Floating Into the Easter Weekend

A special colleague invited me for dim sum to kick off the weekend. My acceptance condition was that it is a down-to-earth blog-worthy restaurant. His choice was what claims to be the largest Chinese restaurant in Canada - Floata Seafood Restaurant.

Huge, free parking, and, despite some not-so-good reviews on Urban Spoon, I found it quite good.

Eight platters for two people was more than plenty.

The yellow dumplings on the right were a unique dim sum offering - Pumpkin Dumplings. They had shrimp and little chunks of cooked pumpkin. Very enjoyable. The others were the regular Shrimp & Chives Dumplings. They also had (for the next visit to-try list) Spinach Dumplings that looked very Easter-egg green on the adjacent table.

Another better-than-others dish was the Rice Roll with Beef. The beef filling had a fresh taste to it enhanced by coriander I think. Very nice.

The rest were typical dim sum dishes that were the same or somewhat better than other places I tried. We had Scallop Dumplings (shrimp topped by scallop), Pork Shiu Mai, Steamed Eggplant with Fish Paste, Bean Curd Skin Roll (that was great too) and Fried Shrimp Egg Roll.

And, forgive me J.C., I broke lent over dim sum - those creamy egg custard pies were to die for. Thank you D for such a treat!

In the middle of Chinatown, easy to reach by foot, skytrain and, if driving, free parking.

Floata Seafood Restaurant

180 Keefer Street

Vancouver, BC

 www.floata.com