Although a bit far from home, this has been a go-to for dim sum the past few months. Their kitchen closes later for dim sum, and it's not too crowded, so not much of a wait for a table. We always get the preserved egg congee, it's super flavourful and really well brewed. Along with the stir fry turnip cake and sticky rice, those are both a favourite and really well made. Their har gow is pretty good too. The rest of the dim sum is pretty good too, but the few I mentioned really stood out, so we always order them. Their soft tofu dessert is a must to end of the meal. It's so fresh and soft! They require 15 minutes to make this, and it comes out in a wooden jar. This is one of the biggest highlights of our meal, and reason why we make it all the way here. They also have a promo going on where if you spend $20, you can order one of their pre selected dishes for $7. We ordered a hor fun (stir fry noodle) and the portion was huge. The promotion was in Chinese only (poster on door), so you may have to ask the staff about it.
Georgina Hartono
My family and I came here for Thanksgiving, and we loved it! The food tasted incredible (we’re still talking about the siu mai and the fried tofu), the staff was very friendly, and the portions were generous. I highly recommend this restaurant
Tung Y.
Everything was actually fine before we found a piece of hair in the sticky rice (pearl chicken). We came at around 10:15a on a Friday morning, Hoping to get into the restaurant by 11 to take advantage of the $3.8 SML special. We got in and took a number, Was told that it will be very quick but it ended up to be a 45 minute wait. Ended up seated right at 10:59. But not to worry because the staff said they will still honor the special price even after 11 if you have been waiting there before 11. She will mark special on the dim sum sheet. So while you're waiting you can already look at the dim sum sheets and enter the order right when you sit down, more efficient. They are so busy that you just have to keep track of things and ask them to follow up on the order. The food overall was fine. Siu Mai is my favorite because it's so huge and meaty and flavorful. Other dishes was not bad. The chive pan fried dumpling I expect more chives but it's almost all shrimp paste. We have leftover to bring home for the two of us since wr ordered six dishes. Note The bill has 10% service charge already. At night when we were eating the Leftover dim sum for dinner, bf pulled out a long strand of hair embedded in the middle of the sticky rice. The fact that it's so inside the sticky rice makes me feels like it's the place that they sourced the dim sum may not be clean. So.... Idk, I want to like this place for its price and generally decent taste. But the cleanliness of the food makes me .
Clara C.
Come here quite a few times to pick up dim sum takeout. Right now they have a 20% discount takeout special. I would suggest calling ahead of time to place an order as it can take about 20-30 mins and then you can come pickup when it's ready. There's a lot of room for standing and waiting inside if it's too cold out.
Emily Law
Great Cantonese Dishes for a reasonable price. Highly recommend their soups, sweet and sour pork, crispy chicken, green onion and ginger lobster and steamed fish! Their dim sum is also really good - they also serve fresh tofu custard in and bamboo pot.
Paul L.
(THIS PART IS EXACTLY LIKE THE BEGINNING OF MY PREVIOUS REVIEW, BUT FOR A REASON) Just like today is going to be "review day" (shooting for 5, on the heels of the bunch I wrote last night), Saturday, Feb.22nd '20 was the unofficial "Parent nostalgia day" in Toronto, where, for lunch, we went to Very Fair - a place my wife's father used to frequent so much, they knew him by name - and for dinner we went to a place my parents favored when they were living. It was somewhat a stroke of serendipity that my sister- and brother-in-law chose this place, but it was intentional too, since they knew that Mom and Dad lived nearby and used to come often. It was under a different name, and since then they've gone slightly higher scale and, unlike Very Fair (that "previous review") they have spent some money spiffing up the décor. So, definitely higher marks for ambiance. Service was very attentive, especially for a Chinese restaurant. The food - food was a bit more of a hit-and-miss. The Peking duck was nicely done, even if there wasn't enough crepes or sauce (often a problem with this dish). It was a two-course affair, with the rest of the duck (after the skin has been served), just sort of chopped up and on a platter. The lobster was definitely more fresh (and for a few dollars more) than the one at lunch, but how it was prepared just did not do it justice - with Maggi sauce? Really? This is not their fault, as it was what my SIL wanted, but interestingly, it was not quite salty enough! This is true of most of the other dishes. I'm borderline hypertensive on a bad day, but just an extra grain of sodium chloride does SO much to bring out the flavor. I'd say the pork chop dish was a fail of almost epic proportion - that flavor just simply didn't work, even if the dish was of good proportion. So I'd say a 3.5, mostly for the service and decor, with a final verdict on the kitchen TBD.
