Recommendations on GOOD chinese restaurants

[el_diablo007]

Hey guys I'm just wondering if anyone has any recommendations on GOOD chinese restaurants down town in the chinatown area...most of the ones I used to go to have really cut down on the quality of food (mostly from the over zealous use of salt, too much sauce, and smaller quantity... :-0 ). Some place that serves good chinese food and doesn't make you feel like a ton of bricks afterwards would be nice :)

Thanks!

[omegas_decree]

I'd reccommend if you were in the GVR.

[kilarney]

Hey guys I'm just wondering if anyone has any recommendations on GOOD chinese restaurants down town in the chinatown area...most of the ones I used to go to have really cut down on the quality of food (mostly from the over zealous use of salt, too much sauce, and smaller quantity... :-0 ). Some place that serves good chinese food and doesn't make you feel like a ton of bricks afterwards would be nice :)

Thanks!

Come up to Markham/Scarborough near the Pacific Mall/Market Village area. Theres lots of great cuisine there and good portions.

[teknoluv]

Have you been to downtown's King's Garden?

[el_diablo007]

Come up to Markham/Scarborough near the Pacific Mall/Market Village area. Theres lots of great cuisine there and good portions.
whenever I'm up in that area, I'll usually have something hwile I'm there :D but its a little too far most of the time :(

Have you been to downtown's King's Garden?

no, but I'll take a look see.

[xtal]

Swatow (309 Spadina Ave.)
Chinese Traditional Buns (536 Dundas St. W) (downstairs)
Hua Sang (41 Baldwin St.)
Yueh Tung (126 Elizabeth St.) (upstairs)

That will get you started.

[TheDarkRage]

Rol San
323 Spadina Avenue
At the "T" intersection of St. Andrew St. and Spadina

I believe that this place is the best dim sum restaurant in the downtown area. Very crowded on weekend mornings and early afternoon. If you want to save yourself some time, you can offer/ask to line up in the back room, which has no windows, and is a bit darker (since it's only lighted by fluorescent lights). Method of serving dim sum is not by servers walking with carts, but simply with a small paper menu (in chinese and english) given to you at first, and is served to you as soon as it's steamed in the kitchen. A very efficient method if you ask me, and puts their main competitor (Bright Pearl Restaurant -across the street) to shame.

New Sky Restaurant
353 Spadina Avenue
A bit south of the Nassau Street intersection w/ Spadina Avenue.

They serve cantonese-style food, usually very busy at nights. Hmmm, how do I clarify on canto style...all I can say is, popular dishes such as Pheonix Nest is served here. Phoenix Nest is a dish with a "bowl" made out of crispy deep fried taro containing many seafood meats (scallops and I think squid) with vegetables such as carrots, brocolli and celery.

Lee Garden
331 Spadina Avenue
A bit north of Rol San, right before the LCBO

This place is pretty expensive, but it's because their food is free of MSG and manages to make the food just as delicious. They're pretty popular and well known among the non-chinese community, and a price range to boot. I'll admit it's a bit pricier than their MSG peers, but it's very good.
http://toronto.com/restaurants/listing/000-213-094

I don't know how these restaurants compare to other uptown locations, but I'm very familiar with the restaurants in DT chinatown. If you have any other chinese restaurants in the north york/markham area, I'd also like to know where they are, since I've never been to any that are good.

BTW xtal, is Sawtow really that great? My friends have been there and they weren't really impressed at all. Must be the concept of "fresh" and the jumbo dried "instant" noodles by the window of the restaurant, lol

[xtal]

BTW xtal, is Swatow really that great? My friends have been there and they weren't really impressed at all. Must be the concept of "fresh" and the jumbo dried "instant" noodles by the window of the restaurant, lol

It can be fantastic, but this depends on a few things:

i) the time you go
ii) how busy it is
iii) what you order

i) and ii) are pretty well linked. The place is a zoo on weekends, especially late, due to the post-clubbing influence. If you go then, just order General Whoever's chicken, because you're not going to get a decent dish of anything. And, if you've had a few drinks, it won't matter anyways.

If you head in there when it's a little quieter, you can enjoy some really well-prepared items. There's a tofu hotpot that is incredible, as is the eggplant (garlic, I believe). The dumpling soups are great, mainly due to the broth, that can be fantastic. My personal favourite is the shrimp dumpling soup. It's a meal unto itself.

Great post above, btw.

[IronMac]

Great post xtal...I've been to Swatow a couple of times, all on the weekends, and haven't been too impressed. I'll keep in mind to go during the weekday nights.

Lee Garden and Rol San are also good.

