Fraser Court Seafood Restaurant 紅日大酒家

Ever since I was young, I've always been excited to get up on the weekends for yum cha aka dim sum with my family. Most places that offer yum cha in the morning are also opened in the evening for dinner. Fraser Court Seafood Restaurant is located on Fraser Street and 19th Ave and I've been here quite a few times for dim sum as well as for dinner. Unlike traditional dim sum restaurants where they have people pulling out carts of dim sum, this restaurant provides you a menu in which you check off the items that you want.

One of my favourite dim sum is "zha liang" (炸两). It's basically steamed rice noodle wrapped around a  "Chinese doughnut" (油條), usually served with dried shredded pork, soy sauce peanut and hoisin sauce. Yum. For some, I know that they have to have some rice in their tummies to feel full. Rice dishes are also popular dishes for yum cha and the spare ribs with pumpkin is especially popular in my family. The server will usually pour some soy sauce over this dish and it came with a lot of spare ribs too.

zha liang 炸两

Rice in hot pot with
spare ribs and pumpkin

Steamed rice noodles dishes are my favourite because they are so smooth and tasty. We got another rice noodle roll, this time wrapping around beef (牛肉腸粉).
Again, when it was served, the waitress pour some soy sauce on it. I realize that we do tend to eat a lot of soy sauce; it goes on everything! If you are afraid that it may taste too salty you can always get it on the side and pour it on yourself. Another dish that we ordered is Shanghai's xiaolongbao 小笼包 - another one of my favourites! No soy sauce on this one! I'm always afraid of burning my tongue when I eat these because I have done it too many times. There's really nice warm soup along with the meat inside these dumplings. 

Beef with Chinese parsley rice noodle rolls
 牛肉腸粉

Shanghai juicy meat buns

Another dish that we got is braised beef intestines (tripes, stomach, etc.) with crystal glass noodles 千层粉. This is not our "usual" dish and I'm glad we got it but I think it will soon become one of our usual orders because I really liked it! I really like beef tripes, and the noodles were relatively chewier than rice noodles, though just as smooth. 

Braised beef intestines and tripes
with crystal glass noodles

Crystal glass noodles 千层粉

Pan fried fish cake country style

Now here's a dish that I was disappointed with - fried fish cakes. They were too oily and nothing special about them. My mom sometimes pan fries them herself from the fish paste that we get from T&T.

With many dim sum restaurants, there are special discounts or no charge for the tea. Unfortunately I cannot recall the discounts that this restaurant gives but I believe it's something like 10% off your bill if you order before 11am or it might have been no charge for tea on weekdays before 11am (anyone can confirm?) Either way, they only charge 80 cents for tea per person, whereas most restaurants charge $1. There are so many dim sum dishes that I like and overall, I think this restaurant is one of my favourites. I hope to have more chances to share the other dim sum dishes that I like in the future!