I decided to try this place after reading about it on BlogTO. Found it odd that it was in Little Italy as most of these places are in Chinatown. The place looked like it needed a reno or was undergoing on. Decor is nothing to write home about, no style. Even your typical chinatown place looked more put together than this mismatch of furniture and colour. Nevertheless, chinese places aren't typically known for their decor but the food.
Ordered the pork/chive dumplings and beef stew noodle soup. The dumplings were decent. The skin might be a tad thicker than I prefer, but there was adequate fat in the pork to keep the whole moist. It was the right proportion of meat to dumpling wrapper.
When the noodles came, it looked really good. A thick dark broth. Lots of choy. Beef on top. Unfortunately, looking good was all it was. I never tasted a blander stew beef noodle soup ever before. I couldn't believe it could look like so much flavour but taste like water. Not only that, while there were lots of choy, it was definitely not washed properly (or at all) as there were lots of dirt sentiments remaining in each one. We provided the server with the feedback of the lack of flavour and she said she would get a new one. Unsurprisingly, she came back with the same one with probably some MSG added. It tasted slightly better but was still lacking in any broth flavour.
I'm surprised that they could serve this broth the way it is. With the dirt in the choy, it left a bad taste in my mouth of their standard cleaning/cooking practices or lack thereof.
I would give this place 2.5* if I could. Service was decent but the noodles ensured I would only come back for the dumplings, if at all.