Competition is fierce between dim sum restaurants in Richmond Hill and Markham. Diners there are unforgiving so if a restaurant survives a few years with long queues, it’s probably a good sign. Yang’s Fine Chinese Cuisine been around for more than a decade and is still popular for its dim sum. It would be even more popular if it was located in a more accessible location like other restaurants along Highway 7.
Macau is a minor oddity of China. It was a Portuguese colony for over 400 years and was only reunified with China in 1999. As such, there are some influences from Portugal and its other colonies, but the feel is unmistakably Southern Chinese.
The most famous specialty is pastéis de nata (egg tarts). As for the next most famous dish, it’s likely unknown to the rest of the world. My vote goes to galinha à Africana (African chicken): roasted and covered with a piri piri and peanut butter sauce. It’s not actually African but an amalgamation of Central and Southern African ingredients.
Woodstone Eatery is one of the few Macanese restaurants in the Toronto region. It feels like a Hong Kong cha chan teng (茶餐廳; Westernized Chinese cafe) with Macanese items. Still, it’s a splendid choice with good cooking and down-to-earth prices.
This humble restaurant in a nondescript plaza doesn’t even have a website, but is thriving through word-of-mouth. The draw is their authentic and tasty Sichuan food.
Sichuan cuisine is the second most prevalent Chinese cuisine in the world, after Cantonese. It’s no exception in Toronto. Many Chinese restaurants here have a token Sichuan dish or two. The cuisine’s signature ingredient is Sichuan peppercorns, which has a numbing effect on the tongue. It might be a good thing because it distracts from the burn from the thick layers of chilli oil and slew of dried chillies.
Sichuan dishes are easy to make but hard to do well, so one has to travel out of the Toronto core to get good Sichuanese food. The best places are cheap and cheerful establishments, like Szechuan Noodle Bowl.
This restaurant closed on 30 April 2022 and will be moving to a new location. Thanks for the memories!
Sushi Nishinokaze is the latest darling in the omakase space. It opened in late 2021 and is one of three restaurants specializing in edomae sushi. If you’re wondering, the other two are Shoushin and Sushi Masaki Saito. Nishinokaze is also the cheapest at $169.50, compared to $316.40 and $680.00 respectively. Lots of Japanese air-flown imports and the intricacies of fish curing push up the price.
Edomae (江戸前) literally means “in front of Edo”. Edo is understood to refer to the castle in Edo, now modern-day Tokyo. Edo is also the name of the imperial period from 1603 to 1867 before Japan opened up to the world and brought about industrialization, political reform, and World War II, among other things.
The sushi from the Edo period was quite different from that of today. Because of the lack of refrigeration, fresh fish sushi was rare. Chefs had to think of ways to preserve fish like curing in soy sauce, salt, or vinegar. To put it in a nice way, fish could be “aged” anywhere between a few days to a few weeks. There’s less moisture and the protein gets more mushy from enzymatic action.
Edomae sushi is slowly gaining awareness in North America. Mainly in top-end omakase restaurants going for hundreds of dollars. Such an irony considering that edomae sushi was originally fast-food for peasants. I guess it can be justified because there’s more chef work compared to regular sushi.
For example, one defining characteristic of edomae sushi is the red vinegar (赤酢; akasu) used to prepare the rice (酢飯; shari). It gives the rice a brown hue. This vinegar is more expensive to procure and the taste is more complex than the white rice vinegar used in regular sushi. If you arrive early like I did, you can watch the chef make the finishing touches to the giant tub of rice.
Maeli Market is a Taiwanese lifestyle supermarket that also happens to make fantastic hot foods. It’s the only of its kind in Toronto, but the concept has been in East Asia for decades: a chic designer store with curated goods and an attached cafe. The shopping experience is a highlight in itself, akin to browsing an art gallery. Maeli Market is unusual in that its wares are packaged foods instead of stationery, apparel, or household items, but the attention to detail is the same.
Design shops sometimes run into the folly of emphasizing style over substance. Happily, there is no such issue here. Their rice dishes, in particular, are a successful elevation of peasant foods.
All their products are made in Taiwan or are Taiwanese favourites. Half of them can be found cheaper at other Chinese supermarkets. What you should come here for are unique imports like pineapple cakes (鳳梨酥), muah chee (麻糍; glutinous rice balls with filling), pickles, and teas.
All their wares are precisely arranged like a sculpture. They might even be colour-coordinated.
Their chilled and frozen sections have a fair selection. It’s rather pricey though since they are specialty imports.
They don’t have the full gamut of Taiwanese instant noodles. No manhan feast (滿漢大餐), a renowned brand with real chunks of beef. Nor TTL chicken noodles with rice wine (花雕雞麵). Probably food import restrictions.
