Loved all the food we ordered. Everything taste so great and texture was wonderful esp for the…read moregeneral tsao chicken. Would definitely come back here again. Great service too. Went here before our show at FirstOntarioCentre in Hamilton. Walking distance.

Compared to other dim sum restaurants in the GTA, Crystal Dynasty offers fair dim sum in terms of…read moretaste, quality, quantity and price. It's probably the best dim sum in the Hamilton region. There are several items that we usually order - shrimp steamed dumplings, steamed chives dumpling with shrimp, steamed rice noodle with shrimp, deep fried dumpling with assorted meat, pan fried bean curd, pan fried eggplant, salt and pepper deep fried eggplant, Singapore Fried Rice Noodles and Fried Noodle with Beef and Soya Sauce. The one disappointment was the steamed pork dumpling. The last time I ate there, there was a lot of gristle and parts of the dumpling were inedible. Previously, it was fine. I've had dinner there as well, but the flavours and 'wok hei' are fair and not quite up to expectations. The restaurant could use a fresh look and new carpet. Service is fair. It may be the most authentic Chinese food you'll find in Hamilton.

My highest praises to this place, I've been here twice during my time in Ontario. Just about…read moreeverything is superb, my favorites from the food menu was the lobster & sliced beef & ox tongue in chili sauce. I got an old fashioned and it was extremely smooth with a good taste. All the flavors are balanced & delicate yet lingers, stimulating my appetite to desire more. Service is extremely on point, everyone is warm & attentive, extremely attentive I'd say. One waiter telegraphed where I was going to walk, stepped back & apologized before I even noticed. I was pleasantly surprised at the attentiveness. Ambiance is upscale yet cozy, with jazz in the background. Perfect for family dinners & also date nights. The restrooms are extremely nice, resembling that of hotels. Honestly this has been the best chinese spot I've dined at, the only complaint I would have is that there is not an LA location.

It was recommended to us by local friends. It's a very big restaurant with plenty of seating -- a…read morebit dark, but still comfortable. Even without a reservation, we were seated right away. Service was great, and so was the food. They offer quite authentic Chinese dishes alongside some more Westernized Chinese options. Either way, portions are generous, so maybe skip a side or share one. Prices are more than reasonable. We could even bring our own bottle of wine for a corkage fee of CAD 25 -- a nice touch. The one downside -- the menu offers a staggering 200-ish dishes, so be ready to make a decision. But this is definitely a place worth visiting in St. Catharines.

We tried the L9 Lobster Dinner for Two ($79), which came with three different dim sum dishes. We…read morealso got four pieces of shrimp as a surprise complimentary dish, and chose to have the lobster steamed with garlic butter. The dim sum was just okay, but the highlight of the show was definitely the lobster! It was steamed just right--tender, juicy, and full of flavour. The vermicelli noodles underneath were delicious too. I actually thought they were just there for decoration at first, but no, they're definitely edible! The lobster was cleaned so nicely that I didn't even need to use the special pliers to crack the shell further. Service was friendly, and there's also a 5% discount for paying in cash, which is always a nice bonus. Overall, come for the lobster, don't forget to enjoy those delicious garlic-butter-soaked vermicelli noodles underneath!

Talk about authentic food and great service. HLDS is the spot!!! Definitely recommend to any and…read moreall. I ordered several dishes and all of them were amazing. The Hungry Hardhat is a return customer. So let it be written... So let it be EATEN.

There's not a lot of restaurants in Hamilton that serve dimsum, so I was looking forward to trying…read morethis place out. What i like - the items in the dishes were big, which is good as the price was not cheap. Some dishes actually taste good. The chicken feet was a hit as we all thought the sauce was yummy. The fried squid tentacles were tasty with the spices rubbed on. Beef tripe was super chewy and tough. I mentioned this to the waiter, and he said he will mention it to the chef. And that's it. No replacement, and there was no discount on the bill. The issue of the poor quality was never addressed. Not even an apology. Such poor service. Such a disappointment.

One of best authentic Chinese food I've been to. A true Gem in the center of Hamilton kind and…read morelovely waitress. Cool and nice vibes definite Rec!!

