Solid roast meats. Is it the best? Up for debate, but definitely worth a trip.
On our trip to Toronto, we decided to stop by First Markham Place with 1 goal in mind - Visit HKS BBQ & Noodle House! Having read that they have some of the best roast meats in the GTA, we just had to seek them out.
First, location. OK, First Markham Place is quite the monstrosity of a strip mall. In fact, it's one of the largest I've ever seen, with seemingly a restaurant everywhere you turn. However, within the mall inside lays the food court. I've read reviews where people said it's hard to find, but we actually found it within 5 minutes of stepping in, but it depends on where you step in. If you want to make your quickest bee line to the food court, enter through the main mall entrance that has a big "First Markham Place" sign, which I believe is Main Entrance C. Once you get in, it's not difficult to find your way to the food court through a series of right or wrong turns.
At the food court, if you're here during prime eating hours, you'll clearly notice 2 long lines - 1 for HKS and the other for its competitor 2 stalls down. Yes, there's a serious roast meats stare down going on in the food court and, honestly, neither is losing because they apparently sell out of everything by some point every evening, as we witnessed when we went back at 7pm that same day.
So, what's on the menu? Glorious roasted meats!!! HKS has about 20 different meat combinations that you can order - all pretty much sitting on top of white rice and vegetables and served with a side of soup. We ordered the following:
10 - Chicken in Soy Sauce and Roasted Pork on Rice
16 - Three Items on Rice (Roasted Pork, BBQ Pork, Roasted Duck)
Verdict? Good. Have I had better? Yes. Having lived in NYC all of my life, I've traversed every Chinatown, street, alley known to man in the boroughs seeking out the best roast meats and I've had more than a few lifetimes worth of roast meats in my system so it's tough to impress me when it comes to this food. HOWEVER, it was solid here still.
The roasted pork and BBQ pork were a bit on the lean side for me. We didn't think to ask for the fattier meats, which we typically do in NYC, thinking that they would give us it. Mistake on our part. The skin of the roasted pork was crispy though and the food was tasty, but some of the meats were lean. I'm sure they would have given us fattier cuts if we asked, so don't make our mistake and ask for it!
FYI, we arrived at around 11:30 AM on a random Wednesday and the line was about 8 deep, but, by the time we left, it was easily 20-25 deep, so you know inventory runs out quick. Also, there was plenty of seating in the cafeteria so you don't have to go table hunting here.
Is HKS worth a visit? Sure. Can never turn down decent roast meats. Is there better out there? Probably. read more