Vancouver Chinatown's Largest Restaurant Shutters

Floata has been struggling financially since the pandemic

It was a shock to hear on Monday that Floata Seafood Restaurant in Chinatown was closed.

Maybe it wasn't a surprise after all, since it was either jam packed during Chinese New Year banquets and fundraising dinners for organisations like Vancouver Chinatown Foundation, the Chinese Canadian Museum and Dr Sun Yat-Sen Garden, or it was practically dead.

The 1,000 seat restaurant opened in 1995

There were occasions I have come to Floata for dinner and there were only two tables occupied, or dim sum for lunch and a fraction of the 1,000-seat restaurant occupied. 

Floata was opened in 1995 and was the largest restaurant in Chinatown. A family friend held their wedding banquet here, occupying the entire place. At fundraisers, politicians from three levels of government, and of all stripes came here to "press the flesh" with the Chinese community.

But since the Covid-19 pandemic, Floata has been struggling to pay the rent, apparently owing some $300,000. The space is owned by the City of Vancouver and one wonders why it didn't give the restaurant an opportunity to devise a payment scheme.

As community leader Fred Lee said to me tonight, there will never be another restaurant of this size in Chinatown again; and where are groups in the community going to hold their fundraising dinners now? It would be so odd to go to a restaurant in Richmond...

Place either jam packed or practically empty

Lee also feels sad for the staff who have worked there for so long, wondering what will happen to them. 

While this is another sign that Chinatown is still struggling to bring people back to the neighbourhood, we have to honestly say Floata didn't serve the best Chinese food!

But it was a place that brought people together, and this giant space is gone... unless someone has a brilliant plan to remake it into something new...