Still, they pack a surprisingly large variety of products in a small space and make it seem spacious. There is even a small section for housewares.
Toronto has bountiful dim sum at all price points. Quality is comparable or better than Hong Kong. At the high-end, there are over a dozen restaurants that will compete for your dollar. By high-end, I mean luxury ingredients like lobster, truffles, foie gras, etc. Surprisingly, prices are not that stratospheric. The average plate at these restaurants range from $5.65 to $11.30 (after tax). In the past, it was common to have “early bird” discounts for diners that show up before 9am. It’s rare to see that these days but you can still get discounts (usually) by paying with cash.
Casa Imperial has the best setting amongst its competitors. It’s in a mid-19th-century heritage house, originally the Hood-Gough House. Think chandeliers, oil paintings, and fine china. It’s faux-glam but consumers love it for its perceived elegance. For pandemic dining, seating has moved outdoors and so has the dining finery. Even the tents are a step above the average restaurant. Sturdy and matched for an establishment of this calibre.
Oddesoul is a Canadian-Korean gastropub. It’s probably the only one in its category in Toronto. Sure, there are loads of Korean gastropubs in the city but none of them push the fusion envelope that far. Far from fusion confusion, nearly every dish is excellent.
Oddseoul is one of the earliest kids on the Ossington block. The strip of Ossington Avenue between Dundas and Queen Street has grown into a culinary mecca in the past decade. Oddseoul definitely helped build that reputation. Despite its success, Oddseoul is oddly low-key. There is no signboard and I’ve walked by it accidentally on more than one occasion. The only clue is the inconspicuous letters on its mailbox. For the longest time, its online presence was just a stagnant Instagram page. The COVID-19 pandemic finally forced them to create a DoorDash account for takeout orders.
You don’t have to fly to Tokyo or New York City for a good sushi omakase (お任せ; blind tasting menu). Over the last 10 years, Toronto has gained several high-end sushi restaurants with their own niches. They are also better value here, other than Sushi Masaki Saito which starts at $600 per person—the most expensive meal in Toronto.
Yasu’s strength is non-orthodox nigiri sushi. By non-orthodox, I mean the willingness to venture beyond traditional Japanese produce and flavours. That’s the trend of top-end restaurants around the world. Delivering the classics isn’t enough—chefs have to impress seasoned foodies with dishes they have never had before. Of the 16 courses I had at Yasu, only half were traditional. Everything else had some modern spin on it.
Imanishi is a contemporary izakaya (Japanese bar) and one of the top ones in Toronto. The contemporary part comes from its adaption of traditional izakaya foods like karaage (唐揚げ; deep-fried chicken chunks) and goma-ae (胡麻和え; salad with sesame dressing). They mostly stay true to the original but are plated nicer, in tapas format. Serendipitous additions like fried chickpeas and monkfish liver further differentiate Imanishi from old-school izakayas.
Well, that was before COVID-19. When indoor dining was shut down, Imanishi pivoted to donburi (rice bowls) and bento (boxed meals with assorted sides). This was perhaps a blessing in disguise because I like their bento even more than their a la carte options.
Bento (弁当) is a compartmentalized meal with rice and at least 3 or more side dishes. It’s designed for takeout. It originated from Japan and has spread across Korea, China, and Taiwan. Southeast Asia also has a similar thing but it isn’t packed as exquisitely. Hawaiian plate lunches can also be considered a form of bento if you squint a little.
For Korean bentos in Toronto, try Hawk and Chick. Taiwanese bentos are more common but I haven’t found a stellar one yet. Chi Chop and ZenQ are convenient if you are downtown. Wei’s Taiwanese for value. And as for Japanese bentos, they are everywhere. Quality varies a lot.
Mandarin is known amongst Toronto residents for their all-you-can-eat buffet, with vaguely Chinese dishes and mishmash of dishes like sushi and pizza. Long-time Torontonians still bemoan the loss of crab legs from the line-up. Despite online criticisms, food quality is decent and is perhaps the best place to try Canadian-Chinese food. People don’t go there just for the food. Nostalgia plays a factor too. Mandarin prides itself as a family restaurant and surely many a celebratory meal went down at its restaurants.
I was curious about how Mandarin was doing at a time when buffets are not allowed to operate. They held back during the initial months of the pandemic but quickly pivoted to takeout. Is there still a reason to patronize Mandarin when they have lost their main value proposition? Thankfully, the answer is yes.
For this review, I went to the closest Mandarin downtown, at Yonge and Eglinton.
Continue reading “Mandarin (Yonge and Eglinton, takeout edition)”
