BOTTOM LINE: Beautiful decor and a solid dim sum spot, especially in this part of town.
Cha Lau Dim Sum fills the all-day dim sum demand on this strip of Yonge where your other options include either trekking to China Town or paying a premium at Lai Wah Heen or Crown Princess.
The decor is beautifully furnished on the inside with dark wood finishes, classic Chinese art and tea pots and nicely embroidered seats. Attention to detail is evident as the menu is bound in cute bamboo covers and even the table ware is more refined than your typical Chinese resto (individualized chopsticks holder, actual porcelain teapots and not the ugly steel ones, etc.).
The dim sum offerings covers your typical dim sum offerings and doesn't try to re-invent the wheel. The prices range from $3-5 per dish and are generally well done, albeit with somewhat smaller portions than you might expect.
Highlights:
-Shrimp dumplings (it passes the universal test of any dim sum place's worth),
-Chicken and Japanese mushroom dumpling
-BBQ duck cheung fun.
Lowlights:
-BBQ duck pastry (too sticky and not enough duck)
-Ham siu gok (whilst tasty, was much too small)
-Siu long bau (aka the pork soup dumplings weren't soupy enough).
Overall, we ended up ordering about 10 of their items and enjoying most of it. If you're downtown and ever get a dim sum craving, I'd recommend giving this place a try.