John D.
[ High quality dim sum, especially the squid ] In the northeast end of Toronto, this dim sum place is legit. One of my go-to dishes includes siu mai because the quality gives you a good idea of how the rest of the outing is going to play out, much like how a first date paints an eventual relationship. THE dish here, however, is the fried squid tentacles. I love how they very very very lightly bread it, just enough to add crunch. The squid had a super sweet taste, indicating freshness, and was accented by a soy-like sweet glaze. It's almost $10, but you'll be hard pressed to find inexpensive squid anywhere in the city and at least this is worth every penny. Another dish done right here is the sticky rice in lotus leaf. It's sooooo moist and tender. Pro-tip, you'll know you're at a quality place when the lotus leaf shell looks fresh. That means it wasn't re-heated. The tendon was also very good and plentiful. The atmosphere skews a little upscale, but I found it odd that they put a small table in a busy doorway and stuck a poor lady there to eat. The place is a bit small compared to typical Chinese banquet halls. Overall, highly recommended. It's even good enough to bring first dates...or to order squid...or both. Rating: 5 awkward conversations with someone you just met, out of 5
Kervin H.
Food: 4 Stars Service: 3.5 Stars Ambience: 3.5 Stars Fill Factor: Satisfied Ginger and Onion used to be located at Pacific Mall/Market Village and closed down when the latter was torn down. It was by chance that we found that they had opened up a new location and many of the staff who had worked at the original location had moved over as well. Me and my partner came here for dim sum on a Saturday and it was relatively busy. The dim sum is ordered off a menu as there are no longer any ladies pushing around carts of dim sum. The selection was extensive with all the staple dishes you can ask for as well as a variety of other options. We ordered the usual ha gow, siu mai, rice rolls, BBQ pork buns, egg tarts, beef balls, and some congee. The ha gow, siu mai, BBQ pork buns and beef balls were all fairly standard and tasted good. We got the pumpkin congee which was not overly falvourful but was pretty good and was a refreshing way to start the meal as it came first. The egg tarts are the mini variety which all dim sum restaurants serve. The custard was creamy and the crust was nice and flaky. My favourite item had to be the shrimp rice roll. They added a stalk of choy (no clue what it is called in English) which made it more aesthetically pleasing and for some reason I found it tastier. The same could not be said about the beef version of the rice roll. I actually found the stalk of choy made the beef rice roll taste more bland. Service was pretty good as the staff were quick to take our order and responsive to any requests we made. Our food orders did not take very much time to arrive and empty plates were quick to be removed from our table. The restaurant looked to be quite a bit smaller than the old location but it was still very comfortable. There was sufficient space between tables so there were no issues of feeling cramped. The decor is also nicely done and felt more modern than the old restaurant which had the traditional Chinese restaurant feel. I am glad the restaurant reopened and that we found out about it. This is a great spot for dim sum as the taste is good and the portions generous. I would definitely recommend this place and will be back myself to try some of their other offerings.
Chris C.
There is certainly no shortage of places to enjoy dim sum in Scarborough. Ginger and Onion has been around for a while but is relatively new to this location. With MANY Chinese restaurants to choose from, this was actually my first time here, although several friends come here regularly. Hmmm, why haven't they invited me? On this day, we were entertaining a friend from Florida who had come to town for a recent wedding. There are far more, and better places in Toronto for dim sum, compared to Florida. Trust me! We decided to go ahead and place our order while waiting for some friends to arrive. They showed up just as we were about to hand in the order and they added a few more items, doubling up on some of the popular choices. The food started showing up soon after and just kept coming. What the heck did the latecomers add to this order? The table was soon packed with baskets of food! Our order included a lot of the popular dim sum items, like har gow, siu mai, spare ribs, bean curd roll, chicken feet, and more. Lots more, apparently! Everything looked and tasted good! Some items, especially the siu mai (steamed pork dumplings), har gow (steamed shrimp dumplings), and pai gut (steamed spareribs) were larger than most places I've been to. We were all getting pretty stuffed, with a couple of the larger dishes to come. There was still food on the table and with everybody feeling full, we cancelled the last two (larger) dishes. It still took about four large takeout containers to pack up the leftovers! Roll me out! A lot of the dishes were a bit larger than I'm used to, so was the cost, although not by much. I guess we got what we paid for, compared to other places. The food tasted good and the service was good. I'll be back...
