[Richmond Hill] Jim Chai Kee

Location Review:
270 W Beaver Creek Road
Richmond Hill, ON
L4B 3Y9


Well hidden in a strip plaza on Highway 7 is somewhat of a gem when it comes to wonton noodles. And that's a great thing because I love wonton noodles. So much that it's kind of comfort food for me. And this place just gets it. I have yet to find a place in the GTA with comparability in terms food consistency and speed. I always leave happy and satisfied!

[Chicago] Wow Bao

Review Location:
1 West Wacker Dr
Chicago, IL 60601

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When I first walked by one of the 5 Wow Bao locations found in Chicago, my initial reaction was to chuckle at the originality of the name. Two rhyming one syllable words, creatively summing up exactly what their product is, and how good it is....genius!

In a nutshell,  Wow Bao (@baomouth) is a fast-food style eatery that serves Chinese/Asian fusion style steamed baos (bao being a Chinese word meaning bun), pot stickers, and rice bowls. The ordering and food delivery process is efficient and quick, making it a great grab-and-go option. And as a Chinese person who's had many a baos in my life, I have to say, the ones at Wow Bao are actually half decent!

[Hong Kong] Tsui Wah (翠華餐廳)

Location Review: 
493 - 495, Jaffe Road,
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong







Tsui Wah is a very popular Hong Kong style restaurant that currently has a handful of locations across Hong Kong. Being relatively affordable and open 24 hours, it's a popular spot for getting a snack or meal during the off hours. Don't go expecting stellar service and a fancy dining room though. Like typical Hong Kong style tea restaurants, the selling point here is a place to grab decent, quick, and affordable food.

[Richmond Hill] Chili Secrets

Location Review:
9021 Leslie Street
Richmond Hill, Ontario
(Major Intersection: Leslie St. and Hwy 7)





The other day I came here to have dim sum with the family and some family friends. Located just by Time Square, Chili secrets gets lots of traffic for both lunch and dinner service. It serves up a fusion of Cantonese, Szechuan and Shanghai cuisines. The great thing about this place is that they have lots of vegetarian options. Because we had a vegetarian with us that day, we had less meat dishes than usual.

Phoenix Restaurant

Review Location:
8190 Bayview Avenue
Thornhill, Ontario
(Major Intersection: Langstaff Rd. & Bayview Ave)





So it's been a while since I posted, but its partially because I've been sick! I'll try to make up for it, starting with this one! The other day I came to this Phoenix for dinner. I' believe this location is a branch of the one near woodbine and Steeles, but the sign on the outside sure was similar. The inside was really really pretty. It had a red glowing ceiling with butterflies, and a some other decorations on the wall that made it seem like some sort of enchanted forest. I couldn't resist and took a picture (while people stared at me..). We ended up ordering 3 dishes.

[Markham] Fancy Chinese Cuisine (李嘉誠)

Review location:

7750 Kennedy Road

Markham, Ontario
(Major Intersection: 14th Ave. & Kennedy Rd.)

First off, I would like to commend this restaurant for their English name selection. I would then also like to commend this place more on their Chinese name selection, which is essentially named after the wealthiest business man in all of Asia. Not that it has anything to do with anything, just point it out.

Eating Tour of Toronto

Location Review:
All Around Toronto!







Today's post will be a special one, because it'll from a couple places instead of just one!

This past weekend, my cousin Vincent from out of town came to Toronto, so my sister Amy and I decided to take him around to see the city. He'd already been to most of the bigger attractions in the city, so we were stumped on where to show him. Luckily, all three of us love eating, so it ended up being a huge eating tour! Of course we stopped by any parks, shops, and markets that we stumbled upon too. It's really crazy how both my sister and I have been in Toronto for over ten years, and we still ended up seeing and experiencing new things in Toronto for the first time.

