Aberdeen Centre is the most recognisable of Richmond's three City Centre malls and is the de facto cultural heart of Metro Vancouver's Chinese-speaking community. It opened in 2004 to replace an older building and now spans 140,000 m² over three levels, packed with Chinese, Japanese, and Korean retail and food. Unlike most Canadian malls, very few of the tenants are North American chains — this is an almost entirely Asian-owned and Asian-focused shopping centre.
The reason it attracts visitors from across Metro Vancouver is the third-floor food court. It's one of the largest collections of Asian quick-service restaurants anywhere in North America — Cantonese BBQ, Taiwanese beef noodle soup, Hong Kong-style milk tea, Shanghainese dumplings, Japanese curry, Korean BBQ, Malaysian laksa, Vietnamese pho — all at prices that run $10–18 per meal. Food-writers from the New York Times and other international publications regularly feature it.
Beyond the food court, Aberdeen houses specialty retailers you won't find in non-Asian malls: Japanese stationery from Kinokuniya, tea shops, Chinese calligraphy supplies, bridal wear, anime merchandise, and skincare. The mall also hosts seasonal events — the Aberdeen Centre Lunar New Year celebration in late January/early February is one of the biggest in the region, drawing tens of thousands of visitors.
How to get there
Aberdeen SkyTrain station on the Canada Line is directly connected to the mall. From downtown Vancouver, it's about 20 minutes.
Local tips
- Third-floor food court is the main event
- Lunar New Year (January/February) has the biggest seasonal display
- Kinokuniya bookstore on the third level has Japanese and English books
- The cafés on the ground level are genuinely good Hong Kong-style