May 9th, 2010 §
A La Kitchen is located behind First Markham Place and features Shanghai-style cuisine. When we arrived before noon on Sunday, it was absolutely packed, and we had to wait for a table among pushy groups of Cantonese families. Although a packed restaurant is a good sign, I wasn’t too pleased that I couldn’t hear a single word of Mandarin. Was this really Shanghai-nese cuisine, or was it another one of a hundred Cantonese-Chinese restaurants in the area?

The restaurant is less than five years old, so the interior was still in good shape. However, they had tried to cram so many people inside that all the aisle space was taken up and chairs were back-to-back. I am pretty sure that’s a fire hazard, but nobody seemed to care. » Read the rest of this entry «
May 5th, 2010 §
Since the last time I reviewed Skyland de Shanghai, I have been back three more times, and I have never been disappointed. There is something to be said about the power of consistency, especially with Chinese restaurants. Now that I have sampled a decent chunk of their menu, I am ready to give my SassyChef Stamp of Approval to a few dishes.
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April 25th, 2010 §
Golden Court Abalone is a Cantonese restaurant in a plaza of like-minded restaurants in Richmond Hill. I ventured in one day for Cantonese-style dim sum, seeing that it was packed with Cantonese people – they know their food best after all. It’s a large banquet hall, and you order off a menu, very similar to its neighbour, Ambassador Chinese Cuisine, but with a smaller, and as it turned out cheaper, menu. Nonetheless, many items on the menu were ones I’d never seen before, like spicy duck tongue or steamed tofu wrap with pork, mushroom, taro, and duck web. I admit I ordered rather randomly when it came to items I didn’t recognize, but with dim sum, a little adventure never hurt anyone, right?
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