Win's Seafood Restaurant

Review Location:
50 Lockridge Ave, Unit 1
Markham, ON

My family came here for dinner one night because there was some set dinner for 8 that was supposed to be a really good deal. You'll soon see from the pictures that it was A LOT of food and was enough for at least 10 people. The restaurant is like a typical chinese restaurant, with the round tables, white table cloths and squishy seats. Definitely nothing too fancy.  In fact, the insulation in the place was terrible because it was freezing despite there being heat on. Anyways, I noticed a certificate on the wall close to where we were sitting showing that the cook graduated from George Brown college. So at first I was kind of excited to try the Chinese food that would come out of a Canadian culinary school graduate. After the meal I realized that in fact there was quite a bit of western influence in the meal.

 appetizer: salted fish and peanuts

  bean curd sand meat soup. (WAYYY too peppery. Did not enjoy this at all.)

 Stir fried Lobster

 Stir fried button mushrooms and scallops with garlic

Left: Rum and butter seafood stew pot, Right: Baguette to go with the stew pot

 Sea cucumber, Chinese mushrooms and vegetables

 Steamed fish with soya sauce

 Stir fried button mushrooms and scallops in garlic

Stir fry snap peas with sea cucumber, white fungus, and king mushroom

 Stir fry leek and oysters

Rack of Lamb

 3 dessert options at the end of dinner: 

Black sesame dessert, Puree Almond dessert, and Taro Tapioca dessert. The Taro Tapioca dessert had the large tapioca balls! 

I'm not going to go through each dish this time like I normally do, because I feel like my thoughts on each dish are about the same. In generally everything was very savory (which probably came from the Canadian/Western cooking influence). The ingredients, the sauce, the flavours, everything. And while savory is not necessary a bad thing, it's a little too much when every dish is equal in intensity. You kind of need that more neutral bland dish to counteract it, but in this case there wasn't any. The lamb was a savory meat to begin with, and was drenched in a very rich in barbeque sauce, while the seafood stew was very heavy in butter flavourings. Even the vegetable dishes (which there were very few) were covered with more meat and seafood, which was stir fried in a salty and very thick sauce. But that's not to say the dishes weren't tasty. By themselves, each dish had relatively fresh ingredients and plentiful proportions. They didn't skimp out on the expensive ingredients either. My favourite dish which was the mushrooms and scallops, had equally as much scallops as it did mushrooms.

While it wouldn't be my first choice to come here again, I wouldn't write it off as a place I refuse to go to. I just personally wouldn't order all these dishes together at the same time again.

Cafe 28

Reviewed Location:
10 East Wilmot Street
Richmond Hill, ON

This restaurant is one of those places that serves chinese-style western cuisine. It's run entirely by chinese people, as are most of the customers that come here. The place is actually quite small, but the ambience of dimmed lights and elevator music makes it kind of comfy. While the menu is mainly dominated by western style items, they also have several chinese dishes like baked casseroles and fried rice. We decided to order a mixture of both styles of cuisine.

The western dishes came in set dinners, served with garlic bread, soup or salad, drink, and dessert. They ran out of garlic bread so we this potato patty instead.

Left: Salad with Fruit, Right: Clam Chowder

It's hard to see from the picture since the soup was unstirred, but it actually came with a lot of clams. The soup was the right consistency, but didn't taste creamy. Most likely thickened with cornstarch. The salad was your regular bagged salad with some fresh grapes, diced melon, and strawberries. The dressing was the most interesting part. It was a tangy strawberry dressing.

Left: Lemon tea + Egg Custard Pudding, Right: Potato Patties

Not much to comment here. Everything tastes exactly as it probably looks. Everything standard.

Top: Baked Pork Chop Rice, Left: 8 ounce steak, Right: Rack of Lamb

Though the plate used to serve the baked pork chop rice was very hot when it was served, it didn't taste like it was baked at all. It was no different than sauce over rice. The sauce itself was very salty, and the pork chops were slightly dry. Definitely did not enjoy this dish. The two grilled meat dishes however, were much better. You could tell the meat isn't top notch quality, but it was cooked perfectly to our "medium rare" order. I actually really enjoyed the mash potatoes that came with both these dishes. They were these partially mashed red skinned potatoes with a garlicky butter sauce. They were so good that I opted to eat the potatoes instead of the meat near the end of the meal when I was getting full. I think that says a lot considering I grew up being taught that you should always eat the most expensive stuff (ie. the meat) when you start getting full.

I actually quite enjoyed this place. The prices were actually rather inexpensive given the food quality and service. It's no classy hotel meal experience, but I'd say its definitely on the higher end of the moderate price range restaurants.