Dragon Boat Fusion Cuisine

I have heard many good things about Dragon Boat.  My mom has told me that people line up outside the restaurant before the 9am opening time so they can get a table.  I also have a coworker that takes a day off of work every month, and makes the drive from Mississauga to eat dimsum because it's that much better than the dimsum in Mississauga.  Although to be honest, that really isn't saying much because I've tried the 'best dimsum restaurant in Mississauga', and found it mediocre at best.  In any case, we had a friend visiting from Hong Kong and she wanted to have dimsum, so we figured that it would be a good of a time as any to try them out.  However, I didn't make it to the restaurant.  So this review is based on take out, and comments from my friend and hubby that did eat at the restaurant.

Parking there is apparently atrocious.  But there are 2 people in reflective vests that guide you to park.  Inside the restaurant, before 11am (not sure if it's that you have to order before 11am, or you pay the bill before 11am), it's cheaper.  Not 100% sure of the pricing per dish, because hubby got seated at 1110a.

Dishes ordered include steamed shrimp dumpling, steamed assorted mushroom & vegetable dumpling, steamed pork dumpling, steamed angus beef rice roll, steamed rice roll with fried dough, deep fried octopus tentacles, steamed salty egg yolk cream bun, and  steamed egg yolk paste layer cake.  The general consensus was that everything had a lot of MSG in it.  We were all very thirsty after.  In terms of the steamed dumplings, the skins on the dumplings were very thick.  So thick to the point we questioned whether the dumplings have been cooked through.  Friend took a bite and couldn't stomach the rest.  I found the shrimp to be very fishy smelling.  Steamed rice rolls were good.  Nothing particularly special about it.  Octopus tentacles were good, no mushy pieces.  Steamed salty egg yolk cream bun looked deflated.  But i'm not sure if it deflated because of the time it took to get to me.  Steamed egg yolk paste layer cake.  This I liked, but I think I liked it because of a nostalgia factor.  Not many restaurants make this dessert anymore because of the amount of work involved.

Overall, I would skip this restaurant, and head to any other restaurant for dimsum.  There's better ones out there.

Dragon Boat Fusion Cuisine
60 East Beaver Creek Road, Suite 4-6,
Richmond Hill, ON
L4B 4A7

Phone: (905) 731-3718

Hours:  Monday - Sunday 900a - 1030p

http://www.dragonboatfusioncuisine.com/#myCarousel

Abruzzo Pizza

We decided to order pizza one night for dinner because we didn't have any time to cook, and it was late, really late (for us for dinner anyway), 900p before we decided to get food.  It probably would have been faster, and cheaper if we got those chain store pizzas, but I've heard so many good things about Abruzzo pizza.  It's a spot where, again, I've been meaning to try for years.  To satisfy my hubby's wanting of meat, and my needing to eat vegetables, we ordered a medium Abruzzo Special Pizza.  This pizza came topped with tomato sauce, cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms, peppers, bacon, and onions.  I guess it's the equivalent of a deluxe pizza.  We also ordered a small greek salad.  When the pizza was brought home, we quickly dove into it.  The crust had a nice chew, probably would have been slightly crispy and chewy if we had eaten it at the restaurant.  But loved the crust anyway (just as good reheated in the toaster oven the next day).  The pizza also had a good amount of toppings too.  For the salad, the ingredients were fresh and was very good size, considering it was a small.

Greek Salad

Abruzzo Special Pizza

The hubby told me as we were eating, at such a late time of the night, the restaurant was still filled with old Italian men eating and drinking.  Thats definitely a good sign of the good food they serve there.

Abruzzo Pizza
9010 Yonge St.,
Richmond Hill, ON
L4C 6Z8

Phone:  (905) 881-8222

Hours:  Monday 330p - 1100p
             Tuesday - Thursday 1100a - 1100p
             Friday 1100a - 1200a
             Saturday 330p 1200a
             Sunday 330p - 1100p

https://abruzzopizza.com

Shanghai Dimsum

Shanghai Dimsum, is kind of a misleading name.  I actually came across them when I was looking on Yelp for a location for Sunday brunch/dimsum.  And when I looked at the pictures on Yelp, this looked like any regular Shanghainese food.  So I skipped over it for that particular brunch meal.

