Review Foo San Restaurant - Christchurch

New owners, have done up the place very nicely! Expansive menu, mapo tofu was delicious, lemon chicken was a bit bland and small serving size for price. Overall pretty good worth a visit. Byo available only $3 corkage.

This is as good as it gets. Really good Chinese food. Authentic Chinese and kiwi favourites as well. Nice, friendly service. Bathroom has had a major, much needed upgrade. In fact the whole place has been upgraded. We will definitely be back. From the way that the other customers (four different groups, two Chinese, two kiwi) related to the staff, you could tell that they weren't there their first time. It's a good sign when customers come back. We had the curry chicken, cha shao pork (much bigger dish than in the menu photo), Fu Yong egg (omelette thingy) and stir fried veggies. All delicious.

We went for a dinner tonight at this restaurant. Unfortunately they no longer serve dimsum. We ordered sweet and sour fish, lamb with cumin and stir fried pork with vegetables. It looks like the place is newly renovated. The place has a cozy atmosphere now with new wall decorations, and floor covering. This restaurant might have been sold to a new Owner and under new management. Most of the people working in the restaurant is no longer around, except for one lady who is still around. The service is still good and fast. The food are delicious. They serve good tea. Though the food is a bit pricey. However, we missed the dimsum, particularly the siomai, chicken feet, fried squid, the pork buns, the congee and the salted fish fried rice which we always order whenever we have diner here at this restaurant. Hopefully they will be able to serve dimsum for dinner again in the near future.

Nice Dim-Sum restaurant. We arrived there near the end of the business hour. The staff were still maintaining professional smiles and said "welcome". The dishes there just met my favorite, will revisit sometimes.

Friendly Cantonese owner restaurant for dine-in, first-time dine-in gathered with family & friends from Aussie. Excellent service, clean environment, reasonable price, and appetizing Cantonese food. They don't have vegetarians on their menu, but the manager could help to arrange it. Yummy vegetarian food from their recommended. 😋😋😋😋😋😋😋😋

Humble, tasty, and incredibly affordable, top quality in its price range, so sad they r closing down in a few days, hope whoever is taking over can keep up in the same league.

An unassuming suburban takeout eatery in Riccarton hides inside a Yum Cha restaurant of some local repute. Its definitely an authentic no-thrills establishment with very minimal to be said for the ambience and the service. You wouldn't go there to be wooed or pampered but to fill your belly, and fill our bellies we did! The ordering is done from a sheet on your table which you give to the server, and the food then arrives as-ready. The disadvantage in this system is that arriving very hungry, we did put down for quite a lot of dishes for the 4 of us, unsure of appetites or portion sizes. Halfway through the arrival of the food we realised there was going to be too much but we were committed! Not that this was too much of a drama; they happily provided takeout boxes at the end and we did have a thoroughly good meal. A very large spread; first up the yummy fried things - spring rolls, calamari, chicken wings, so on. The great thing about these were how hot and crisp they were, perfectly cooked. Highlights from the next part of the procession were the steamed pork buns, so light and fluffy, and a golden pan-fried version of the same. Sui Mai in both prawn and chicken versions were perhaps a little sub-par compared to other yum cha we've had, as were the steamed pork rolls. The congee was totally delicious however and the wonton noodle soups were HUGE. I seemed to be the only person in our party with any room for dessert and I would definitely order the Dan Tart (egg custard tarts) again, and forcing myself to consume two further Sesame Seed Sweet Dumplings was a worthwhile pain with their sugary red bean interiors. Jealous the others got to take them home! It was a good meal with friends and given the price point there's reason I'd return for a regular feed.

Very nice dinner. Nice staffs. Highly recommend.

new owner with more authentic chinese dishes. Highly recommended to try the Cantonese dishes.

Very good food. Has been renovated since I last went there. Value is really good.

Nice food, nice people, really enjoy the meal here. Yummy!!! Must try in Christchurch.

A great dim sum in Christchurch A place must checked ! Sesame ball is the best in town ..

Very tasty food, reasonable pricing, and the service by far the best, the lady whom served us was very friendly and considerate. Also the restaurant itself is absolutely gorgeous, so crisp and clean and elegant.

Very good food and service by new owners, Still missed the pervious owners. They both very good food and service, I really recommend

Awesome place to eat family friendly and nice and quiet Best customer service 10/10

Nice food. Good service. Friendly staff.

The buffet was splendid. We were greeted by friendly staff and sereved immediately. The new rennovations are lovely and we were even given complimetary soup! will definetely be back again.

Have been coming here with my family for years, we are a large family so eating out altogether can be very expensive. The Foo San makes it possible! they are always friendly, and the food is always very fast

Pretty average Chinese Restaurant. Dim Sums are just standard, nothing great. The only thing worth ordering is the curry laksa. Inside restaurant is very cramped and hot. There was no AC inside.

been going here for years.. and the wonton noodle soup is on point.. the best wonton noodle soup in town hands down.. love love love this place!!! the pork dumplings are a great treat aswell.. and the old lady she is funny aswell..