Fan M.
Excellent dim sum and great service. Even the soy sauce with rolls was served in a hot container. Har gow not part of morning special before 10:55am in cash for S-L for $3.38 but still good value.
TL;DR: avoid fried filet dishes. We had a large group here. We asked the manager if there were specials that werent listed on the menu. She stated all dishes were listed or how else they can do business. Then while we were deciding what dishes to get for the group, she chimed in that we can do the sea bass dish 2 ways, and that dish is not listed in the menu. I rolled my eyes. Food came fast as soon as we placed the order. The food was hot. Portion was perfect. Some dishes tasted great! And some dishes were bland or undercooked like the sea bass. The sea bass filet had a strong pneumonia flavor. I kind of expect that a restaurant is expert at cooking their food and ensure unappetizing smell /aroma should be removed. As soon as we mentioned that to the staff, they were willing to make us a new batch. Yet the new batch also had similar situation. If only if i could give half star, i would add additonal 0.5 for the service and attempt to address the issue we had.
SK L.
Saturday Dim Sum 1. Good service, nice, and considerate 2. Price reasonable 3. Taste good, and have quite a lot of choices
Bernice C.
Although the name of this place sounds a bit odd, the restaurant actually served delicious food in big portions! I loved how they put a candle under the dishes so that it would be kept warm. The dinner began with a complementary soup, that tasted very sweet and was very soothing. We then ordered a plate of spring onion mixed with ginger fish, broiled meat, soy sauce chicken and also a garlic stir-fried plate of vegetables. I was surprised at how they managed to add their own twist to the dishes, making it taste different than what I would usually expect. The atmosphere was also very comfortable, as the restaurant had a great distance between tables, and was very clean and tidy. The only downside was that it took a while till the dishes were finally cooked and served onto our table (on a Thursday night)!
Jocelyn C.
We drove all the way from Mississauga to have my dad's birthday dinner here, the hour long drive wasn't worth it. We had an early dinner reservation at 5:00 and we were the only ones there. The place did fill up shortly after 6:00. There's not many tables so I would suggest you make a reservation. The Peking duck was on the small side, though the skin was really crispy and not too fatty. My toddlers enjoyed the thin rice flour wrap and was able to keep the duck pieces and cucumber together for the most part. I would recommend the free range chicken in onion and soy sauce. It's super juicy and tastes fresh. It's served over dish with a tea light underneath to keep the dish hot. The other dish I enjoyed was the veggies in a broth, it's some kind of Chinese veggie. I wanted to like the crispy calamari, but it was too spicy and could've been crunchier. There is a dish with pumpkin covered in duck egg yolk, except there was too much flour and I couldn't taste the egg yolk - this is supposed to be a light coating in that rich duck egg yolk flavour. So you see, some dishes were great, while some weren't. The night ended with the staple red bean dessert (this was ok, not too sweet), small cookies and Chinese jello. The staff was tentative and offered to clean/switch out the plates, but we declined the offer. If you're in the area, you can check this place out, but the drive from Mississauga just doesn't justify it.
Gary L.
Came here for lunch and it was pretty busy but it also was the long weekend. Even with reservations there was still a wait to be seated for or party. It is a decent dim sum place with food being served quickly and servers helping split the dishes by cutting it. Ordered the durian cheese tarts and they were actually super yum! The siu mai is also pretty big making it good for sharing or eating for yourself Also had the sticky fried rice which was pretty yum The bbq pork buns was decent as well. Overall a busy place to go for dim sum but if you're near you should give it a try!
