I only went to one place in HKG (co-workers took us there, mostly locals, so assume it was decent), and while it was really good, would not say it was any better than our local go-to here in Los Angeles - Empress Pavilion downtown. So either they are both average, or both really good (my guess is the latter - never disappointed with a Sunday meal at EP). It is a huge place with lots of carts - so perfect for your friend - definitely the place for his research in Los Angeles.

A few months ago I ate at Wing Lei at the Wynn in Las Vegas. They had several dim sum selections. Ordered a few and they were all amazing - definitely the best dim sum I have had. Of course you would hope so from a place with a Michelin Star. Not sure if they do cart service, though.

There's obviously a plethora of dim sum places in Vancouver but IMO the ones with carts are a becoming a rarer breed with many using the menu card system now.

Just to add a bit more detail to the ones already listed for Vancouver that I'm a familiar with a bit and a couple of more (without prejudice from my impressions of them)...

• Pink Pearl (Slight drive outside of Chinatown): Large to huge restaurant (>500 people). Mid to slightly higher end expensive
• Sun Sui Wah (Main street location): Fairly large restaurant (about 400 people - rough count from a wedding we went to last year). Higher end expensive.
• Floata (Chinatown location): Flippin' huge restaurant (~1000 people). Mid end expensive. Haven't been in a while but I thought they did do carts.
• International Seafood Restaurant (East Vancouver): Medium sized restaurant (~250 people). Inexpensive.
• Golden Phoenix (East Vancouver): Small restaurant (<100 people). Inexpensive. Haven't been in years so don't know if it still does carts.
• Dai Tung (East Vancouver): Small/Med restaurant (~150-200? people). Inexpensive. Haven't been in a few years for dim sum so don't know if it still does carts.
  
• Kirin (various locations): The ones I've been to don't do carts. Large (~300 people). Expensive.

You might be able to identify some more dim sum places with carts from DineHere.ca.

I just want to second Royal China in Bayswater in the UK...expensive but very well-done. Frankly, I wish there was good dim sum in New York, but I grew up on Hong Kong, Vancouver and San Francisco dim sum and can't seem to find any great places in NYC. If anyone has suggestions (given that I am rather picky with dim sum and find both Ping's and Jing Fong's to be just okay) of places in NYC (even in Flushing), I'd appreciate it.

It's actually called Emerald. I'm there frequently. Pretty good quality.

As for Vancouver, I'll have to second another poster who said Sun Sui Wah. I've been to the Richmond location and it was very good (granted, it was a few years back).

There are tons of great dim sum places in the Vancouver and Toronto areas, many of which no longer use carts. In the Toronto area, go north of the city (Markham, Richmond Hill) for the best quality. I'm very wary of any place downtown, any place that offers dim sum past 3pm, and any place without at least 70% Chinese customers.

I've also been to several in HK, but can't remember the names of any.

I believe those are as a result of the large Hong Kong population settlement in both places.

You got it! We had a huge influx in immigration from HK mostly prior to 1997. With that came a lot of great cooks and chefs and restauranteurs. Lots of other cities around the world benefited, too, of course.

I had a six month assignment in HK a number of years back and had the opportunity to try a number nice dim sum places but can't remember them either. What I've been doing in recent years is to take pictures of many of the restaurants I've visited (in general) along with the dishes. Unfortunately, I just picked up my first digital camera at near the end of that assignment and memory cards were pretty pricey back then so I didn't get around to taking pictures them for future reference. (Though I suppose I could have just scribbled down the name somewhere :) ).

The funny problem I had with dim sum in Hong Kong was that while I can speak Cantonese enough to get by, I can't read it, save for some very basic characters (and neither do my friends and girlfriend who visited me). I recall a lot of the places just had signs hanging off the front of the carts and the cart pushers didn't yell out what was inside. So, we were constantly having to ask what was inside but also explaining that we couldn't read the signs so we didn't get the "Uh, just read the damn sign" look. :D

San Francisco: My every time visit is Ton Kiang. It's in the Outer Richmond, is intimate downstairs, though the cart ladies still circulate,though there is platter service as well.

In Hong Kong, I fondly recall (from 2007) the yum cha place at City Hall, name not recalled. A giant, pulsing maelstrom of food service activity. Lots of carts (and everything else too.)

--mcz

Yes to both. I really liked Parc Hong Kong in SF, which is apparently gone, though.

The yum cha place at City Hall is, I believe, called City Hall Restaurant. Terrific.

Yank Sing is fine, but in my experience the stuff is of varying degrees of freshness.

Not in the same league, I think.

Enjoyed it greatly, especially the FT company. I do like the Bayswater Royal China
better, though, and even more the neighboring Kam Tong. I've had some really
good dim sum in London, even at Poon's.

The other thing to add, is that most of these places are very cheap by world standards, despite the high quality of the food. If you go for lunch with a group its easy to have your bill be only $10-20 per person.

I went to Pink Pearl this past weekend for dim sum and the quality has dropped quite a bit. There seems to have been a (recent) change in ownership (again) as the place was quite empty (the old long line ups are gone) and the variety, quality and taste of the dim sum have dropped. It was actually quite disappointing!!!

Thanks again to everyone for your replies.

Is anyone familiar with the Imperial Restaurant in Vancouver? Any feedback/comments about this place?

Thank You again!

if you like yum cha you should try RED STAR. it's a lesser known but better by singaporean standards.

I've never been but my wife went there every so often when she worked downtown a few years back. From what I recall of her reviews, I believe it's a medium to large restaurant (though I think she mentioned kind of weird shaped/layout), nice decor, but expensive (kind of caters to the downtown business crowd). Don't think they do carts.
[I'll double check/edit my post once she gets home.]

Wife confirms that it's more geared towards the biz crowd downtown. About 200-250 seats. No carts. Had a number of mirrors to make the place look bigger. Great view of the harbour until they started construction on the expanded convention centre.

I'm under the impression that since SARS Hong Kong has been going more in the direction of ordered dim sum instead if the carts. I suppose they consider it to be more sanitary. A place called "Luk Yu Tea House" in Central is very well known.