For dim sum, my brothers have introduced me to a Rainbow Seafood (?) Restaurant just west of Spadina on the north side of Dundas. Very good stuff there! :)

[keanefan]

chinese restaurant reviews:

http://www.torontolife.com/cityguide/subcategory.cfm?category_id=1&subtitle_id=17 (http://torontolife.com)

[yatko]

http://www.szechuanszechuan.com/

[Oni-kun]

lol "good chinese food" and "healthy chinese food" are oxymorons. Before anyone calls me racist. I am chinese.

[IronMac]

lol "good chinese food" and "healthy chinese food" are oxymorons. Before anyone calls me racist. I am chinese.

It all depends on the dishes. I'd call you ignorant before I call you racist. :)

[Oni-kun]

It all depends on the dishes. I'd call you ignorant before I call you racist. :)

Well okay name 10 dishes that neither have: deep fried components, high in fat (either by oil or meat), high in sugar (corn syrup based sauces or sweet sauces), high in salt, or unhealthy because of high mecury levels (Ie. shark fin soup). I'm talking about the typical selection of dishes you will see at a chinese restaurant. Just try going to any one of them one night and try to order a whole mean without any of the above. Good luck. I wouldn't say i'm ignorant because my parents like to eat out at chinese restaurants a lot and i would say i've been to quite a few of them. Some of them are "good" in a sense that the food is tasty. But they are by far not the healthiest choices.

[keanefan]

chinese steamed fish, steamed buns, steamed dumplings, tofu dish in hot pot, bbq pork, steamed chicken, steamed cake, steamed rice noodles, boiled noodles, boiled dumplings, beef or meat in hot pot (soup), boiled soup with meat, bones, herbs, Shanghai cold cuts, etc. Stir-fried dishes are considered healthy. You just have to order the right dishes and there are different kinds of Chinese food (different regions).

Food at expensive Chinese restaurants tend to taste better than less expensive Chinese restaurants. So don't go to $4/dish places because the quality won't be so good.

The food at City Inn Chinese restaurant (at Market Village = gray building at Kennedy & Steeles) does not contain a lot of oil and the food is somewhat bland since they use less salt, etc. I recommend City Inn.

http://chaliu.com/

CHA LIU
dim sum- night and day
2352 Yonge St. (Eglinton)
Floor 2,
Toronto
Tel:416-485-1725

Business Hours
Mon: 11am-10pm
Tues-Sat: 11am-11pm
Sun: 10:30am-10pm

[espeed]

New Sky Restaurant - Chow Yun Fat has his picture with staff there so they gotta maintain their high standards.

Asian Legends (College/Beverly) - excellent quality, price and ambience ... Szechuan style. Always packed on weekends but you can make reservations.

The two below cost a bit more but are of higher quality

Pink Pearl - Harborfront - more exquisite quality and view of harbor

Dragon Dynasty -Bay/Bloor 2nd floor of commercial building. More exquisite quality

[IronMac]

I'm surprised that no one has brought up Lai Wah Heen on Chestnut (?). Expensive but excellent. :)

[boonjaca]

Excellent, it's a restaurant on the east hand side of Spadina just south of Dundas. I really like the food here, it's just as good as Swatow's and they have really great lunch specials. For $3.99, you get a small bowl of hot and sour soup, spring roll and an entree. Attitude of certain waiters are questionable though. And of course Swatow as mentioned in one of the previous posts.

[Narci]

chinese steamed fish, steamed buns, steamed dumplings, tofu dish in hot pot, bbq pork, steamed chicken, steamed cake, steamed rice noodles, boiled noodles, boiled dumplings, beef or meat in hot pot (soup), boiled soup with meat, bones, herbs, Shanghai cold cuts, etc. Stir-fried dishes are considered healthy. You just have to order the right dishes and there are different kinds of Chinese food (different regions).

PWNED! haha

Don't forget plain congee, the vegetarion 'JAI', Tofu 'Flower' (minus the sugar/syrup), boiled 'choi'.

[keanefan]

king's garden
214 King St. W.
Toronto, ON
Tel (416) 585-2221
http://kingsgarden.sites.toronto.com/

Susur
601 King St, W
416 603 2205
make reservation and arrive on time
http://susur.com/

Lai Wah Heen Restaurant
Metropolitan Hotel Toronto
108 Chestnut Street
Toronto, Ontario
(416) 977-9899
http://www.metropolitan.com/lwh/

[babysham]

New Ho King on Spadina is alright.

