Downtown Dim Sum at Oji Chinese Cuisine

I’m not sure when I noticed the giant neon lobster in a Robson Street window, but I only passed it a couple of times before I noticed that what used to be a sushi place beside Chapters was now Oji Chinese Cuisine & Dim Sum. And of course it didn’t take long after that to get in there to check it out.

It basically looks exactly the same as it used to, with the high-backed lacquered benches and booths, but now there are Chinese paintings of cherry blossoms and misty mountains instead of whatever was there before. The service is likewise forgettable - random, different, servers dropping off water and menus and then picking them up again without taking our orders, communication that was mostly gutteral, etc, but when the food finally came it was delicious.

Deciding what to eat was a little bit of an equation. After a lot of mulling over the photos on the Dim Sum menu, adding (and then sorrowfully subtracting) various dishes and comparing the final product with the regular lunch menu, we decided on a bowl of noodles each and Har Gow, Sui Mai, and beef balls. Regrettably I don’t have any photos of the food because we ate it all before it occurred to me to pull my camera out.

I had noodles topped with BBQ duck, the beautiful deep red of the meat contrasting beautifully with the off-white rice noodles (in much the same way that the fat of it contrasted with the carbs). The beef balls were full of flavour and dripping oil without being too oil. Instead they just tasted deliciously of spices and onion. Har Gow, a staple, was juicy and succulent and no complaints about the Sui Mai either.

For dessert we somehow made room for egg tarts and then I seriously debated rolling over on one of the benches and having an afternoon nap. The problem with this place will prove to be the proximity to my work. I won’t be able to keep walking by it without stopping in…

UPDATED: I passed by here the other day and noticed they now have a website:

http://www.oji-robson.com/ 

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Oji Chinese Cuisine & Dim Sum

778 Robson Street, Vancouver