Checking out Shanghai Dimsum came when my friend from Germany came back for a visit.  She says there isn't much good Asian food in Europe.  While I have not tried any Asian food in Europe, I do know that it's super expensive.  I was in Amsterdam earlier this year, and walked by their small Chinatown because I wanted to check out the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple.  I love Buddhist temples, I find the smell of incense so calming.  Anyways, in Amsterdam, a bowl of wonton noodles was 7 euros, and a bowl of pho was 9 euros.  So ridiculous.  So off we went to Shanghai Dimsum.  What we ordered was highly dictated by what my friend wanted to eat and what good deals the restaurant had. We ordered a savoury sticky rice roll, stir fried sticky rice cakes, beef brisket noodle in soup, pan fried XLB (only $3.99 for first order), pan fried dumplings, steamed soup filled dumplings, and steamed silk skinned XLB (crab & pork only $3.99 for first order).

The savoury sticky rice roll, stir fried sticky rice cakes, beef brisket noodle in soup, and pan fried dumplings were pretty standard.  They tasted like how they would taste at any other Shanghainese restaurant.  I have to say that the stir fried sticky rice cakes had good 'wok hay' though.

Savoury Sticky Rice Roll

Stir Fried Sticky Rice Cakes

Beef Brisket in Noodle Soup

Pan Fried Dumplings

What stood out to me here were the XLB (xiao long bao, or steamed soup dumplings).  The skin of the steamed dumplings were the thinnest from any Shanghainese restaurant in the GTA.  Mind you, I haven't been to all of the Shanghainese restaurants in the GTA either.  So some of you may say, that there's thinner skinned dumplings out there.  I wasn't able to really tell the difference in the filling from the normal pork one with the crab and pork.  So next time I go, I would just get the normal pork ones (they were the ones with the thinnest skin anyways).  The pan fried XLB was interesting, I've never had those before.  They were like a cross between the pan fried dumpling and the steamed soup dumpling.  The filling wasn't as juicy/soupy as the normal steamed soup dumplings.

Pan Fried XLB

Steamed Soup Dumplings (Pork)

Steamed Silk Skinned XLB (Crab & Pork)

While looking on their website, which is rare I find for Asian restaurants to have websites, they have two locations, one in Richmond Hill and one in Scarborough.  Just wanted to note that the one I went to was the Richmond Hill location.

Shanghai Dimsum

330 York Regional Road 7,

Richmond Hill,

L4B 3P8

Phone: (905) 597-5866

Hours:  Monday - Sunday 9:00a - 10:00p

 http://www.shanghaidimsum.ca

Osmows Grill (Richmond Hill)

If you're ever in Mississauga, you will probably see an advertisement on the buses for an Osmow's Grill being # 1 in terms of the Mediterranean food.  Pretty bold statement if you ask me.  So when i'm at work, I have thought about trying them out multiple times.  But because Streetsville isn't that close to my office, I never went.  So I was pretty excited that Osmow's was opening in Richmond Hill.  Just as a note, Osmow's is franchised.  

So one late afternoon, the hubby and I went to the Osmow's location in Richmond Hill to give it a try.  I was actually craving Greek food that day, but they were closed, so we decided to check out Osmow's.  It was pretty quiet when we arrived, but thats most likely because it was after the normal lunch hour.  We ordered one of their infamous chicken on the rocks, and a chicken shawarma sandwich (regular sized).  As we were waiting for our food, I noticed that they were not cutting the chicken off of the spit, but they were reheating chicken from one of those metal rectangular containers on their flat top.  I shrugged it off, thinking that it was because they wanted to make sure that the meat was hot for us.  We got our food shortly after, and I dug into my shawarma.  I noticed that the chicken did not have those crispy bits that usually you get from roasting on the spit.  I then took a look and noticed that the meat was this greyish colour.  All dark meat or just sitting meat?  Meat was also gristly.  I had to pick out pieces of fat and such.  To make it worse, as I was eating, I found a tomato stem in my sandwich.  No attention to prepping the food?  Also, as I was eating, I kept seeing the staff there shave meat off the spit to collect in those metal containers.  I thought maybe they had an order to fill?  Nope.  I don't get why they would take meat off the spit earlier than need be.

I tried their infamous chicken on the rocks.  I assumed it would be similar to New York's Chicken on Rice from the Halal Guys.  Boy was I wrong.  Again, topped with the same gristly chicken that I got in my shawarma, and the sauce tasted mostly of mayonnaise.  The rice was also super greasy.     

Chicken Shawarma & Chicken on the Rocks

Chicken Shawarma Filling

Tomato Stem in Shawarma

Take a pass at Osmow's Grill.  I don't know if it's because they are franchised and thats why there is no quality control there.  Maybe other locations taste better?  I don't know, but I'd honestly rather eat anywhere but here.....

