Dishes are delicious but just not to order冬瓜盅 , They charge us $108 , but it is a smallOne and they said it is difficult to find .I think next time has to said how many lbBecause the first time, I eat is about 15 lbAnd this one , I think only half size of it糯米雞 is good. It is 脆皮的
After long hours of driving for a few hundred of km, my wife and I arrived at Chef 88 around 4 pm today. The atmosphere was easy-going and the food was great in both q's. Ther servers were polite and helpful answering my questions. We were even offered delicious desserts after the meal. Our experience today was great and very fulfilling with a small container of leftovers to take home.
First time at their Markham location and visited on a Tuesday evening around 8pm. When we arrived, we were brought to our table and immediately given recommendations of the combos. There were only a few of us so we didn’t think it’d be worth since we wouldn’t be able to finish. We hadn’t even gotten a chance to look at the menu yet and the lady (Kelly) came to ask if we were ready to order. We replied and said we need a bit more time to decide so Kelly just walked away. A moment later, we raised our hand to let her know we were ready and she simply rolled her eyes and said she was busy. We waved to a second lady but we were also ignored. Eventually, Kelly came back and took our order.Not to mention, we weren’t even finished with the beef dish nor ask for the bill yet but the lady still took it away without asking us which is just unacceptable.With the lady’s attitude, it felt as if just because we didn’t order a combo meal, we weren’t worth her time. Total of the 4 dishes we ordered came to a total of $105 (excluding tips).Service is terrible and definitely needs improvement. Food is mediocre. Parking shouldn’t be a problem as there is a huge parking lot.
It puzzles me how this place isn't a 5 star.First, this place is on the affordable side for Chinese dim sum. But its quality and variety easily beat those expansive ones.This place offers a good range of HK old fashion plates that aren't found anywhere else in GTA.Service is the typical Chinese style, so you aren't expected to be treated like kings, but with decency.Their BBQ food is top notch when available. Their fish congee bowl (2 parts) is amazing. Their 'lai fun' (HK style white noodle in one of the pix), is absolutely the best in town, I can't find such bounciness elsewhere.The Cons:- BBQ plates aren't always available, more ad-hoc surprises- durian pastry is mediocre- quite packed, but last minute booking starting at 1pm on weekends have always worked for us.- portions are too big. And I genuinely find this to be a con. For example, imagine eating a "foo pei Guen" twice as large, it doesn't feel right, I'd rather that they up the quantity instead of size. Most dishes are so huge, their bird nest beef totally caught us off guard, it was at least 3 times the size of what I'd expect from other restaurants. We needed 2 large boxes just for the nest's left over. We had a table over 10 once, and couldn't even finish half of their fried sticky rice plate. So this could be very limiting, but it's also one of their selling points.But overall, this is a top dim sum place in GTA, it's near fine dining at affordable pricing.
An overall nice dim sum spot.Food was great - although pricier, some of the portions are bigger than the average dim sum restaurant.The reason for the three stars is service - I’ve had three different waiters look and then ignore our table. Understandably busy but we should at the very least be acknowledged.The restaurant does get really busy - be sure to reserve a table if you have a bigger party heading in.
This place is not bad but it can’t compete with other dim sum restaurants that are charging the same price as them. Really did not like the durian pastry because there was no real durian in it, just flour with tiny pieces of durian for the flavour. Also wasn’t a fan of the matcha salted egg yolk bun… so much oil in the filling and I couldn’t taste the salted egg yolk…. just tasted like I was eating butter and fat. The sauce that came with the rice roll was very diluted and when I poured it out the colors separated but it wasn’t a big deal. Nothing special about this place but I did enjoy the har gow in which the wrapper was very thin and had lots of shrimp in it. The almond shrimp ball also had a lot of shrimp in it and the pork pastry was good (we did not order it, the waiter said it was only available on Sundays so we took it), and everything came out fairly quick as it was very busy. Service was okay, did not like the lady at the front named Sammy who got confused and had a bad attitude when we said we didn’t want to sit on the patio, but other than that everyone was nice. Originally left three stars but I found a hair on one of the baked char siu baos.
First time dining in this restaurant. It’s the old school traditional red/gold/busy/loud Chinese decor. We got a private room and the service seemed prompt & reasonable. The food however were surprising. They were above-average quality with good clean presentation. We had a good time. Will try back for their more “private custom” dishes, as suggested by the attentive manager.
Love this restaurant for lunch and dinner. Food is good, real Hong Kong taste. Sitting outside was nice in the summer, although a bit windy sometimes. Sitting inside very comfortable.
The food was above average however was a little saltier than my liking. Maybe this saltiness will appeal to certain crowds. All in all it was decent.
Delicious food and beautiful on the inside