Although a bit far from home, this has been a go-to for dim sum the past few months. Their kitchen closes later for dim sum, and it's not too crowded, so not much of a wait for a table. We always get the preserved egg congee, it's super flavourful and really well brewed. Along with the stir fry turnip cake and sticky rice, those are both a favourite and really well made. Their har gow is pretty good too. The rest of the dim sum is pretty good too, but the few I mentioned really stood out, so we always order them. Their soft tofu dessert is a must to end of the meal. It's so fresh and soft! They require 15 minutes to make this, and it comes out in a wooden jar. This is one of the biggest highlights of our meal, and reason why we make it all the way here. They also have a promo going on where if you spend $20, you can order one of their pre selected dishes for $7. We ordered a hor fun (stir fry noodle) and the portion was huge. The promotion was in Chinese only (poster on door), so you may have to ask the staff about it.
My family and I came here for Thanksgiving, and we loved it! The food tasted incredible (we’re still talking about the siu mai and the fried tofu), the staff was very friendly, and the portions were generous. I highly recommend this restaurant
Everything was actually fine before we found a piece of hair in the sticky rice (pearl chicken). We came at around 10:15a on a Friday morning, Hoping to get into the restaurant by 11 to take advantage of the $3.8 SML special. We got in and took a number, Was told that it will be very quick but it ended up to be a 45 minute wait. Ended up seated right at 10:59. But not to worry because the staff said they will still honor the special price even after 11 if you have been waiting there before 11. She will mark special on the dim sum sheet. So while you're waiting you can already look at the dim sum sheets and enter the order right when you sit down, more efficient. They are so busy that you just have to keep track of things and ask them to follow up on the order. The food overall was fine. Siu Mai is my favorite because it's so huge and meaty and flavorful. Other dishes was not bad. The chive pan fried dumpling I expect more chives but it's almost all shrimp paste. We have leftover to bring home for the two of us since wr ordered six dishes. Note The bill has 10% service charge already. At night when we were eating the Leftover dim sum for dinner, bf pulled out a long strand of hair embedded in the middle of the sticky rice. The fact that it's so inside the sticky rice makes me feels like it's the place that they sourced the dim sum may not be clean. So.... Idk, I want to like this place for its price and generally decent taste. But the cleanliness of the food makes me .
Come here quite a few times to pick up dim sum takeout. Right now they have a 20% discount takeout special. I would suggest calling ahead of time to place an order as it can take about 20-30 mins and then you can come pickup when it's ready. There's a lot of room for standing and waiting inside if it's too cold out.
Great Cantonese Dishes for a reasonable price. Highly recommend their soups, sweet and sour pork, crispy chicken, green onion and ginger lobster and steamed fish! Their dim sum is also really good - they also serve fresh tofu custard in and bamboo pot.
(THIS PART IS EXACTLY LIKE THE BEGINNING OF MY PREVIOUS REVIEW, BUT FOR A REASON) Just like today is going to be "review day" (shooting for 5, on the heels of the bunch I wrote last night), Saturday, Feb.22nd '20 was the unofficial "Parent nostalgia day" in Toronto, where, for lunch, we went to Very Fair - a place my wife's father used to frequent so much, they knew him by name - and for dinner we went to a place my parents favored when they were living. It was somewhat a stroke of serendipity that my sister- and brother-in-law chose this place, but it was intentional too, since they knew that Mom and Dad lived nearby and used to come often. It was under a different name, and since then they've gone slightly higher scale and, unlike Very Fair (that "previous review") they have spent some money spiffing up the décor. So, definitely higher marks for ambiance. Service was very attentive, especially for a Chinese restaurant. The food - food was a bit more of a hit-and-miss. The Peking duck was nicely done, even if there wasn't enough crepes or sauce (often a problem with this dish). It was a two-course affair, with the rest of the duck (after the skin has been served), just sort of chopped up and on a platter. The lobster was definitely more fresh (and for a few dollars more) than the one at lunch, but how it was prepared just did not do it justice - with Maggi sauce? Really? This is not their fault, as it was what my SIL wanted, but interestingly, it was not quite salty enough! This is true of most of the other dishes. I'm borderline hypertensive on a bad day, but just an extra grain of sodium chloride does SO much to bring out the flavor. I'd say the pork chop dish was a fail of almost epic proportion - that flavor just simply didn't work, even if the dish was of good proportion. So I'd say a 3.5, mostly for the service and decor, with a final verdict on the kitchen TBD.