Osmow's Grill

8750 Bayview Road, Unit #2

Richmond Hill, ON

L4B 4V9

Phone:  (905) 882-5455

Hours:  Monday - Thursday 11:00a - 10:00p

             Friday - Saturday 11:00a - 11:00p

             Sunday 11:00a - 10:00p

http://www.mrosmow.com

Hakka 77

I was bored one night and discovered this somewhat newly opened Hakka restaurant close to home.  I love the chili chicken at Lin Garden in Scarborough, but I haven’t gone in a very very long time.  Mostly because both the hubby and I can’t stomach spicy foods much anymore.  But occasionally, I’ll still get a craving for chili chicken, with no where to go….

I still don’t really know what Hakka food is.  I always thought that it was a fusion of Indian and Chinese cooking.  But my cousin says, my maternal grandmother is Hakka, made much different food than what is offered at Hakka restaurants here.  Sadly, my grandmother doesn’t cook much anymore, so I won’t be able to make the comparison.

One day when I was working from home, I decided to check out Hakka 77 for lunch.  I called them over the phone, put in my order for the chili chicken lunch special, and picked up 10 minutes later.  The lunch special included a vegetarian spring roll, a hot and sour soup or can of pop, and your main dish on white rice.  Portion wise, for the price that you pay is quite decent.  I can’t remember the exact amount, but for some reason $7 is standing out in my head.  But taste of the chili chicken is lacking.  There was enough gravy for the rice, but it just tasted soy sauce salty with a bit of spice. 

Chili Chicken Lunch Special

I guess if I was desperate for some Hakka food, then maybe, but I think I would make the trip to Lin Garden if I had a real hankering for chili chicken.

Hakka 77

165 East Beaver Creek, Unit 28

Richmond Hill, Ontario

L4B 3P4

Phone:  (905) 707-7707

Hours:  Monday - Friday 11:00a - 10:00p

             Saturday - Sunday 11:30a - 10:00p

So Good Restaurant

Leave it to the Asians to come up with weird names for restaurants right?  The names never really make sense or match what their Chinese name of the restaurant.  So Good Restaurant is a small hole in the wall type Hong Kong style cafe that most people would drive by and not even notice.  And honestly, I was almost not going to write a post about them.  If you go on Yelp, there aren't that many reviews for them.  And that is exactly why I decided that I would post about them.  These small types of restaurants where you get quick, cheap cooked meals, most people would just overlook them.  I've had friends ask why I bother going to Hong Kong style cafes and order breakfast from there because it can be done at home.  My response is usually, any meal that you typically go out for you can technically make at home too, just takes time.  Also my hubby enjoys these types of breakfasts, so it's his treat.  I have other friends that wonder why I would blog about these cheap restaurants, because in their minds blogs are only worthy of expensive fancy places that do weird things with food.

So Good Restaurant is open for breakfast lunch and dinner.  But I've only gone for breakfast/brunch.  Prices are low, so don't expect super high calibre dining, but it's decent cooked food.  One thing that diners may have to get over is the appearance of the place.  I've seen Yelp reviews say that the restaurant is not clean.  Thats not true.  The place is a bit older but it's not dirty.  I've eaten in restaurants that have stickier table tops in Toronto.

As we typically go for breakfast/brunch, we tend to order off of their all day menu.  It usually consists of eggs and toast, noodle soup with some protein, and coffee/tea for around $6.  The day that I took the pictures, I ordered pork & preserved veggies with vermicelli with scrambled eggs & toast.  The hubby ordered chicken wings & instant noodles with fried eggs & toast.  Friends ordered luncheon meat on instant noodles with fried eggs & toast, and beef brisket on rice noodle.  Portions were decent sized, and taste is what you typically expect at a Hong Kong style cafe.  Usually when you order instant noodles, the prices of the dishes are higher, but it was quite low here.  The milk tae is pretty decent as well  And service was friendly.  A rare find at a Chinese restaurant.  Since then I have frequented So Good Restaurant quite a few times.  I thought I'd share this place with my parents.  Turns out they've been coming for years!

Scrambled Eggs & Toast, Pork with Preserved Veggies on Vermcelli

Beef Brisket Noodle

Instant Noodles, Fried Eggs & Toast

So Good Restaurant
10 West Pearce St., Unit 12-13
Richmond Hill, ON
L4B 3K3

Phone:  (289) 597-6889