TL;DR - Crappy Chinese supermarket cooking failure level stuff selling for restaurant price + HST + tips with near no service. AVOID.
This restaurant has recently moved to Keswick. We gave it a try on our recent trip to north of York region. Had probably the WORST EVER lunch here, enough for me to question if all the previous good reviews here or on Google are even remotely relevant, or if it's just me having an exceptionally bad luck with them on my first try.
Anyways, here's my misery:
We ordered fried bun, garlic broccoli, Wuxi pork rib and chicken fried rice. After ordering via a QR code menu I went to the washroom, but the booth had no toilet paper available. Delightful surprise. Or perhaps they were just having a busy day and missed it somehow.
Speaking of busy day, there were only us and another table with a group of four. Perhaps they were occupied with all the orders coming from online or something. We waited for food, checked twice if I placed order correctly, and asked the server if the food was coming at all. Answer was "just wait a bit more".
First dish arriving was the pork rib, ~20 minutes after we placed order. Wonderful punctuality. Then next came the fried bun, with beautifully blackened bottom soaking in residual frying oil. Took a bite on the unevenly leavened skin and ...came out nothing but the bland, dry pork stuffing - no juice at all, neither salty or sweet - perhaps to ensure a clean, messy-free juice bun experience. Finally the broccoli and the fried rice. The broccoli had such a subtle garlicy flavor that I could barely taste at all, and the texture was all so soft that close to steamed or boiled rather than stir fried. All so thoughtful that there would never be an garlic after taste in mouth problem, nor would there be any too hard to bite broccoli problem. I didn't taste the chicken fried rice at all - for I strangely lost all my sense of hunger at this point, and that I doubted if that was my rice dish as the chicken appeared pretty much invisible. Playful. Just I was not in a mood for treasure hunting sorry.
Other warning signs - There was a primary school age kid helping around setting up the table. Probably the kid of the owner. Nothing wrong for family business perhaps. Many items on the menu appeared to be sold out, perhaps that was because it was the last day of long weekend and everywhere was closing.
Upon leaving the server asked how we liked the food. It was not to my taste. Then she responded that it was hard to make everyone satisfied and they promised their commitment to quality. Cool. Sincerity perhaps, I don't really know - but no, terrible cooking is terrible cooking itself, period. It was definitely not about my personal taste, it was a pure cooking skill problem.
This place advertised itself to be originated from a brand name restaurant in Wuxi since 18th century on Instagram. Yes there's indeed a restaurant with this name - but I doubt if this place has any real connection with them. More likely than not it's a scammer just stealing the name. Shame on myself falling for it. Shame on me even paying the normal level of tips just to be decent. THEY DO NOT DESERVE IT.
If you cannot do the cooking fundamentals, go back to a college to train yourself and PAY THE TUITION instead of asking others to pay for your food. If you do not have the resource to serve your customers right and make your menu actually available, CLOSE YOUR DOOR for a day or forever for good. That's it. read more