[ High quality dim sum, especially the squid ] In the northeast end of Toronto, this dim sum place is legit. One of my go-to dishes includes siu mai because the quality gives you a good idea of how the rest of the outing is going to play out, much like how a first date paints an eventual relationship. THE dish here, however, is the fried squid tentacles. I love how they very very very lightly bread it, just enough to add crunch. The squid had a super sweet taste, indicating freshness, and was accented by a soy-like sweet glaze. It's almost $10, but you'll be hard pressed to find inexpensive squid anywhere in the city and at least this is worth every penny. Another dish done right here is the sticky rice in lotus leaf. It's sooooo moist and tender. Pro-tip, you'll know you're at a quality place when the lotus leaf shell looks fresh. That means it wasn't re-heated. The tendon was also very good and plentiful. The atmosphere skews a little upscale, but I found it odd that they put a small table in a busy doorway and stuck a poor lady there to eat. The place is a bit small compared to typical Chinese banquet halls. Overall, highly recommended. It's even good enough to bring first dates...or to order squid...or both. Rating: 5 awkward conversations with someone you just met, out of 5
Food: 4 Stars Service: 3.5 Stars Ambience: 3.5 Stars Fill Factor: Satisfied Ginger and Onion used to be located at Pacific Mall/Market Village and closed down when the latter was torn down. It was by chance that we found that they had opened up a new location and many of the staff who had worked at the original location had moved over as well. Me and my partner came here for dim sum on a Saturday and it was relatively busy. The dim sum is ordered off a menu as there are no longer any ladies pushing around carts of dim sum. The selection was extensive with all the staple dishes you can ask for as well as a variety of other options. We ordered the usual ha gow, siu mai, rice rolls, BBQ pork buns, egg tarts, beef balls, and some congee. The ha gow, siu mai, BBQ pork buns and beef balls were all fairly standard and tasted good. We got the pumpkin congee which was not overly falvourful but was pretty good and was a refreshing way to start the meal as it came first. The egg tarts are the mini variety which all dim sum restaurants serve. The custard was creamy and the crust was nice and flaky. My favourite item had to be the shrimp rice roll. They added a stalk of choy (no clue what it is called in English) which made it more aesthetically pleasing and for some reason I found it tastier. The same could not be said about the beef version of the rice roll. I actually found the stalk of choy made the beef rice roll taste more bland. Service was pretty good as the staff were quick to take our order and responsive to any requests we made. Our food orders did not take very much time to arrive and empty plates were quick to be removed from our table. The restaurant looked to be quite a bit smaller than the old location but it was still very comfortable. There was sufficient space between tables so there were no issues of feeling cramped. The decor is also nicely done and felt more modern than the old restaurant which had the traditional Chinese restaurant feel. I am glad the restaurant reopened and that we found out about it. This is a great spot for dim sum as the taste is good and the portions generous. I would definitely recommend this place and will be back myself to try some of their other offerings.
There is certainly no shortage of places to enjoy dim sum in Scarborough. Ginger and Onion has been around for a while but is relatively new to this location. With MANY Chinese restaurants to choose from, this was actually my first time here, although several friends come here regularly. Hmmm, why haven't they invited me? On this day, we were entertaining a friend from Florida who had come to town for a recent wedding. There are far more, and better places in Toronto for dim sum, compared to Florida. Trust me! We decided to go ahead and place our order while waiting for some friends to arrive. They showed up just as we were about to hand in the order and they added a few more items, doubling up on some of the popular choices. The food started showing up soon after and just kept coming. What the heck did the latecomers add to this order? The table was soon packed with baskets of food! Our order included a lot of the popular dim sum items, like har gow, siu mai, spare ribs, bean curd roll, chicken feet, and more. Lots more, apparently! Everything looked and tasted good! Some items, especially the siu mai (steamed pork dumplings), har gow (steamed shrimp dumplings), and pai gut (steamed spareribs) were larger than most places I've been to. We were all getting pretty stuffed, with a couple of the larger dishes to come. There was still food on the table and with everybody feeling full, we cancelled the last two (larger) dishes. It still took about four large takeout containers to pack up the leftovers! Roll me out! A lot of the dishes were a bit larger than I'm used to, so was the cost, although not by much. I guess we got what we paid for, compared to other places. The food tasted good and the service was good. I'll be back...
