Sai Woo

This was an extraordinarily disappointing experience.
Despite making a reservation, we weren’t seated immediately. In fact we were made to wait at the door until my partner suggested we sit at the bar. The décor was nice but the music was too loud for casual conversation. Also, an establishment that charges $ 23 for a lamb dish probably shouldn’t have paper napkins at the table.
While the wait staff was friendly and knowledgeable, the food was wildly different. The lamb was fantastic and I asked for seconds. My partner’s chicken was missing elements would have embarrassed a home cook. When she asked for the pickled vegetables that were promised, they came out separately in a soy sauce bowl.
In the end Sai Woo ultimately felt amateurish in it’s execution. Despite the lamb being stellar I wouldn’t return for fear that it was a fluke. Chinatown has so many excellent restaurants to choose from. this one really just doesn’t cut it.

They forgot our reservation at first, but we were able to re-​book for dine out.
Our first impression was, nice décor and kind hostess.
We were sitted and got a menu shortly.
We were not able to order from the a la carte and the only option we were offered was dine out menu so we went for it.
Wagyu carpaccio has no flavor in it. Disappointed.
Beet salad was quite delicious, but the plate did not go well with it as the plate was a black color so I was not even able to notice buckwheat cracker. Red and Yellow beet could look much better with a brighter plate.
I got all different looking plates for my 3 courses, but my friend got same design plate for her 3 dishes. Their plates are quite ugly (to me) including presentation of food.
Ling cod, main dish, was quite salty for me, but mushroom and purée which come with Ling cod were excellent.
Lemongrass chicken was mostly burned, and it looks like what you can get for $ 10 – 12 from Chinese or Vietnamese restaurant.
Mango mousse was really good, but chocolate cake did not make us happy at all. Chocolate cake did not go well with jam, cracker, and some sort of pickled fruit on the dish.
When I thought the course menu is $ 30, I told my friend it would be worthy if it is $ 20.
We realized that dine out menu is actually $ 40 per person which left me upset.
It is absolutely not worthy to try dine out menu for $ 40, but a la carte dishes could be more interesting.
For services,
Not attentive service at all as we had to keep asking for water a few times etc.
Served desert without cutlery so we were staring at our desert until cutlery was provided.
Of course, our server gave much attention when we made a payment which made me annoyed.
Vancouver is a great city for foodies.
There are so many restaurants that I need to try so I would not waste my time and money at this place again.
Good luck on your experience!

Went to Sai Woo for the first time and had the dine out menu. First off, it took 15 minutes for anyone to come to our table to ask if we wanted drinks. It was a Tuesday night and not that busy. When the waitress finally came we ordered right away. The Sai woo «sour» cocktails were anything but. Not sour at all and had no taste. We then got our appetizers — the carpaccio (which was quite refreshing) and the vegetarian dish. Then our entrees came. I ordered the lemongrass chicken and my friend ordered the Cod. Both were terrible. If you like bland with absolutely no flavour, then this is the place for you. This was the worst meal I’ve had in a long long time and I eat out quite frequently. We did not finish our entrees. Dessert was the mango mousse cake and the chocolate pâté. Mango mousse cake had no flavour but the chocolate pâté was ok. The service was mediocre. I will not go back and would not recommend this restaurant to anyone as the food is bland, flavourless and not worth the money we spent which was $ 160 for dine out menu, two cocktails and a half litre of wine.

Went for dinner at Dine out. The service was good, but the meals really were excellent. A great addition to the Vancouver culinary scene. We will definitely be back

The food is delicious and expertly prepared, the music is a little loud but the décor is great, and there’s a wide open kitchen where you can see the chefs making your food.
Which is where the evening fell apart when I saw men with poofy hair flopping around without a hair net, and one man pick his nose, wipe it on his apron and then arrange kale chips on a plate. It threw me off the rest of the meal, and it’s made me want to never return.

Interior and service was good but the food was just so so! Won’t come again! And it was overpriced! Disappointed

No way is this a 3 star place. Went for drinks only but great atmosphere great people great drinks, take a date here. This place will be super popular in a year, check it out now.

