Canton Seafood in Oklahoma City: Dim Sum and Live Tank Seafood in Chinatown

Canton Seafood is a full-service Cantonese restaurant in Oklahoma City's Chinatown district, built around live seafood tanks and traditional dim sum service. The kitchen specializes in whole fish preparations, live crab and lobster, and cart-based dim sum during lunch hours, positioning it as the closest equivalent in the city to a Hong Kong dim sum hall.

What Canton Seafood actually is

Located on NW 23rd Street in the heart of Chinatown, Canton operates as a sit-down restaurant with both a dining room and private banquet spaces. The business model centers on two pillars: dim sum carts that circulate during lunch service (roughly 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily), and a full evening menu where customers select live seafood from holding tanks to be prepared to order. The dining room accommodates roughly 80 to 100 seats and draws regulars from the neighborhood as well as visitors traveling specifically for dim sum.

Dim sum pricing and selection

Dim sum items—har gow (shrimp dumplings), siu mai (pork dumplings), char siu bao (barbecue pork buns), and turnip cake—range from $2.50 to $4.00 per order of three to four pieces, depending on ingredient and complexity. A typical lunch for one person costs $12 to $18 before tax and tip. Unlike some dim sum venues that use a menu checklist, Canton operates traditional cart service where servers push carts through the dining room, and diners select items as carts pass. Plates are marked and tallied at the end of the meal. This format means the selection available depends on timing and the kitchen's current production; arriving early or mid-service (around noon) typically yields more variety than the tail end of service.

Full-service menu and live seafood

Dinner begins around 5 p.m., when the dim sum carts stop and the kitchen shifts to à la carte cooking. Live seafood (crab, lobster, shrimp, fish, abalone) is priced by weight and species; a live blue crab typically runs $18 to $24, and preparation styles include steaming with ginger and scallion, stir-frying with black bean sauce, or cooking whole in clay pot. Non-seafood dishes (beef chow fun, chicken with cashew, roasted duck) fall in the $12 to $16 range. Vegetables and tofu dishes cost $9 to $13. The kitchen operates without a printed menu on the wall; servers describe specials and customers order directly.

How Canton compares to other Oklahoma City Chinese restaurants

Canton occupies a distinct niche among Chinese dining in Oklahoma City. Places like Mojo Asian Cuisine and P.F. Chang's serve Americanized or pan-Asian fare in upscale settings with prix-fixe or standard ordering. Szechuan House on Classen Boulevard focuses on Sichuan-style heat and braise-forward cooking. Canton's strength lies in live seafood and dim sum tradition, making it the only venue in the city that serves dim sum via cart service and stocks live tanks; for diners seeking authentic Cantonese dim sum or the ability to choose live fish, it has no local equivalent. For those prioritizing heat and bold spice, Szechuan House is the better choice. For casual, familiar Chinese-American dishes in a streamlined setting, the major chains work faster.

Who it suits and who it does not

Canton works well for diners familiar with dim sum or willing to learn by watching and pointing, for groups who enjoy sharing multiple small plates, and for seafood enthusiasts who want to select a live animal from a tank. It suits regulars comfortable ordering in Cantonese or with a server's guidance. The cart-based dim sum service moves at the restaurant's pace, not the diner's, so it does not suit people who need to eat and leave in 30 minutes, nor does it work for those uncomfortable with the implicit ordering model of looking and choosing as carts pass. Evening service assumes some knowledge of seafood preparation methods; first-timers may want to ask a server for guidance on what's fresh that night.

What the first visit involves

Arrive during lunch (before 1 p.m. for best selection) and sit; a server will bring tea and begin circulating carts within minutes. Point to items that interest you and the server will leave a plate. Continue selecting as carts pass. Tea refills and water are standard. When finished, signal the server to tally your plates. If visiting for dinner, check what live seafood is available in the tanks, ask the server about preparation options, and order a mix of seafood and vegetable dishes for the table. Prices are visible on menu boards or quoted by server; no surprises appear at the end.

Hours, parking, and logistics

Canton operates Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., with dim sum service running 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and resuming at 5 p.m. for dinner (verify current hours by phone, as extended holiday hours may shift). The restaurant occupies street-front space on NW 23rd with dedicated on-site parking. The Chinatown location sits about five minutes north of Bricktown and is accessible from both I-44 (NW Expressway) and surface streets.

Canton Seafood functions as Oklahoma City's only traditional dim sum hall and live seafood restaurant, filling a gap for Cantonese dining that no other venue in the city matches. For diners seeking that specific experience, it's a necessary destination.