Chinese food – Page 9

Fancy Dim Sum at Yu Seafood

Published on December 30, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 270 West Beaver Creek Road, Richmond Hill
Website: http://www.yuseafood.com/

If you have anyone you’re looking to impress with a fancier dim sum joint, you could do worse than Yu Seafood. The restaurant itself is quite a bit more sleek than your average dim sum place, and the presentation of the dishes is a bit snazzier.

And of course, it also has the prices to match — it’s not outrageous, but it’s noticeably more expensive than the norm.

The food is all solid, though nothing quite blew me away. I think pretty much everything was slightly (or more than slightly) underseasoned.

One of their specialties is the visually striking Bamboo Charcoal & Egg Yolk Bun. It looks impressive and tastes pretty good, but the molten custard filling was broken; it was lumpy and oily.

Everything I tried was quite tasty — but given the hefty pricing, it’s not quite as amazing as you’d hope.

Disappointing Fried Bao at Zheng’s Juicy Fried Buns

Published on November 14, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 4750 Yonge Street, North York (in the Emerald Park food court)
Website: https://baogong.business.site/

Last year, I checked out Sang-ji Fried Bao and tried the scallion oil noodles and the sang-ji bao (fried soup-filled pork buns). I thought it was tasty enough, but nothing particularly mind-blowing.

Well, I just had the exact same meal at Zheng’s Juicy Fried Buns, and suddenly I’m appreciating Sang-ji Fried Bao so, so much more.

Here’s a one word review of the meal I just had: yikes.

I started with the scallion oil noodles, which tasted like plain instant noodles tossed in a whole bunch of soy sauce (and a buttload of oil); it was greasy and one-note salty with absolutely none of the sweet complexity you associate with this dish. The deeply caramelized scallions were present, but they couldn’t do much to fight the face-punch of saltiness from the noodles themselves. It doesn’t help that the undercooked instant noodles were a complete bummer to eat.

The pan-fried buns weren’t much better. The wrapper was thick, gummy and unpleasantly doughy, and the would-be crispy bottom was actually just dry, like a stale cracker. The soupy filling was completely bland (it needed a lot of vinegar to be even remotely edible), and the pork was surprisingly tough and flavourless.

Sang-ji Fried Bao is about two kilometres north of here, and trust me: that’s the one you want. There’s no comparison.

Tasty Chicken at Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice

Published on November 11, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 780 Burnhamthorpe Road West, Mississauga
Website: http://yangschicken.ca/

Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice is a Chinese chain that recently opened seven simultaneous locations in the GTA. Opening one restaurant is tricky enough; I can’t even imagine what must go into opening so many at the same time.

Whatever kinks they had (and there must have been kinks) since opening in September have clearly been worked out; the food and service were both top-notch. Apparently they have over six thousand locations worldwide, so I guess opening seven more is no big deal.

As you can probably guess from the name, Yang’s specializes in braised chicken rice, a dish in which tender, saucy braised chicken is served with a bowl of rice.

You can either get it standard or boneless (I went with the former), and you can pick your spice level (I picked “authentic,” which was actually quite mild; I’ll probably go spicier next time).

It seemed a bit simple at first, but it really grew on me; by the time I was done, I was 100 percent into it.

The chicken is quite tender, and has a nice soy-sauce-infused flavour from the braising liquid. Combined with the rice and the richly flavourful sauce, it’s surprisingly addictive.

Oddly enough, however, the chicken wasn’t the highlight — it was the slices of mushroom in the sauce. These things do an amazing job of soaking up all the flavour from the dish; they’re basically chewy little flavour bombs. They’re delightful.

Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles at Gol’s Lanzhou Noodle

Published on October 29, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 100 City Centre Drive, Mississauga (inside Square One)
Website: https://lanzhou.ca/

There’s something both delightful and bizarre about the presence of Gol’s Lanzhou Noodle in Square One’s food court. It’s hard to imagine a place serving legit Chinese hand-pulled noodles — nestled between a KFC and a cheesesteak joint — being able to exist in a suburban shopping mall like Square One even just a decade ago.

But it’s here now, and it’s surprisingly great.

I had the beef noodle soup, and I was shocked at how good it was. It’s not the best bowl of noodles you’ll ever eat, but it’s seriously tasty for something in a mall’s food court. It’s not even in Square One’s fancy new “Food District” — it’s in the plain old food court, right near places like A&W and Manchu Wok.

(Sorry, I know I’m harping on its location, but it kinda blows my mind.)

And yes, they serve real-deal hand-pulled noodles; they’re freshly pulled to order, and you can watch them do it (which is always an oddly hypnotic display).

It’s a tasty bowl. The soup is a bit too salty, but it has a clean beefy flavour with a nice hit of freshness from the cilantro. It comes with a healthy amount of chili oil on the side; I wish this stuff were spicier (it’s just barely hot), but it has a fantastic smoky/savoury flavour that really kicks up the flavour of the soup.

The sliced beef had a slight leftovery flavour, but was otherwise tender and enjoyable.

And the medium-thick noodles are great. They were ever-so-slightly on the soft side, but they were nice and hearty, with a satisfying level of chew.

Tasty (and Cheap!) Eats at Shanghai Dim Sum

Published on October 18, 2019 by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Location: 330 Highway 7, Richmond Hill
Website: http://www.shanghaidimsum.ca/

If you’re looking for a delicious and delightfully affordable meal, you could absolutely do worse than Shanghai Dim Sum. If you show up before 11:00 AM (and you should definitely do this) you can order off a special early morning menu that includes an order of four soup dumplings for 99 cents.

99 cents! Are they they best soup dumplings you’ll ever have? No, but they’re quite tasty, and for the price, they’re outstanding.

Everything else was quite good as well. We managed to try a generous amount of stuff (I was quite full by the end of the meal) — the total bill? About 30 bucks for three people. You can’t argue with that price.

The restaurant also has the distinction of serving what might be the garlickiest dish I’ve ever had. The boiled pork with garlic paste features tender slices of pork belly doused in a sauce that’s effectively pure, uncooked garlic. It was actually quite tasty, but that garlic taste lingered on my palate for a solid 24 hours.