Sea King Seafood Restaurant

I first came to this restaurant many years ago, and today I finally had the chance to come back. I’m so happy to say that the taste is still just like I remember — delicious as ever. It’s wonderful to see that the quality and flavour have remained the same over the years. I will definitely come back again!

Solid dim sum offering.
Service was fast. Several dishes all came at the same time.
We sat not far from. The entrance and it’s quite cold when the door opens even though they’re up the stairs.

My favourite childhood dim sum restaurant. The service is always so good and they even have the rolling dim sum carts!!! Parking can be tricky so park in the plaza beside it. Some of the best service I’ve ever had.

Celebrated my brother in law’s 50th birthday in a restaurant surprised me the first time I heard about the invite because this family loves food and making them well from scratch. Nonetheless Sea King Restaurant exceeded our expectations. We had a cosy room all to ourselves [ party of 11 adults] which is why it worked so well. Every single item that we ordered is good and has its distinct flavor., from the soup, to dimsum and mains, which is saying much because time and again, when you order this much variety, chances are the flavors are similar and just disappear into the next. Worth going back if you like fast service and delicious Chinese food.

We had a private room for 11 of us for dim sum. The place is very popular so when it opened at 11 there was a lineup. Dim sum came in the traditional carts and they came around regularly. All the usual items were good except they did not have baked cha sui bao. We had leftovers.

Had dinner as a group and it was delicious! People complain about the staff “not smiling”, but that is the norm with Chinese restaurants. It’s about the food and quick service. The steamed lobster and beef brisket with radish were my favourite dishes!

We ordered delivery from Uber Eats. My Chinese mom gets tired of the food served in her retirement home so I ordered from Sea King. We have tried a lot of Chinese takeaways in the neighbourhood of Merivale and Meadowlands and Sea King has been the best so far. Even my finicky mom (who used to be an excellent cook) dubbed the food as “pretty good” which is the highest praise I have ever heard her give to a restaurant.
We had the pea shoot stir fry which was tasty. I was surprised to see such a premium ingredient on a suburban menu. The pea shoots were a little on the mature side, so less tender than at some famous posh restaurants such as Din Tai Fung with branches in cities like Bangkok, London or New York. But still, really nice to have that natural sweetness of pea shoots.
Our order of beef short ribs was excellent. Very tender and only subtly sweet. Prawns with snow peas were also very tender and redolent with ginger. Accompanying vegetables were mostly still crunchy snow peas but also disks of carrot for colour, oyster mushrooms and celery for texture.
I think the standard of cooking is high. My only criticism was that the food was slightly under seasoned for my taste. But that’s something easy to adjust with a salt shaker. Our order arrived quickly within the estimated time given by Uber Eats. Warning that the packaging is poor. So expect a lot of leaky containers in the takeout bag.

Photos from a second slightly less successful order. Garlic pepper shrimp were tasty but hard to eat being unpeeled and deep fried in the shell. They had not been deveined. Broccoli and eggplant both good but be warned that the garlic eggplant is quite sweet.

We have since ordered a 3rd time and remembered to take photos. The stir fried peeled shrimp in the “shrimp with seasonal vegetables” had been deveined. Good wok hei on the vegetables. That’s the Cantonese term for the smokey scent of food touched by flare ups in a very hot wok—something not achievable on a domestic burner because it can’t reach a high enough temperature. Nonetheless the shrimp were perfect and not overcooked. Impressive. Eggplant with beef was tasty and tender.

Have added photos from a 4th order. Stir fried bok choi was great and suitable for my geriatric mom who can’t handle hard vegetables like broccoli. Peking pork was very tender, and the sweetness of the sauce was tempered with Chinese black vinegar. Very flavourful if a bit greasy. Gong Bao chicken was a dud I won’t order again. Full of frozen vegetables like peas, carrots and mini sweet corn. Some grayish overcooked green peppers and very little chicken.

Added photos of 5th order. Green beans was our star dish. Tender but still green with lots of wok hei smokey flavour. Stir fried with a little beef mince. Our other dishes were a dim sum sized portion (3 pieces of) of eggplant stuffed with minced shrimp and ma o tofu. Both were okay but no extraordinary, like the green beans.

Ordered again from Sea King and I wouldn’t recommend the beef hor fun which had overcooked noodles and lots of too liquid sauce. Salt and pepper fish was good. Bok choi had lots of wok hei.