Rainbow Butterfly: A Review

It's not often that my family takes a chance and ventures out to try a new dim-sum restaurant, but I guess my parents just didn't feel like having to drive all the way to Richmond for some good old HK breakfast. Instead, we decided to dine at this quaint little Chinese restaurant in Port Coquitlam called Rainbow Butterfly. I'm usually pretty wary of a restaurant that uses strange imagery within their name, but since this place did not use the words "panda" or "dragon" or "authentic Chinese cuisine" I was all for dining there. The following is a picture show of the amazing dishes that they served, with commentary of course :P

All of the dishes below were $2.75, except for the special dishes which were $3.75 or the "Chef Specials" which were $4.75.

As always, we ordered a bowl of congee... nothing amazing, but certainly tasty. It was considered a "Chef's Special" and in my opinion, not worth $4.95

Another dim-sum fave... lor bak gou. Again, tasty but nothing to rave about.

Can't go wrong with chicken feet... I thought these were really flavorful, and not too salty.

Their gyoza was nicely fried and crisp. Although, the skin was more doughy than I would have liked, and it cost $4.75!

I really enjoyed this chiu chow fun quor, it had pork, peanuts and chives... mmmm quite yummy.

Xiao Long Bao, another yum cha classic... my sisters devoured these and literally drank the red vinegar! Crazy kids.

Steamed rice rolls with scallop, $3.75

The beef omasum was soft and gingery

Their satay honeycomb tripe was also very nice and soft. It's one of my favorite dishes and they did not disappoint.

When we first received this dish, we weren't quite sure what it was. Then one bite into it and we could taste the seafood and pumpkin. These were a delightful addition to our lunch

I love my egg-tofu, and when combined with shrimp it's even better.

One of the best dishes at the Rainbow Butterfly has got to be their fried eggplant with pepper, salt, garlic and dried shrimp. They were crispy and spicy and just all-round delicious! And although it was a "Chef's Special" and costing $4.95 per dish, it was totally worth it.

I would definitely get this again, it was AMAZING! These fried bitter melon sesame balls, filled with black-sesame paste were ooey-gooey and oh so sweet!

My sister loves her mango pudding, in my opinion it's not as good as the one our mom makes but it was still better than the cheap, imitation mango puddings from sushi restaurants :P

My mom really loves her baked sago, and so she got one of these warm, rich puddings. I had to try a little, and really enjoyed the taro-paste they filled it with. It was a great alternative to the traditional red-bean paste.

I'm also a sucker for agar-agar. I had to try this chilled lychee and longgan agar-agar cake. It was very refreshing and had a nice, crisp bite to it. The wolfberries inside were a great addition to the cake... I'll have to see if I can make this one at home!

Yes, I called this one as well. I'm a sucker for the dessert section of dim-sum. This rich, flaky butter pastry was filled with a lotus-seed and ginger paste and had a century egg in the center. It was so rich and tasty... I felt so guilty eating two!

All in all, I would definitely recommend a visit to Rainbow Butterfly. The service is friendly and very quick. They are very attentive and accomodating to your requests if you are kind and friendly yourself. They have a great variety of traditional and specialty dim-sum dishes and they are, for the most part, relatively decent in price. I plan on making a return visit to Rainbow Butterfly, and ordering all my favorites plus a few other specialties that caught my eye last time. Sadly, neither my stomach nor my wallet are big enough to accomodate what my eyes beg for me to try :( but that just means I'll be back for more!