Miss it so much! So sad to have it close the hot pot was insane. Great service and qualityread more

When I did a staycation in Hamilton in February 2020, I remember passing by an August 8 restaurant…read more It has a handful of locations that offer all-you-can-eat sushi. Last month, I was back in Hamilton for a mini staycation. I needed dinner. I looked on my Uber Eats app and saw that this August 8 had a number of BOGO items. I had to get in on the deals. I ordered the following items: - Avocado salad - California roll - BOGO - Sticky rice (3) - Salmon sashimi (3) - Steamed sponge cake (4) - BOGO I drove over to the eatery to pick up my order. It's located in a tiny plaza with limited parking. I managed to snag the only parking spot available. I had to careful back in, as there was a car parked illegally in the parking lane. It's the downside to fetching or heading over here to dine. The parking situation is atrocious and downright dangerous. More on that in a bit. I headed to the counter and got the nicest young man. I let him know that I had an Uber Eats order and stated my name. He found my order and handed a bag over to me. I thanked him and left the eatery. There were a handful of students hanging around outside. One of the guys was sweet to open and hold the door for me. Kindness isn't completely dead. It was a nice touch. The downside was that the woman who parked illegally parked in the fire lane didn't bother doing a check behind her and decided to back up. I don't get why she needed to back up, but she nearly backed into me. I was not impressed. I actually managed to get out of the way and had a good look at her from the passenger side of her car. I let her know through some arm gestures that she needed to be careful and that she nearly ran over me. My gestures did have words accompanying them. I can't state them here. They weren't pleasant words that I use regularly. I got to my car and safely placed my food in it. I then drove back to the hotel room to chow down. The food was yummy on the whole. I will break things down: Avocado salad The miso dressing was flavourful. The avocado slices were delicate and were starting to turn brown. The veggies were fresh, but I didn't love the iceberg lettuce. I'd skip getting this salad. California rolls Excellent! The filling was warm, which was different. I loved them. The fake crab, avocado, and julienned cucumbers were so good. They did have black sesame seeds around them. Sticky rice (3) It was a bit weird seeing white paper wrapped around each bundle of sticky rice with its own leaf wrapping. I felt that it was a waste of paper. The bundles had more white pepper than necessary. The filling was generous, with small chunks of pork. I ate one each day. They heat up nicely. Salmon sashimi (3) The best! Each piece melted in my mouth. You don't need to chew much. The sashimi was super fresh. Steamed sponge cake (4) I am a huge fan of traditional steamed sponge cake. There was a twist with the version here. You get dainty triangles with layers of sponge cake. I'm not sure what separated each layer, but this cake was subtly sweet and still warm. I loved it so much. I want to return and get some more food. I'd avoid the avocado salad. The parking situation makes me want to fetch food from a different August 8, though. Maybe I should try coming during lunchtime when I'm in the area and see if parking is better. (442)

The customer service was excellent. The woman who took my order was so sweet and kind. I was…read moregetting my order to go and she told me to have a seat and watch some tv while a waited lol. When I got home my food was still hot which I loved. OMG the fried rice was soooo delicious. I didn't need to add anything to it and the ribs were soooo delicious tender and good. I didn't stay obviously, but inside was very spacious and can accommodate a fairly large group. This is now my new favourite Chinese food spot. I can't wait to go back and try more options in the menu.

I'm always in the search of good Chinese food in the Hamilton-Burlington area. Happened to find…read moreIron Chef Chinese Restaurant and try a bit of dim sum at lunch time. It's always a good sign when you can find Cantonese-speaking customers in the restaurant - and we did. The restaurant appeared clean, although was dated. There were basic dim sum choices on the menu, but quite a number of items were crossed out and marked as not available. We tried the Shanghai Style Fried Noodle, Preserved Egg and Pork Congee, Steamed Sui Mai Dumpling, and Steamed Chive Shrimp Dumpling. We ordered the Pan Fried Dumpling with Minced Pork - it never arrived. Just as well because we had enough for two people and were already full. Of all, the congee was the most flavourful. The other items were standard. The noodles didn't have as much flavour and 'wok hei' as we would have liked, but still ok. I did ask if they made the dim sum in house, and the server (owner?) answered, "yes" but I do have to wonder. I would give it another try for dinner entrees.