This is a collective review for me and my family’s meal. We all ordered duck tacos starters which were fantastic. I ordered the pork belly which was tender and crispy on the outside (cooked perfectly. 2 of our party ordered the short rib which they described as ‘the meat was fantastic but the rest of the plate was strange’. Lastly my mother ordered the jerk chicken which she described as ‘delicious’. I would highly recommend this place for the food but more for the exemplary service from the lady from Winnipeg. Thank you guys.

Lovely room — great lights! Friendly and helpful server. We went with the chefs suggestion menu. Nice selection and well balanced — highlights were the beet salad, the fried rice and the jerk chicken. Good wine list too.
Good attention to detail without doing that Vancouver tipping over into pretension thing. Would return.

Went here for a friends birthday last night. From the minute we walked in the door there was massive confusion regarding where our party was sitting. After figuring that out, we were seated downstairs (which was freezing due to an excess of fans) and waited over 30 minutes for anyone to come talk to us. Next we were informed that they were «too busy» to make cocktails, never heard that one before…
We waited yet again to receive drinks and finally order food which was a whole other experience. The servers didn’t seem to know what they were bringing out or who ordered it. When asked what something was, our server said that she didn’t even know and she took the food back to the kitchen. Further, the portions were a joke, food was mediocre and overpriced. Overall, the experience was a disaster.

Well we waited well over 30 minutes to get our drinks and order food. When it was clear no one was showing up for either, we left.
I gave 2 stars instead of one for benefit of the doubt of it being extraordinarily busy. But I’m not sure.

Great expectations were met by the look and feel of the place and by our server. Drinks were well sorted. But the food was disappointing, tuna appy portion was microscopic — fresh but basic, short rib was also small and just ok. Fried rice was ok, but no dish left us remotely wowed.
I appreciate the effort and style and I’m always looking for new restaurant finds, I found myself thinking there are many other places I want to go back to (like Torafuku) before I’d venture back Sai Woo’s way.

I came here over the weekend with a group of 7 to celebrate my friends birthday and we were very excited to finally try this place out after seeing so many good reviews on it. We made reservations for 9:30pm a week in advance knowing it gets busy and even came early. Unfortunately somehow we ended up waiting a full HOUR to be seated. We spoke with the manager on floor who wasn’t very attentive to us while we waited and tried to call if any other restaurants could take us last min, but on a weekend after 10pm our choices were limited. He did try to comp us with a bottle of champagne, but to wait 30mins for a reso is borderline screw-​up. We waited an hour too long for food that was only alright. Disappointing, I felt bad for having chose the restaurant to bring my friend for her birthday.
Positive notes: Our bartender was awesome! The drinks are great and he kept us entertained while we tried not to flip tables

1^st time here, had an early dinner before catching a movie so maybe that’s why it was so quiet.
Highlights: clams in a garlicky sake broth, pork belly with taro, and these incredible smoky, savoury sweetbreads with a touch of heat.
Lowlights: flies. And the guava cocktail wasn’t guava-​y enough.
Overall, great food, service, and ambiance. Would definitely come again.

Customer service here is impeccable, all the staff was incredibly nice and friendly and very impressionable. They gave us the best spot in the house with the roof top window, perfect lighting for photos! The interior and decoration was modern. I love the trees and the natural lighting that came in, this definitely set the mood for a nice lunch. The menu is your Hong Kong style comfort foods. Definitely brings memories but would have to admit it is a bit pricey and lacks a uniqueness. We had the cola wings, Marco Polo tong mein, and Ma po tofu. All classic HK style dishes made fancy. The cola wings were flavourful, and a good portion. They gave us an extra bowl for bones and little individual dishes of hot lemon water for our fingers, very nice thoughtful touch! The Marco Polo tong mein I found the noodles a bit bland, the cha siu was flavourful and the egg was nicely cooked with a soft yolk. The ma Lo tofu had more of a kick to it and packed flavour.
They have a downstairs lounge that is soon to be named, I do very much enjoy the atmosphere and would come back again!