[el_diablo007]

New Ho King on Spadina is alright.
That place is actually one I recently decided not to return to...they used to have good tasting food, but I went last week and blech, beef dishes were so heavily laden in sauce it was kinda gross...

edit: thanks for the recommendeations guys, that should keep me going for a while :D

[The Modem Wizard]

Spadina Garden, on Dundas just west of Bay on the north side. Excellent food. Their peanut chicken is amazing.

[gei]

Manchu Wok :cheesygri

seriously, its my favorite chinese restaurant

second comes mandarin

[Oni-kun]

chinese steamed fish, steamed buns, steamed dumplings, tofu dish in hot pot, bbq pork, steamed chicken, steamed cake, steamed rice noodles, boiled noodles, boiled dumplings, beef or meat in hot pot (soup), boiled soup with meat, bones, herbs, Shanghai cold cuts, etc. Stir-fried dishes are considered healthy. You just have to order the right dishes and there are different kinds of Chinese food (different regions).



Yes now eat those for a meal and tell me thats very tasty and not bland. You'd have to add some sort of unhealthy oily sauce to make it taste good. Even the steamed fish if you have it at a restaurant its with soy sauce thats glimmering like *bling* of oil.

[el_diablo007]

Yes now eat those for a meal and tell me thats very tasty and not bland. You'd have to add some sort of unhealthy oily sauce to make it taste good. Even the steamed fish if you have it at a restaurant its with soy sauce thats glimmering like *bling* of oil.
hey dude don't get me wrong, I know the sauce is unhealthy and tastes great but I don't want the chef to like dump a liter of the stuff onto the plate hoping that I've suffered some kind of taste bud death and/or are not hypertensive lol ;)

[dasaylay]

Manchu Wok :cheesygri

seriously, its my favorite chinese restaurant

second comes mandarin

lol that stuff is so Canadian-ized. It tastes pretty good, but you gotta try the real chinese stuff not the prepared/fast food stuff ;)

[IronMac]

Yes now eat those for a meal and tell me thats very tasty and not bland. You'd have to add some sort of unhealthy oily sauce to make it taste good. Even the steamed fish if you have it at a restaurant its with soy sauce thats glimmering like *bling* of oil.

A. Then, show us a cuisine that's not bland and very healthy for you? As per your challenge, name ten dishes in that cuisine. As I said before, you just have to choose your dishes wisely.
B. Steamed fish only has a light splash of soy sauce over it and, yes, hot oil is poured over it. But, it's not swimming in soy sauce or in oil. Honestly, are you really Chinese? Your parents should have prepared it this way.

[brwnhaggler]

I'm gonna have to second Swatows, Spadina and Dundas, I've been going there for a looong while. If you sit down and there is room at your table, they will seat someone else....:)

But the noodles are so good and its' quick!!!

[Jessica April]

Well okay name 10 dishes that neither have: deep fried components, high in fat (either by oil or meat), high in sugar (corn syrup based sauces or sweet sauces), high in salt, or unhealthy because of high mecury levels (Ie. shark fin soup). I'm talking about the typical selection of dishes you will see at a chinese restaurant. Just try going to any one of them one night and try to order a whole mean without any of the above. Good luck. I wouldn't say i'm ignorant because my parents like to eat out at chinese restaurants a lot and i would say i've been to quite a few of them. Some of them are "good" in a sense that the food is tasty. But they are by far not the healthiest choices.


I think there is a major difference between traditional home cooked Chinese foods (depending on the regions of origin for the food too!) compared to the overfried, over salted, over battered stuff you find in westernized Chinese/Asian restaurants.

For some strange reason I sense that the Chinese people serving overweight non Asians deep fried stuff are laughing their butts off inside, because they know the tubba lubba doesn't know the real deal. I once came across a very overweight non Asiantic person trying to explain how healthy fried rice and chicken balls are lol!!!

Anyhow, I don't know too much about Chinese foods. Vietnamese food though, I'd go for Pho Hung.

[Jessica April]

Some fish are NATURALLY OILY.

Example: SEA BASS- the best tasting, smoothest fish contains a lot of oil.

steam or bake some sea bass and you'll see the natural oil oozing out of the fish. Fish oil might be good for you because health food stores sell fish oil capsules (like vitamins).

so maybe the oil that you see in your steamed fish dish came naturally from the fish.

just like when you boil soup with meat, you see oil coming from the meat


Try king fish or Red snapper fish. Tried some good fish at a Thai/Viet restaurant.

[Be_40]

Try king fish or Red snapper fish. Tried some good fish at a Thai/Viet restaurant.

Are you talking about the red snapper steamed wrapped in Banana leaves? Is that Thai or Viet?

I've noticed that some Vietnamese families cook certain Thai items in their own versions and vice versa.