Van Tea Cafe

With most other HK cafes slupping in quality, or closing, Van Tea manages to maintain their standards, making them one of the best remaining HK cafes in town.

4.5 stats (8.9/10)

Last visit Aug 2024

Tried this HK cafe place after my family picked me up from airport. I'm giving them 4 stars based on the fabulous black bean tofu steamed fish. Wow. This was so well done and delicate. It reminds me a bit of my grandmas old steamed fish. Cantonese steamed fish is my favorite - very healthy and just delicious and this dish was soooo good.
The other stuff was not bad. They have lots of Malaysian dishes for a HK cafe but the Roti while crispy the sauce was just Ok. The yin yang (chicken on one side and shrimp with cream sauce on other) was great and everyone ate it up.
- e fu noodles - fairly decent.

Service was not rushed and not that rude. Haha.
Overall would come back to try it out.

First time trying this spot out and I find it very enjoyable! Probably not the best spot in BC because they have a very high standard for Chinese food but still very satisfying. The wait staff were very friendly and patient and the place was clean. One thing to note is that they accept cash only

The rare occasion I had time and in Richmond for HK style breakfast.
I had 2 minutes to order before 11am.
Randomly choose Spicy Diced Pork with Rice Noodles, Soy Sauce Chow Mein and HK Milk Tea.

Spicy Diced Pork was so dry, it was two steps away from being pork floss.
The rice noodles were very nice, I'm certain the broth is just not my cup of tea.
Chow Mein was not al dente and over cooked from the steam, the green onions and onions were perfection.

Overall, looking around, there is a more senior crowd which is understandable as all the dishes weren't as salted/seasoned.
Seniors don't like salt, sweet and oil. Order accordingly.

Milk tea was good.

It was surprisingly hard to find a HK breakfast place open before 10am in the area (and on a Sunday). My friends and I had a full day planned and met up here around 9:30am for breakfast. They have a decent breakfast menu (super affordable if you convert to USD) and we got three noodles, a congee, soysauce chow mein, and some saucy rice noodles to share among 3. My friend loves noodles and went a little crazy on that but portion sizes and taste were solid. I was actually craving pineapple bun bc I kept smelling it while on the skytrain and was slightly disappointed they didn't serve any here. Overall, a pretty good spot if you're looking for HK breakfast early in the day.

Van Tea Cafe is a Hong Kong style cafe with two locations within Greater Vancouver. The original one is on Main St., and the newer one opened up last year in Richmond. We'd ordered takeout from the one on Main St. once, so we decided to try having lunch at the Richmond location.

Steamed Rice with Boneless Chicken & Chinese Mushroom in Clay Pot
Baked Rice with Veggie in Portuguese Sauce

My husband said the rice in the clay pot should have been crispy but it was not. On the plus side though, he said that with the sauce the rice was very flavourful.

The Baked Rice with Veggie in Portuguese Sauce was delicious. I've seen the word "Portuguese Sauce" on Hong Kong style cafe menus many times but never really understood what kind of sauce it was. This dish tasted like curry, so I went home and decided to do a Google search for Portuguese Sauce. Yup, it is indeed meant to be a mild curry sauce! I think I'm a Portuguese Sauce convert now and will be keeping an eye out for the word "Portuguese" from now on, whenever I find myself in a Hong Kong style cafe!

Service: Good
Parking: Plentiful and free
Location: 9020 Capstan Way #150

Small to mid size HK style tea cafe in the restaurant plaza on the southeast corner of Capstan and Garden City. Pretty busy on a Friday night, although we didn't have to wait too long for a table for 3. Interior on the more modern side for HK cafes in the area. Feels bigger inside because ceiling are high, but the place is very noisy when busy.

Pretty standard HK cafe Cantonese fare on the menu. They offer the lobster or crab combo option where you get one of lobster or crab, and a couple of other dishes and they'll throw in soup and rice. We go the lobster plus 3 dishes. All the food came out pretty quickly. The lobster is stir fried in their onion and soy sauce style, was pretty meaty and tasty. We also got their half Hainan chicken, and the chicken was soft and smooth like you'd expect for Chinese style chicken. The black pepper sauce diced beef had good flavor, but portion is on the smaller side. On the other hand, the Malaysian style pork ribs are meaty and have good portion. It's a sweet-sour sauce preparation with a hint of spice. Lastly, the included lotus root soup was alright.

Total was $120 before tip. We had some leftovers. There are cheaper HK cafes offering similar food in the area, but this place was still pretty decent.

Decent but somewhat pricy HK tea cafe.

Parking is available in the strip mall lot, as well as the side streets.

The interior is decently sized and modern. This place faces W and does not have AC, so the place does cook during the hotter days. Something to keep in mind.

This is basically a run of the mill HK place. Pick 2-3 items, pick the carbs, pick the drink. Extra charge for cold drinks. Comes with soup and tea. Honestly a bit more than the competition, but my buddy thinks the food quality is slightly better as well. Personally I couldn't tell.

Decent quality but the pricing is a bit high. Plenty of similar places in the area.

Spotty service. That's to expected at a canto joint like this.

The second outpost from the original in Vancouver. Food is pretty standard for HK 茶餐廳. The stand out is the egg white and dried scallop fried rice. They make one of the best in the city. Similar to the one done in Vancouver. This location has been open for roughly two weeks or so, possibly three. 10% off for their grand opening.

Walked in on a Thursday lunch and it was a lot more busy than I expected! Every single table was full with customers waiting for tables at the entrance. You have to write down your name first and they'll let you know when there's a table ready for you. The waitress also asked if I wanted to combine/ join tables with others (which I said no since I had my kids with me) and they called the next person on the list.

Their menu is quite extensive and after we were ready to order, it did take some time for a waitress to come by. I ordered their choice of entree with pan fried steak and deep fried sole fillet. It had a choice of noodles, fries or rice. With a choice of their soup of the day, a side of garlic bread and a drink! Pretty good deal if I say! The meal came quickly and the food was very fresh. Their iced HK milk tea was not as sweet as I wanted which was disappointing! Everything else was very delicious!

They only took cash or debit so be prepared for that. There's also free Wi-Fi which is great! Would definitely come again to try the other items on their menu!