10-11 March 2020
One of the big advantages of going to Toronto is the amazing amount of ethnic cuisines available, and most of them are on the genuine side, without being “dumbed down” — well, almost all… I won’t rehash my issues with some of the other places in Toronto that broke this rule, but one cuisine that’s always genuine in Toronto is Chinese.
The day before, while running errands and nursing an awful hangover after that bland dinner at Kiin — and the excellent drinking/eating session afterwards at Zakkushi — I decided to visit one of Toronto’s Chinatown institutions — Rosewood Asian Cuisine.
Now Toronto has not been immune to the extremely unfortunate sharp downturn in business for Chinese restaurants, as idiotic stereotyping and racism has started to run out of control during this global crisis. I decided for that reason to go support these businesses. Plus, I wanted to have some good dimsum, and Rosewood is known for good dimsum.
Rosewood has an all-you-can-eat lunch special that covers a rather large range of dimsum, and I was hungry despite being hungover, so I had a enjoyably big lunch there. I ordered things in 3 rounds, so it doesn’t look like my table was overwhelmed. But here I won’t go in any specific order but will talk about the dishes. The tofu roll was pretty good, a good opener.
The steamed ribs, always a hit for dimsum feasts, was also pretty good. The shumai is reliably good; I have rarely eaten shumai that I didn’t like… BTW remember, as with EVERY photo I post, you can click on them for a larger version!
The egg tofu with shrimp was the weak dish of the day, the flavours extremely bland and difficult to eat — especially for a chopstick-challenged person like me. The pork and vegetable dumplings were quite good, and thank goodness I let it cool down before it scalded my tongue. I know many people are not fans of tripe, but always one of my favourite dimsum dishes, and done well here…
And finally, some braised tendon. You don’t see this too often anymore, and this was done quite wonderfully. I could have eaten another dish of this.
In fact I could have eaten far more, but I decided to not abuse the all-you-can-eat thing with pre-quarantine gluttony (yes, I expected it within a week or so after this trip). Plus I can see they are hurting, with the restaurant half-empty during what should have been a busy lunch — and one of the adjacent tables some stupid joker abandoned a bunch of FULL DISHES and left. This kind of abuse of an all-you-can-eat restaurant, plus the food wasting, just shows absolutely poor values of some people. I nearly chased after him to shout at this moron.
But after I finished I thanked the staff and headed on out, as I needed to run to a few more places before I met my friends later for that dinner at Quetzal. The next day I had to go to the north part of town for something, and I decided to do another dimsum lunch, this time at the also-well-regarded Kwan Dim Sum near St Clair Station.
It was also empty during what should have been a busy lunch period, so that again saddened me. Not all-you-can-eat, and I ended up running up a bill double of yesterday’s — despite getting less food. But it was generally worth it. Again, not in any specific order, though also again not all at once!
I have to say the curry cuttlefish was quite nice, a dish I’ve not had in ages. Really nice flavours here.
The steamed tripe, again one of my faves, was a little more flavourful here than yesterday, though yesterday’s was also quite good. The pork dumplings, again allowed to cool off so it doesn’t scald me, was definitely better than yesterday’s version.
On the other hand, the ribs were not as good. The flavours were good, but the pieces were a mess and there was a lot of loose (and sharp) bone, which is difficult if you try to eat the ribs with some finesse (and without making a spectacle of yourself). The shumai, what can I say? As good as always. Again, it’s very difficult to make a shumai that I don’t like…
And finally, a dish I don’t often get because too often they’re not done well, it’s chicken feet. Here it fails a little. The flavours are a little untraditional, and it was cooked very unevenly. The weak dish of the lunch.
I thanked them after the larger-than-expected bill and headed on out. I’m not sure which of the two venerable dimsum joints was better. Both were convivial with attentive service. Some of the dishes were better at Kwan, some were better at Rosewood; and both had a very weak dish (the tofu and shrimp at Rosewood, the chicken feet at Kwan), but overall the dishes were quite good. So I guess Rosewood is the winner being all-you-can-eat and half the price of what I paid at Kwan.
But as it’s the last time I’ll be able to eat dimsum in awhile, I definitely am glad I got my fill of it here in Toronto before I head home the next day. But please do support your local Chinese joints if you can, especially the ones that do genuine Chinese food (and not the awful “westernised” dishes with identical menus) — now probably only via delivery due to restrictions in a great part of the world. They have been hit even harder than everyone else in this sector because of ignorance and racism, and that’s tough to swallow.
Rosewood Asian Cuisine
463 Dundas Street West
Kwan Dim Sum
1496 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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