Went there for a friends birthday party and did their set menu. This place is a complete rip off. Food was mediocre and really over priced. Like stupidly overpriced. Chicken was raw still and when we informed our server about it they simply told us that the meat was red because the chicken was bruised during transport. First time I ever heard that one. Areas of the chicken were certainly pink and bloody. We ended up trashing a good portion of it.
For the price point you’re paying here, you could go to a fancy steak/​seafood restaurant in downtown and still have change left.

We were excited to try this new spot and had a great experience… the atmosphere is lovely — good music, lighting and very comfortable. Grateful there were no TVs!
Our service was excellent, attentive without being over the top. We shared a few snacks, including the salt cod fritters which came with a meyer lemon dip — very nice. Also tried the cola chicken wings which were pleasant.
Next time I will try one of the entrée dishes, as all sounded good. We asked about the oyster mushroom fries that came with the hangar steak seen at another table, and our server graciously brought us an order even though they weren’t on the starter menu. So good! — would recommend these be added as an item on their own and maybe a few more smaller items to share on the menu would be good as well. Lovely place, we had a great night!

We went to this place for dinner on Friday night and I was glad that I picked this place for our first summer restaurant adventure. This restaurant is located in Chinatown and it can be a little difficult to spot from the front entrance. Inside, the main dinning room was a beauty with the perfect ambiance for our Friday night date. As for our dinner, we ordered the Hamachi Sashimi special, Tuna (Salad), Black Cod and Hanger Steak. The Sashimi was fresh and it was well presented to our table. It was a pretty typical sashimi dish with pickled radish instead of ginger. The Tuna (Salad) tasted great. The greens were tossed in a light miso vinaigrette and it was a great combo with the confit and smoked tuna. The tea egg, however, I believed its a little redundant but it tasted good by itself. The Black Cod was good. The Kombu broth was a bit under-​seasoned to my taste but I believe the chef doesn’t want the broth to overpower the freshness of the sablefish. The Hanger steak was good. The meat was fresh and it was perfectly cooked to a medium rare (I like steak to be rare, I better specify next time). I like the stir fry dau miu and mushroom fries, they were interesting and something different from typical pub style.
The service was great. Our waitress was polite and they make sure you know what you ordered. At the end of our dinner, she even took time to listen for comment on the dishes and welcomed us back for the fall menu and the upcoming launch of the new bar in the basement. I will recommend this restaurant to people who like Asian fusion with great services and a memorable style.

***3 stars for the cocktails***
**2 stars for food, value and ostentatiousness**
Everything about this place screams «trying too hard». And I am disappointed to say that I was not impressed despite all their trying. I was hoping for another hip after work drinks and tapas venue to add to my Chinatown crawl but this restaurant would even have to tough time competing in Yaletown or Gastown where the chi-​chi frou-​frou places seem to amass.
The cocktails were good, and competitively priced but didn’t knock my socks off. I had the Sai Woo Sour and the special of the day which was bourbon-​based. Nothing to write home about.
The food offerings were all testaments of overthinking and not enough substance or creativity. Actually most of the creativity is only in the names — nothing was memorable. Except that I did remember how minute the portions were. I think the sashimi special had 3 pieces of one fish and one piece of another fish for the price of one of their «medium plates». Can’t say it was the freshest sashimi — in this city, that is a tragedy. The black cod was tender but again, nothing special and definitely not enough to share. I would not order the sausage «not sausage» ever again. But that would be based on me returning.
Your date might be impressed by the décor initially but I hope you have a backup plan when he/​she is still hungry after and your wallet is hurting. Luckily there are many east-​meets-​west type restaurants and bars in the area to fill that niche.

2.5
The space and service was excellent but I was disappointed by the food.
We ordered 5 dishes and all 5 dishes were sub par.
rice crackers — nothing special.
spring salad — The salad is served with grapefruit and jelly dressing. Interesting texture but I wasn’t a fan of the flavour.
pork belly with taro — the pork was soft and juicy but I’d choose the barbecued pork slices at Barbecue Master in Richmond or any Chinese BBQ place over this dish.
Fried rice — Texture was good but it was too salty. Again you can find better fried rice at cheaper Chinese joints.
Cod fritters — Too much batter and again, it was too salty.
Notes:
–The place is hard to find. It’s located 2 stores up from New Town Bakery.