Excellent dim sum and great service. Even the soy sauce with rolls was served in a hot container. Har gow not part of morning special before 10:55am in cash for S-L for $3.38 but still good value.
Restaurantji Recommends
TL;DR: avoid fried filet dishes. We had a large group here. We asked the manager if there were specials that werent listed on the menu. She stated all dishes were listed or how else they can do business. Then while we were deciding what dishes to get for the group, she chimed in that we can do the sea bass dish 2 ways, and that dish is not listed in the menu. I rolled my eyes. Food came fast as soon as we placed the order. The food was hot. Portion was perfect. Some dishes tasted great! And some dishes were bland or undercooked like the sea bass. The sea bass filet had a strong pneumonia flavor. I kind of expect that a restaurant is expert at cooking their food and ensure unappetizing smell /aroma should be removed. As soon as we mentioned that to the staff, they were willing to make us a new batch. Yet the new batch also had similar situation. If only if i could give half star, i would add additonal 0.5 for the service and attempt to address the issue we had.
Saturday Dim Sum 1. Good service, nice, and considerate 2. Price reasonable 3. Taste good, and have quite a lot of choices
Although the name of this place sounds a bit odd, the restaurant actually served delicious food in big portions! I loved how they put a candle under the dishes so that it would be kept warm. The dinner began with a complementary soup, that tasted very sweet and was very soothing. We then ordered a plate of spring onion mixed with ginger fish, broiled meat, soy sauce chicken and also a garlic stir-fried plate of vegetables. I was surprised at how they managed to add their own twist to the dishes, making it taste different than what I would usually expect. The atmosphere was also very comfortable, as the restaurant had a great distance between tables, and was very clean and tidy. The only downside was that it took a while till the dishes were finally cooked and served onto our table (on a Thursday night)!
We drove all the way from Mississauga to have my dad's birthday dinner here, the hour long drive wasn't worth it. We had an early dinner reservation at 5:00 and we were the only ones there. The place did fill up shortly after 6:00. There's not many tables so I would suggest you make a reservation. The Peking duck was on the small side, though the skin was really crispy and not too fatty. My toddlers enjoyed the thin rice flour wrap and was able to keep the duck pieces and cucumber together for the most part. I would recommend the free range chicken in onion and soy sauce. It's super juicy and tastes fresh. It's served over dish with a tea light underneath to keep the dish hot. The other dish I enjoyed was the veggies in a broth, it's some kind of Chinese veggie. I wanted to like the crispy calamari, but it was too spicy and could've been crunchier. There is a dish with pumpkin covered in duck egg yolk, except there was too much flour and I couldn't taste the egg yolk - this is supposed to be a light coating in that rich duck egg yolk flavour. So you see, some dishes were great, while some weren't. The night ended with the staple red bean dessert (this was ok, not too sweet), small cookies and Chinese jello. The staff was tentative and offered to clean/switch out the plates, but we declined the offer. If you're in the area, you can check this place out, but the drive from Mississauga just doesn't justify it.
Came here for lunch and it was pretty busy but it also was the long weekend. Even with reservations there was still a wait to be seated for or party. It is a decent dim sum place with food being served quickly and servers helping split the dishes by cutting it. Ordered the durian cheese tarts and they were actually super yum! The siu mai is also pretty big making it good for sharing or eating for yourself Also had the sticky fried rice which was pretty yum The bbq pork buns was decent as well. Overall a busy place to go for dim sum but if you're near you should give it a try!