Now that everyone's settling into the autumnal back-to-business mode with work, school, and extracurricular schedules ratcheting up, it's time to roll out another list of my favourite Chinese eateries. Offering good value, and casual in style, these restaurants are perfect for an impromptu don't-feel-like-cooking midweek supper or a more elaborate let's-talk-about-our-week Sunday roundtable with family and pals.

Szechuan Garden Restaurant (1133 West Broadway, 604-737-2188) Szechuan Garden, centrally located on West Broadway, is a friendly spot for eating in, or if you really can't tear yourself away from The Apprentice: Martha Stewart or that new episode of West Wing, delivery (within five kilo?metres) and takeout are options. For those who share Emeril's passion for things porcine, the sliced pork with garlic sauce-thinly sliced and poached pork belly generously dressed with sautéed garlic and chili oil-rules. On a healthier note, the spicy green beans are jade-green, crunchy-plump, sweet, and mildly spiced with a sprinkling of hot pickles and ground pork. Other standouts include a succulent, golden, crisp-skinned salted duck; sliced fish with wine sauce cooked in lightly sweet rice-wine lees and garnished with celery and cloud ear mushrooms; and, if you order ahead, a fabulous Beggar's Chicken stuffed with dried lily buds and mushrooms, wrapped in lotus leaves and baked in a flour crust to seal in the moisture and flavours.

Green Village (2461 Nanaimo Street, 604-258-9018) Green Village, farther east along Broadway and the Chinese culinary map, is a Shanghai-style dining destination frequented by well-heeled foodies unafraid to risk wedging their precious Beemers and Porsche SUVs into the cramped parking lot out front just for a taste of the opulent eight-jewelled roast duck stuffed with glutinous rice, ginkgo nuts, chestnuts, mushrooms, and cured meats. When available, whole live ling cods are sold by the pound and prepared different ways: the head and bones go into a clay-pot soup loaded with vegetables and tofu; the fillets, according to your preference, can be fried in garlic and chilies, braised in wine, or simply pan-fried with ginger and scallions. For something to snack on while you wait, ask about the daily changing collection of small-plate cold appetizers, ranging from boiled peanuts to house-made pickles and the restaurant's unique upside-down sesame pan bread stuffed with dried pork.

Ho Yuen Kee (6236 Fraser Street at East 47th Avenue, 604-324-8855) For exceptional Cantonese-style seafood, travel south along Fraser to Ho Yuen Kee, where a signature dish of lobster steamed over lotus-wrapped corn and tobiko-studded (flying-fish-roe-studded) glutinous rice has attracted such a following that it's near impossible to get a seat there on any given night after 7. Equally addictive are the Dungeness crab-crusted with corn starch, fried, then tossed with chili paste and a mountain of crisped garlic chips-and a sizzling clay pot of black cod (sablefish) and eggplant in a savoury satay sauce. But you don't need to order big-ticket items to get a taste of the deft touch of the kitchen here. For $8.80, the shrimp with scrambled egg on steamed rice is a bargain full-meal deal loaded with large shrimp in a velvety, thickened egg-drop-soup-like sauce. And $10 will net you either half a boneless, cold, shredded, salty chicken that's moist and richly flavoured with a galangal-brine dressing, or one of the best plates of sweet-and-sour pork around town.

McKim Wonton Mein Saga (1180-8788 McKim Way, Richmond, 604-270-6632) The curiously named McKim Wonton Mein Saga is worth a jaunt to Richmond, especially if you are interested in a definitive bowl of Cantonese-style won ton noodle soup. The word saga makes reference to sai ga (which means an ancient and prominent family in Cantonese), an emphatic declaration that this is a branch of the Wellington Street original, which is widely regarded as the best won ton noodle house in Hong Kong. True to its pedigree, the won tons here are dainty, delicately wrapped morsels packed with shrimp, and the house-made noodles are thin but fabulously chewy in texture. Other dishes, listed on a small Chinese-only menu, include tasty crabmeat with sautéed pea tops, stir-fried shrimp with walnut and green beans, and an oxtail-and-daikon stew served in a clay pot.

Golden Ocean (second floor, 2046 West 41st Avenue, 604-263-8606) Last but not least, a dim sum alternative to add to your repertoire: Golden Ocean. A Kerrisdale clientele has kept this second-floor restaurant bustling for years, and the brisk turnover is what keeps the food in the pushcarts fresh and the kitchen creative. Vietnamese-style prawn mousse wrapped around a stick of sugar cane Popsicle-style, bitter melon stuffed with dace purée, seafood rolls wrapped in Napa cabbage, mushroom-stuffed rice rolls, and fried golf-ball-sized matcha-tinted glutinous rice dumplings filled with sesame paste are some examples of new takes on classics that are offered alongside very good har gau and siu mai. Be sure to go early on weekends to avoid long lineups.