Food is not fresh. Service is very poor…read more Expensive for the quality you get. Many dim sum items were not available

I was in search for a dim sum place in the kw area that was less pricey than Cameron but…read moremaintaining a good taste level. I did a lot of googling and was slightly skeptical of Sam's kitchen because of the reviews however I decided to give it a try and was not disappointed. When you first enter the establishment, it looks quaint and typical for a Chinese restaurant. There were maybe 12 tables and at noon on a Sunday, we did not have to wait. We were promptly seated and asked about what kind of tea we liked. They speak both Cantonese and mandarin - the ladies were the sweetest! Very attentive ( at least one of them was) and we got our food very quickly. Our order: Har gow - the skin was perfectly thin. When you pick it up, make sure you let it cool slightly or else you break the skin before you pick it up. The shrimp were amazing! They were juicy and had a very good bounce to it - a sign that it's perfectly fresh and cooked Siu mai - pork bases finished with fish row on top. Juicy. Soft. Meaty. Absolutely satisfying when you're craving for it. Shrimp spring rolls - it was served with a plum sauce? Didn't taste the sauce, but the shrimp was on point. My only complaint is that the spring roll wrapper was a bit too thick. Fried tentacles - fried, not pan fried like your typical dim sum places in toronto. It was tender and flavorful. Not too greasy. But rather the batter was light and squid was fried to a very nice golden brown. BBQ pork steamed buns - bread bun was sweet, fluffy and perfect. Not a lot of filling but it was good. Sweet bbq pork filling, not a lot of gravy. Slightly different from toronto dimsum places where the ratio of meat and bun is a little over half. But the bun was perfectly steamed. Chiu chow fun go - peanuts and meat wrapped up in a crystal shell. Typically served with chili oil, they gave me chili sauce when I asked for it. The skin was very thick... surprising because their skin on the har gow was perfect. Dough fritter rice roll - ok. I LOVED this. Dough fritters were freshly fried. It had an amazing crunch wrapped with the soft rice roll and covered in the sweet soy. They didn't give us the usual peanut sauce and hoisin, but I don't typically dip it anyway so not something I missed. Eat this when it comes to your table. If you leave it, the dough fritter, like all friend foods covered in sauce, will get soggy. Well done! Fried taro dumpling - I wasn't sure about this one when I ordered it. Everywhere I've gone it's never fresh / fried enough until the center is hot. However they do it pretty good. The center was hot. That's a plus. It was crisp and not greasy... another plus. But a lot more taro than meat filling and gravy inside. It is a little on the heavier side but I love taro. If you don't like taro, this would be like... a slightly more flavorful potato croquette with a pork filling. Lotus wrapped sticky rice * didn't eat.. we were too full Egg tart - umm. When it came, it looked good. The egg mixture was a nice deep yellow glossy color, a little different from regular egg tarts. The pastry is a flake pastry. I wouldn't necessarily order this again. The egg mixture is more gelatinous and deviates from the eggy light goodness that egg tarts are typically. But the pastry was good. We ate almost 10 dishes... had tea... and it came to about $50 with leftovers. Ok, we did order quite a bit but it's really so that we can figure out if we would be coming back or not. They do their shrimp right. Most of the food that came in were good. It's not Markham standards but pretty on par with Cameron's at a fraction of the price. Service was great! I would definitely go again as my go to dim sum place in kw to try everything else. They accept credit and cash - I had assumed it was cash only which is a plus. Parking is slightly limited.

Really impressed with this restaurant that, despite its humble strip mall location, goes beyond…read moreexpectations in terms of flavor and menu creativity. There are a lot of Canadian/American-Chinese dishes on the menu but it goes beyond that and has things that I'm guessing are more authentic to China and a few fusion dishes also. I was particular impressed by the soft pepper noodle with beef or chicken. I had it with beef and it has a fantastic black pepper flavor and luscious thick noodles with just enough vegetables to give some texture. I'm including a photograph from mid-meal. It might not be beautiful but it's a stand out dish in flavor. One item to skip... The fried wontons. While ours were very crispy (and hot), the predominant flavor was fryer oil and the tiny (truly tiny) bits of ground pork in the wontons didn't help. Also, check out the combination plates if you want some of this and some of that instead a lot of one thing. They are near the back of the menu and are NEAR the lunch only plates but the combination plates are in fact available at night.

Fantastic food served fresh and hot. Most dishes have a…read moregenerous serving of vegetables and not soggy. I'm a big fan of the beef with black bean sauce. It has plenty of rich black beans and the flavor was spot on.five stars again. We look forward to coming back again.

The service was phenomenal for what you can get at a buffet anyway. Workers sat us in a timely…read moremanner, and everything was simply on an up! The food was also quite good for the price we have to pay. I'd highly suggest picking the days you go here wisely if you don't want to be crammed near a ton of people though lol! Lots of people, how you know it's good.

lol the food was honestly so mediocre. My childhood nostalgia for Mandarin was ruined!! The only…read morequality items were at the teppenyaki grill, otherwise everything was just such poor quality food, even the ice cream was freezer burnt. Great place to protein max tho.