Okay, "service was friendly and helpful" said a previous review, hilarious.  I've been a regular here for 20 years and the service is infamous for (at best ) its steely indifference.  It's all part of the charm.  The flipside is they're BYO everything and don't charge corkage!  <br/><br/>I go for the yum cha but less and less these days.  The quality has slipped markedly, they'd always been variable - one dish would slay, the next was a one bite wonder.  That was less relevant when the pricing was sharp and they debuted new dishes often. That's no longer the case.<br/><br/>There's a few favourites that generally make the trip worthwhile - The congee tops this billing.  Sticky rice and tripe are lovely too. I was a big fan of their squid but recent rank offerings have deleted it from my list.  <br/><br/>If you're new to yum cha and live locally this is a fun place to start.  Otherwise, the misses now sadly outweigh the hits.

First time dining Chinese and it rocked. Yeah the building was a bit crappy but it was busy had a great atmosphere and very helpful staff. The food was awesome loved the lazy Susan was a cool touch to the table we obviously order the right food ?

We go there all the time and have for years, yes the building is a bit shitty but if your going out eat rather than look at a pretty bathroom then it is well worth the try, steamed buns, spicy squid and plum duck are my favs, always big portions and the staff are super friendly.

Good for the price. Some friends and I went for the yum cha and also got two small mains to share.  The mains were  totally fine, the steamed buns were amazing!  The texture of them was almost fluffy, something I'd never seen before.   Then I made the mistake of going to the bathroom.  It was horrible. Service was friendly and helpful.  I wish I could have scored them better than a 3 but the building really lets them down.

We are not going back to this restaurant any more, because they over charged us, not only one time. We went there today and after we paid for the food, we found out they over charged us over $5 for nothing again , be honest, they don't have to make money like this. If you go there, take note of what you order, so you don't need to get over charged as well. So be careful.<br/>People are not as stupid as they look, people know what they ordered and know what they ate.

I have been going here a while now and have always been impressed. <br/><br/>I normally stick to the more mainstream dishes, the Sweet and Sour Chicken is my favourite. A colleague of mine from Hong Kong had recommended the place to me saying it was really good.<br/><br/>It is always busy but the friendly staff are great and you never have to wait long.<br/><br/>Highly recommended for dine in or take away.

FANTASTIC!! Great to find a Chinese restaurant/takeaway that has Gluten Free options available. The staff were very knowledgeable and friendly. Excellent value for money and very tasty. We will definitely be going back.

Not sure if this place really earned 3 stars, but I thought it deserved slightly more than 2. It's cramped and busy and obviously popular, but we still managed to get a seat without too much trouble. Although the place was very full later on and our large round table soon accommodated an elderly couple who took up seats on the other side.<br/><br/>We were there for Sunday Yum Cha - which we used to love in Wellington - to date however we still haven't found Yum Cha like we're accustomed to (where you don't have to pre-order off a menu).<br/><br/>The food was ... well meh. The one good thing with ordered Yum Cha is that you know the food is fresh cooked and hot, the downside is, you don't get to test your taste-buds on something a bit more unusual or exotic based solely on how it looks as it comes around the room.<br/><br/>In terms of the food, it was okay, but I have had better - in fact some of the food was either bland or too salty. We ended up giving some of our food to the couple across from us.<br/><br/>Would probably go back ... but not in any great hurry to.

Truly an amazing place been there several times had many special moments there when Ive traveled down from Auckland .<br/>The food there is incredible no place better.<br/>Be ready to join in and sing Happy Birthday with everyone .<br/>As I traveled from Auckland I'm amazed they always remembered me and always a warm welcome.<br/>Truly a place ill always remember and special moments there with someone special in my Heart

We have eaten Chinese food in many parts of the world incl US, UK, Europe, Australia but not yet Hong Kong or Mainland China itself. Been eating Foo San meals both sit down and takeaway since '91, just superb! The Foo San is right up there with the best.

Best restaurant for students! Because it's close to University/student area, cheap tasty food, and its BYO!<br/><br/>Great memories are made at this restaurant.

good food, modern makeover, enjoy eating at Foo San, but can be very busy. have picture menu now!

The best Dim-sum ( Chinese snack ) restaurant in Christchurch. Their dumpling soup and meat ball rice soup are also something you cannot miss. <br/><br/>Wonderful food!!

Excellent food for cheap, a regular for me

Decent service, good prices, great food.

The bees knees, the cat's pyjamas<br/>Amazing student restaurant

Put quite simply, it is the balls, the biggity biggity balls.