.  As for the other dumpling, it was whimsical as it did look like a tomato.  The dumpling skin had appealing elasticity like the ha gau while the filling had the same qualities as the other shrimp filling but with egg and a touch of tomato flavour.

Back to a usual dim sum dish, we had the BBQ Pork Buns.  These were also textbook with a fluffy steamed bun that was lightly sweet.  Inside, the BBQ pork filling was quite lean and mixed with a sweet and savoury glaze.  Not that we were expecting anything other than "okay", the Xiao Long Bao were exactly that.  Cantonese dim sum is not known for great Shanghainese dishes, and the XLBs were no different.  The skin was semi-thick but not dense.  Inside, the pork filling was tender with a decent amount of soup.  It was mostly one-note though.

Continuing with the usual dim sum offerings, we ordered the Beef Meatballs as well as the Steamed Pork Spareibs with black garlic.  A little on the firmer side, the beef meatballs were still bouncy and tender.  There was a balanced amount of greens that it didn't dominate the flavour profile.  As for the spareribs, they were in large meaty pieces that contained very little fat and cartilage.  Meat had a nice rebound while still maintaining its texture.  Seasoning was on point with hits of saltines, garlickiness and slight spice, however, I didn't get much in the way of black garlic.

Of course I had to get my usual fill of offal in the form of Chicken Feet and Steamed Spicy Beef Tripe.  Both of these were also good where the chicken feet were plump and featured soft cartilage and fat underneath the delicate skin.  It was full-flavoured with garlic and saltiness.  As for the tripe, it was also garlicky with some spice.  The slices of tripe were cooked until tender while still having that classic soft chewiness.

If you have seen in my previous dim sum posts, it is pretty obvious that the Bean Curd Skin Roll is one of my favs.  This one here was also delicious with tender bean curd skin that had a light chew to it.  Inside, the pork filling was tender and moist with some amount of veg.  Now on the other hand, Viv's favourite dim sum item is the Deep Fried Eggplant with shrimp paste.  This was also good but we wished there was more shrimp paste (as you can see in the picture there wasn't much of it).  The eggplant was delicate, but not overdone while the shrimp paste was sweet and bouncy.  We also wished there was more black bean sauce too.

Not sure what they were getting at with the BBQ Pork Pastries, but I think they were jellyfish?  Whatever the case, they were good though with a flaky and buttery puff pastry filled with lean BBQ pork.  It was a bit sweet, but not overly so.  As for the Shrimp Spring Rolls, they were also textbook.  The outer wrapper was golden brown and crispy.  None too greasy either.  The shrimp filling was sweet and had a buttery snap.

We couldn't have dim sum without a Rice Noodle Roll of some sort, so we got the beef version.  Not trying to sound like a broken record (hey, these are back!), but this was good.  The rice noodle was soft with a nice elasticity while the beef filling was tender.  One of our family favourites is the XO Daikon Radish Cake.  I thought this was the weakest of the dishes we'd had in the meal.  The cubes were a bit too large, but the texture was soft.  There was not enough XO and hence, the flavours were muted and not very impactful.

One of my son's favourite things to eat is beef brisket, so we had to get the Beef Brisket with daikon.  In reality, this was beef finger meat (which is the meat in between the beef ribs).  The meat was tender while still retaining a meatiness.  The broth was super light and this dish was very subtle in flavour.  We also got another one of his favs in the Lo Mei Gai (Sticky Rice Wrap) and this one was good.  It had some wild rice in it for texture and the amount of pork, dried shrimp and sausage was enough to make every bite meaty and flavourful.

To end things off on the savoury part of the meal, we had the House Special Crispy Noodles.  This was a good portion of fried noodles topped with a good mix of properly cooked seafood, meats and yau choy.  Loved the large scallops!  Also, the sauce had the right thickness while adequately seasoned.  Oh, and we can't forget about the Seafood Congee (that I mentioned earlier).  It was a bit homestyle in terms of thickness and appearance.  The flavours were a bit mild, but the side of peanuts, green onion and pickled mustard greens helped with that, as well as the white pepper.  There was a good amount of quality pieces of seafood that were prepared properly.

Onto dessert, we went for some whimsical items including the Lychee & Mango Rabbit.  The attention to detail with the colours made this appealing.  The gelatin was firm, but delicate enough that it wasn't dense.  Nice combination of aromatic lychee sweetness and mango flavours.  The Steamed Salted Egg Lava Buns came out with an "Hello Kitty" themed design.  Also cute and ultimately well-executed too.  Beyond the fluffy bun, the lava was runny, sweet, nutty and aromatic.

The best dessert was the Passion Fruit Mousse made to look like the actual fruit.  It was tangy and sweet with a lot of impact.  Texturally, it was a bit frozen, but I liked it.  Overall, the dim sum service at Grand Neptune was really good and almost worth the extra cost.  I say "almost" because it cost me a pretty penny to eat there and we didn't even order anything outrageous.  Hence, if money is no object to you, Grand Neptune should be on your list for higher-end dim sum spots in the GVRD.

The Good:

- On point dishes

- Decent service

- Nice dining space and also free parking in the casino lot

The Bad:

- On the higher end of pricing for dim sum in the GVRD